Wrapping up and moving on..

This is our last night in the Smithfield KOA. I know that a lot of full timers don’t get enthusiastic about KOA campgrounds but I will say that this has been a completely nice experience… right up to the tornado.

With a monthly rate of $450 + elec (.14/kwh) it has been within acceptable limits for the circumstances. Smithfield, NC is not my idea of a destination unless one wants to spend many days cruising the Outlet mall. Merrily’s Truck driver training class was the justification and the cost was very reasonable to make that happen.

Now, it’s back to Raleigh for a few days to get some med stuff done, a few RV repairs (like finding where the gasoline is leaking from when the generator runs) and finish my RV tools sorting/stocking project which I left unfinished to come down here. Although I did not do much tool work down here, I did find a few things that I had previously thought I would not bother putting in the RV which would have been very helpful.. no, I didn’t mean a chainsaw…. I could have rented one if I had really been motivated to use it.

I got a full PM done on Clifford this morning. First time he has had his oil changed since 2004 (but that was only 12,000 miles ago). I get a regular oil analysis done at Blackstone Labs and they have said it was still ok so no harm, no foul).

I also had the Speedco mechanic plug replug the connector on the fuel temperature sensor that I have been getting some occasional error codes from for the past couple of years.

Interestingly, the codes have stopped (likely dirty contacts on the plug) and my mpg has jumped up 2.4 mpg.  We will see if it holds. The sensor is located on the cap of the rear fuel filter and I cannot reach it from above nor get under the truck to get to it from below. The mechanic said he was happy to replug it a few times to clean the contacts. If the codes start up again, I will just replace the sensor but at $69 I am not ready to Easter-egg it just yet.

Katie had a big seizure yesterday morning while I was heading out to get the PM done. Merrily called and I had to abort that project and return. Katie has not had one that lasted this long (2 hrs.) in over a year. She was on day 35 of no seizures.  We suspect it might have been the heartworm meds I gave her the previous day as we have previously seen seizures happen within a couple of days of her getting meds.

After the R&R (repair and replenish) in Raleigh, we are off to West Virginia and then Denver! We are really looking forward to that.

ttfn

Graduation Day! WaaaHooo!!

My most amazing life partner. I love you.

This is definitely a benchmark day!

Merrily now has her Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) and is a trained professional Over-The-Road (OTR) truck driver.

8 Hard weeks of 10 hour days learning Federal Safety regulations, practicing driving, parking, backing, maneuvering obstacle courses and many hours behind the wheel out on the roads and highways, has earned Merrily a diploma as a professional truck driver.

I am incredibly proud for her in accomplishing this achievement. I went through this 7 years ago and it remains the single hardest thing I have done in my 67 years.

Merrily receiving her diploma

Uh-oh, her nose is turning red. Tears are not far behind.

Acceptance speeches can get emotional.

yep, there they are, right on schedule. That is the Lead Class instructor, Chris Chappell. He was also Smith and mine in 2004. Chris is a real personable guy and a great supporter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There she is, Ms America! The guy in front of her is "Catfish" and beat cancer to go through this class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations!

ttfn

She works hard for this Honey..

Today Merrily finished the truck driving class and SHE NAILED IT!!!!!!! It took 8 weeks of 10 hour days but she never missed a day of class.

She set several benchmarks.

• Oldest woman ever to finish the class
• Only woman of the 6 originals, to actually finish and pass the class. The rest were in their 20s and 30s.
• Only woman to take all of her final tests right after having survived a direct hit by a tornado! (ok, so maybe this is more of a Guinness book kind of thing… but it is definitely unique.
• She did excellent on all of the written tests
• She says, “backing a trailer is a guy thing because none of us girls could back worth a darn!”
• She passed yesterday’s forward obstacle course, the Coupling/uncoupling and written regulations tests with no errors!
• She managed to hang in there while 20 of the 43 original students failed the class prior to today.  That, alone, puts her in the top half of the class. 
• Today was the 100 question final written exam and she only missed 3.
• Today was also her last road test, which she passed with no problem.
• She came in exhausted but elated at 1:00 PM and we ate lunch. Afterwards, she read for a bit and then said, “I am going to take a nap…. just because I can.”  … She was always gone to school by 6:40am and was not out of class most days before 6pm.. do the math.. she was never home during “napping” time.
• I love her immensely and forever. God has blessed me almost more than I can bear.
• Now the fun begins for real.

For the past 60 years, Merrily has been and always will be the key to my life.

Merrily, I love you, forever.

Tornado, Tornado, Tornado

Now that I have some connectivity, I wanted to get these pictures and some perspectives about what it was like being inside an RV while a tornado raged around outside.

The short answer:  Not Fun! But…

We are still not quite sure what exactly hit us. The winds had to be in excess of 160 mph to do the damage it did but the “swirling” damage typical of a tornado is completely missing. Although it is being called a tornado, it must have been ground level wind shear. Perhaps a horizontal funnel due to the very high ground speed (60+ mph) it had. Might have just drug the tail of the twister out behind it all the way.

We see plenty of damage like this:

This is the other side of DakotR.

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All the better to see it with, my Dear.

There were other RVs that suffered worse damage but no one was hurt.

 

Just before it hit us, Phillip, one of the workampers at this KOA, knocked on the door to tell us that it was headed this way and we could go take shelter in the meeting room. Hail between marble and jaw breaker sizes was crashing down on him and he wore only a baseball cap.

He was very lucky to not be hurt but I am sure it was still painful.  I quickly thanked him, closed the door, walked back into the bedroom where Merrily was lying on the floor between the foot of the bed and the  bedroom storage drawers. I glanced out of the side window to see hurricane strength winds blowing all sorts of stuff past us. I knew it was too late to try to leave the RV, even if it was only to jump into the ditch 20 feet behind us. 

When we parked here 2 months ago, I had made a mental note that this ditch would be a good place to shelter in a pinch.  Had this tornado been much stronger, it would have definitely been better than the meeting house up at the entrance which got a direct hit and some damage.

For a moment, a 12 inch piece of pink insulation wafted up to the window and paused momentarily before instantly disappearing from view. Must have been a little eddy current there due to the Kitchen slideout protrusion.

The good fortune for us is that we were sheltered from most of the flying debris by the heavy bush and cedar trees lining the deep drainage ditch right behind us. The trees heavily covered in vines that blew over onto the rear of DaKotR acted like a blast shield and deflected the wind up and over us.

Looking at what the wind took out from directly behind us,

Notice the cedar tree stub just to the left of the transformer. That tree exploded and pieces landed on us and clear across the street.

It seems that we got some of the strongest winds in the park blew right over us. This is the only spot that they were completely gone in that whole row.

I sure appreciate the workmanship and materials of the King of The Road we have. Despite the huge weight of the trees on the back of it and on the big slideout, it did not crumple, crush or warp at all. It’s really too bad they are no longer building RVs.

I have posted a lot more photos to view in a set of time ordered albums on my Picasa site. http://www.picasaweb.google.com/emeryn I hope you find this informative.

I am keeping this relatively short to encourage more readers to read the whole thing.  I will be filling in more information about this experience in the coming days.

Meanwhile, I hope this answers a lot of your questions.

ttfn

Hey… Anybody seen Toto?

This time it wasn’t Dorothy.. it was us!

Military training makes one just duck when the sergeant says DUCK!  It drills out of one the momentary hesitation to say why… even in one’s own mind.  DUCK means DUCK NOW and preferably SOONER than NOW!

If you ever hear a tornado WARNING…. go seek appropriate shelter. Don’t waste time trying to find out where it is at that moment because if it is close by, you have probably already lost access to current radar images on TV.  Cell phones, even smart ones will take time to use to try to get information.

Trust me when I say, the time it takes for the best cell phone on the best WIFI or wireless service to find and pull in an image that is 2 minutes old can be the difference between life, death or disability.

TORNADO WARNING is the civilian equivalent of the military order DUCK! Do not try to second guess it or validate the source of 2 minute old data.

Tornadoes don’t appear at one edge of a tornado warning area and travel in a straight line to another edge. They can spontaneously spawn and die all over the Tornado Warning area. They are usually accompanied by hail in sizes from BBs to softballs and traveling as fast or faster than either. They can be slushy or rock hard and you may never know the difference if you are hit in the head by one.

If you think that they are interesting to see in storm chaser movies, ask yourself how big the stone was which was thrown by David to kill Goliath? It certainly could not have been traveling as fast as a single piece of hail.  Consider, too, that getting knocked out by a piece of hail immediately renders you unable to protect yourself or control the safety of yourself and your family.

Whether “stoned” to death by ongoing hail or picked up unconscious by the tornado and shaken ( not stirred) in a cocktail of rocks (yes, rocks), wood, roofing, masonry and everything else that is not part of a space shuttle launching platform, you will not survive and it will be because when you were warned, you did not DUCK!

ttfn

Got the CDL, now for the Diploma

Merrily now has her Commercial Driver’s License in hand and is fully legal and trained to drive big rigs.

Of course, her goal was to become a safe competent driver of our own home and that, she has accomplished through this 8 week truck driver training class.

I am sure that she could have gotten a license on her own without the class through study and some practice with our own rig. But, what she wanted was to be safe, confident and comfortable doing it and that takes a lot of hands on time behind the wheel.

Most of her 10 hour days were spent on the practice field where they have the various field exercises setup with trucks and trailers, obstacles and simulated typical situations to learn to navigate.

Typically, 3 hours of each day was in the classroom learning terminology, technology, regulations, map reading and how to fill out log books. With the possible exception of the log books, all of other content goes to training a driver to be more aware even when a situation is not in play.

The rest of the day was spent getting hands on experience in their trucks with their instructors. That has trained her mind, eyes and muscles to reliably respond correctly in real time situations. This not something that one can get from books. Neurological patterning and muscle memory training has to be done through conscious repetitive actions and that means some long exhausting hours behind the wheel.

Prior to this class she had never driven a truck while towing a trailer of any sort. By itself, that makes for a huge confidence gap. Add to it virtually no experience backing any sort of a trailer and you have borderline panic just thinking about parking our rig.

Now, her confidence is solid and her fears are gone. Add some time on the road and she will be as comfortable handling our rig as she is running to the grocery store in our Smart car.

Congratulations, my Love!

ttfn

Two down, One to go

Today, Merrily passed her DOT maneuvering tests (backing 100’ in a narrow channel and a 90 degree backing between two trailers).

She said that was easy compared to the equivalent tests to pass the class. They have less room, tighter limits and less allowance for slop and oversight.

She is happy. Still has just one more test to go, her on the road DOT driving test and then she can go pick up her CDL from the DMV and start driving solo on the road.

I am just about to bust a gut because I am so happy for her! This is just terrific!

ttfn