Old Eyes and Angry Men

 

Doug riding on the dog house. He loves it!

It seems that a lot of people are wondering if we are ever going to make it out of Texas.

I am one of those people. We have taken our time getting the Big Lebowski ready and enjoying time with our family. We celebrated our youngest daughter’s 21^st birthday, our youngest son’s 19^th birthday, and moved our oldest daughter into her new house. We mourned the death of our beloved Princess Kitty Princess. Doug and Boss Lady were very upset for a few days. They still continue to look for her.

Before I go much further I have to say I realize that this blog post is going to make us look like idiots, but I have to tell the stories of our experiences. The good and the bad, and the really bad. This blog post might sound like all we do is stand around and yell, but in reality we have many laughs along the way too. I share the story about the temper tantrum because it the story that sticks out in my mind. I share the story about the water pump because so far it is the worst thing we have been through, and hopefully it will be the only awful moment we encounter.

We made many modifications to the Big Lebowski over the last month. The biggest modifications were the new roof and the addition of our solar power system.

Our old roof was worn out. Luckily it had not started leaking so there were no big repairs that needed to be made. We ordered the materials for the roof from Amazon and Tracy did the work himself. It took a full day but was well worth the time. The hardest part was waiting for the rain to stop long enough to give us a dry sunny day. The new roof has helped a lot to keep the Big Lebowski cool on the inside.

We installed three solar panels and four deep cycle batteries, along with the needed hardware. We purchased the extreme power kit from Go Power. We thought this would be a fairly easy task, maybe two and half days of labor. No, it took two weeks. The biggest issue we found was that the instructions were lacking and contradictory. There is no one installation manual or set of instructions. Each piece of hardware has an installation manual and you have to basically figure out how to tie them all together.

 

The issue with the instruction manual led to some pretty awesome temper tantrums on Tracy’s part.

One of the things no one really tells you about getting older is that your eye sight just stops working somewhere in your mid-40s. For Tracy this has been very upsetting. He has had eagle eyes all his life and then suddenly at 45 his eye sight just went wonky. It makes him even more upset when we get our annual eye exam and the doctor tells me that my eye sight is getting better with age. Hey, it’s not unheard of, it happens. I just like to think that I am one of the lucky few it happens too.

We spend a small fortune on readers every month.

Mostly because they get lost, scratched, and on occasion they get broken. Especially one pair in particular. Like I said earlier, Tracy threw a pretty awesome temper tantrum while installing the solar power system. Some of the work required some detailed wiring and naturally all I heard from Tracy was that he couldn’t see. I hear that every day, all day. So I thought nothing of it. Finally, at the height of his frustration he grabbed the readers off his face, broke them in half, threw them down on the ground, and then gave them a class act cussing for good measure. They were finished. Done. Gone.

There was no way those readers were going to be resurrected from the dead.

I went to bed. I learned a long time ago to ignore temper tantrums. A person has a right to be mad. So I am sure you can imagine my surprise when I woke up early the next morning to find Tracy sitting in front of the television happy, and wearing the last pair of readers from three pack. He was so happy that morning that he proudly told me he figured out why the readers were not working.

There was protective film on the readers.

I felt a little angry at this new revelation. First, I was angry at him, but then I was angry at the reader manufacturer. People buy them because they cannot see. If they cannot see how are they supposed to know there is a scratch resistant film on the lenses if the manufacturer does not print something on the film?

Old habits die hard.

Once the solar power system was installed and working I gathered up all of the instruction manuals and went to work on them with my red pen. I made notes about where the instructions lack detail, where they contradict each other, and what extra parts and tools they forget to mention. I felt like I was back at work rewriting an SOP or a protocol. The kit includes three solar panels, but they only send you enough connectors to hook two up to the system. We had to order another set and wait for it to arrive. The list of grievances goes on, so I will not bore you with the details. If you are interested in our solar power system and would like to contact us you can email Tracy at wilsonswork@yahoo.com.

We officially hit the road on May 5, 2015.

My small gnomes have a front row seat

Mini Robin gets to hang out too

 

We headed to Garland, Texas around 12:30 in the afternoon and arrived at about 5:30 that evening. I spent the entire trip white knuckled and tense. The wind did not help. We picked the windiest day to leave, so the Big Lebowski rode like a brick on ice skates. I worry because the Big Lebowski is so big and we are still very new at driving the bus. I have to give Tracy credit though, he has done pretty well so far at maintaining a safe speed and not letting the traffic get to him.

I-35 North was not so bad once we left Waco until we got to Highway 20 East from I-H 35. Then we hit rush hour traffic and I think my heart moved to my throat. I make a horrible passenger. Normally I will just look at my phone when we get into heavy traffic, but with the way the Big Lebowski sways I get motion sickness. Tracy navigated us through the crowded residential streets in Garland to his mother’s house like a pro.

I would like to say our trip to the Dallas area has been uneventful.

We visited with Tracy’s family for about an hour and then headed to Mesquite, Texas to visit an old friend. We needed to drop some tools off for safe keeping and to get the weight of the Big Lebowski down. We parked the Big Lebowski a block from his friend’s house because the streets are narrow and there are cars parked on both sides of the street. Tracy took great pleasure in showing his friend the motorhome and talking for about thirty minutes until he noticed a leak. We watched as the water pump on the motor dumped water onto the street.

There were four of us standing there with our heads turned sideways staring under the motorhome in silence until the last drop fell. Tracy and I just looked at each other. I felt my heart sink back down into my stomach. I had to look on the bright side, at least we were not on the highway and we were in a safe neighborhood.

I could not believe that it happened. We had custom radiators made for the Big Lebowski in December. While we were waiting on them to be finished Tracy and I discussed changing out the water pump too, but decided against it because it looked to be in good shape and the seals seemed ok. I distinctly remember Tracy saying “The worst thing that could happen is that the water pump goes out and I have to pull the radiators out to replace it.”

So, ok, the worst just happened.

Tracy was able to locate a water pump, and thermostat rather quickly. This is his hometown. He had the radiators and old water pump out within about an hour. He went to put the new water pump on and realized it was missing a bracket. Our quick repair was foiled. By this time it was 11pm and everything was closed. This was also the time we realized that we were parked in front of the entrance to a construction zone. It seems that Mesquite ISD is on a building spree for their schools.

Not to worry, there was another entrance down the street that could be used. We decided to try and get some sleep and get up early in the morning and try again. Neither of us slept very soundly. Well, Tracy did not sleep very soundly. I slept like a dead person only to be awoken to shouting and hollering. It seems that the job superintendent was not happy about where we were because we had blocked the entrance for all the dump trucks he had coming.

I thought to myself, “Why can they not use the other entrance? Yeah, it’s inconvenient because it’s a tight corner, but they are licensed professionals. They drive in the Dallas area every day. They can make that corner.” Tracy tried to explain the situation, but the guy was having none of it. The guy insisted his truck could pull the Big Lebowski the twenty feet. Ok, have at it, the Big Lebowski weighs 20,000 pounds, but if you think your El Trucka can move it be my guest. The emergency brake engages and can only be disengaged when the motor is on.

So after two unfruitful tries the guy gets out of his truck and screams at Tracy to release the brakes.

Tracy tries turn the motor over in an effort to release the brake but oil starts to shoot out. Now everyone is angry and the guy yells at Tracy that he better get some kitty litter and clean it up because he has to report it to the EPA. The guy leaves to go to the job site office. Tracy grabs the cats litter box from the basement and dumps it on the oil.

By this time there are about ten Hispanic men standing around making derogatory remarks. I know enough Spanish insults to hold my own. I may not understand every word, but I know enough to get in trouble. I felt my temper flare and shot off a dirty look. They quickly dispersed and went back to work with their heads hung in shame. We had no problems with them after that. They were even nice enough to offer me something to drink later in the day.

About ten minutes later the fire department shows up because the guy had called 911 to report an oil spill. They looked at the kitty litter and left.  By this time the dump trucks are showing up. There are six 18-wheeler dump trucks lined up waiting to get in the gate. They sat and waited an hour. Someone finally had the bright idea to use the second gate.

Eventually the City Code Inspector shows up and decides we need to call a tow truck to move us twenty feet.

I called our Good Sam’s Roadside Assistance. We had a wait time of 120 minutes. That just was not fast enough to please anyone. I called a couple of other tow companies in the area and they were all at least two or three hours away. By this time Tracy was really upset. I told him that if it was a true emergency that the city would send a tow truck, and I pointed out that the cops had not even showed up. The cops knew we were there because they had driven by in the night and checked on us. We were on a public street, not breaking any laws, and trying to abate the problem. This calmed him down.

The drive shaft for the motorhome had to be dropped because the emergency brake could not be disengaged. Just as the last dump truck dropped its load, the tow truck showed up an hour ahead of schedule. At this point Tracy realized if the guy had just let him leave to go exchange the part for the correct one he would be done by now. The good news is that the tow truck moved us the twenty feet and it did not cost us anything. I think this really pissed the guy off. Hey, this is why we bought the premium road side service package.

Six hours had gone by and it was raining off and on. Eventually we got the part exchanged, got the new part on, and then had to connect the drive shaft. We spent thirty minutes looking for the u-bolts that hold the drive shaft on. Tracy had set them on the steps after removing them. When the tow truck driver showed up I moved them to the inside steps so that we could close the door and the exterior steps could be folded up for safe transport. That was the last I remembered seeing them. So it was thirty minutes of Tracy yelling at me for moving them. We eventually found them in the basement compartment that houses the litter box. That’s when I remembered watching him take them off the interior steps and set them in the basement so we could go inside after the tow truck left. Now I was angry.

Another pair bites the dust.

Tracy got to work putting the drive shaft back together. Again, all I heard was “I can’t see!” The next thing I know I pair of readers come flying out from under the Big Lebowski and land right in the path of an on-coming car.  I am guessing they had grease on the lenses.

Of Couse nothing is easy. The pins in the bearing for the drive shaft would not stay in place. Tracy was very frustrated and decided to just go get a new bearing. It’s a good thing the auto parts store was just two blocks away. Once he got the new bearing it took about ten minutes to get the drive shaft reinstalled. Everything is now working and we are better off than when we started. Tracy was able to find the problem we were having with the cooling fan for the oil cooler and get it fixed. Plus we now have an all new cooling system.

It might be important to mention that during this whole ordeal the only thing that bothered me, up the point of finding the U-bolts on the basement, was the fact that the cover for our fresh water tank kept getting blown open by the wind. I could not find the key that locked the cover and the fact that it was open really upset me. It worried me that someone might put something in our water tank or that something would get blown in to it. I eventually got it closed.

We were both so exhausted, starving, and dirty by the time we were finished that we decided to stay in a motel room for the night.

We didn’t have the energy to drive to the RV park in Rockwall or find a Walmart that allows overnight parking. I can tell you none of the Walmarts in the Dallas, Mesquite, and Garland areas allow overnight parking for RVs. I called them all. There are city ordinances in place that prohibit the overnight parking.

There is a Microtel Inn in Mesquite that we stay at when we are up here and luckily it was about four blocks away. We were too tired to go out to eat after getting showers so we decided to order pizza. The guy at the front desk gave us the numbers to two pizza places that deliver to the hotel. Our first choice was Pizza Inn. We called, they were closed. What pizza place closes before 9 pm? So we had Dominoes’ and it was the most delicious pizza I ever ate.

No rest for the weary.

Tracy was able to pick up a little work while here in Dallas and spent the day working. I spent the day cleaning up the RV and writing you this blog entry. Tonight we are parked in Dallas behind a friend’s office off of Carroll Ave. and Highway 30. Yeah, right in the heart of Dallas. Doug and Boss Lady are not used to the city sounds. I cannot say I enjoy them either, but on some level its comforting. We will spend the night here with free hook ups and head out west first thing in the morning, hopefully before the morning traffic starts.

So far the solar power system has been great.

We had power the whole time we were broke down and were able to run fans, make coffee, and keep the household going.  The solar power system can run all of our appliances – washing machine included, but struggles with the AC. If we added one more panel and another bank of batteries we could run the AC, but we have a large generator that can run both air conditioners when we need it. We have only needed to use the generator for a short time.  This makes me happy because we are not burning thru our fuel.

It works so well that we are thinking about being a distributer. So if anyone is interested in a solar power system send Tracy an email at the address listed above or leave us a comment below.

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We head out towards the Big Bend National Park tomorrow, keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

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