I paid the repair bill and we headed for Walmart to pick up a few things - then back to Graceland RV Park. As we were driving into the park Suzanne reminded me that we were almost out of tequila. That necessitated an immediate U turn! We headed back down Elvis Presley Blvd to a liquor store we had spotted earlier. Since picking up the car I had been eyeing the temperature gauge periodically to make sure everything was cool (literally) and as I pulled into the liquor store parking lot it all of a sudden shot up and the needle pegged as far into the hot range as it could possibly go. Imagine my disappointment.
Luckily we were right around the corner from Haynes so we abandoned the tequila run and went back to the repair shop. They apologized profusely, wrote up a new repair order, promised they'd give it top priority the next day and gave us a ride home. Travis has gotten to ride in the cab of a ramp truck and the back seat of a sedan in the past couple of days - both of which he's never done before. Every cloud has a silver lining.
Mind you, we were supposed to leave Memphis Thursday morning. We would now be spending Thursday night and most likely Friday night at GL RV Park. Not that Memphis isn't a fun place to visit but we've done Graceland, BBQ and Beale Street - done. I was looking forward to exploring Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas - our next destination.
The first time we spoke I had told the service manager at Haynes that I suspected the problem was with the thermostat but they seemed convinced I had just run low on coolant and that the radiator needed a flush - yah. I finally got a call around 4:00 Friday afternoon, "Mr. Steve!" that's what Charles the service manager calls me. "Mr Steve, seems you were right, it was the thermostat!". I decided this time to let them send a driver to pick my up. I got the car (they gave me a bit of a discount for my troubles) and headed, FINALLY, to the liquor store.
It is now 8:30 Saturday morning. Suzanne has another hour of work to do and then we're firing up the 450 Cummins and heading southeast for Hot Springs, Arkansas. Time for me to go hook up the car and start preparing for departure.
Oh, I completed a couple of projects on my list during our down time. There was a buckle in a wall in the master bathroom. The 1/4 luan sheathing had apparently been cut too long during assembly and at some point the stress caused it to delaminate and buckle...
You can see the bulge in the wall. I used masking tape to establish a straight line and with a razor knife, cut away a section starting with about 1/8" on the left down to nothing at the right end of the tape. Savvy?
Once I removed the material the sheathing flattened out. I was unable to get any adhesive behind the luan so I wedged a roll of duct tape between the window trim and the luan to hold it tight against the wall and caulked along the corner seam. In a few hours I removed the roll of tape and the caulking had done the trick. It held just fine.
A few months ago I purchased some LED strip lighting to install behind the crown moulding that runs along both sides of the coach's interior walls. This seemed like a good time to tackle that project.
Here's what the moulding looks like.
It took me a couple of hours. I'm kind of fussy about this kind of work so I wanted all wires to be hidden etc. I was pleased with the results. There's a remote and I can do all sorts of cool stuff with the lighting - different colors, fading flashing etc. A new toy.
And Suzanne took time out from her work to bake brownies!
Life is good.
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