When it is 70+ degrees at 7 a.m. in the morning, you can bet it will be a scorcher. No surprise it was. This is the first leg of our trip to the Black Hills. Friends Jim and Sherry Schlultz are joining us in their motorhome.
After getting hitched up at home we took off at about 7:15 to meet the gang at Flying J in South Beloit, IL. Five of us were to meet there and caravan down to the Illinois Samboree in Henry, IL. Four of us did meet but we were shy the one couple, the Schultzs.
If Murphy (Murphy’s Law) was around, he was hanging around the Schlutzs. Sherry called us Tuesday afternoon to say one of their automatic leveling jacks had a broken spring and that Wednesday morning instead of meeting us at Flying J they would be heading to the RV dealer to have new springs put on that jack. That is why there were only four of us caravanning together.
While at the RV dealer Jim asked them why their brand-spanking-new Brake Buddy* kept cycling. He was told it was probably defective and they would replace it, however, a new one wasn’t coming in until Thursday and the dealer would hold one for them and they can pick it up when they returned from the trip. The faulty Brake Buddy would still work but would drain the battery more quickly. *A Brake Buddy is a braking assist device for the vehicle you tow behind your motorhome (Toads). It is a requirement in many states usually for Toads weighing more than 3,000 lbs.
You can see the window with the red tape was the first to be a problem then the one at the very top. The guys were able to caulk the top window. Jim used some super-duper tape on the other one.
The four of us arrived at the Marshall-Putnam County Fairgrounds in Henry, IL at about 10:30 a.m. We were escorted to a spot where the four of us could be together and got set up. A short while later we received a call from Schultzs—they had more trouble and had to stop and tape one of their windows in. The weather stripping came loose and subsequently blew off and apparently the weather stripping has a two-fold purpose. One to keep water out and the other to keep the window in. After taping up the first window they were on their way again. If that wasn’t bad enough, the weather stripping on a second window began to come loose. Finally they arrived at about noon and they got help from the guys with the windows. Hopefully no more problems.
