Expectations
I let the anniversary of my starting my LJ account pass by without notice. I started Oct. 10, 2004 so I have been writing about our travels and travails for over two years. Many of my friends are on LJ and I really am quite addicted to my friends page.
Some days I feel like am writing into a void and then someone will comment on a post and I know I am still connected to people. I love our travels and I think it keeps our brain young by having to continually navigate new places and find unexpected pleasure around many corners. Wednesday on our way to the pharmacy we passed a beautiful mosque. We have seen many churches but this was the first mosque.
We are inside the shop which looks like it has about 30 bays. They run from 7 a.m. to midnight. They had to wait for some parts to come in so no work was done yesterday. An ice storm swept through the area, so we were not going anywhere. We left the shade off the front window and watched the storm come in. There were very dramatic cloud patterns and the US flags were like giant wind socks. We never stepped out of the motorhome.
Each day we stay means wayfinder38 has a chance to get better. He reports feeling better but his leg still feels unreliable. I checked my entries from last spring to find out where we had stopped in Texas. We won't return to the RV park in Clyde so I need to plan where we will stop next. Normally we get underway and then about 2 or 3 I do a little research of my campground directories and pick out some possibilities. Since I will be driving I will need to decide before we start out just where we will be stopping for the night. One positive is that Texas allows RVs to park overnight in rest stops so if we need to stop we can. West Texas is sparsely populated also so there is not generally a place a few miles down the road like there is in Iowa or Nebraska. Monday we need to be in a community where wayfinder38 can get his blood work done. If possible I would like to be in Deming, New Mexico as I can take a run down to Las Palomas, Sonora, Mexico to get some new glasses.
We went out for lunch and then some shopping. I discovered there is a Fry's Electronics store here. I want a bigger portable external hard drive so I can back up my hard drive. They have wonderful external hard drives but there was not one like I wanted. My current one uses Firewire and is powered through the port. The one I looked at had Firewire but also needed an external power source. It also was not really portable. The store is huge and they did not have power carts for the handicapped. WF used the shopping cart as a walker and managed to do more walking than he has for two weeks. The steroids are helping!
The shop phoned to say our motorhome work was complete and she now drove very well. We got back and paid the bill. I had requested that when they took the wheels off they check for the dates on the tires. Well the worker looked at every date except on the tires we wanted him to. We knew the dates on the tag and steer tires. When I went to plug us into electricity I noticed that the Crossfire was indicating the tires were low. I had asked the worker earlier why he was letting air out of the tires and he mumbled something about he couldn't get his jack under the tires. Well he had not aired up the tires at all. I went back to the service writer and had him bring the tires up to standard and take the papers and plastic they had put down out of the motorhome. I asked if they could give the worker feedback about how he had not done the job properly. I was told that would be useless. When checked the tires were at 45 pounds when they should have been at 100 pounds. This is serious low and the motorhome was driven for two test drives with the tires that low. We will talking to the service manager on Monday about the poor performance. Leaving tires in this condition could have been life threatening. This is part of why it is important to check our vehicle before every trip. We check the tires, the fluids, the lights, are all the bay doors secure and that is just the outside.
We need to get an early start so we can get off the road before the sun gets in our eyes.
Some days I feel like am writing into a void and then someone will comment on a post and I know I am still connected to people. I love our travels and I think it keeps our brain young by having to continually navigate new places and find unexpected pleasure around many corners. Wednesday on our way to the pharmacy we passed a beautiful mosque. We have seen many churches but this was the first mosque.
We are inside the shop which looks like it has about 30 bays. They run from 7 a.m. to midnight. They had to wait for some parts to come in so no work was done yesterday. An ice storm swept through the area, so we were not going anywhere. We left the shade off the front window and watched the storm come in. There were very dramatic cloud patterns and the US flags were like giant wind socks. We never stepped out of the motorhome.
Each day we stay means wayfinder38 has a chance to get better. He reports feeling better but his leg still feels unreliable. I checked my entries from last spring to find out where we had stopped in Texas. We won't return to the RV park in Clyde so I need to plan where we will stop next. Normally we get underway and then about 2 or 3 I do a little research of my campground directories and pick out some possibilities. Since I will be driving I will need to decide before we start out just where we will be stopping for the night. One positive is that Texas allows RVs to park overnight in rest stops so if we need to stop we can. West Texas is sparsely populated also so there is not generally a place a few miles down the road like there is in Iowa or Nebraska. Monday we need to be in a community where wayfinder38 can get his blood work done. If possible I would like to be in Deming, New Mexico as I can take a run down to Las Palomas, Sonora, Mexico to get some new glasses.
We went out for lunch and then some shopping. I discovered there is a Fry's Electronics store here. I want a bigger portable external hard drive so I can back up my hard drive. They have wonderful external hard drives but there was not one like I wanted. My current one uses Firewire and is powered through the port. The one I looked at had Firewire but also needed an external power source. It also was not really portable. The store is huge and they did not have power carts for the handicapped. WF used the shopping cart as a walker and managed to do more walking than he has for two weeks. The steroids are helping!
The shop phoned to say our motorhome work was complete and she now drove very well. We got back and paid the bill. I had requested that when they took the wheels off they check for the dates on the tires. Well the worker looked at every date except on the tires we wanted him to. We knew the dates on the tag and steer tires. When I went to plug us into electricity I noticed that the Crossfire was indicating the tires were low. I had asked the worker earlier why he was letting air out of the tires and he mumbled something about he couldn't get his jack under the tires. Well he had not aired up the tires at all. I went back to the service writer and had him bring the tires up to standard and take the papers and plastic they had put down out of the motorhome. I asked if they could give the worker feedback about how he had not done the job properly. I was told that would be useless. When checked the tires were at 45 pounds when they should have been at 100 pounds. This is serious low and the motorhome was driven for two test drives with the tires that low. We will talking to the service manager on Monday about the poor performance. Leaving tires in this condition could have been life threatening. This is part of why it is important to check our vehicle before every trip. We check the tires, the fluids, the lights, are all the bay doors secure and that is just the outside.
We need to get an early start so we can get off the road before the sun gets in our eyes.