The final leg of our Winter Trip 2014/15 went just fine. We spent our last night “on the road” at Rend Lake, IL, Gun Creek Campground..We found the same site we had on our way down was vacant so we pulled in..We liked this site because it was very level and we didn’t have to unhook. This place is also only about 5 1/2 hours from our house, not a bad drive and Interstates most of the way.
Rend Lake had lots of rain the couple days before we got there…and Dennis “put a little mud on the tires” getting her in the hole…Last year we spent our first night on the road here too, and woke up to 3 1/2” of snow on the ground…I think Rend Lake doesn’t like the Cave Dwellers…
Our last day to drive was 60 degrees and sunny..glorious day for a trip home…
We pulled into our driveway about 12:15PM..MacGyver decided to pull in instead of back in so our Hiker door was on the right side for unloading. We both went inside the house to check everything..It looked good, but seemed waaaay to cold in the house…Dennis looked at our thermostat on the wall and gave me a worried “Oh Oh..” Turns out our thermostat is run by batteries, and those batteries were dead as a doornail.. This does not bode well. While I ran upstairs to check on things there, Dennis put new batteries in the thermostat and went to the basement to turn on the water…This was when I heard @#&@!##!! being yelled from our basement. I ran downstairs to find it raining through our soffet lights down onto our kitchen and on into the basement..MacGyver rushed to turn the water back off, but it had really done a number on our kitchen…Well, shucks!
Long story longer, we ran like rabbits, scurrying to find rags and mop up our kitchen..I counted 10 towels when all was said and done..And, it continued to drip for about another hour. We even pulled out the stove to mop behind it, and the basement floor had water in spots too..So much for an easy homecoming. Oh, and I forgot to mention our kitchen faucet was still frozen (MacGyver got that straightened out) and his old blue truck wouldn’t start. We have turned the water off to the upstairs for now, and are not using that bathroom. (This makes for a very long and cold run to our downstairs bathroom in the middle of the night..just sayin’..) Looks like we are going to have to tear out the kitchen ceiling to fix that the water pipe…I guess it’s a good thing we never started remodeling our kitchen…yet.. “What about the truck?” you ask?? Well, it needs a fuel filter or some such thing….Whatever it needs, the truck bed has to be taken out to fix it! Yep, good times ahead at the Cave Casa…
And while I’m on a rant about bad things happening, I just found out that our Sandwich Fair Association has decided to tear down our Grandstand at the Sandwich Fairgrounds… This grandstand was used for all the tractor and truck pulls and any entertainment inside the racetrack at the fairgrounds..To give you an idea of just how historic this is , here is a photo of it dated 1914.
..and that is Den’s Grama, Jenny Bark, 2nd woman from the left, with the dark hair ..in the front row…Yep, pretty historic, I’d say.
Apparently they are going to build a sticks and bricks kind of grandstand…Wouldn’t you think a town the size of this could get behind some fund raising to try to save this structure, shoring it up and making it safe without tearing it down??? I’m just sick about this..Our fairgrounds is one of the oldest and nicest in the state..
Left, is the old structure with covered seating…Right is the grandstand from the fair side of the midway…There were also booths housed under the seats on this midway side..
And this is what it now looks like…
Nothing left..That photo on the right was taken from the midway looking toward the inside of the track. All you see is the back of the outside seating.
All that remains is the seating that was in front of the grandstand…What a loss…
“They paved Paradise to put in a parking lot”…..
So…..on a cheery note, MacGyver celebrated his 73rd birthday yesterday..Yes, he is an April Fool…and without him I would be lost….
My own personal MacGyver..I wish he would grow his mustache back…very sexy. (wink wink)
HAPPY EASTER !!!!!!
Sorry to hear of your thermostat problems....doesn't living in Florida look a little better? You can always return north with the camper in the spring to see the kids....just saying!
ReplyDeleteSaddened to hear of your frozen pipes. Not a good thing to come home to. I made a post a couple years back about what we do to leave a home in Alaska for the winter and it covered replacing those batteries and my old tech mercury backup thermostat.
ReplyDeleteSure hope not much real damage done.
Oh boy! Sounds like the Perils of Pauline.
ReplyDeleteNot a good home coming at all. Batteries died in our thermostat 3 years ago & we lost all our house plants. Luckily a neighbor checking on our place noticed the temperature dropping in our house & was able to rectify the problem before any serious damage was done. Coming home to problems is just not what someone wants to find after a long road journey home. With this past winters record breaking low temperatures we were sure doing some worrying down in Congress & I thought for sure we would have damaged pipes when we got home. Sometimes we just get lucky..............
ReplyDeleteSorry to read about your homecoming being such a downer with the broken pipes. Hopefully it won't be as bad as it looks and "MacGyver" can make short work on the repairs.
ReplyDeleteYour header picture must have been taken from Long Key State Park in Florida. I recognized the view right away. We camped there and Bahia Honda for 11 years and loved the Keys. Too pricey now for us and we have used the wheels on the motor home to drive out west to Tucson and love it here for the winter.
Wow. What a terrible homecoming. I never knew thermostats had batteries and would have never thought to check.
ReplyDeleteYour homeowners insurance should cover that damage and clean up They would pay for a company like Servepro come in and professionally dry out the water. It might save you money in the long run.
Yikes, I trust summer will be kinder:)
ReplyDeleteI hope you can get the repairs completed quickly. I've heard the same story from other people.
ReplyDeleteOh man, what a mess. So sorry that was your welcome home. Does't it just make you want to put up a "For Sale" sign? Good luck with your repairs.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like it wasn’t good news that’s waiting for you at home. Thermostats that run on batteries are a bit of a hassle, since you’ll have to replace them every now and then. And it can be very inconvenient if it happens when you’re out, as evident on what happened. Anyway, I’m sorry to hear about the water leakage, I hope you got that fixed. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteRandall Rogers @ R J Heating and Cooling