Today was a beautiful day here, sunny and almost 80 degrees, unlike what they predicted which was rain. So, we went for a few walks and I decided to make a post on one of the places we went.

Our walk was to Oak ridge, on the first days fighting field. The pic below shows the confederate view as they approached the ridge on the early afternoon of July 1st. It is undulating land up and down, which is hard to see in the photo. Behind the ridge it slopes down a hundred feet or so to an open field and into the town of Gettysburg, which the confederates did not know. Along the ridge line from left to right is a two foot high stone wall that goes to the tree line. The tree line at the time of the battle was very sparse and you could see through it. Behind that stone wall was about 2000 or so union infantrymen, lying in wait. If I was a confederate soldier I would be thinking not an issue let’s go. The issue is that in about five minutes I would most likely be dead.

This is the story of Iverson’s North Carolina brigade, who at the time had about 1400 men, they were all lined up in battle order ready to march forward at any time. The thing was that there were no confederates to there left and only a handful to his far right that were making an advance. In any event the order was given to march . As the union watched this lone brigade march forward they could hardly believe there eyes, when they got within about 100 yards, over 1000 union infantry stood up and poured a deadly fire into the ranks of the north Carolinians. Most went to there maker all at once.

Close to 750 were either killed outright or severely wounded. They lay as they fell, one man reported to still be clutching his musket, with five bullets driven in his head. One man shot in both eyes never to see again. Eventually the confederates took the ridge and most of the town

The confederates did not bury there dead at Gettysburg they had no time, it was up to the union or the citizens of town. Long low trenches were dug and the dead just rolled in with only a few inchs of soil on top. In the late 1870’s they were exhumed and sent home, what was left of them. Taking the bodies created a shallow depression, soon to be named “Iverson’s Pits” . For decades the farmer named Forney who owned the land, and all his workers refused to work near the pit’s, as a fog always seemed to be above it and when the sunset, strange noises came from the area, no one dared go near it. Today the exact location of the pits is not known, but for sure they were known at one time and created a myth that lasts to this day of “IVERSON’S PITS”

We are now in Gettysburg, my favorite place. We left our home base about 10 or so this morning, drove 376 miles and got here about 6 pm. I’m tired long drive, the roads were busy and I swear getting bumpier. We will be here till Wednesday, all we have planned so far is a visit to the Utz factory store(potato chips)to buy snacks ,and a day on the battlefield walking around. Our journey to Key Largo has begun.

We will be leaving here from our home base, this Sunday October 3rd. We have seven stops planned. Our first stop will be Gettysburg for three nights, then a few one day hopes, and a couple more two nighters. Arrival at John Pennacamp state park in Key Largo October 15th. Most likely will not make a lot of posts as all the places we will be stopping we have stayed before. The weather looks like rain for early next week, but it is what it is.

Key Largo will be our home for three months, maybe a little more, not sure yet. For now that is about it. The weather here is getting much cooler, so we are ready to get to warm sunny Florida, speedo time.

A while back I made a post, that upset family and friends. It was never my intension to do such a thing. The post was fueled by a number of frustrations that I had been going through, and it spilled over into the post. Without going into detail, some of the things I said were hurtful and were not meant to be ,at all towards anyone.

Melissa and I are very grateful and thankful for all the help and generosity that came our way during the issues we had with the RV. Unfortunately, that was not what my post conveyed.

Family and friends are the most important things to Melissa and I. After all how much longer do we all have left as we are all getting older.

I AM TRULEY SORRY IF I HURT ANYONES FEELINGS AND MADE THEM FEEL IN ANY WAY THEY WERE NOT AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR LIFE.

So far since my last post I have not heard from the dealer, wonder why. I did however E- mail the rep at Dicor on Tuesday, who informed me that the new roof had been shipped to the dealer, and that their roof specialist had talked to the dealer regarding installation procedures. This confused me as we had told them we may not go back and we were heading for Florida soon. Oh, well not my issue, as we still have not heard back from anyone. Doesn’t matter any way, we are going to wait and have the new roof put on when we are in Florida sometime. I have talked to the insurance company and they agree the roof needs replacing and no payment will be made to the dealer for the botch jobs so far. When the dealer finds that out, I bet they will call me right away, too bad.

One thing not so good did happen early last week, we had a good rain storm one night. We awoke to a huge puddle of water in the living room under the air conditioner. Great, it was actually still dripping, so we got some buckets. All toll we had a few gallons of water come in. I did some research and found out that most likely the bolts to tighten it down were loose. sure enough when i got the cover off only one was tight, the other three easily turned with the ratchet, so I tightened them down and replaced the cover. Last night we had rain, and no leak, knock on wood hope that was it. Also when I was on the roof. I looked at the side gutter moulding, which holds down the rubber roof. No chaulk on the top of it at all, which means water can come into the back of the moulding. WHAT THE HELL, what else.

This week I have to call the insurance company about a few things, and that will be it. Gonna try not to worry about the roof any more, it should be OK, till we get to Florida for a while.

We have three weeks left before we head out.

Saturday,

when we went to get the Rv ,i went up a ladder and scanned the roof , It was still in one of the bays ,so not in any bright light. i told the guy, OK, but lets see what happens in the sunlight.

Sunday

I went on the roof, and at first it all looked good, until I got to the front. The first eight feet of the roof, had lots of two to four inch bubbles in it. Oh, boy., not good. Why just there??, there we a few around the rest of the roof, but very small ones.

Tuesday

I sent an E-mail to my contact at Colton, with pictures of the roof. He got back to me a little while later, with “I am at a loss for words at seeing this” (Really) and also said he would be contacting Dicor to see how they could help. Dicor is the EPDM roof manufacturer, they supply the rubber roof, glue and all else needed for installation of a roof. My first thought about what he said was , Contact Dicor, for what, the roof is crap again, let’s get it fixed. So i sent an E-mail back to him with “Dicor, Approval or not, we have a big issue here. This has been no fault of our own.” That’s it

Wednesday

In the afternoon i got a call from the “Owner”, he left me a message to call him back. Also on Wednesday I called Dicor direct and left a message for someone to call me back.

Thursday

I called the owner around eleven or so. I did not know what to expect. He said they were working with Dicor, on this and he thought it was a glue issue. (As you may recall that was also what they said about the first roof failure, which I doubt, in which they did get Dicor to cover everything, even our hotel stay.) I came right back and said, how do you figure that ,it is only on a eight by eight foot area, and you think it was a glue issue. At that point he got into how his team goes by a procedure to put these roofs on and Bla, Bla, Bla. I said wait, either the glue dried or not enough or most likely they didn’t squeegee that area enough. Then I said it shouldn’t matter there is an issue here and it needs to be taken care of. All I heard back was ,we will keep in contact with Dicor on this and get back to you. It was all a bunch of BS, to me, so they can cover there butt, and not admit it may have been there fault . That was the end of that.

About an hour later I got a call from Dicor products. I had left them a message the night before and they called me back. The rep had called me back, and knew who I was and all about the issues. She said that Colton had sent them the new pics etc, and was blaming the glue as the failure. She thought right away after looking at the pics that the roof was not squeegeed enough in that spot. She was however waiting for one of the tech guys to come in and call Colton and go over in detail there method of installation. She also mentioned that it had been twice now that the new fans were not put in (how did she know that, I don’t know) when we asked for them. As we continued to talk, she was pretty much making it clear to me there was a lack of workmanship and communication at the dealer. Before any real decision was to be made she wanted her guy to talk to Colton. I thanked her for her help and asked to be kept in the loop and that was that.

Labor Day.

Sa I write this tonight, we have decided not to return to the dealer for any more service. This coming week I have to call the insurance company, to come out and reinspect the Rv to document everything. Call Dicor to see how that turned out. I am also going to call another dealer close by to see if they can come out and do an independent inspection for me and also price out a new roof. Plus a number of other things. So the saga continues.

We are now back in the 5er. We got it yesterday afternoon. I will not go into the roof much this post, but it did turn out good.

Our stay at the Holiday Inn Express was very nice. The room was big, had a nice shower, and had cable tv. Tuesday we did not have the truck as it had to go in for inspection and brakes. $1,600 dollars worth of brakes, but it was not a big surprise, I knew we were going to need new rotors and calipers along with the brakes. Anyway my mechanic was right down the street, so he picked up the truck and dropped it off. A few of the days Melissa went to work, which was not very far from where we were. I went in the pool most days, and just stayed around. We had our computer with us so that was good. For dinners we went to a few places, one was just a half mile away. The Buffalo Beer Project, we went there twice. The food was very good and we Did have a few beers, I rarely drink beer, but hay we didn’t pay for it. The food was also very good. From our window at the hotel we could see it was packed every day, which kind of surprised me. The other thing that surprised me was that the hotel was full every night, I never would have thought that ,being where it is. Anyway our stay is over. Cooper also had a good week of fun at the kennel. I have been checking out the rig here and will post on that tomorrow. Still a few issues.

This morning we went to the dealer to look at the work being done. I was loaded for bear on what i wanted to say and expected. The service manager took us in the shop to see the rig. When we got to our Rv I asked him a few questions on what was happening and how they were going to lay the rubber roof on. Everything he told me was pretty much what i was hoping for. I then went up the ladder and talked to the guy working on the roof. We talked a little while and everything he said was what i wanted to hear. Upon looking at the roof, the new plywood was on and he was stapling down the side metal panels. We talked about ten minutes or so, and I let him get back to work. As we walked out of the shop, I felt a big sigh of relief, feeling pretty good the work this time will be good. As of right now we are set to pick the Rv up Saturday afternoon. All the work will NOT be done, this week was about the roof. The remaining work will have to be done in a week or so, which will require us to leave the Rv for the day. We have to be alright with that as there isn’t much we can do about it. Saturday will be the day to see how it turned out. Stay tuned to the great Rv debacle of 2021

We are now at the Holiday Inn Express till Saturday morning. We dropped off the 5er this morning at Colton Rv for the second chance go around. The service manager we are dealing with seemed a little non shalant about the repair work needed. I let him know up front ,that everyone needs to be on there “A” game this week. I also E-mailed the owner and told him that also.

The Holiday Inn here is pretty new, I think only a year old. It is pretty nice, the room is pretty big, and it is nice that it has a big tub and shower. They have a pool but small , which I will use. It is close to where Melissa works, and she will go to work this week, while we stay here. We are looking at it as a little vacation, from our life of vacation, Ha. For now thats it.

Well, After almost three weeks of hurry up and wait, and wait some more, the 5er goes in this coming Monday the 23rd for it’s second try at repairs. I am told it will take five days to do all the work needed. So that means we can pick it up on Saturday the 28th, we will see. We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Express on Transit road in Lockport, all paid for by the dealer. Also Cooper will go to the kennel for a week, all paid for by the dealer. As we will not have the Rv to cook in we have to eat out, all will be paid for by the dealer. Sounds like they are doing us a favor, right. Not by a long shot, that is the very least they can do after the great Rv debacle of 2021 as it is now called. Other than that there is not much new around here, as if that isn’t enough. Stay tuned for updates.