Should Be Plenty of Flowers in May…NOT!

Since most of April consisted of rain…rain…and more rain everywhere we were located in the northeast, we thought for sure there should be so many flowers blooming in May…NOT! All we seem to be getting is more rain. Our plans changed so many times due to the weather, we are not sure which direction we are going anymore.

After leaving Cincinnati and finally arriving in Ruffs Dale, Pennsylvania to store the Penske truck for a few weeks while we explored the area, we thought, hoped for better weather.


Was not to be! Unfortunately several of our plans had to be cancelled because the places we wanted to visit did not open on time due to the cold, wet weather. We were not suppose to have all this idle time in between shows because of our plans to sightsee, but instead we found ourselves with too much time on our hands. That is not a very good mix, no sunshine and too much time to think about all the things that could happen make for a very uncomfortable time. We need sunshine, without it we get lazy and our bodies get painfully sore. We are reevaluating our plans for heading east this early next year…

I need to write everyday, it is my passion, my purpose, who I am when I escape into the keyboard. It is as if writing, taking photographs and then sharing our stories with our readers is my daily vitamin, without those things I get lethargic. The longer I go without doing it, the worse I get. It’s not as if we do not have anything to write about because lately our lives are full, but not too full that it won’t give me the time to do it, but instead I zone out someplace else. It’s time to get back to my happy place, traveling, writing, photography and sharing those stories is what gets me jumping out of bed every morning, looking forward to sharing our lifestyle with our readers!

Maggie’s levelers stopped working and then a few days later our water heater would not ignite. Since taking showers is a necessity, and we prefer our own over the campgrounds facilities, and being tired of feeling that rock and rolling experience every time we take a step, we made an appointment to have it all checked out at the Camping World in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


We were not very happy with the outcome.

We showed up for our appointment on time and they took us in immediately, but after that it was not the best service. They automatically charged us $109 per hour just for them to find the problem…not always a good sign. We continued to check with them and received no updates after an hour…then another hour…then another. Finally after 3 hours of nothing, we insisted on some sort of update from them. They said that the water heater was fixed, it was a quick replacement of the thermo cut off switch, the part was only $30, but labor was $109 for just minutes of work, plus just over $20 for shop supplies.


Then we asked about the levelers and they insisted they have been researching the problem for 3 hours and could not find the issue. When we first got there, we explained all the research we had already done in trying to find the issue and when they began to explain the research they were doing we explained that they were just duplicating what we had already done. We were unwilling at this time to allow them to continue to research when we knew the issue had to be a simple one. We knew that it had to be a loose wire somewhere since for the week prior to the stabilizers not working the light would flicker until we switched the switch several times, until they finally just stopped working. Any and all suggestions would be deeply appreciated since we love our stabilizers but are able to live without them until we find a less expensive fix for them.

The system is an after-market HWH Hydraulic Leveling installation on Maggie, not sure exactly when they were installed but they were not working when we bought her and Camping World replaced a $5 switch, but charged us for all the research to find the issue back then. This guy said it was not worth his time or our money to continue to look for the problem when he probably would not have the parts to fix it anyway.

Any ideas, suggestions or thoughts would be deeply appreciated and in the meantime if you see our RV a rocking, you can come a knocking since we are probably just taking a deep breath…