Up early and ready to make our push to Kent, Washington. Kent is just about 12 miles north of Federal Way. Federal Way is where Mike lives, and the purpose of our 3 days of hard driving.
Mike, for those that don't know, is my Son from my first marriage. He and I have not spoken for the past 10+ years due to a mis-agreement (that seemed important at the time). Several months ago, Mike contacted me via e-mail, and suggested that we start acting like adults and end this shit. I agreed.
We have been talking back and forth since. When I suggested we could make a detour, on our way home from South Dakota, to Washington after our "Reunion" with the Alaska folks, he agreed.
So that's our plan for today... make the trip, hook up with Mike, and his partner Kime, and work to fix our problems. I'm very nervous.
So, we're ready to go... Oops... Not so fast. 2 of our "Leveling Legs" would not retract. That's bad. I started to troubleshoot the problem with not much success. I had an "Error" light on the panel, indicating the 2 legs were on "Up". I tried to reset, but no go. I called the manufacturer and of course I was "Out of Warranty" and they couldn't help. Tried to call my dealer... Saturday and no one was in.
So I did what any smart guy would do... I hit it with a Hammer! Twice! No luck.
I remembered reading about a "Manual Retract" feature. under the coach I go and... YES, there was a 1/2 nut on the motor that I could spin with my finger. That had to be it. After a long search, I found the necessary tools to adapt the socket to my power drill.
Under the coach I go again. I make the connection, pull the trigger, the drill begins to spin, and YEP! ! ! ! ! ! The leg was coming up. I repeated the procedure to the other leg, and it seemed we were good to go.
2 hours behind schedule.
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| Columbia River crossing at Ellensburg |
We 'TEXTED' Mike to let him know the time change. No problem. Off we go... Traffic (Saturday), road construction, and high wind in several spots, slowed us down even more.
We decided to BBQ steaks at the coach, instead of a restaurant, and make our meet just an nice evening together. A few more corrections is arrival time were needed, but Mike and Kime did not have a problem with the delay.
We got there, set up camp, walked the dogs, made dinner, and were ready at 7:30pm for their arrival. They were delayed just a bit, but they pulled up to our camp site at about 8:15pm.
I'm very nervous
We met, hugged, cried a bit, hugged again, and the evening was a success. More on the details later (maybe), but leave it by saying... it was a good evening. I missed Mike very much!
