Back At “Kamp Kevin”

Last year when we started full timing, our first travel was to a service shop in Celina, Ohio for the installation of some equipment and some minor repairs and maintenance.  As we knew we were headed back to the Midwest, we scheduled ourselves in for some annual maintenance.  If you are ever in the Midwest, we highly recommend this shop.  Kevin is a former electrical engineer with American Coach and John was a technician at the American Coach Service Center.  They do a lot of electrical/electronics work but are fully capable of performing most any “house” RV work.  It is largely a word-of-mouth business – they don’t even have a web site, but they have coaches of all kinds rolling in there every day.  In January, Kevin works out of his motor home and service trailer at Quartzite, AZ and usually moves on to the Palm Springs, CA in February.

We didn’t have the installation of any equipment on our list this year,  But there was one item on the list that wound up costing us some serious money – “test the batteries”.  We knew they were 5 to 6 years old, which is beyond the typical usual life and that one of them in particular was boiling off quite a bit of water, so it wasn’t a surprise that they tested as “toast” and had to be replaced.  Here they are in all of their expensive glory.  If the dimensions are not apparent, they measure 11 inches wide and 21 inches deep and weigh around 125 pounds EACH.

Alley cat doesn’t like these service stops, especially when people are walking around on the roof of the motor home and using power tools.  She doesn’t get nearly her normal amount of sleep and doesn’t like being confined to the back of the motor home in the bedroom.  Her she is peeking under the sliding door wanting to come into the front of the motor home.  How can you resist that pose?

Gary does a lot of work on the motor home while it is in the shop.  Cruising America is a place that will allow an owner to be out in the shop and doing some work.  Gary also likes it that if he attempts a repair there and gets into trouble with it, he has expert backup at hand.  I took a little time and carved my first pumpkin of the season.  Very scaaaarry!