A Slide That Slides!

I know, we've been quite delinquent in keeping up with our posts; we've been a little preoccupied. Since our last post on Friday June 1st, we left West Omaha; stayed in Council Bluffs for the weekend, traveled to Des Moines for 5 days, waiting for our appointment in Elkhart Indiana at the Thor Motor Coach Service Center on June 11th. We've been there, done that; and are now back in Des Moines.  The time has gone by very quickly it seems.

Council Bluffs Weekend
After a noisy night at the KOA campground outside of Omaha, we stayed for two nights at the Hampton Inn in Council Bluffs, next to the Ameristar Casino. Sally was relishing the thought of a bathtub for two nights. We were able to park the RV in the large parking lot at the Hotel/Casino. On Saturday morning Sally went to the Old Market in Omaha for sightseeing and to see what wares Omaha had to offer. While Sally was sightseeing (shopping), I took the opportunity to checkout the comfy Hampton Inn bed, and contemplated world issues; trying to find solutions. I admit, my eyes may have closed for a couple of seconds, but that was all. After Sally returned, we left Saturday afternoon to visit with Sally's Aunt Doris. Poor Aunt Doris is pretty much confined to a wheelchair with a broken ankle for 4 weeks. Doris seems in good spirits, but you could sense a bit of frustration being in that wheel chair. After saying our farewells to Doris, we drove to Treynor, Iowa, where Sally's brother & sister-in-law live. We had supper and plenty of conversation with Glen & Carol, catching up on Sally's side of the family's stories.  Jeff was able to join us later on that evening, after his classes in Des Moines were finally completed. Sunday was a 'leisurely' day, spent with Jeff, looking for a TV, going out for lunch, and, oh yeah, doing laundry...!

Des Moines 
We left Council Bluffs Monday morning the 4th, and drove the 125 miles to Des Moines. We stayed at Cutty's Campground in Grimes; a northwest suburb of Des Moines. One of my favorite things about Iowa is Maid-Rite! I love Maid-Rite burgers and tenderloin Sandwiches! During the week, I worked on little projects, and Sally went sightseeing (searching for 'Iowa' shirts!). We spent a lot of time with Sally's girlfriend Geri, who lives in Des Moines. Sally and Geri went through OR Tech School together; they worked together for a couple of years (through Mason City, Marshalltown, Des Moines) before I met Sally and took her away from Geri.  ...

Heading For Indiana
On Saturday morning we left Des Moines and headed for Utica, Illinois, for the first leg of our journey to Elkhart, Indiana.  Of course, as we're getting the RV ready for travel, we were running the large (problem) slide in, and it "froze" 8" out. I went and found some neighbors to help me push on the outside as Sally ran the button inside. We tried probably 10 times with no luck. The two helpers took off to find more help while Sally and I discussed our options. While discussing, we heard a loud "pop" on the slide. I told Sally to hit the button and don't let go! Luckily, the slide came in all the way; and we were shortly on our way. We spent the night at Hickory Hollow RV Park in Utica (somewhere near LaSalle, Il), remembering what a pain it is to jockey around the bedroom & dining area with the large slide being in.
We took off the next morning about 8:30 AM and headed for Elkhart. Had forgotten that I-80 in Indiana is a toll road. All automated of course; while we have to put in a $20 dollar bill, our change is in the new 'Liberty silver dollars' or whatever the heck they are called (who uses those??). Finally arriving at the Thor Service Center, we were able to overnight park. In the parking lot they had 50 Amp hookups for dry camping for the night. The next morning they came out, and we began our run- through of our list of issues.

Elkhart
Elkhart is a interesting town, but laid out kinda of funny. It seems like it takes a lot of driving, just to get to a Walmart, fast-food,  or even a grocery store. I think partly due to the Elkhart River which surprisingly, runs through Elkhart. Sally found this out when she headed towards the mall in South Bend; rather than take the toll road, she took the back roads (slow-going with all of the lights & train tracks!). Thor put us up Monday night in the Staybridge Suites hotel, while they evaluated the fix for the problem slide. In addition, I had provided some additional warranty issues to address as long as we were there, in light of the warranty expiring the middle of July. Tuesday night they wanted us to dry camp in the parking lot, but we elected to spend another night in the hotel at their corporate rate. On Wednesday morning, we called before checking out to find out the status. They informed us that they would have it done by 3:00 PM. Wednesday night we dry camped in the parking lot, with anticipation of hitting the road about 8:00 AM. It had been a chilly night, and I got up and turned on the fireplace about 5:00 AM so the living room would be warm for Sally when she got up about 6:00 AM.  When I got up about 6:30, I noticed there were no flames in the fireplace. We went ahead and prepared to leave. Just before 8:00 ( & just to be sure!), I contacted the Warranty Manager and told him about the fireplace. He came out, and we determined that there was an intermittent, loose connection somewhere in the fireplace. The manager decided to just order a new one, which he installed, and we were hooked-up and back on the toll road by 10:30AM.

The Rig
It seems that Thor has a design problem with the large slide and the RV structure for that large hole cutout (18 ft). The solution was to stiffen and add beams to the frame to prevent flexing and parallelogramming of the structure. They tested the fix by taking it on their rough terrain course. They had resolved all of the other issues, with the exception of bare wood on the edges of the cabinet door panels. They had misunderstood what I was telling them about the pin nailed door panels, which normally float within the door frame. They told me they didn't have any stain, and couldn't re-stain the inside edges that were lacking stain. I said I had some stain & would take care of it. Other than that, we were pleased with the results of the other fixes, plus they gave us a new king size mattress to replace ours, that had a 1/4' wire sticking about 10" out the end!
We had the opportunity to talk with other RV owners who were there for repairs to their rigs. One couple had driven in from Gettysburg, Pa, to have their slide fixed; another came from just north of Chicago & debated whether it was worth driving around & through the Chicago traffic just to have it fixed! We found out the slide is an issue for the Challenger model, with 3 other owners there for the same reason. Luckily, Arkansas has a Lemon Law! Thor assured me that the fix had resolved the problem with previous owners, and they felt comfortable that we would not have any further issues with it. If we do; I'm not driving back to Indiana! (& Sally said absolutely NOT!).

Indiana Wants Me - I Just Hate To Drive There!

Well, it's been almost a couple of weeks since our last blog. Sally and I spent last week in Tooele Utah, visiting my younger brother Kevin. We attended our nephew, Michael's,  graduation on Thursday the 24th, held at the University of Utah. Michel plans include a summer job! A (hand-me-down) white Silverado pick-up! And art school.

The Graduate with Mom and Dad (No, that's not me!)

Driving Into Provo

It was good spending time with the family and seeing small changes in Tooele, since I spent 6 months there in 2005, testing the prototype gun system at Dugway Proving Ground. This time around we just 'tested' some firearms at the local firing range! We also had the opportunity to spend two days in the Provo area on our way up to Tooele. My ex-sister-in-law Patty, lives in Provo; and again, I hadn't seen her, or her husband Steve, since 2005.  It was good to catch up on each others lives.

Patty & Steve Huntsman

Springville Rv Park

As the title indicates, we're now on our way to Indiana to the Thor Motor Coach factory. We've been having problems with our large 18' dinette/bedroom slide. When we try and run it in, it stalls. Since our warranty expires in July, now's the time to get it, and several other items, fixed at the factory.  So, our original plans to take a slow trip to Iowa through Wyoming, became a faster trip to get the rig to Indiana and minimize use of the slide-out.  We spent one night ('dry-camping' - utilizing our solar panels!) at Little America; one night in Cheyenne; then the long drive across Nebraska (with an overnight stay in North Platte). So tonight we're in West Omaha, and tomorrow over to Council Bluffs. We'll spend the weekend visiting with some of Sally's relatives, then Monday, we'll head west towards Des Moines. We got delayed being scheduled into the factory, so we'll be spending 5 days in Des Moines. On Saturday we'll drive to Utica, Illinois; on Sunday we'll head into Indiana, in order to be in Elkhart Monday morning the 11th.

So that pretty much catches us up with where we're at, and where we're heading.

Keep checking for updates!


Dave & Sally