A “Coach Day”

November 10, 2007
Peoria, AZ

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been heading out to the coach a few times to check on things and do some routine maintenance. It’s easier sometimes to take care of things when we’re not living there every day, but it’s a pain to have the “commute” to work. We’ve arranged for a storage space closer (and a whole lot cheaper) to the house for when we get back in December. I’ve been working out various lists of things to do: before Alabama/Florida, before January-February rallies, before we leave for the summer. It helps to prioritize.

Today it was things like adding water to the “maintenance free” batteries (you have to cut the covers on the caps with a knife to be able to get in there – they must assume people will just replace them without realizing they need to be checked after a few years), vacuuming out the basement bays, tracking down a pesky water leak (plastic fitting on the accumulator tank), lubricating all the sliding parts (battery trays, bay slide-outs, entry steps). You know the drill, a hundred little things that keep you walking back and forth to the toolbox.

Geri did more interior cleaning, working on a process for quickly and effectively doing the floors. We still need to work on the hardware – “Swiffer” heads don’t cut it, so next time we’ll try some of the pad cleaners I have for the outside of the coach.

We have maybe one more work trip to the coach before we head out a week from tomorrow. We’re leaving on the 18th for Alabama. We have a concert to go to on the 17th (Trans-Siberia Orchestra), so we’ll get everything loaded Saturday morning/afternoon, leave the pups at the coach while we go to the concert, and stay in the coach after the show so we can head out first thing on Sunday.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday working on the travel plan, at least the eastbound leg. The planning process involves fuel, sleeping, eating and “resting”. I usually tackle fuel and sleep first, since they are the hardest to organize. We stop for fuel every 600-700 miles, and many of the major truck stops are spaced quite nicely for us. We tend to use Flying J Truck Stops for fuel, since we had a discount card that gives us 1 cent off the cash price (truck fuel stops still charge about 6 cents more for credit than cash). It’s not much these days on a percentage basis but, hey, we’ll take it.

Overnight stops are another story. If we can make it work in the schedule, it’s generally better to overnight at the fuel stops on a trip like this. There is usually a place to squeeze in between the 18-wheelers, and it’s sometimes easier than finding a spot at an Interstate rest area. Unfortunately, the planning so far makes the fuel stops too early in the day for the overnight stops, so I’ve identified rest areas that should work. We have a couple of things working in our favor in this area: we’ve been across the country several times so have some history in this area, we have RV directories that help identify rest and fuel stops, we use computer mapping software to lay everything out on a timeline, and we use Google Earth to actually look at the places we’re planning to stop at before we get there. I can tell exactly where we need to turn, and can gauge the size and shape of the parking facilities before we get there. How did we ever survive without these tools?

It’ll be interesting when we get to Alabama. Mom has been in the hospital since mid-week, and her condition has weakened to the point where the assisted-living facility can’t handle her. Rick’s arranged for her to move to a nursing home close to them when she’s discharged next week. We’ll have to get the rundown on the new place when we get there.

Well, that’s it for tonight…