On the Road Again!

Terry and I are on our way to our daughter's wedding out in Illinois. We're traveling in two separate vehicles because

A) we are giving the 2017 RAV4 to Jess to replace(?) her 2006 Yaris, Bob. Bob has done yoemen's work hauling Jess and her belongings from New Jersey to California and then to Illinois. He's been showing his age lately, however and it's just a matter of time before something major goes wrong and, lets face it, Toyota hasn't made a Yaris in years. Parts might be a bit scarce.

B) the RAV4 is jam packed with some of Jess' "stuff" that she left in our basement and attic. Although the tuba and some of the other instruments are still in PA awaiting her directions. And I'm holding on to some books because I want to read them.

We left PA around 6 am and agreed to meet at the RV Museum and Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. We did run into one another twice along the way speaking only when we both pulled into one of the rest areas in Ohio. Even so, we got to the museum only about 15 minutes apart (around 2:30 pm) before going on to a nearby motel.

 

I can't remember the last time i drove out this way. Must be at least 6-7 years ago. (Justin was able to walk and was climbing all over the logs and rocks on the Pacific Ocean's Oregon beach when Terry and I visited. Before that it was my solo cross-country journey a year or so before that.)

It's a much shorter ride from here so we'll get to sleep in, shower and breakfast at our leisure before hitting the road.

About That 2024 RAV4 vs Deer Thing

 Okay, I should have written about this earlier, but Terry's car got repaired in what I would have to consider record time. One week after the car accident, the folks at Gerber Collision & Glass called to say it was ready for pickup. The next day we were up in Horseheads to retrieve the beast and had to pay...nothing. No deductible or anything because AllState has a forgiveness policy. And because we were with them--home and auto--for 50+ years with no real claims (18 with the agency here in PA) we got TWO forgiveness awards. I can only home we do not have to use the second anytime soon!

And the car looked like it was right off the showroom floor. Which it was back in the spring.

I can highly recommend Rennie Renaldo (AllState) and Gerber Collision & Glass enough!

 

Now, About another INTERESTING Weekend

 Friday night, Terry and I were sitting down to dinner at approximately 5:30 pm. The winds were howling as they are wont to do during November when there was a loud POP! and a flash of light down the hill and our electricity went out.

I called the outage in to the offices at Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative using their automated system and (my mistake!) told them I didn't need to be called back when power was restored. I figured it would be, at most, two hours or so. When Power wasn't back on at 7:30, Terry and I went to bed. 

I woke up at 12:30 am to find power still had not come back on so I called Tri-Co again and this time spoke to a real person who told me they had 44 folks on the initial power outage and that they had all gotten their power back. I told her we had not and that there was no one else on our little spur except for some hunters from New Jersey who were not at their cabin this weekend. She asked if I had checked the main breaker because if it was on our end we might get a charge on our bill. I told her to send a crew to investigate and I would pay the charge if need be. Then I went to check the breaker which was NOT the problem.

The truck showed up around 1:00 am and two guys started to look over the line. First, they found a fuse box with its door open and they went about checking the line between there and the Jersey guys' cabin to see if a tree or branch lay on the wires. Around 1:30 am the lights came back on. Too late for me to go back to sleep.

******

Saturday I was in the basement groggily working on a jigsaw puzzle and watching Rutgers football when I noticed the shallow water pump we have to move water from our 500 gallon cistern to all the faucets in the house just would not stop running. I checked it out and concluded there was something wrong with the pressure switch so I tried fiddling with it to no avail. (Turns out nothing I did would have done any good anyway and might have done even more harm.) 

Deciding the switch was defective, I hauled Terry down to Lowes to get a replacement. (Misery loves company!)

I installed wired the new switch only to have it behave just like the old one. Rather than try to fiddle with this one, I told Terry to find a plumber. She went on line and found one guy who said they could    n't get to us for TWO WEEKS! She must have sounded desperate because he then recommended she call another guy who specializes in well drilling and Gould's Water Pumps. A shallow water pump just like the one we have.

Terry called and this guy said he would be right over. He showed up around 7 pm with his wife and while he started trouble-shooting I asked if she was his helper and her reply was, "No. I'm his boss." Well, they worked for three hours before showing me what was wrong: Clay deposits in the pipe leading to the switch and in the main outlet (plenum?) were constricting water flow. The pressure switch wasn't getting enough ummph behind it to shut sown and the waster coming out of the pump wasn't getting to the faucets with the correct pressure. He spent two more hours chipping out the build-up and replacing the small pipe leading to the pressure switch before he said they couldn't finish because they had to go home and make a gasket for two pieces to be put back together. "What time are you going to be up tomorrow [Sunday] morning?" "What time can you get here?"

They were back at 8 am Sunday morning. Everything was put back together and checked out several times before Bob Burrows said he was satisfied and, most importantly, his wife Sissy was satisfied too. 

While he worked we talked about Alaska, New Orleans, Nova Scotia, Montana, and RVing around the country. Ice shops old and new in the area. Lots of other stuff too. I learned his son usually does the repair work while he does the well drilling. But the younger Burrows spends the weekend with his kids while Bob covers as repairman.

He had, essentially, rebuilt the pump and water was flowing like it was new. All of Saturday night and part of Sunday morning. When I asked, "How much?" I was ready to pay whatever it was. Then he said,  "$400." and I couldn't write the check fast enough. More good people. And an answer to a prayer.

Interesting Day

 

Yesterday (Tuesday, October 15^th) was one of those “interesting” days you hear about.

Terry planned to go to Hampton, VA for a stitching convention and I wanted to go to Cabela’s in Hamburg, PA  to use my accumulated points to “purchase” a late birthday present for myself.

She got up at 4am and, having loaded her stuff into the new RAV4 the previous night, was off soon after.

I got up at 5am and went downstairs to make a cup of coffee for my trip.

That’s when things got “interesting.”

Terry walked in the door and I was all set to make fun of her for forgetting something when she said, “I got an 8-point buck.”

Three questions popped out: “Are you okay? Where? How bad is the damage to the car?”

She’s fine and only wanted to transfer her stuff to the older RAV4 so she could get on her way ASAP.  She hadn’t even gotten to the entrance to the new I-99 (Route 15) in Bloss when the deer jumped out in front of her. She managed to turn around and come home but didn’t see the deer on the side of the road on her return. (I didn't see it on my way down to Loganton but spotted a carcass on the side of the road later in the day when I passed through that section of roadway on my way home. It didn’t have a head when I saw it.) Damage to the car was significant. The left front corner was all busted up and the driver’s door couldn’t be opened (I used a prybar to get the door open this morning when the tow driver got her to pick it up.) Terry had climbed over the console to get out the passenger's door.

 

I called Allstate when I got home and they were very helpful in filing a claim and contacting a Good Hands repair shop in West Elmira, NY for me. In fact, they were so efficient, I got a call from the repair shop BEFORE I was finished talking to the claims agent. The repair shop arranged to have a tow company come first thing this morning to pick up the vehicle—a process that went smoother than expected once I pried the door open.

Terry called while I was still on the road home from Hamburg to report she had no further “adventures” and had arrived safely at the hotel in Hampton.

As for my day… I picked up buddy Joe in Loganton, PA (just outside of Jersey Shore). I was a tad early what with the nerves running on edge after Terry’s little escapade and had to wait for him to finish dressing. The map system in my truck (Siri) wouldn’t give us directions to Cabela’s so I pulled out my phone and let Google maps do the job. It took us on a route we had never used before but we got there despite the several construction sites we had to go through.

At Cabela’s we went right to the gun desk and, after signing in to be #1 on the waiting que, finally got to look at the three lever action rifles I had in mind: S&W1854, Marlin 1895 and Henry Golden Boy. I liked all three but had a special feeling for the Henry. That’s when the clerk said he would hate to have to keep all that brass clean and brought out a Henry Big Boy X. Blued steel, fiber optic sights, tapped for a Picatinny rail, M-Lok accessory slots if I so choose, and an easy to keep clean synthetic stock--what’s not to like? Especially since it was one to two hundred less than the others. That difference allowed me to purchase a sling, hard-shell gun case and a couple of boxes of ammunition. And I’ve still got unused points on my account! The only real money I spent ws for the gas my truck used to travel down and back.

Joe didn’t buy anything but was shocked at the price of brass and powder for reloading. He figures he made a wise investment when he purchased in bulk a few years back. We also picked the brains of, and offered sympathy to, the people behind the counter who processed my paperwork for my background check. We learned that in the state of Pennsylvania alone there were 640,000 background checks performed this year. Sure, 40,000 were rejected or put on hold for one reason or another, but still, that’s at least 600,000 guns sold in less than ten months! This particular Cabela’s processes, on average, 100 background checks a day.

All in all, I had an enjoyable day. Terry? Not so much. But after a rocky start she managed to salvage the day and is having a good time with friends old and new down in Hampton. VA.