Just being cautious - because I'm posting about being away from home, and I am having hinkey feelings about my stalker lately. And even though my kids will be at the house taking care of things.
But we're getting Sallie back from the shop on Tuesday or Wednesday, and Thursday AM we're heading back to Monterey for a few days. Wednesday is the 17th anniversary of the day we met (same day of the week too), and we almost forgot to make plans for our anniversary.
While Sallie has been in the shop, she has been getting a hella expensive upgrade to her suspension by installing a sway bar, which should stop most of the terrifying unsteadiness of our low-end RV, especially in wind and when trucks pass us. We experienced that in spades when we took our trip through mountains and desert last fall (San Jose to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, then down to Phoenix and across 10 to Los Angeles, before heading home up the coast on 101).
As the advertisement for the sway bar we're getting says:
There are a couple of other things we could add to the rig to make the ride better as well, but we're going to wait and see if the sway bar is enough - the rig is 10 years old and we don't want to grossly over-improve it (plus, the costs are very significant, for less incremental benefit). We have to balance how difficult/unpleasant it is to drive against how much driving we are actually going to be doing. I'd LIKE to take a long trip in either the late spring or early fall (probably the latter, as we have to be on the east coast over Memorial Day weekend) to visit Yellowstone, Glacier, maybe Canada - in other words, hard driving. But after that, I'm not sure what we're going to want to do that is more than relatively local trips.
A bunch of other things are getting attended to as well - more in the nature of repairs rather than upgrades - the non-functional audiovisual system (including a tube TV) is getting repaired and slightly upgraded (we've been snaking a cable through a window and moving the little portable TV back and forth from the front of the rig to the dinette and watching at night from bed through the hall - but it will now be mounted to the wall in the bedroom where it is supposed to go, and a bigger but older sort-of flat screen we have will go in front - we SHOULD each be able to watch our own shows); the oven, which never worked, should be fixed, so we can do a little baking (it's fun to try on the campstove, but it is very inefficient and uses WAY too much propane to use the BBQ box as an oven); the leaky battery is getting fixed; the broken porch light is getting fixed; the new mirror to replace the broken one on the passenger side is fixed; and a few other little things. And before we took it in, Charles swapped out the faucet in the bathroom for a compact sink faucet with a hose that reaches the toilet - both for bidet purposes, and to make it easier to clean the toilet (with DS poop and an older rig, proper care of the bathroom issues includes making sure the pipes are kept very very clean
). It will make this next trip more pleasant.
We're going to bring our bikes again - and this time (since our kids won't be with us), i hope we can ride them more. We can go into Monterery, and maybe go to the aquarium again. And have a romantic dinner or two
- we have had a rough year that has finally started to smooth out, and that needs to be gratefully acknowledged.
And all of these are, of course, things that would have been impossible if I had not had my DS. And BOTH of us have lost a lot of weight and gotten healthier over the last 11.5 years (Thursday will be my "half-surgiversary").
But we're getting Sallie back from the shop on Tuesday or Wednesday, and Thursday AM we're heading back to Monterey for a few days. Wednesday is the 17th anniversary of the day we met (same day of the week too), and we almost forgot to make plans for our anniversary.
While Sallie has been in the shop, she has been getting a hella expensive upgrade to her suspension by installing a sway bar, which should stop most of the terrifying unsteadiness of our low-end RV, especially in wind and when trucks pass us. We experienced that in spades when we took our trip through mountains and desert last fall (San Jose to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, then down to Phoenix and across 10 to Los Angeles, before heading home up the coast on 101).
As the advertisement for the sway bar we're getting says:
Does your vehicle handle like the Queen Mary? Does it pitch and roll with every gust of wind or passing semi, list to port or starboard on the curves, or waddle over speed bumps, railroad tracks and driveways?
Well, it shouldn't. As a matter of fact, motorhomes, SUVs, pickup trucks and vans can be made to handle just like what they are — motor vehicles — with two aftermarket upgrades.
Upgrading your shock absorbers will control up and down motion. But the best shocks in the world won't affect side to side sway by one iota.
The solution to sway is in the suspension. Adding a set of ROADMASTER Suspension Solutions anti-sway bars to your suspension system will have the same effect on sway as a good set of shocks has on up and down motion — there's an immediate improvement in stability and tracking, especially on the curves.
For many, this is an empowering experience. What was beyond their control, just yesterday, is suddenly within it — cornering with confidence, quicker maneuvering, and a remarkably level ride over uneven terrain — all without launching the dishes out of the cupboard. And even after eight or 10 hours at the wheel, they arrive fresh, instead of fatigued, which means they can start enjoying the Grand Canyon, the Grand Tetons, or the grandkids right away.
How could one component have such a dramatic effect? Choose your vehicle type to find out:Trucks, Vans and SUVs or Motorhomes.
Read what ROADMASTER customers say about this product...
“I had the (anti-sway) bars installed and the results were dramatic. The notorious Texas high plain winds could not unhook us from the highway and hard curves at 60 mph became routine. I seemed to have glass walls between myself and passing trucks. I was nothing less than thrilled with the sway bars at road speeds.”
Well, that pitching and rolling is exactly why I've been banished to riding in the dinette, well behind Charles, when he drives (because I can't stop from gasping in fear when I feel the wind or trucks blow us around), and why I'm terrified of learning to drive the rig myself, but I *KNOW* I have to learn how, not just to give Charles a break now and then, but for my own peace of mind - what if we were 1000 miles from home, and he broke a leg or got sick? That certainly was a problem on our trip in October, 3 weeks after he had his abdominoplasty - the driving exhausted him after each drive of 200-300 miles. So learning to drive it is on the agenda for this trip. If anyone lives or will be visiting around there, YOU ARE WARNED!Well, it shouldn't. As a matter of fact, motorhomes, SUVs, pickup trucks and vans can be made to handle just like what they are — motor vehicles — with two aftermarket upgrades.
Upgrading your shock absorbers will control up and down motion. But the best shocks in the world won't affect side to side sway by one iota.
The solution to sway is in the suspension. Adding a set of ROADMASTER Suspension Solutions anti-sway bars to your suspension system will have the same effect on sway as a good set of shocks has on up and down motion — there's an immediate improvement in stability and tracking, especially on the curves.
For many, this is an empowering experience. What was beyond their control, just yesterday, is suddenly within it — cornering with confidence, quicker maneuvering, and a remarkably level ride over uneven terrain — all without launching the dishes out of the cupboard. And even after eight or 10 hours at the wheel, they arrive fresh, instead of fatigued, which means they can start enjoying the Grand Canyon, the Grand Tetons, or the grandkids right away.
How could one component have such a dramatic effect? Choose your vehicle type to find out:Trucks, Vans and SUVs or Motorhomes.
Read what ROADMASTER customers say about this product...
“I had the (anti-sway) bars installed and the results were dramatic. The notorious Texas high plain winds could not unhook us from the highway and hard curves at 60 mph became routine. I seemed to have glass walls between myself and passing trucks. I was nothing less than thrilled with the sway bars at road speeds.”
There are a couple of other things we could add to the rig to make the ride better as well, but we're going to wait and see if the sway bar is enough - the rig is 10 years old and we don't want to grossly over-improve it (plus, the costs are very significant, for less incremental benefit). We have to balance how difficult/unpleasant it is to drive against how much driving we are actually going to be doing. I'd LIKE to take a long trip in either the late spring or early fall (probably the latter, as we have to be on the east coast over Memorial Day weekend) to visit Yellowstone, Glacier, maybe Canada - in other words, hard driving. But after that, I'm not sure what we're going to want to do that is more than relatively local trips.
A bunch of other things are getting attended to as well - more in the nature of repairs rather than upgrades - the non-functional audiovisual system (including a tube TV) is getting repaired and slightly upgraded (we've been snaking a cable through a window and moving the little portable TV back and forth from the front of the rig to the dinette and watching at night from bed through the hall - but it will now be mounted to the wall in the bedroom where it is supposed to go, and a bigger but older sort-of flat screen we have will go in front - we SHOULD each be able to watch our own shows); the oven, which never worked, should be fixed, so we can do a little baking (it's fun to try on the campstove, but it is very inefficient and uses WAY too much propane to use the BBQ box as an oven); the leaky battery is getting fixed; the broken porch light is getting fixed; the new mirror to replace the broken one on the passenger side is fixed; and a few other little things. And before we took it in, Charles swapped out the faucet in the bathroom for a compact sink faucet with a hose that reaches the toilet - both for bidet purposes, and to make it easier to clean the toilet (with DS poop and an older rig, proper care of the bathroom issues includes making sure the pipes are kept very very clean
). It will make this next trip more pleasant.We're going to bring our bikes again - and this time (since our kids won't be with us), i hope we can ride them more. We can go into Monterery, and maybe go to the aquarium again. And have a romantic dinner or two
- we have had a rough year that has finally started to smooth out, and that needs to be gratefully acknowledged.And all of these are, of course, things that would have been impossible if I had not had my DS. And BOTH of us have lost a lot of weight and gotten healthier over the last 11.5 years (Thursday will be my "half-surgiversary").
