Sunday ; Today was cloudy, mild, and raining lightly. Bo was a bit ill.
This morning we went into Oakhurst to do some grocery shopping. Man, ya gotta love American grocery store specials. By taking advantage of advertised specials, our grocery bills are a lot lower in the U.S. than in Canada ! Today … turkeys, $5 each, for the entire month of November. Around Canadian Thanksgiving, turkeys are about $1.85 a pound, so $20 to $30 each ! Today we bought a turkey … just because … right now a turkey is cheaper than a chicken !
After lunch we went to the weekly ice cream social in the clubhouse for … well, DUH … ice cream and socializing. Afterwards I went into the library to get online using Wi-Fi and get some online work done. Joanne returned to the trailer, and was going to take Bo to the dog park, but it was raining lightly, so she correctly assumed that today’s dog party would be cancelled.
In the evening we watched Amazing Race and Undercover Boss.
Monday ; By this morning the rain had stopped and the sky began to slowly clear. Bo was feeling better. I did an obedience session with him. Good dog, Bo. I took the computer to the clubhouse, got online using Wi-Fi, and made some phone calls using our Skype “home phone”. I phoned the Chrysler dealers in Madera and Fresno to get some parts, service and warranty information, and the Sears Auto Center in Fresno to get some service information. I think I’ll go to the Sears Auto Center in Fresno on Thursday to have the truck’s tires rotated and brakes inspected. I’m undecided about whether or not to buy a “factory original” battery to battery negative cable from a Chrysler dealer … for about a hundred bucks ! Or fabricate one myself using about twenty bucks worth of parts from O’Reilly Auto Parts. And I may or may not need to have an exhaust manifold leak repaired at a Chrysler dealer. I’ve done a bit of research online, and it appears as if the wisest course of action at this time is to attempt to tighten the exhaust manifold bolts myself and see if that eliminates the slight leak. I did meal / menu planning for the next two weeks. Since Joanne went to work at the fruit stand a couple of months ago, I have been planning all the meals, and preparing many of them. Joanne likes not having to do the meal planning so I will try to do it on an ongoing basis. While I worked on my tasks, Joanne did laundry.
After lunch and a nap with Sully, I spent the afternoon working on testing the truck’s batteries, charging system, and trailer connection plug. I’m trying to determine why we’re having an intermittent problem with the truck charging the trailer’s house battery. I think it’s either because the truck’s two batteries have reached the end of their useful lives after 5½ years, or there is a problem with one of the terminal ends of the batteries’ negative cable, or both. Late in the afternoon we took Bo to the dog park for the daily dog party. Yup … he’s feeling better ! Afterwards I went to the clubhouse library with my computer to do some online research on vehicles’ charging systems.
Yesterday we bought some Mahi-Mahi. I cooked it for supper today. It smelled funny coming out of the package. It smelled funny in the fry pan. And after a couple of bites I realized it tasted … bad ! EEEUUUWWW ! ! ! We tossed it in the garbage.
This afternoon I continued working on the truck to trailer battery charging mystery. And I convinced myself that I will have to replace the truck’s two near dead batteries and one battery cable with a slightly cracked terminal to resolve the problem. We washed the truck. Lots of road grime from travelling ! And I attempted to tighten the exhaust manifold bolts to see if that was the cause of a small exhaust manifold leak that I recently noticed. The bolts were all tight, so that means that either the exhaust manifold gaskets are leaking and need to be replaced, or … the exhaust manifold itself is cracked and needs to be replaced. In either case, it’s a job for a Dodge dealer … soon … before the truck’s warranty expires in about 4500 km. / 2800 miles.
The trailer’s rear bumper is hollow, and used for storage of sewer hoses. The removable bumper end cap has a vent hole in it to allow sewer hoses that have been put away wet to dry out. Today I noticed as I walked by the rear of the trailer … HUH ? … there seemed to be something sticking out of the vent hole. HUH ? ? ? AN ACORN ? ? ? I removed the bumper’s end cap and … < sputter > … removed 63 acorns from inside the trailer bumper ! Later as I walked by the front of the trailer, I noticed something sticking out of an empty adjustment bolt hole on the trailer hitch. HUH ? ? ? AN ACORN ? ? ? When I reached for it, it fell inside the trailer hitch. I reached in there and … < sputter > … removed 17 acorns from inside the trailer hitch !
And both yesterday and today there was “evidence” of a little creature making an overnight visit up into the truck’s engine compartment. The “evidence” seemed too big for a mouse but too small for a pack rat so … I don’t know ! ? ! Apparently this is a common problem in the fall up here in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I hooked up a trouble light and stuck it under the slightly opened and propped up truck hood overnight. Apparently that’s the solution to the problem.
We headed into Oakhurst to buy some groceries, some auto parts, and … a rat trap ! I bought a rat trap at the hardware store, dropped Joanne off at Raley’s and went to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts. I had the two truck batteries tested. They’re both fine ! I bought three gallons of oil, an oil filter, and a battery cable terminal clamp, then returned to Raley’s to join Joanne. We finished the grocery shopping, refilled a water jug, and headed back to SKP Park of the Sierras.
After lunch and a quick nap with Sully, I removed the truck’s hub caps, wheel liners and valve extenders to prepare for having the tires rotated tomorrow in Fresno. Joanne went to the dog park with Bo. I trimmed my beard then set up a 120V halogen work light to install under the truck hood overnight … along with the rat trap ! The little 12V fluorescent trouble light that I put under the hood last night obviously wasn’t bright enough to deter little Mickey ! I drove to the propane refill station and picked up a tank that I had left for refilling. I went to the clubhouse library with the computer to send some e-mails. Joanne joined me in the library to do some online recipe research.
For supper Joanne roasted the turkey we bought a few days ago. MMMMM ! We spent the evening watching Survivor and Hell’s Kitchen.
Thursday ; Remembrance Day ( Canada ) / Veterans’ Day ( U.S. )
This morning at 11 AM we observed a minute of silence … Lest We Forget ! We shared our “Remembrance” thoughts with each other. HMMMMM < thinking about Joanne’s perspective >.
We drove south on Hwy. 41 down and out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and into the San Joaquin Valley to Fresno, about 45 minutes away. Like driving from home to Penticton. We found our away to Sears Auto Center to have the truck tires rotated and brakes inspected. I had a lengthy argument with the service manager, and I was ( and still am ) very angry. I purchased six very expensive Michelin tires at Sears Auto Center in Yuma, Arizona a year and a half ago. Part of my decision to buy them at Sears was because Sears offered free tire rotations for life. The service manager at Fresno today was of the belief that that offer excluded six tire duallies. After some arguing he decided that he would rotate my tires at no charge … as a goodwill gesture. That infuriated me ! I neither want nor need “a favour” … a “freebie”. I want what I’ve paid for and am entitled to ! ! ! And that includes tire rotations ! ! !
We left the truck at Sears and walked to a nearby shopping mall where we walked around for awhile then went for lunch to a gourmet hamburger restaurant chain called Red Robin. Our first time at Red Robin. Our last time at Red Robin ! We returned to Sears to discover … un****ingbelievable … the tires were rotated incorrectly, for the tenth time in a row ! ! ! Eight times at Dodge Dealers, and twice at Sears Auto Centers. And for nine of those ten times ( all except the first time ) I explained how it was to be done, showed a diagram in the owner’s manual, explained it again, asked if they understood, left the owner’s manual diagram with them, asked again if they clearly understood … < FUME > ! ! ! How on earth can it be possible for something to be done WRONG ten times out of ten ? ? ? ! ! ! ? ? ? It’s rotating tires … not rocket science, people ! ! ! Calm down, Daniel !
< taking a deep breath >
After Sears corrected their error ( very quickly, to their credit ), we found our way to the Dodge dealer in Fresno where I made an appointment for next week for some warranty service. Then … story of my life … Wal-Mart ! We arrived back home at SKP Park of the Sierras just as it turned dark … which is now at 5 PM !
Friday ; WHEW … what an ordeal. After another lengthy call to Virgin Mobile Tech. Support … this one lasting 53 minutes ! ! ! … I finally have a working U.S. cell phone ! < shaking head in despair > And I asked and was told how to prevent a recurrence of this reactivation nightmare in the future ! However, at the moment, I’m certainly not inclined to remain a Virgin Mobile customer in future years.
This afternoon I reinstalled the valve extenders, wheel liners, and hub caps on the truck. Wish me luck ! Whenever I’ve had valve extender leaks in the past, it has always been immediately after removal and reinstallation of them. We trimmed Bo’s dew claws. Ooooops … sorry, Bo … trimmed one dew claw a bit too short. Joanne prepared appetizers for this afternoon’s weekly social hour, which in this park is also sort of an early potluck dinner with “heavy” appetizers. We took Bo to the dog park before social hour, assuming correctly that today’s dog party would be a bit earlier because of social hour.
Social hour was good. Good food, good socializing ! We discovered that this park has a new “promotional” monthly rate. We might stay a month ! In the evening we did some “trip planning” taking into account the possibility of staying here a month.
Saturday ; Another beautiful, sunny, warm California day.
This morning I went to the office to get some information and extend our stay from three weeks to a month. I disinfected the fresh water holding tank. I did some duct tape repair on the damage caused by the pack rat to the under hood insulation liner on the truck. I was going to replace the under hood insulation liner until I discovered that it costs more than $150 ! I cleaned hundreds of acorns out of the trailer’s bumper then sealed off the bumper end caps’ vent openings with duct tape. Finding a lot if uses for duct tape today !
I spent quite a bit of time trying to replace one of the truck batteries’ negative cable terminal clamps. I sawed off the old terminal clamp using a hacksaw. I tried to install a replacement clamp I bought at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts in Oakhurst a few days ago. It didn’t fit right. I’ll have to return to O’Reilly’s tomorrow and see if I can find a different model that will work better. And I suspect that the one that I have is non-returnable / non-refundable, so will be a “write-off” expense. Oh, well … a “written off” three dollar clamp is still better than buying a new cable at the dealer’s for a hundred bucks ! In the meantime, I hope that the truck will start, using only one of the two batteries, because one of the batteries is disconnected.
We took Bo to the dog park for the daily dog party. Then I went to the clubhouse to do some online work. I found out today that high speed Internet is available at each site, but it won’t work for me. It involves a modem with an Ethernet cable to the computer. My teensy little netbook computer doesn’t have an Ethernet cable port. Darn !
DSK
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