LEMONS INTO LEMONADE

Our final week in Grand Rapids was a busy one. We had several last minute business things to finish up.  Thursday night we went to visit our friends Chris and Teresa.  They had been with us on the Central Coast of Ca. earlier in the spring and share our love of good wine.  Teresa has been battling a serious illness for several months and we were glad for the chance to see them before we took off.

Friday night our friends Stan and Kathleen took us on a tour of their new home currently under construction and then treated us to dinner. We've said it before and will say it again.  We couldn't be doing this "full time" thing without their support.

On Saturday our daughter Melissa and her girls Emma and Ella came to spend a couple of days with us.  Obviously there isn't much for two little girls to do on a 40 foot motor home.  But we did have a plan.

First Grandpa took them to see Toy Story 3 and then a carousel ride.   Then when we returned, Grandma and Melissa took them to the pool.  Grilled hot dogs provided supper, then a quick trip to the ice cream shop for dessert.  Grandma even had coloring books and stickers to occupy them until bedtime.

Sunday included a trip to the Childrens Museum and then Grandma took them to the pool again.  Jonathan, Laura and little Harrison joined us later for dinner.  Laura made a Tres Leches cake and it was even better than the version we had in Mexico.  So Grandma got a final fix with her Eastern grand kids.  In a few weeks she gets to see her Western grand kids. 

This morning Melissa and the girls left about 7:30 and then we got packed up to leave. Leveling jacks went up, but the air bags wouldn't inflate.  Now you understand the Lemons.  After checking everything, it was time to call in the experts.  First call was to American Coach.  They gave me a couple of things to try and said that if that didn't work to call Spartan Chassis.  So after trying their suggestions with no success, I called Spartan.  They have great phone support and gave me several things to try.  Unfortunately with the coach sitting almost on the ground I couldn't access the part they wanted me to check.  Fortunately the local Coach Care Cummins center was able to send someone out to help.   He was able to get the bags to inflate manually,  so we could at least leave the campground. Unfortunately the Cummins center could not fit us in for 2 weeks to fix the problem permanently. 

We also had a slow leak in a rear tire, so our next stop was a truck tire center which was only 2 miles from our campground.  While they fixed the tire we went to our storage unit to pick up a few additional items to deliver to our kids in Portland.  We went back to pick up the coach and they had it fixed.  Just a leaky valve stem.  We hooked up the explorer to head to our next destination.   Since we were located only 1.5 hours from Spartan Chassis and they have a very nice area to park and even provide power hookups, we decided to head there.  They have promised to try and fix us up in the next couple of days.  So I guess we'll just have a big glass of lemonade while we wait.

Until later.