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20050820 Holland MI 65/85? Cloudy, clearing later. Warm in the afternoon.
We left Ludington MI around 10:00am and headed south on US-31. We hit several showers but nothing too bad.
We encountered the typical traffic from Muskegon south through Grand Haven and Holland.
We pulled in at John & Nancy's place at 12:04pm. We chatted a bit, then Dolores & I got the trailer positioned and set up. Then we found the power from the house was at 0 volts. The outlet was perfect last year. A lot of investigation, including looking on the web for the proper wiring diagram for a 30-amp RV outlet, finally showed that the circuit breaker was bad.
John & I went into town, got the circuit breaker and some nuts/washers for the truck's loose front bumper. We had a beer at the VFW, then went back to John's ranch. John installed the breaker, which cured the power problems. I installed a nut and washer combination on the upper left bumper bolt, which was missing probably due to the painting job last year. That ought to cure the ka-thunk we hear when we hit a pothole.
Bill Steininger came over, so we chatted over a beer and told a few jokes. We caught up on happenings, both good and bad. Nancy and John fixed dinner of grilled pork, pasta salad, corn-on-the-cob, french bread and other goodies. Really good. Ate on the deck watching hummingbirds.
Bill had to leave to attend a function at the Sand Bar Saloon (his bar). The rest of us had dessert and coffee.
Then I got more e-mail while the others due a walk in the dark. One of their cats slipped off my lap and scratched my leg as it tried to stop falling. Ouch.
Then we begged off and went to the trailer to do our evening routine - the logs and finances.
Tomorrow is Sunday. Nothing is planned. Take it as it comes.
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20050821 Holland MI 62/84 Clear, cool, classic Michigan coastline summer day. The 84 is wrong; it never got over 75.
We got up and had coffee cake and coffee. I took Dolores to church but went on to get stuff at the grocery, returning to pick her up and return to the trailer.
We decided we'd go to "Taste of Saugatuck" but stop at a flea market first. The flea market is new and didn't have much in the line of material. We snickered a little and went on to Saugatuck, which was jammed with people and traffic. We parked at the old Harris Pie Company lot and walked back into the main part of town.
We walked to one park, then the other, before we convinced ourselves that "Taste of Saugatuck" wasn't on anyone's agenda but ours (next week, we found out later). So we wandered through a few stores before we had lunch at Pumpernickel's. Quite good.
Then we did some shopping. Dolores bought some salt water taffy at Kilwin's (forgot it at Lake Geneva). I bought a neon pink flamingo for our Florida house (impulse purchase). We bought things at the gourmet shop, some for the trailer and some for consumption.
Finally, we left to return to the ranch (John's three-acre place). We took it easy for a bit, did email, read the Sunday paper, watched a documentary on Hurrican Andrew, and had pizza. Afterward, we sat and talked; then Bill Steininger showed up so we talked some more. Finally quit about 11:30.
Tomorrow, it's coffee in Saugatuck with the usual suspects and then we'll see what happens. Someone mentioned a bonfire tomorrow night.
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20050822 Holland MI ?/? Partly cloudy, cool, nice. Picture Link
Nancy & John gave us all a huge breakfast. We chatted and joked and ate.
John & I went downtown to the Sand Bar Saloon to join Bill Steininger for morning coffee. We sat and joked. We stopped at NAPA on the way home where I got a yellow diesel fuel container for the truck.
We sat around the house until well into the afternoon, taking it easy.
I still had the truck's left rear caliper left undone since Anchorage. I called Midas and found they could get calipers quickly. I told them to order the LR using part number AZC243, as given me in Anchorage. Later, I went there with the truck. Sure enough, the AZC243 was the right rear caliper.
Mitch at Midas then ordered the AZC242, which was told to me to be the right rear caliper. An hour later, it came in and was the left rear, what we wanted. Anchorage gave me bad info.
I'll go to Midas early tomorrow AM to have it installed and be done with it.
Then back to the ranch for dinner (steak; we're eating well here). We sat around for a bit, then gathered wood for a bonfire. We started it and had a beer; Owen Smith and Bill Steininger came by and helped us sit. We sang a couple of songs (including some old Tom Lehrer stuff) and talked.
Owen & Bill left and we started bringing things into the house. I smelled a burning charger or somesuch, which John finally located in a small fluorescent light over the sink. Blech smell.
Finally went to bed around midnight.
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20050823 Holland MI ?/? Mostly cloudy, breezy, cool.
I got up early and drove the truck to Midas for servicing.
Lo and behold, the caliper (see yesterday) on hand did not fit the truck. After more research, the source of the EGR kit originally was discovered (1977 Fleetwood) and the applicable caliper found. After it was received, it was found to be "not quite" a perfect replacement in that the "stop" which would prevent emergency brake over-travel was missing. The folks here welded on a big washer and ground most of it off to form the "stop" for the emergency brake.
While this was going on, John, Nancy, and Dolores came to Midas and got me; we went out to an early lunch that turned out to be a late breakfast. Then they dropped me off at Midas again and returned to the ranch so Nancy could get ready for her work at Hospice this afternoon.
Midas (Greg) had also found the right rear axle was leaking out the end again. After some conversation, we decided to replace the "speedisleeve"; the last one lasted 60kmiles, let's do it again. The "proper" solution would be to replace the half-axle to get rid of the imperfections at the bearing end. We waited and waited.
The delivery guy sent the wrong speedisleeve. Returned it. Looked at the right axle again. Bearing races were all torn up. That might have created the grooves in the speedisleeve. So now we wanted the races for the inner and outer bearing. One shop sent one race; the other can't get it to us until 8:00am tomorrow. The speedisleeve looks re-usable.
So I waited some more until Mitch could leave for the day; he lives near Saugatuck, so he dropped me at the ranch. I'm to be back at Midas about 8:30 or so. John said he'd take me in.
Nancy had their Blazer at work and their Buick has transmission problems (it's going into the shop tomorrow), so John dragged out his military M-37/Power Wagon from the 50's for the trip to Subway and the beer store. Cruising speed for this thing is 38 mph. We got subs, returned, set out other stuff, and ate.
We talked about the day and were mean to the cats for a while (tickling). Then John showed an old Bogart movie, "The Big Sleep"; they don't make them like that anymore. I've never seen so many old Plymouths in one film.
So tomorrow, if all works, I'll go get the (working) truck, fuel it, return to the ranch, attach the trailer, unhook from the house, and we'll be on our way to Dayton, Ohio.
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