Goodbye to Seann, Splendide Problem Solved, at Pancho Villa State Park, NM

Well, our Canuckie buddy Seann hung out here with us a lot longer than he planned. He was only going to stay two days.  I think he felt sorry for us being without a transport vehicle.  He ferried us around in his truck as we are still minus the Tracker.  We had him over this morning for one more breakfast together.  One more jaunt to the grocery store with him, and he was ready to hook up and pull out.  Thanks so much Seann for putting up with us!

We haven't heard yet from Art Miller about our Tracker... probably some time this week.  We hope!  Maybe if we don't hear from him by Wednesday, we will give him a call.  As for now, we are comfortable and relaxed in a nice park at a reasonable rate.  No complaints.  The weather is in the 70's and sunshiny today, and down in the 40's at night.

We decided to spend the next part of the day with our laundry. Steve determined that perhaps the rubber tray we had put underneath the washing machine was causing some of the trouble.  It has a diagonally ribbed bottom for strength as it was originally meant as a "rabbit droppings tray" to pull out from under a rabbit hutch and empty without a lot of flexing.  It really has a big star shape of ribs all radiating outwards from the center. We bought the rubber tray (new) at a farm supply store to put under our washing machine in case of any more leaks. It was the exact right size and we thought it would be a preventative device in case of any more leaks. In the past we had a leaking pump because the previous owners never winterized it correctly and it was cracked.  That was a job and a half to replace that pump, and at the same time we did a major floor repair too.

Sooooo Steve's brain was thinking perhaps that the washing machine was bumped up crooked and the little feet were set up on some diagonal ribs of that tray and not on others.  Maybe from the same big bump we went over at Elephant Butte????  Because in 8 years of owning this coach, we never had the washing machine bang and shake like that.

Steve was gonna get to the bottom of this, no matter what!  Either that or we would be hauling all of our dirty laundry to laundromat, which neither of us ever like to do.....

We unhooked the machine and pulled it out of the cabinet to look.  Sure enough, not only was it unevenly standing on two of the diagonal ribs, but two other spots for the legs had cracked the tray, basically rendering it useless anyhow.  We tipped the machine on it's side and pulled out the tray, slid the machine back into place and hooked it all back up again.

Wheee!!!   I did two perfect loads with NO thumping or bumping!  

The third load I had two thick towels and a pair of jeans, which did some thumping, but it straightened out again as soon as it went into high speed spin.  Our problem is solved.  I hope.

Our lazy Monday laundry day progressed nicely.... 

and Steveio watched the clothes dry on the line. 

That was his "job" for the day. 

He got a few messages about some "crises" that happened at work, back in Wisconsin.  He shrugged them off with a few smart aleck comments to his boss and let her deal with them!  LOL  Now that's the spirit, Steveio~!

We were sitting out in our area, relaxing under our palapa,

knitting socks, and drying our clothes..... 

And what to our wondering eyes should apppear????

Coming along down the road we saw two Shelties!!   

Meet Luke and Gracie from northern Idaho.... 

 They were being walked by their owners Kathy and Pat who are camped nearby.  

The dogs all sniffed and it took a bit for Binney to get close.  But she did.

Finnegan wanted to play with old Luke, who I think reminds him of our Duke.

I think those two could play ball together for hours on end and enjoy themselves. 

Gracie is the Alpha girl who said don't bother me, I want to go back to my daddy....

It was so nice out, folks were strolling through the park. We were jawjacking with a few neighbors.... Dawn and Jim from Washington
and then Margo and Tom from Missouri.

Then we met Debbie and Steve McCormick from  Down The Road 
and Glenda and Curt from Camp Lowry: That's How We Roll

Both are camped together on the other side of the park and came to visit us... and see the hooty owls in the big tree by our campsite.

I had another project in mind to take care of....  years ago I had made a vinyl tire cover for our spare tire we carry mounted to the front of the motorhome.  Time has taken it's toll, as well as sun, wind, rain and snow.... The stitching all needed reinforcing and a new rope threaded through the casing. 

Good thing I have my sewing machine along, eh?  I think that the duct tape we had holding it together may be a tad bit tacky looking???

 BEFORE                                                              AFTER   

Much better, don't you think?

I moved my sewing machine inside and was working on some quilt squares. 

It sure is a great way to spend some time and create a fun project. 

If I couldn't take along my fun fiber stuff to play with, I wouldn't go ya know.  

 

Next, I decided to post a few cute pics of the dogs, just because I can.  It's my blog.  I can do what I want!  And some people are asking for more pics of Finney and Binney and their Great Southwest Adventure!

I honestly don't know how we are going to get them to sleep in their own

beds on the floor once we return home again. 

Somehow they think this king sized bed in our motorhome

is for THEM??????

Who can resist? 

They are just too stinkin' cute!!!!

Tomorrow fellow blogger Hazel from Class A Greyhounds: RVing with the Big Dogs is supposed to be pulling in!  Anxious to meet her face to face! She is a sock customer of mine, and wants to see how my sockknitting machine works. Yes, I have it along and will give her a fun demo of it in action.

Another Day in New Mexico at Pancho Villa State Park

Here we are, still snug on our site in Pancho Villa State Park in southern New Mexico.  We are 3 miles from the Mexican border.  The sun is shining again today, after yesterday of on-again-off-again rain.  Life is good and we are happy and warm in the 60's-70's most every day.  The nights get down in the 30's or so, but we are comfortable in the rig. The views every day are wide expanses of desert terrain, with stunning sunsets and a big bright full moon the last two nights.  I tried to take pics of the moon, but they just don't do it justice. Instead, here is a day time pic of our rig.

You will notice the Tracker is not in the picture.  That is because it is getting a complete rebuild on the motor over at Art Miller's shop.  He called us this morning to come on over and take a look now that he had the engine out.  The bearing and rod are shot, and we figured he might as well do it all, the rings, valves, water pump, etc and do a good job and get it all done at once.  Even the clutch, as that was getting quite worn. He has to have the shaft spun down over in El Paso, and will pick up all the right parts at the same time.  So it may not be finished until next week.  His ball park quote was good with us, and we will see what it all comes to when it's done.  Oh well.

In the meantime, we are enjoying ourselves immensely!

We are the "Keeper of the Owls" on our campsite and I was able to get a few good close shots of him (or her?) yesterday.  What an impressive looking bird!

I don't think I would want to tick him off....

Our friend, Seann, from Canada decided to stay two more days!  We enjoy his company and he is full of fun stuff and ideas and stories.  His rig is all set up on the site behind us.  Seann is an avid boondocker and travels to the U.S. each winter to escape the harsh winters of Saskatchewan,  Then in the summer months, he hosts at various parks in Canada. 

He recently added a few new items of decor to his travel trailer.... a custom painted tire cover, and this lovely stained glass panel in his door.  Quite the fancy rig!

As I said in my last blog, poor Seann LOVES dogs, but is allergic to them.  He can only tolerate so much time with them before he starts with the itchy watery eyes, stuffed up, etc.  On top of it all, he is suffering from a terrible head cold.

He comes fully prepared to tease our muttenheimers with pockets stuffed with dog treats.....   at first they are a little stand-offish and both were hiding behind my passenger seat in their little Doggie Den.  Seann was bribing them out with treats that Finnegan could NOT resist!   Look at that ... the way to a dog's heart is through his tummy?

Soon Seann had Finney fetching balls and getting treats as a reward.  Little Binney in the background was jealously watching all the treats go into Finney's mouth.  But the stubborn little cuss wouldn't come out to get some herself.  She was drooling in the background!   Seann tossed a few over to her, and she ate them as soon as he would look away. If he looked at her, she would stop eating them. Awwww he made sure that she got her fair share.

This afternoon I wanted to do another load or two of laundry.  I did two smaller loads instead of one large one.  We noticed during the two smaller loads that we had done, the machine was going into the spin cycle and make an AWFUL racket!  I would have to shut it off and let the timer click for the door open release mechanism, and rearrange the load.  Sometimes it would spin evenly, and other times go off balance again. Argghhhhh!   So after the second load, I got on the computer and googled Splendide +shaking vibration and read a few suggestions.  

• One was to make sure the machine was stuffed full. Less chance to go off balance.
• Another one was that inside there is a huge cement counterweight that might shake loose from it's three bolts that mount it to a bracket???  
• Another suggestion was perhaps one of the 4 springs broke that help center the drum.
• Another suggestion was looking at the two big shock absorbers underneath the machine.  
• And one more was to build a support bracket on top that presses down on the machine and secures it tightly to the walls of the cabinet so it don't move. 

Many of the suggestions necessitated removal of the top of the washing machine.  That means unhooking the water lines, unclamping the vent hose, unplugging the power cord and pulling the entire machine OUT of the closet compartment!  

We did just that.  We took the lid off, and checked the bolts on the cement counterweight.  Nope, all good. there.  We checked all four springs.  Nope, all four intact and holding good and even pressure.

Now to get to the bottom two shocks we had to lay it on it's side.... and then remove the bottom plate.  Nope, shocks are fine.  We can not find any reason why it's shaking so much on spin.

So we put it all back together again.

We even double checked the level of the coach.  Nothing seemed to make a difference.  We did one more load crammed full tight instead just a smaller load.  That seemed to help a bit, spinning around with a full load means less chance of going off balance? We did notice that if we push the machine firmly down from the top with our hands, it shakes much less.  

A final suggestion we will try is to go to a bicycle shop and get two bike inner tubes!  We are to stick them down on each side of the machine between the machine and the cabinet it sets in.  Inflate them up with an air compressor or pump.  They act as air bags cushioning the machine's sides, and hold the machine more steady.  So that is on our next list of shopping items when we get to a bigger town.  

We had a nice surprise to find out that a couple who follow my blog from Washington are here in the park!  Dawn came over to to visit this morning with coffee and later I got to meet husband Jim.  Tonight after dinner we lit up a campfire in Steve's Flame Genie pellet fire pit and sat around and shot the breeze with them and Seann for a while.  

Tomorrow's plans are to join Dawn and Jim for an excursion to Mexico for some shopping, a hair cut, and then lunch.  Should be fun!  They are driving so we don't have to take the bus at 7:50 a.m.!