Lucky day

Yesterday was my lucky day because of two things. OK so here's how it went down. First, the dude at MD Repair decided that he wouldn't be able to install the bracket after all because he was too busy. So he called his buddy, George, at this place called Cannon Welding and George was the one who actually installed the bracket on my truck. It was kind of scary. George didn't get to it until 12:30 in the afternoon and I checked on the status around 3. When I saw my truck, the entire front end was off of it and all I saw was the radiator. EEEK! But George got it all back together again and explained to me what Roadmaster actually did with the bracket design. There is a metal piece that runs the length of my truck in front of the radiator (and it's what the plastic front end attaches to). What Roadmaster did was to essentially replace that long piece of metal with a copy that had the mounting brackets welded to it. So you just remove the factory installed piece and replaced it with the Roadmaster designed piece and put it all back together again. It took George about 3 1/2 hours to do the work. But he still had to do the wiring for the tail lights. So I spent the night just outside the gate of the lot on the side of the road. By 10 the next morning he was finished and it was a done deal. I towed my truck for the VERY FIRST TIME!!! Woo hoo!!! I towed it about four blocks back to MD Repair because I still needed he Brakemaster put on and I wanted the oil changed in my generator and the motor home engine.

I waited in the parking lot all day till about 2 in the afternoon and this dude called Derrick came out to do the oil changes. He also checked the air in all the tires and they were all good. He took at look at the Brakemaster, went and discussed it with "Bob" (the guy who'd lived in Chadd's Ford) and decided that they didn't have the expertise to install it. Well, while they were cussing and discussing, I kind of had a look at the box which listed all the cars/trucks that needed a 'seat bracket' (the thing the Brakemaster attaches to so you don't have to drill holes in the floor of your vehicle) and my Mariner wasn't listed among them. There was an 800 number to call so I did and I left a message with Glenda (remember her?). Well she called me back and asked if I'd already installed it and I said, "No" and she said, "Don't." She told me that the Mariner's, Escape's and Hummer's all had issues with assisted braking in that they'd lock up when you pushed on the motor home brakes. Bad news.

So how fortunate is that that MD didn't want to do the install and I just happened to call Roadmaster about a stupid seat bracket (that was kind of optional) to find out that I shouldn't install the $850 Brakemaster. So now I'm going to call hitchfinders.com on Monday to see if I can send it back.

That was lucky deal #1.

That afternoon I got my Internet In Motion installed. That system cost me almost $3K. And it has issues. For some reason, I can connect OK and when I first open the browser, everything is fine. But within about 30 seconds, the connection speed slows to glacial speed and I get a lot of time outs and can't find server errors. So I have to get with David Chittam, the installer to see what the deal is on that.

After my internet was installed, I towed the truck to Flamingo Lake where I'm staying until I have to go to Orlando on Wednesday. The Bago DEFINITELY knows the truck is back there. When I went over the big bridge on Route 9A, it chugged up the incline and after it crested, that 4600 lb. truck was giving it a hell of a boost and I went from 45 to 65 mpg in no time. I can see why you need the assisted braking as my stopping distance is definitely a lot longer with the truck pushing me from behind. It's a whole new handling experience.

So I arrived at the campground and was hooking up all my stuff and guess what. I realized that I had left part of my sewer connection at the spot where I was last time I was here. (The part that screws into the sewer line) Dammit!!! So I got my purse and drove around the lake to the office to get a new piece. When I drove past the spot where I was last time I was like, you know, let me just check since the spot is empty. And do you know my sewer piece was still there?! What are the odds of that. That tells me that nobody had been there since I left. I was happy to get my sewer piece back but I was also ticked off because I'd asked for that spot when I called for reservations (because it's shady) and they told me they were full on that side of the lake. So that was lucky instance #2.

So now I'm hanging out here at the RV park waiting for my Guardian rock guard to come in (Monday or Tuesday) and once I get that, I'll be on my way to Orlando for a week.

I'll check back in in a couple days.