Monday, 22 July 2019
 |
| today's route |
Climbing up would be no problem if I left the ladder in place, but it attaches to the upper bunk half behind the passenger seat and half in the space between the seats. I don't want it there when I'm driving, and it'd be seriously in the way for the dogs when we're stopped. I'd only use it to open and close the little window at the other end of the upper bunk, which I do for Lily most nights, and occasionally to open the skylight above the upper bunk. But so far I've just been boosting myself up using the back of the bench seat behind the driver's seat (and hoping it doesn't break under my weight) and that works fine. But for playing around with the TV, I pulled the ladder down, which of course scared Gracie back to the bathroom.
Once up there, I discovered that the TV didn't swivel because the outer end of it was resting on the bunk instead of hanging freely above it. And the reason for that turned out to be another of the finish work problems when this RV was manufactured. The brace that attached the swiveling arm to the wall was originally held on with 4 screws, which may or may not have been a reasonable number, given the size and weight of the TV. But now, I no longer had 4 screws. One of the upper ones had been sheared off at the head of the screw, so the shaft was still in the wall but it was doing me no good. The other of the upper ones was so loose I could unscrew it with my hand. So in reality, there were only 2 screw holding the brace onto the wall for support for the TV. No wonder the other end rested on the bunk.
I got a screwdriver and screwed the loose screw back into the wall but felt no security whatever in how long the screws would hold the brace and TV up. I figured one really rough railroad track and the whole thing would fall off, and only if I were lucky would the TV just fall flat on the bunk and not slew out over the edge of the bunk onto the floor. Not only would I be out a TV, but Gracie would come so unglued I'd never be able to put her back together again.
The campground map they gave us on check-in was part of a fancy brochure that included advertising by local merchants, one of whom was an RV repair place. When I called them, though, they said sure drop it off and we'll look at it when we get time later this week. When I explained that (a) I live in it and (b) I was just passing through town, they gave me 2 other names. One was a local electronics wholesaler and the other was a business in the next town north that specialized in refrigeration and RVs. This seemed like an odd combination, so I tried the electronics folks first.
It took a long time to reach them, but I finally got them to tell me they just couldn't fit me in, even if they thought they could do the repair, which they weren't sure of.
The refer/RV place said well, they really didn't have room but if I'd come by mid-afternoon they'd try to squeeze me in sometime. So since it was that or drive on down the road waiting for the TV to fall off the wall, I went with the squeezing in.
Cadillac
I had a few errands to run and decided to do that first, in case it took most of the afternoon for me to get into the RV folks.
Granted I didn't do much driving around the area but from what I saw, Cadillac looks to be more of a Nash Rambler. I stopped at the local (non-Walmart) grocery store, which had a lot of what I wanted but was missing some national brands.
I went to the G&D Pizza & Party Store - local liquor purveyors - and nearly got trapped in their small parking lot. Hard to get into in the first place because it was surrounded by a construction zone, and once in I found one of their entrances and some of the parking places were blocked off so there wasn't room for our rig. To get out, I'd have to make a u-turn, except there wasn't room for a u-turn, so it took some serious maneuvering. I was there right about noon and apparently the pizza part is very popular in town. Many many people coming and going for that. I wouldn't have minded having some myself but I didn't dare hang around on the off-chance a parking space I could fit in opened up. So I went looking for another liquor store.
The Bourbon House didn't have any parking problems because the store was almost empty. I suppose it had a good bourbon selection but I wasn't looking for that. Its scotch selection was minimal, as was its wine selection beyond red and/or sweet (I wanted white & dry). Oh well. Maybe they don't drink much in Cadillac.
Manton
Manton is the next town up the road, a full 7.9 miles away. I took the state route instead of the highway and passed a billboard that said: "It's Time to Heart Your Career." It didn't use a heart symbol - it actually used the word "heart."
This part of Michigan isn't flat; I drove on some actual hills here, which was a nice change.
Manton itself looks minimal and their school is consolidated - all 12 grades in one large building. But they seem to be sports-minded because a good chunk of the building is the gym.
I was so early getting to town that I stopped in the school parking lot for an hour and walked the dogs all around it and did some cleaning up of the RV. I almost never go up to the upper bunk, and I found there was a good supply of dust and cat hair up there. Not wanting the repair guy to asphyxiate while he was repairing, I dusted and cleaned up the cat hair as best I could, and swept while I was about it, so the inside looked a lot better.
Went on to Hart's RV and Refrigeration Service and was parking just as the head repair guy was coming in from his lunch break. I guess because he didn't have to stop what he was doing, he took us right away. Agreed with me that a serious railroad crossing could knock it off the wall, agreed that 4 screws hadn't been enough for the weight, disagreed that what was needed was to get some needle-nose pliers and unscrew the shaft from the wall. He said the other upper screw that I'd tightened had come unscrewed again and was stripped.
He ended up putting 8 screws right through the metal brace into the wall and, presto, the TV once again hung off the wall instead of resting on the bunk. And he only charged me for his minimum shop time and the screws: $24. Sure a bargain compared to replacing the TV.
So for anyone in the Cadillac, MI, area who needs RV work - or refrigeration, for that matter - I can thoroughly recommend Hart's in Manton.
And back to the campground.
A family staying here has Texas license plates and a sign by their campsite saying they're from Tomball, TX. I wanted to stop by and talk to them because I figure they may have never met someone who knows where that is - I have cousins who live there so I do - but I never happened to see them outside. Too bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment