Focht Family Blog

Newmar was wonderful as usual with the exception of the alarm clock going off WAY too early. We arrived at Newmar on Monday and Tuesday morning bright and early the crew came to get the RV. Thankfully they were able to find some of the electrical problems although Nathan still thinks it is drawing too much. However they found an engine block heater that has been plugged in for 2 years that we never knew we had. The block heater draws 8 amps at all times. The other thing that they found was that one of the chassis batteries was dead so the charger was constantly running trying to charge it. Hopefully our last two weeks at Shenango will be more affordable now! :)

While the RV was being worked on we did our best to keep the kids entertained. Here are the kids at the big playground in Nappanee.

We also invaded Nathan’s peace and quiet a few times because we found out that they have DISH in the waiting room where dogs are allowed and the kids wanted to have more cartoons to watch than the PBS that mom could get with her antennae. Here is Josh lounging out watching TV.

Here is Timmy watching TV while my mom is immersed in her book.

For those of you who read this who also go to Newmar for service, you will be glad to see that Newmar has installed 3 washers & 3 dryers in the high line waiting room (open to all/pets allowed). They even have a laundry detergent dispenser and a change machine.

I can’t let anyone know how the machines worked because our resident laundress, my mom, said that it was still cheaper to drive to the laundry by the Pizza Hut so we went there to do our laundry while in Nappanee.

After the RV service was done we stayed one more day so we could do some shopping. We made our usual stop at the Little Nook Bookstore and we also went to the Farmer’s Market but we were disappointed to find that most of the stalls were empty. We thought it might be because of the bad economy but one of the stores I purchased from said it was because they have recently opened on Wednesday as well so when they increased the days it was opened for a lot of the stalls were being run by people who had other obligations for their Wednesdays so they are in the process of getting new people in. Here are the kids posing with a pig statue that they liked.

Saturday we drove from Nappanee to Indianapolis so Nathan could attend a user conference. Updates from Indy to follow…

Friday at lunch we made it back to our beautiful deck at Shenango Valley RV Park. All the kids had to go immediately to see Ms. Debbie and Mr. Dale (the owners) to say hello. They were glad to be back for a couple of days. We have spent the 3 days back for Labor Day weekend changing our decor over to fall, cleaning a little, and playing a lot! The kids have spent everyday at the activities and also playing at the playgrounds and the pool with their friends. I think they are a little upset that we are leaving again tomorrow morning! :(

Tomorrow morning we leave for Newmar. We will be having repairs done this next week. Something is pulling too much electric on the RV. Last month we beat the record at Shenango for the highest electric bill in their history. Somehow I don’t think that is the kind of award I want to win. :)

Thursday night was spent at a Walmart in Batavia, NY. This was close enough to Nathan’s older sister that she came over to visit for awhile with her family. The kids were happy to see their cousin Alex again. The next morning my mom and I decided we wanted a hot breakfast so we walked for a little over a half mile to a McDonalds and brought breakfast back for everyone. I bought the kids hotcakes and when they were done eating they decided to create a turtle (Crush from Nemo) from the leftovers…

On the way back to Pennsylvania from Vermont we had our first and hopefully last tire blowout. I was driving and we were almost out of Vermont. A car passed me and motioned for me to pull over. I pulled over and when we got out to find out what was wrong we found that there was no tire on the left rear of the truck. I had obviously lost the tire a few miles back and had ruined the rim as well. I am lucky that I didn’t blow up the truck and my mom’s camper since I am sure it had been sparking down the road. You can see the groove I was making in the road with the hot rim. Here is what was left…

A semi truck pulled over behind us and told us that he had been trying to get my attention for 15 miles or so. I am hoping he meant he noticed a flat or the tire starting to come off and not that I was driving on the rim that long. I never felt a difference from the RV. I guess I was just looking ahead and not paying attention to the mirrors. Now I am being careful to adjust the mirrors when I am driving so I can see the tires so at least I  might notice chunks of tire flying off if it were to happen again. We called AAA and they called the police and a service truck for us since I was blocking a lane of traffic. The police never showed and Nathan already had the spare off when the truck came. The truck was able to park behind us at an angle so that Nathan was protected to change the tire and the driver helped him get the spare back on so we could get back on the road quicker. It looks like we are now looking at having to get 4 new tires, a rim, and an alignment for the truck. Nathan also mentioned that the boots were torn on the caliper so I am hoping he has the tools to fix that to save us some money. At least no one was hurt. Here is another picture I took of the rim when I was putting it in the back seat of the truck…

The dogs were being so cute the other day so I had to take some pictures. Here is Dory in one of her new favorite places to lay down…

And here is Tinkerbell and Dory cuddling together on their doggy beds…

I am so proud of both of them. They have finally figured out where to go potty and what NOT to chew on. We haven’t had either of them in a crate for over two weeks now. I threw Tinkerbell’s crate out while we were in Vermont because the door was broken anyway. We think Tinkerbell is a year old now. The information we received from the Humane Society says that they thought she was born in September last year. They found her in a ditch with her brother at about 5 weeks old but that is just the vet’s best guess as to how old she was when she was found, so…. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINK!!!