Safe and Sound!

We are safe and sound up on the north shore of PEI in Cavendish where we are on a bluff and can see the Atlantic. Very nice. We only got the rain from the hurricane so other then a small leak in one of the slideouts and some red mud on the truck and fifth wheel we did great.

Good news from the states. Tatum got the counselor job at Issaquah High School! Way to go Tate! !

What would a week be without another RV jack story. A few days ago the other jack froze up. This time I knew to stop operating it and not wreck the gear box and motor. The new left jack installed in Ohio was fine as was the gear box and motor. However the right jack was seized up. So after disassembling everything, I got inside the leg itself and found the long screw that raises the leg frozen. So I took it to a machine shop and while they were on a break (these French Canadians are serious about their breaks) I put it in a vise and twisted it with a pipe wrench getting it partially free. Turns out it was bent. That is why it was seizing up, like trying to turn a bent screw through a nut. Anyway got it free in the middle of the screw run but not on the ends and reinstalled today and its marginally working. Called 10 RV places to get a new one and they all said they would have to call Keystone (who makes the Montana) to see if it was in inventory, and then order it, a process that will takes many weeks. If it’s not in inventory then it would take months. (“After all it is in the states you know!”)

So I called the factory in Dayton, Ohio, where I had stopped to pick up the other one in July, and ordered one shipped to me in Canada at the RV park we are staying at in Bouctouche, NB. UPS cleared it through customs and delivered it on the 19th. Six says after ordering is a bit faster then the Canadians are used to. And we are good to go. OK, I promise no more jack stories or should I say Jaques stories. I will be more careful getting the rig on the truck where I suspect that I might have bent the legs. We are also using more blocking under the legs. And if another one gives out, I won’t mention it.

While waiting for the jack leg I had the tires replaced on the RV. They were getting a bit slim in the tread. Rather then try to get a few more thousand miles out of them but risk a blowout and subsequent damage to the underside of the RV, we decided to do it while we were waiting for the leg. So we are good to go for another 10,000 miles which should bring us back to the PNW.


Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.’ - Mark Twain