COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Thanks guys. Haven't posted in a few days so I thought I'd better get everyone updated.

Talk about stress. Just when I thought we were starting to make some progress with our finances, I had to put over $1100 worth of work into my truck this week. There went the tax refund money that was supposed to be our cushion. Spent $500 for a set of Firestones and then I had to replace the pump that cools the transmission fluid so that was another $600. I'm going to have a word with Ford next week because for some reason they don't consider a vehicle shutting down at 70mph to be a safety issue. The problem with the pump is a known problem to Ford as far as that part is concerned. What happens is it intermittently loses power, the fluid in the tranny overheats and then a sensor shuts down the engine. So you have to pull over, turn the key off, and then it will restart. Not a good thing if you're on a road with no shoulder or you're in the fast lane during rush hour.

But man it sure does drive a lot quieter now with its new shoes and alignment.

Team Redcoat made it to Cali. after sitting in Nebraska for a bunch of hours. They closed I-80 but opened it the next morning around 6. However, it took 4-5 more hours of sitting before the company released them from their shutdown. Their DM was rumbling about repowering the load to get it to the receiver on time but that made absolutely no sense as how was another driver going to get there with the interstate closed? Der.

So they got to the receiver 11 hours late but at least it wasn't their fault.

Then they went to French Camp as Redcoat was out of hours and needed a reset. Got his laundry done. They ended up making a local run and Redcoat found out from another driver that the man said he never goes into the yard because they always stick you with a local run before they send you back out again. That does seem to be the case.

Currently they are on their way to Ft. Worth. They have a couple drops so might make a little extra change.

Redcoat says he has gotten used to the actual driving part but he will never get used to being treated as sub-human by the shipping people. He said he could tolerate the job well enough if he didn't have to deal with any people.

Next week I'm taking a bit of a vacation in that I'm taking my mom to Florida. We got to talking about the movie "The Bucket List" and I asked her if there was anything she wanted to do while she was still well enough to enjoy it. She said she'd never made it to Florida and she always wanted to go. We had planned on going last month but her treatments got extended so that put the kabash on that. My sister rescheduled her vacation and she is flying down to Tampa where I will pick her up. Sis is paying for the RV park and Mom is taking care of the fuel. I'm supplying the RV and am the only one losing time from work but in this case I think it's justified. I found a nice, shady RV park in Crystal River with lots of huge cypress trees and Spanish moss and it looks very Florida there. I think my mom will like it. It's been many years since the three of us have had quality time together so all three of us are definitely looking forward to getting away after such a long, cold, difficult winter.

And that's pretty much all my news. Stay tuned.

 

Quiet and peaceful is exactly what I'm looking for. I lived all over Florida for a year and have stayed in many campgrounds so I kind of knew what I was wanting. I've stayed at Encore Crystal Isle RV Resort before and it was nice. This time I'm going to try Lake Rousseau RV Park because I like all their cypress trees. The slow pace of old Florida is just what the doctor ordered for my mom. She is bringing her quilting work and several books. We plan on taking a day trip to Cedar Key to do a bit of shopping and another day we're going to drive down to New Port Richey to try our luck at the SunCruz casino. Mom likes to play the slots and she hasn't been to a casino in several years. She used to go with her sister but that was the sister that died back in October. So we will get her to a gambling house so she can make her offering to the great slot god.

Latest update on Team Redcoat...

They've driven from San Francisco to Ft. Worth and are now in Colorado on their way to Provo. I think they're behind the power curve because they ran into some snow last night around Gallup. Nothing exciting to report. No accidents, no screw-ups, no altercations, no issues.

Stayed tuned.