The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[garneska]

Maybe you could rent the Airstream from KORV as a "try before you buy" option some day soon.

Brilliant. I love this idea. We are going to sit and wait a while to decide. In general just renting might be the better option.

 

[4077]

Yes Ed, we are going to sell. The motor home sits too much and no retiring for at least 5 years. We are considering an airstream so that if it sits it is not quite so problematic. The airstream might be a few years away.

No slides and no engine...makes sense to me if it goes that way.....

 

[tigger92662]

@tigger92662 we will keep the flamingo for you.

@garneska Just message me to work out the details

 

[jbrostek]

@garneska Paying for storage and repairs on something you rarely have opportunity to enjoy, it completely makes sense to sell it. That does not get you off the hook from showing up.....

 

[jbrostek]

It has been a whirlwind of activities around this household. I got home without issues Monday, but that was the easy part. If we rewind a few days our oldest minpin, Bug, had something going on with her eye. Melissa sent me a picture on Thursday and it just looked like she had some white discharge.



Together we tag team called the vet and got an open appointment and finally got one friday night. And by then she needed to get to the vet as somehting bad was going on.



Poor girl got a scratch cornea (again) and we think it happened earlier in the week when Ellie and her got into a fight after Melissa got home Tuesday night (we still not sure what triggered it, but suspect excitement and jealousy was involved.)

The whole tow home I was getting updates and Bug seemed stable, we are now a week later, 5 more vet visits and going to see vet ophthalmologist tomorrow as it looks like the scratch has healed though more seems to be going on. More to come on this.

 

[FtW Mike]

Jim , Good luck with Bug's eye problem. We've been dealing with for 7 years with our Katie. She was born with a detached retina and the suffered a trauma to the same eye. Today she sees Dr. Bowersox every February to check on it

 

[jbrostek]

Of couse that wasn't all that was going on tihs week. Having arrived home and cold weather in the weeks forecast I had to make time to unload, clean and finally winterize the RV. I managed to get all of that done by Thursday evening. Which was good as I had an appointment to take it to General RV in Ashland, VA.

The reason for the appointment started several months earlier when I was doing general cleaning and maintinence and saw what looked like some screws had backed out of the slide plate on the front living room slide. As I inspected with plans to get slightly larger screws and add some expoxy I found that the screws did not back out, they actually broke. Realizing this was not good, I contacted Grand Design to ask for information about how to repair this and more importantly what to inspect for the root cause. I was not expecting them to cover the cost on a 4 year old RV, I just wanted to make sure it was repaired correctly.

Grand Design responded and asked for some more picutres. They then recommended I take it back to my dealer to have an upper deck inspection done. I am not 100% sure what that entails, though I heard about bolts holding the upper deck to the frame may be undersized and allowing for movement and stripping out. Since they asked for this and not 100% sure what they may or may not cover, I opted to work with them on this process. I am guessing it will be one of two possiblities. They will either recommend I have General RV perform the slide and related repairs, or they will ask me to bring it to Elkhart to be repaired at the factory.

Really I just want it repaired, we really like this RV and just want to keep it in top shape as we do continue to use it regularly. I will update everyone as I learn more, and if I have to head to Indiana this winter....well ill be in touch with some of you nearby.

 

[garneska]

@garneska Paying for storage and repairs on something you rarely have opportunity to enjoy, it completely makes sense to sell it. That does not get you off the hook from showing up.....

We will still show up. We love you guys. We will also try and find a place that takes dogs so we can bring Whisky.

Bug’s eye does not look too good. Hope she is not in too much pain.

This morning Whisky had me up, thankfully nit too early a little before 7. Normally a good sleeper, but some serious belly issues. I used a LOT of baggies this morning.

Today we will go clean out the bays. That one will be hard as I am not sure what to do with some of the things. Short answer is to drive it to Mom’s. She has a basement we can store stuff but that is not a long term solution. Expect a list later today of stuff we might be ditching on people. We have a fire pit and an easy up.

 

[garneska]

I have 6 things to give away from the bays of the RV.

1. A 6 foot ladder
2. A table top propane heater
3. A fort approved fire pit
4. A rectangular folding table (the one everyone has in their set up
5. A portable air conditioning unit
6. An easy up

If anyone is interested let me know. Will not be shipping anything but figure out how to get it to you. I also have old rope lights and Christmas lights.

 

[jbrostek]

I am chock full of stuff personally, though appreciate you passing it on to others that could make use of it.

Bug is on pain meds, two actually which seems to help. We give her those meds with food twice a day, two antibiotic eye drops ever 4 hours, though no overnights drops right now. Tomorrow we will find out more and go from there.

I did get all the end of season yard work done. The zero turn is now parked in shed for the winter, the snow mower (plow) is now down to the garage though might need a bettery this year. No Christmas decorations up yet, though they will start this week before the weather comes in and temps plummet.

 

[team bradfield]

Good Thoughts for bug

 

[Boomer1]

I have 6 things to give away from the bays of the RV.

1. A 6 foot ladder
2. A table top propane heater
3. A fort approved fire pit
4. A rectangular folding table (the one everyone has in their set up
5. A portable air conditioning unit
6. An easy up

If anyone is interested let me know. Will not be shipping anything but figure out how to get it to you. I also have old rope lights and Christmas lights.

When I read your list it got me thinking, we are on our fourth RV and I was always able to move stuff from the old one to the new one. It always took way longer than I expected! After we went from our 5th wheel to the motorhome we purged a lot of things. At present it looks as though we will be using an Airbnb for our January trip. The motorhome is back in Canada but still about 4 hours from our home. Tom is having trouble sourcing a replacement engine, although our local heavy truck repair shop is ready to start it as soon as it gets here. My Dad was over yesterday and suggested having it rebuilt by a local engine shop he has used for years when he was racing.

 

[garneska]

@Boomer1 bummer about the airbnb for January, but at least you will be in Florida. We will be down for 3 days for Marathon Weekend. i am only doing the 10k and my knee is very happy about that.

 

[Teamubr]

Wow! Lots of updates from everyone.

James- Sorry about bugs eye.

We got home from the Fort last Sunday and right back to work. I'm not back 24 hours and Joint Comission shows up for our unannounced tri-enial survey. Because of our size, they bring 6-8 surveyors for a week.

Yesterday, I drove the MH down to Searcy Arkansas for my last camping of the season. RV Fog Dr. is in Searcy. They are one of two places that specializes in fixing RV dual pane windows that lost their seal and get foggy. I have one fogged window and it is the only one I need while driving. (Besides the windshield). It was getting very hard to see the outside mirror.

They have 50 amp hookups at their bay doors, let you come in the night before and they fix the windows right there.



They pulled the window about 8:15 this morning and I was heading home (5 hour drive) by 10. The window looks great and has a lifetime warranty.



It was warm here (and in AR) yesterday (70s). Cold front went through STL this morning with temps dropping into the 20s tonight.

I pulled in the driveway about 3 and started winterizing. Just waiting for the freezer to make pink ice and it will be done.

j

 

[jbrostek]

@Teamubr not a moment too soon to winterize eh? I bet the glass being fixed was worth the drive and time!!!

Bug update: Yesterday we saw a vetinarian opthemologist. Her assesment gave us some hope her eye will heal. She said she was still reacting to light and some movement so good news is she has not had corneal rupture, though still a risk. She changed some meds in hopes it will do a better job clearing out the last of the infection. We go back next week for a follow up barring any complications or issues worsening.

RV udpate: Its in "queue" now which I guess means they plan to think about looking at it next week? I have no idea.

However, my favorite time of this year is upon us, it is time for me to bring some light back to this household and get all the decorations up. In addition, hope to make some strides in getting the puzzle hung on the wall over the weekend.

 

[Sjm9911]

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. I was too busy cooking to get pictures of the food. But Olivia did set the table. So , Imagine lots of people and food!
Table was procured at the local habitat for humanity, this was the first time eating on it. 2 chairs were borrowed from the kitchen.

 

[jbrostek]

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! The girls are with their father this year, making it just Meliss and I for dinner. When we do have the girls we go up to PA to see her family.



We have lots fo leftovers though I made a smoked turkey breast, mashed potatos, green bean cassarole and stuffing.







Today (Friday) we are gong to get all of the outside lights up, which then means I can get the trees up and work off all that yummy food.

 

[Sjm9911]

Sorry all, not around alone missed missed some stuff. Kido dislocated her kneecap. So , hospital, specialist and 8 weeks of PT. I got my knee looked at, a scope in January. Camper needs to be mouse proofed. Still need to clean out some stuff from the DISMeet. And I am selling chrismass trees for the volunteer fire department. A lot more work then it sounds like. And I cleared the almost last of the leaves today, it was 33 degrees out. So we are busy! Hope everyone had a good holiday! And Merry Christmas is I dont catch up soon!

 

[jbrostek]

Well a quick bug update for the pet followers. We went last Tuesday for a follow up with the Opthemologist. Good news was the infection seems to be healing up albeit slowly. I got the OK to give her a bath with her medicated shampoo to keep her from getting another skin yeast infection. She is fiesty for her age and really done with the eye drops 4x a day. Though we make sure she gets them as best we can with her head flailing all over the place to avoid them. We go back right before the holiday week for her next follow up. Plus we put her on some more oral antibiotics since with the cold (before her bath) she was starting to sound congested. Not kennel cough thankfully.

Not much change with the RV. Still "staged" for being looked at. Guess maybe they will bother to get to it before the new year. Who knows with these guys....really why take in the RV if you have no time for it?? I did email Grand Design an update that I am waiting for them to do something.

We did get the house all decorated up and made some slow progress in hanging the puzzles on the wall. However, our little gymnasts schedule for the next two weeks is so busy I am not sure when we will have time to work on it again. She has 4 meets to attend between her HS team and private gym, plus wants to be there for her Trainer 3 group (only group she asst. coaches that competes.) Oh and still working 14 hours a week doing that coaching plus her 12 hours a week of private practice, and 8 hours a week of HS team practice. This kid lives gymnastics and we get to hear about it, in detail, every single day. Sometimes down to the minute of who did what and when.

I am conviced that other then going food shopping lately, the only thing we do is take the girl to the gym. And for saying we are going to the gym as much as we do, we really should be in much better shape.

 

[team bradfield]

Our ADR's opened up today, yay, time for planning. probably only do 4 TS reservations, 1 a week. We don't do Fri/Sat/Sun at the parks to avoid the crowds and just enjoy the Fort, last February we could walk up and get a table anywhere. Probably book Brown Derby, Summerhouse, City Works and Skipper Canteen

Big changes this year, just the wife and I, first visit without any offspring tagging along!