Let the Dream Begin

My sister Karen texted us with "let the dream begin" the day we signed our side of the settlement statement. It seemed appropriate.

We had our home built when we got married. For both of us this was the longest we had ever lived in one place. We had put a lot of time and money improving the home. We built a monstrous deck, affectionately known as "deckzilla," that took years to complete. We finished part of the basement, added a shed, remodeled the master bathroom, and paved the driveway to name a few projects.

So, despite the excitement of starting a new phase of our life, it was a bit tough to leave. I'm thankful one of my neighbors, Karen, stood outside and waved as we drove off. That simple act put a smile on my face.

Our first day we drove to St. Clairsville, Ohio. It's just west of Wheeling, West Virginia. We had planned to overnight at Cabela's, but online camping websites indicated that overnighting was no longer allowed. Thankfully, the Cracker Barrel in St. Clairsville, still allowed overnight parking. We used one of our gift cards and purchased a family meal that came with free breakfast bowls. We got four meals out of that purchase and a place to sleep.

However, we woke up to snow flurries and when we arrived at our destination, there were vestiges of a recent snowfall. Hmm...maybe we should have headed a different direction. Brr...

Panorama of the two houses

"I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque." ---Bugs Bunny

Hub Oil

One of the most enjoyable things in life is the last peanut from the can, overflowing with the oil and salt of its departed brothers. MMMMMMmmmmmm, that's good.

Hubs nut company makes some of the best Virginia Peanuts.

I do love to munch on them from time to time, but now I am not talking about that type of hub oil.

Our bus' steering and tag axles have oil bath bearings. I am used to the nasty job of packing grease into the front axle bearings on cars I have owned and the wheels of the pop up camper we had before the bus. Oil bath bearings are new to me.

According to the Rayco Granning service manual for my IFS1660SHC Independent Front Suspension, I have to drain and replace the SAE 80W/90 oil from the hubs once a year. We must replace the oil yearly as opposed to the 100,000 miles a year indicator.

I use Mobil 1 synthetic gear oil, and this fancy pump that I picked up in the automotive section of a big box store makes the job super easy.


It is a very simple job to drain the oil and refill the hub, but not as enjoyable as those Hubs Peanuts. MMMM peanuts.

Oil Change

One of the big jobs in our annual maintenance list is to change the engine oil and filter on our bus.

This is the largest oil change I have ever done. It took 42 quarts of oil. To put it in perspective, most cars take about five quarts of oil.

I got lucky this year with "coupon stacking."  Tractor Supply Company was having a sale on Delvac 1300 15W40, a dinosaur-based oil and ExxonMobil was giving a rebate.  I stacked the two to make what is $165.00 worth of oil cost me only $38.50. This will probably be the lowest price I will ever pay for an oil change on the bus.

At the normal price I feel like I am putting at least one ExxonMobil employee's children through college. ;)  Hi Tom...

Draining out that much oil was going to be a challenge, but luckily for me, a previous owner installed a Femco oil drain valve on the oil pan. Here is the manufacturer's video to show you how it works.

If the video link does not work search YouTube for Femco Oil Drain Valve

The only downside I see to the Femco valve is it lowers the ground clearance of the drain valve by about one inch. On our bus this is not a problem as its location  is such that I doubt it would ever come in contact with anything while driving.  Here it is with the dust cover installed.

Our bus has an air ride system that I can air up to raise the bus about five inches (I have never measured it) so it is like putting the entire bus up on a set of ramps.  This allows me enough clearance to wiggle underneath the bus and change the oil.

Now where to put the used oil... This past year we winterized the bus (hopefully for the last time) and I saved the empty antifreeze jugs.  I was able to drain the oil one gallon at a time thanks to the Femco drain valve. NICE.

Here is the new oil and filter ready to go into the bus.  the extra gallon in the photo below will be going into the generator when I get to change its life blood.

Inspections, Contractors, Appraisers and What Ifs

The buyer's inspection was this past Sunday. They took a couple of hours going through the house while we were gone. It was the perfect time to make another dump run, drop off some kite stuff, take a walk in the park, and eat a take-out dessert from Paradise Diner. May have to order a meal from them before we leave, good food and hey, they gave us a buy two, get one free deal on the desserts. What's not to like about that? Ok, calories, maybe. I did notice that we were the only two sitting down and eating at the park, while all around us folks were walking the trails, skateboarding, and even playing team basketball.

We found out the hard way that we have a radon problem. So, we're working with contractors to get that corrected. The guy our realtor recommended stopped by, but didn't think he could meet our deadline. He had two guys quit on him because of coronavirus concerns. One might work only if the house was unoccupied. Queue another round of what if questions here. Our realtor found another guy and he plans to be here next week to fix that. Yeah!

We've got some other stuff to take care of as well, mainly caulking issues and one door that needs to be replaced. Sigh...Harold will tell you that I was upset about all this. As he said, they called my baby ugly.

Then, the stay-at-home order was extended, way extended, in Virginia. So, now we're scrambling to come up with options for parking our new home. I told Harold that we're going to take our settlement statement with us to show that we no longer own the home in the event that we get pulled over.

We've got a couple of weeks though. Who really knows how this is going to pan out. As our niece said, we will be cheerfully flexible. I told her that she's definitely not a Type A person. : )

I'll leave you with a picture of our shrubs that are too close to the house and need trimming. I think the deer are taking care of the trimming for us.