Early Dinner and Late Laughs

We’ve had a couple of interesting, productive, and fun days.

Tuesday was the day for scheduled maintenance on the motor part of our motor home.  Our Class C is built on a Ford E-450.  Our RV dealership doesn’t service our engine and neither do the local Ford dealerships.  For service here in Nashville, Gene has to take the motor home to a heavy duty truck service center.  They’re the ones with the lifts that can handle the weight.  Anyway, Tuesday was the day for an oil change.  Of course, that meant a day in the car for Peanut and I.  We didn’t even go to the service center; we just pulled into our campsite after Gene had pulled the motor home out, and settled in for the day.  We each had food and water and Peanut had his litter box.  I had reading material and a sudoku puzzle book and he had the squirrels to watch and his blanket for napping.  We had barely gotten comfortable when I looked up and there was Gene.  Boy, that was fast.  Mark another one of those big chores off the list.

Gene has had engine maintenance on his mind for a few days.  Not only was the scheduled service appointment visible on his calender this week, but he has also been having an ongoing conversation/email discussion with Tony about how often should the engine be started and exercised if you’re more in a sitting mode rather than a travel mode.  That conversation has brought up many questions and, since inquiring minds want to know, Gene has been doing a little research.  That research is no where near complete, but when it is, I’ll post all the information he’s gleaned.  Let me just say that almost every answer he gets is different.

It was rainy and dreary outside this morning in Middle Tennessee. The front which has drifted across Oklahoma and Arkansas has finally reached Nashville.  We didn’t want to be outside so are getting a few chores done inside.  Gene chose to deal with his CPA license renewal.  He had a few questions and wanted to speak with a real person before sending off a check for renewal.  We usually put off these types of chores because it’s so difficult to get the answers to questions.  No one really understands about full-time RVers.  They don’t get the concept of traveling all the time and they certainly can’t get their minds wrapped around the idea of no house to live in.  Then there are the issues of competence.  It seems like most people don’t know or don’t care or would rather not be bothered.

This CPA license renewal has to be taken care of so Gene backed his ears and plunged forward this morning.  He waited until 9 AM to make the call hoping the morning rush would be over and whoever answered the phone would be concentrating on his questions rather than getting another cup of coffee.  A nice lady answered the phone.  That was a step in the right direction since it’s usually a machine that answers these days.  No only was she able to answer his questions, but she also knew the reason why.  She was also able to explain the differences in changing his license from inactive to retired and what all was involved in make it active again.  For what he wanted to do, he, of course, needed to fill out paperwork.  That’s usually a signal of a rough road ahead, but the nice lady volunteered to email him the forms.  That was simple, but we’ve heard that story before and the forms never appear in the “in box”.  You can imagine our shock when in less that 2 minutes after he hung up the phone, there were the forms as promised.  Holy cow!  What knowledge and efficiency.  It sure was refreshing to deal with someone who know what they were doing and how to get it done.

I’ve been steadily working on old posts from Trip Journal.  I’ve gotten several of the Appalachian Trail journal entries reposted.  Rereading those posts has made me anxious to get back out there again.

This afternoon we drove out to Lebanon to have dinner with friends, Darrell and Judy of Wandering America.  They’re here to visit with their grandkids for a few days before heading on up to Kentucky for a few weeks.  We met them at Demos’ for an early dinner then went over to their rig, which is parked at Cedars of Lebanon State Park, for coffee and delicious brownies topped with ice cream.  Of course, the whole evening centered around conversation with plenty of laughs.  We always enjoy our visits with Darrell and Judy.  Wish this one could have lasted a little longer.

Now, it’s way past my bedtime so that’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.