Much of our time while awaiting Robin’s final visits to her dentist and doctor have been spent at the gym, hitting balls at the range as she gets accustomed to her new irons, and dodging the rain. It’s almost uncanny how we can weave through a day without doing much of anything and then it’s over. This is the first time since December with Tom and Deana that we’ve had retirement days like this. I’m enjoying it for the time being but getting a little antsy to get back to some real work. 
But the other day, my nephew Eric invited me to fly in his plane. He had received his pilot’s license a few year ago and has purchased part ownership in a small plane. I jumped at the chance. I met him at Waynesburg airport around noon. He asked me where I would like to go. Not having a specific target I suggested Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers, our old homestead farm in Holbrook and anywhere else he wanted to journey. The cockpit was mesmerizing 
as I looked at all the gauges and gadgets, but Eric was quick to point out each and everyone to me and their purpose. I was pleasantly surprised at his knowledge and he made me feel quite comfortable, despite a little tepidness on my part. Yes this was exciting but my flying had been limited to commercial jets with several inches of frame and steel between me and the atmosphere. The first several minutes had us tooling around at about 3000 feet and the view was amazing. However, the control tower at Allegheny Airport had us climb to a little over a mile high to avoid several other planes and medical helicopters in the area. But we were allowed to lower our air space once we approached Pittsburgh about a half hour later. This enable me to snap off a few decent photos. The quality is not what I wanted as I was shooting through a windshield but nevertheless it was still great to see the places that I haunted from this aerial view. After circling the City of Bridges three or four times we headed back to Greene County. It was fun to point out landmarks that I recognized from on high. Soon we were flying over the farm that Robin and I had lived on for most of our married lives. It looked much cleaner and neat from above, not being able to note the overgrowth of brush and weeds since being taken over by the mines and put into abandonment. He circled as we lowered and I felt myself being pushed into the side of the plane, He commented about the G forces affected us at the time. Eric commented on the fact that this “bank” was the most extreme he has undertaken, doing a complete “360” on my behalf. I was ready to return to the airstrip as he commented on the white and pale condition of my face. After a few hours of viewing the countryside it was now time to return for our landing. My queasiness was piqued. Eric brought us in for a landing like the consummate professional. I actually could not feel the touchdown. For a man of a mere 25 years, I can honestly say this was the best pilot I had experienced. He made for such and enjoyable afternoon. Please enjoy the slideshow.
A Mile High
Electric Issues
Leaving our friends’ home to settle in the local KOA proved to be a two fold reason. I wanted to get the motorhome back from the shop to test everything out prior to heading out again at the end of the month. The second reason was despite trying not to leave a footprint, it can be a bit unnerving to host friends for any length of time. It was a good thing for the test trial. We pulled into our site and while Robin was doing her thing inside, I hooked up the water hose, sewage hose and connected the electric cable to the source box via our surge protector. Once done , I came in only to find we had no electricity. Back out to check the connections. I noticed no blinking lights on the surge protector and no “on” light. Oh no. Not another malfunction. This surge protector costs way too much to have to purchase another. 
Pulling it out and re-inserting I found the red blinking lights. This means there is power but it has to take a few minutes to fire up. After a few minutes the green light did come on but I wondered about its faint glow. Thinking all was right I went back inside only to find that our refrigerator wouldn’t work on AC power. Topping that off, none of the outlets worked on the left side of the rig. My heart sank. A thousand dollars just forked over for six new batteries and now this. When I took the rig in for service, all things were working. Now I have no power on half the rig. My disgust was at a fever pitch. I tried calling Bob, my local RV doctor but to no avail. It was five minutes past five. Going back outside I removed the 50 amp line and plugged into the 30 amp breaker. Everything worked. At least we would have power to the refrigerator. We could power up the water heater using propane. I would call Bob back on Monday morning to take the rig back to troubleshoot the problem. The next morning I found that all the outlets were in good working order when plugged into the 30 amp. This wasn’t the case yesterday. I had the campground owner come up to our site and check out his utility box. Therein lay the problem. After an evening of worry and concern over what I thought was a major issue we found that the campground 50 amp service was bad and needed replaced. What a relief.
Asphalt and Battery
I need your help and comments if you’ve had a similar problem. I dropped the motorhome off at my local Mr. Fixit for it’s annual checkup. I needed a new inspection sticker. The oil and filter needed changed, the generator the same. The separator needed checked for any water that needed removed from the diesel fuel. You know the yearly regulars. But I had one major issue that was bothering me. My inverter would only run for about two hours before it lost power. I noticed the DC lights going dim in time and if not plugged into shore power, my batteries were not powering up enough to move a slide out. A day after I dropped off the RV, I received a call noting that my house batteries were pretty much used up. Two were completely drained and the other four were on their way to the same demise. Now these batteries are the kind that don’t need serviced and I wondered what I was doing wrong. They were only 25 months old. They all need replaced to the tune of $1200. A bill I didn’t plan on, but you can’t live without house batteries. When I picked my rig up upon completion, I asked Bob, my Mr. Fixit if I had been doing something wrong. He told me that the battery salesman states the batteries are usually good for about four or five years under normal usage. You know, the average RVer who goes out for a few weeks here and there in the course of a year. However, 
since we are fulltimers and engage in daily use that the 
two plus years use we got out of them was about as good as it’s going to get. He stated that it is the norm for fulltimers to replace house batteries every two to two and a half years. This did the job as everything is running up to speed and I”m getting almost a days use out of the inverter before it needs charged again. However, I didn’t realize that two year is about as good as it gets for batteries on fulltiming. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. This unexpected purchase had me a bit bummed out until on the way home I was confronted with the dilemma of the driver of a car carrier. Apparently he miscalculated the degree of rise coming out of the local Sheetz gas station. He trailer bottomed out on the asphalt and he could neither go forward or in reverse. He had both lanes completely blocked at the busiest intersection in the township. Traffic had to be re-routed. Nothing short of a major tow truck was lessening his burden. It made my battery issue seem like a very minor issue. Check this out:
GypsyLarry
