You know the rest. Redlands Truck and RV told us the coolant reservoir was showing cracks and could fail soon. Having had problems with coolant in the past we chose to have them change it. About 90 miles East on the 10 (we were still in California) I started getting low coolant and check engine notices. We were on a long climb with no functional shoulder – construction – so I elected to push on, better to suffer repairable engine damage than risk getting rearended. Eventually the engine made the decision for me and began to shut down. How fun is it to lose power steering in traffic at 35 mph? I was able to get on to the 3/4 width lane shoulder leaving some of the coach out in traffic. The engine restarted and eventually we made our way to a safe stopping place out of traffic.

Since I don’t carry a gallon of coolant, the tech we spoke with suggested water and return to the shop for repair. We carry water in our fresh water tank, the only issue was getting it to the back of the coach and into the reservoir which has scant space above it to add fluid without a hose and a pump (Pictures are on Facebook). My Uncle Rube might have added some other creative pieces but I am pretty proud of what I did.

We made it back to the shop and they were working on the coach at 7 AM. I will update that report in a later post. 

We are well and busy redoing our schedule. Still planning on Las Crucis Friday afternoon.  The good news we had breakfast at Carolyn’s again. The wait staff welcomed us back and asked what happened to our planned travel.

Other than the call from grandson Azriel to tell us that he and Stacy are married!!! the rest of the day was uneventful.

I admit I am waking in the middle of the night worrying about traveling across the country again. As I think back, I realize this is not something new. Every time we close to actual departure I obsess  at 4 AM when I should be asleep. This has resulted in several calls to various suppliers to confirm that I do have what I need that they provide. It results in my trying out various systems to be sure they are working. For the last couple of days we were using our onboard water pump to empty the freshwater tank so I could refill with fresh, freshwater. 

So far all systems are go!

After I wrote that the water pump quit working in the middle of a load of laundry. Westwind, our favorite mobile tech just left with some of our money and we now have a functioning water pump for the trip.

The key systems that we cannot try out are ourselves. It has been two years since we traveled cross country. We have allowed 30 days for the trip and we know it can be done in 11. There will be plenty of time to stop and rest. We are looking forward to many stops to visit friends as we go. For the most part we will be stopping at places we have stopped in the past. The roads are roads we have driven at least once. It is hard to travel from the southwest to the northeast 22 times and find routes we haven’t taken at least once.

My local activities still keep me involved. I am no longer president, I willingly relinquished that post when a wonderful alternative presented herself. I remain a member at large until next February. I have taken on working with two important committees as their Liaison; Insurance and Road Repair. I know somethingabout the first and am rapidly learning about the latter. 

I’ll post this now and prepare to write more as we go.

We have mostly been in the apartment for the past month. Carol has  not been feeling well and is not comfortable going anyplace. Some friends have come by for a visit and Josh has been a regular presence. Rohma has been with her family so we haven’t seen as much of her as we would like. 

Today was to have been special since Dan and his family were flying in for the weekend. However they woke up with cold symptoms and chose to keep them to themselves and not share. They are rescheduling for next weekend. Rohma and Josh will be coming over to spend some time with us and have dinner. 

This is not my usual newsy post, just a simple report of what’s happening. 

That was 3 weeks ago.  Where did the time go? They did come in the following weekend . There were 4 of them plus Josh and Rohma for a total of 8 for meals in the apartment. But then our friend Leora from Las Cruces came in for her Brighton High Reunion and joined our gang for Friday night dinner in the apartment! As we settled down from that Pricilla Douglas our former neighbor from East Avenue arrived on Saturday for a planned visit and we had planned to have her join us for dinner so again we were 9 for dinner. We have done 13 in the motorhome a time or two so 9 in the apartment felt spacious for us. 

Since that visit we have been getting out more and not just for medical appointments for both of us, although there have been plenty of those. We have the luggage out to prepare for departure on Tuesday afternoon. and we are getting ready for Yom Kippur. I have been blowing shofar at every service for the holidays that it is called for and for a group in a senior living setting who gather regularly. 

Although we have no plans to give up our RV lifestyle we have moved up Plan B and put down a deposit for an existing facility as well as the new one that isn’t under construction yet. That is the future. For now I have 18 months left in my current term as Board member at Jojoba Hills SKP Resort. This gives me plenty to keep me busy between Bridge games. Carol is looking forward to her projects. She has another building renovation project to lead.

Things work out, some in surprising ways. I read 8 verses of Bereshit to plaudits from some – really good friends and family – and to my own limited satisfaction. To those who do not grasp the difficulty of reading a few words in Hebrew after a lifetime of training, I’ll give a short explanation. Hebrew as we use it in the US is written with marks next to and under the letters which are the vowel sounds. In the Torah those marks and any punctuation are omitted. rd ths sntnc wth t th vwls nd y wll gt th id. Even with knowledge of the words it takes some practice. Israelis and other Hebrew speakers can do this from context. For me, first I have to learn the text in Hebrew, then I have to learn to read the Torah text. Just to make it more interesting each Torah is handwritten and among the scrolls we have at Temple B’rith Kodesh there are a few different fonts and sizes. 

That was more explanation than I planned on. We concluded the service with the 3rd soundings of the shofar each sounding is made up of 3 cycles of  3 different blasts and the last sounding ends with a blast called Tekiah Gadola or the long Tekiah. This often becomes a contest if there is more than one shofar blower. The proof is when the congregation starts to giggle and starts clapping when the last sound is finished. This is probably inappropriate but very common.

Wednesday we set out early for a task that had been put off for the duration of Covid lockdown at the Canadian border. We have Trusted Traveler passes that give access to special lanes and one particular bridge across the border. The border guards on both sides recognize us as trusted and ask very few questions. Lying to them would result in loss of the privilege forever. Two weeks before the appointment I was notified that my card was in the mail and I did not need to keep the appointment. Having received no such notice for Carol we attempted to keep the appointment, arriving at the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge a few minutes before the appointment. She was not on the appointment list! There was some discussion during which one of the agents took Carol’s card to see why. A few minutes later she returned with the card and pointed out that it did not expire until 2024. We must have renewed it in 2019 and totally forgotten. I can see the payment made  back then.

We used the cards to drive over the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge to visit Aunt Dorothy in Hamilton ON which was the reason for all of this anyhow. I may have noted earlier that Aunt Dorothy was Carol’s mother’s youngest sibling and is cruising along at 99 years of age. She was only 6 when Carol’s brother was born. 

We couldn’t resist stopping in Niagara-on-the-Lake on the way back just to wander among some of the stores on the main street for an hour. It was too late to get tickets for any of the performances in the Shaw Festival. Of the plays being performed there was not one we really wanted to see. Neither of us feels the urge to see another staging of “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde.

We continued home eventually on the Lake Ontario Parkway right on the lake. This is s favorite drive in the car. No commercial vehicles or RVs allowed, the bridge clearances are as low as 10 feet.

A totally uneventful day. I suppose I could stop right there.

We left the apartment at about 9 AM as planned. And had the coach on the road by 10:30, about 30 minutes after my fondest dream departure of 10. With the usual stops for fuel and driver change we arrived at Harrisburg East RV Park just before 5 PM. Our site, #102, is the same one we were on a year ago. It is still only close to level but the jacks got me level with all the tires touching the ground this time. 

Is that enough excitement to write a post about?  Carol made biscuits and wonderful omelets for dinner. We have to consume the eggs so we can help Malena and Dan with their egg supply.

Tomorrow we have less than 4 hour drive to Malena and Dan’s. Since the car is still hooked up departure is just a matter of disconnecting and storing electric, water and  sewer lines. Oh yes because the site is so steep I need to store the spare step I carry along for places like this. 

The route tomorrow is  I81 south to I 66 to 17 to 29 and then hook around the C’ville  airport to head to the house.  

Still not exciting. We managed to watch the PBS News Hour tonight. Wish we hadn’t. I’m still too attached to being informed and all it does is aggravate me. 

We are really looking forward to our visits in the coming weeks. 

Aren’t you glad you read this 🙂