We Are Sauntering!

Okay, we've actually been sauntering since Saturday, December 27, and it's taken this long to recover from the ordeal of breaking ties with a physical address. At 1:00 PM that Saturday, we had the house emptied, locked up, and the Molly B. (our rig) loaded up and ready to go. As I closed the door and prepared to drive away, I noticed that the steps did not retract. They had worked just fine earlier that morning, but now they were stuck in the extended position. I checked fuses- all good. So off to Camping World we go to see if they can fix the problem. 

The service manager discovered that the magnet that activates the microswitch for the door was missing. I guess it was broken off while we were loading the motorhome. He got another magnet and sure enough the steps extended and retracted as they should. But wait... there's more! Examining the drive motor for the steps, we discovered that the mounting bracket was broken, and the motor was not securely fixed to the frame. Sure enough, after three or four more activations of the step switch, the whole motor assembly fell off, dangling only by its wiring harness. I had visions of being stuck at Camping World for days waiting for parts to come in. We had to be in Boca Raton by the next evening to pick up our granddaughter, Rebecca, as we were to be taking care of her for the next week while her dad worked.

Camping World came through, though. The tech was able to extract the broken bolt, replace it and remount the motor. We were on our way after a mere two-hour delay (and a $197 repair bill).

We drove for about six hours that evening, stopping for the night at a Walmart in Madison, GA. We had decided to take the western route down US 75, hoping it would be less harrowing than the madness we knew would exist on US 95.  

The next morning at about 6:00,  I punched Boca Raton into the GPS and off we went. Unfortunately, I was focused on the trees, rather than the forest, The route chosen by Rand McNally was taking us diagonally across Georgia to 95, adding quite a few miles on secondary roads to our trip. Kate had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, but I just kept plugging on. It's a guy thing...

When we  both realized our situation, it was obvious that we needed to pick up our pace if we were to reach Boca at a reasonable hour. Our plan to drive at 55 mph to optimize fuel mileage had to go. Molly B. sped up to about 70 to 75 mph for the remainder of the trip, dropping our mileage from 11 mpg to about 9.5 mpg.

We got to Boca around 6:00 PM - 12 hours on the road at 70 plus mph on 95!  Rather than going the campground that night in the dark, we spent the night parked at a Cracker Barrel, a great place to stay since breakfast is so conveniently located!

The next morning we arrived at the Kozy Kamper RV Park. Because we were a few days later than expected, we had to park in an overflow site the first night, but now are in our "permanent" site for the month of January!

Okay, that's enough for today. Happy New Year to all!! To be continued...