Update

Seffner, Florida

Well, a few people have wondered where we are, and what we are up to.

I hate to say it, but we are still sitting at Lazy Days. Yes, we are frustrated and tired of sitting here.  We are glad to be getting things repaired, while we still have access to our old motor home.  At least we don’t have to worry about what to do with the cats.  We still think we bought a good quality motorhome, but it is a 2003 model.  Most of our issues are related to routine maintenance and wear and tear.  We’re hoping we will find all the issues while we’re here and things will be good once we leave. 

We have the motorhome back in the service bay, again.  I think this is the 4th time.  Nothing serious, mostly just small things.

We are currently here because:

1. the air conditioner gasket needs replacing.  This is a wear and tear item, and ours decided to leak.  Thankfully it did before we left and we still have the use of the old motor home for the cats. These gaskets should be checked and hand tightened a little each year or so. They are foam gaskets that the a/c unit sits on.  The foam gets thinner over time and you might need to hand tighten the 4 bolts that hold it on.  If you open the a/c unit from inside the motor home…like you do to clean the filter, you will see 4 bolts.  Those are the bolts I’m talking about.  Don’t tighten them too much or you will ruin the gasket, but check to snug them up a bit.  This is probably something Mike should have caught, but that’s okay, we still love him and he is fixing it now.  He is also going to replace the bedroom a/c  gasket for us.  These are each 3/12 hour jobs, and their labor rate is $115 per hour, so we’re glad to get it done now…..however, we are very tired of being here.

2.  We started having a terrible odor in the motorhome.  At first we started smelling a rotten egg odor.  When we turned on the exhaust vent in the bathroom, we got the foulest smell you can imagine.  Black tank odor on steroids!  Mike said there could be a couple causes.  One was the Studer Valve that is under each sink.  We have gotten our education on this valve.  It’s a $3.00 part that needs to be replaced every few years (per Mike).  It is a pvc type piece that screws onto the top of a piece of pipe under the sinks.  It can be unscrewed and replaced easily, just using some teflon tape.  I understand you can get these at Home Depot.  There is a little rubber flap on them that keep the odors from the gray tank from getting into the motor home. If you look under your sink, it’s on the top of the pipe that goes up and then stops, not connecting to anything.   If this flap gets bad, you get the drifting odors.  The other possibility is the p-trap on the washer.  The washer hadn’t been used for a while and the water in the p-trap dried out.  The smell can then drift upwards from the gray tank.  Mike took the cover off and checked out what was going on behind the washer.  He noticed the pipe that the water drain fits into, was not sealed.  If the p-trap gets dry and the pipe is sealed, no odors.  He sealed that.  He said the third possibility on the cause of the odor was that sometimes the vent that comes out of the black water tank, can break and off and drop into the tank.  Then you have bad odors, and a big problem.  He checked out our whole black/gray water system and said that was not the problem here.  We are currently in the motorhome and happy to report, no smells!  Again, we are happy to have it fixed.

3.  The brand new living room slide seal that Mike just replaced was damaged again.  Apparently,  the locking mechanism on the slide is catching on the slide gasket and tearing it.  I’m sure glad we found that before we left.  Mike is not really sure how to solve the problem, but we have confidence that he will figure it out and do it right.   I also learned a lesson on the slide gaskets.  I always thought that would be a huge and expensive job to replace these rubber gaskets.  Well, on our living room slide, it’s a fairly easy job and one that Al and I could probably do.  Mike said it takes him about 1 1/2 hours. The rubber gasket can’t be that expensive.  He did not have to remove the slide either.  Of course, all slides are different, and sometimes the whole room needs to be removed. 

We had to wait a few days to get back into the service bay, because Mike was working on another motorhome.  We could have gotten someone else to work on ours,  but we preferred to wait for Mike.

He worked on it yesterday, but unfortunately, he had a long planned day off scheduled for today, so here we sit!  We don’t mind waiting for him though, and at least now we are hooked up to the sewer and water inside the service bay!   We took long showers last night and I finally got a chance to use my new washer/dryer.  I am very happy with the way it worked.  I was able to do a pretty good size load and the clothes came out unwrinkled, even though I let them sit in there wet overnight before drying them this morning.  I am wondering if I could wash a set of sheets at one time, or is it better to do one sheet and pillow case at a time?

While we were in the cafeteria the other day, we happened to run into an old friend that we hadn’t seen for 20 years or so.  He and his  previous wife were members of our scuba club.  We reminisced about some our our diving adventures.  He was there getting some advice from his favorite rv tech….yeah, you guessed it!  It was Mike!  Ron has bought 3 coaches from Lazy Days and he always requests Mike!  We had a nice visit with him and hope to see him and his wife Kate soon!  They have 6 acres north of Tampa and Ron invited us to bring the motorhome and stay whenever we like!  Nice, huh?  Of course, that is, if, we ever get to leave Lazy Days!

We took a drive yesterday and explored a few rv parks we had heard about.  One we liked very much.  I took some pics on my cell phone (need to start remembering to bring my good camera), and I’ll try to post them tomorrow. 

Today, we’re hanging out in the motor home, enjoying having full hook-us and the use of the washer.  Al is taking an online continuing education class that he needs for his pest control license.  I plan to read my book, The Paris Wife.

We’re patiently waiting.