Current Location: Vacationer RV Park, El Cajon, California

It’s been a fairly busy rest of the week. In no particular order, here’s what’s been going on.

Wednesday evening, it was decided that Malcolm would stay here another week and work. Given that our campground spot was already paid for a month (cheaper than daily), it was no problem to stay here (plus we haven’t seen the place full yet). The rental car company was good with it, too. So, we’ve got another weekend to do some sightseeing.

One day, Val decided to open up the windows of the trailer and let the outside air flow through using the fan instead of using the air conditioner. That’s when the blinds on the large kitchen window broke. She also found that the strings on the shade in the hallway were unraveling, as well. We decided to replace a few window treatments with roller blinds and dress them up with curtain valances (and remove the hard valances provided in the trailer).

We found plain white roller blinds at Ikea and set to work on replacing window treatments. As of tonight (Friday), we have all the roller blinds hung. We have the necessary curtain rods to make valances as well as the material, but Val hasn’t started working on those yet. That will be next week’s project. Here are some pictures thusfar of the roller blinds, etc.

Malcolm at work removing the old valance in the bed slide.

New blind up on one side.

And on the other side.

One over the rear window.

In all, we’ve hung up five roller blinds. The long kitchen window is getting curtains, instead. One of the problems with that window is that it is six feet wide. A single roller blind in that length is super heavy, so we decided curtains will do.

While Val was out this morning picking up some items from JoAnn Fabrics to work on the curtains, she noticed a noise in the truck that had steadily been getting louder. Shortly before she got to JoAnn’s, the steering was getting progressively more difficult and the brakes were not working well. Finally, both gave out and left her standing on the emergency brake (fortunately in a parking lot) and the service brake.

Once parked, Val called Malcolm who asked her to look under the hood. She popped the hood and found that the (new) serpentine belt was completely in shreds. So, a call to the Ford dealer who suggested we use our Good Sam’s roadside to get a tow truck to bring the truck back to them to look over the issue. Since Good Sam’s tows to the nearest qualified repair place, Val paid the extra $13 to have it towed to the Ford dealer (still cheaper than cab fare and much cheaper than a standard tow).

The dealer is going to look at it tomorrow (Saturday) to determine what caused the new belt to shred and fix the issue. Since we plan on being out of town all weekend, we’ll pick it up on Monday. Good thing we have a rental car.

Shredded belt.

Pieces of belt.

Ready to pick it up.

Almost ready to roll.

Malcolm reminded Val that at least this happened locally in a parking lot instead of out on the road in the middle of nowhere with the trailer hitched up. I’m sure the issue is easily fixed. It may even be that the belt wasn’t put on quite right on one of the pulleys. We’ll see.

We’re out the door early in the morning for a weekend full of fun. Where, you may ask? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see. Stay tuned!