The First few Days

We finally left on Monday after spending 2 solid days on the weekend, fixing and patching, cleaning and sorting. You know how things happen in "threes"? Well they do. 1) the driver's side mirror decides to fall out and shatter while entering Watkin's Glen, 2) we hit a BIG pothole on 80 and damaged the exhaust header, 3) the windshield wipers decided to bonkers. Then we get to Rachel's brother's house on Staten Island.

Let me tell you. NEVER drive an RV on Staten Island. The roads are horrible and you spend more time dodging potholes and dips and bumps. We never saw so many "BUMP" warning  signs on the highway down to NY!

With #1 we stopped into a Auto Zone and bought a mirror and two wide angle mirrors to replace the one that bailed out. The camo duct tape really sets it off...

With #2 there wasn't much we could do except live with it until we could either fix it or find some shop to repair it (more on this later).

With #3 it was 2 trips to the local to Janet in MD auto store to get the right clips to put the wiper arms back in sync. Our kids wound up spending a couple of days with Marco and Leo! Alex took his bike out for the first bike trip and wound up with a flat in 10 mins.... flat! Could          not       resist.

We do still have the electrical gremlins bothering us. The alternator that seems to not work as hard as it should (only 65 amps so no wonder). My kids managing to drain my 3 12V battery power system in 2 days flat. and the wierd things the RV does when the voltage is low.

Chalk it all up to getting to know your RV better..

Now, onto the #2 item details!
I finally had it with trying to fix the horribly loud engine with the broken exhaust. The next morning after making it to Rachel's sister, I called around to find a shop to help weld it or do what was needed to make it better. Not so easy with an RV. I did get to one local shop, "Renaldo's" and the owner said he couldn't do it but to "follow him". So, I do and he takes me close to the airport to see "Carlo". Carlo runs Airport Auto and his crew got me in and 5+ hours later we have a new header gasket! That's what was wrong with it! Well, okay there's lots more "wrong with it" but hey, take the good where you can get it!

Tomorrow am we set out to Williamsburg then onto Kitty Hawk, NC! Last note for tonight, a request to put a curtain on the bathroom rear window has been placed. Talk about a rear window alright! Truckers definitely are in for a show...