Awake: 5:19am Temp 73 sleep 5+55 cloudy overnight @ Watertown, WI.
Larry, Sallie & Alex arrive home sometime after 4:00am this morning from Los Angeles. We heard nothing @ that time; even the dogs must have been quiet. Later, we were told that the wedding was wonderful & they all had a marvelous time.
Kathy & I didn’t sleep well last night….again; we miss our Tempur-pedic mattress. We are casually waiting on a call from strong man Todd; he told Kathy he would call before 11:00am.
@ 10:40am Todd calls; he says his son Zack will help; he is tall & strong & they will meet me @ the Kwik Trip fuel station in 10 min. I dash off in the Suzuki, wait maybe 4 min @ the Kwik Trip station & here they come.
“We have a shoes off policy, guys” I tell them. “No problem, so do we” says Todd. Inside the motorhome, K & I explain our dilemma. With Zack on one side & Todd on the other, they pulled that Tempur-pedic mattress up & out before we had time to say anything else; unbelievable!
They wrote their names down, described what transpired & signed the note card. We paid cash. We talk for a short time & thank them very much. Kathy couldn’t have picked two nicer guys. They made our day & our nights.
Sallie comes outside to see what’s happening. We tell our story; “oh you should have asked Ken & Chris” she says. “No” I told her. “Those guys are working for you.”
A little later, Larry alerts me that we are going to the factory & Sallie has things for Kathy to do.
En route to the factory, we make a stop @ the MicroNet computer store. Larry’s computer is having a problem & that’s not good. Markus estimates Thursday or Friday.
With the overhead lights on & the big door open, Larry decides it’s time to tackle the big one: the Galion Crane. Again the Caddy battery comes in handy. With Larry in the driver’s seat, he checks the lights, horn, windshield wipers but…..no noise from the starter or a click from the solenoid. Those starters…there must be a contagious disease going around in this factory. Before diving into this giant of a starter, we check the Galion manual with the by-passing procedures & still, nothing.
Now, Larry was wearing what I would call reasonable go to town clothes; but to set a bad example of what not to do, he crawled onto the oil laden floor under that crane, grease & oil all throughout the undercarriage & very little space to maneuver when looking for the infamous hidden 3rd bolt on the big starter. He did find it by golly, but I barely recognized this guy who (10) min later, slithered up & out from the machine with a nice smile on his face and grease, oil, & dirt on his body and clothes.
Me, I didn’t particularly want to slide around in oil & hydraulic fluid which I could easily see happening by looking ahead. “Larry, could you use the Hyster Forklift, to move the crane about (20) ft backward, so we don’t slip & slide so much?” It worked; at least now, maybe I’ll just be dirty in lieu of dirty, oily, & greasy.
The big starter challenged us for over an hr & that 3rd bolt was a darn nuisance. Our closed end wrench needed more leverage but underneath didn’t allow much swing space for us to extend our torque with the pipe we had. Luckily, Larry had the machines, some parts, & the talent to fabricate an extra special tool; he found the right diameter pipe, cut the proper length & then hammered the pipe closed so that the closed end wrench stuck about ½ of the way out. I was honored & humbled when Larry choose me to “get the job done” on that darn 3rd bolt.
Back @ the house, the girls flatly refused to give us hugs for doing such a good job @ the factory today. We would have hugged them even if their aprons were covered with cooking stains. Anyway, our initial clean-up began in the back yard using the Orange Goop hand cleaner & a shower nozzle. Next step: shower in the motorhome & then, wine time on the screened in porch area.
More people are arriving today: Carrie’s husband, Bengi, & her brother, Alex & they join us for dinner.
(8) for dinner by Sallie: Salmon (2) different cooking styles: one baked & breaded & the other cooked in soy sauce, sautéed string beans, potatoes, Caesar salad, & bread.
High temp=83 Lights out: 10:47pm
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