We were quite happy to leave boiling hot Branson and excited to be headed back to Elkhart, IN for our new captain’s chairs and to get the washer/dryer repaired.

We arranged to have all our work done on the same day to minimize our inconvenience so on the appointed day, we arrived at Westland Sales (The

Chaos in the bedroom as the washer/dryer is repaired!

Splendide distributor) promptly at 7:30 AM.  While that was early for us, it gave the repair tech plenty of time to get us back on the road to make our appointment at noon to have the new chairs installed.  Since we originally installed the Splendide, we weren’t looking forward having it pulled out due to the amount of disassembly work required.  This time, the technician did most of the work and made it look easy!  The primary problem turned out to be a motor wiring harness that had become partially unseated – the factory never plugged it in hard enough to seat the keeper latch.  We figure the lunch whistle blew during that part of the assembly process.  At the same time, we had another minor problem repaired – the hot water valve had begun chattering some months ago.  Splendide sent us the part a long time ago, but it got lost somewhere in the new house during all of the moving chaos so we had to buy this one (the Splendide is still under warranty.)

So, problem solved and off we go to Bradd and Hall for our chair installation appointment.  We arrived about an hour early, so we waited for about 30 minutes and then we got the signal to pull the coach into their shop.  The chair installation took about 90 minutes which is longer than we thought – it was

Chair #2 is installed! Wow – they are comfortable!

quite a bit of work.  The old chairs of course need to be removed, and the motorized base transferred to the new chairs, and then the new chairs installed.  It was quite a thrill to finally sit in the chairs we picked out a month ago!  They are every bit as comfortable as we hoped for and a magnitude of improvement over the old ones.

While in Elkhart, we met up with our old boating buddies turned RVer friends, Bob & Judy.  They have been RVing much longer than we have, so they are always a great source of advice and of course we enjoy the friendship of almost 20 years duration.  After a couple of days together in Elkhart, we strike off for Gettysburg as an enjoyable place for the four of us to visit.  After two days we arrive at our campground (Artillery Ridge) which was only a mile or so from the National Park at Gettysburg.  Our campsites were located in the horse

Touring Gettysburg on a misty morning

camp part of Artillery Ridge (there are stables in the campground) so there was a little smell to deal with.  However the worst part for us was the campsite was so uneven we tried moving the coach around in different positions for one hour to level the coach with our four hydraulic jacks to no avail.  We had to settle for doors that would slam shut if released and no icemaker!  We won’t even mention the low voltage (108-115 volts) and the low (15-20 lbs) water pressure.  You win some and you lose some…  Sightseeing around the Gettysburg battlefields was a wonderful history lesson.  We bought an audio CD to be played while you drive around the park (and also the Gettysburg area) and pointed out significant civil war facts.  It was an awful chapter of American history that should never be repeated.

After a few days of playing tourist with Bob and Judy, we parted company and headed to Binghamton, NY to visit with John’s nephew Erik, wife Karen and little guy Ethan.