An RV Fix - Packing for Weekend Road Trip

(Scott AFB, IL)  Hi 66 Lo 46 -- A dark dreary day with a quick rain shower. This morning we had a service call visit by A+ Mobile Maintenance. A little background:  Several days ago Jim saw a mobile RV maintenance truck at a nearby site doing some work on an RV. He struck up a conversation with the guy, Eric, and found out he's an Air Force retiree who lives near the base. He seemed really nice, and charges about half the normal rate for service calls. Our toilet has had a very minor leak for quite a while (more like "weeping" around the base), and the flush pedal doesn't come back up when you flush it; you have to put your foot under it and raise it. Several weeks ago our good friend Steve in Wisconsin removed our toilet and installed a valve kit. We thought that would fix the leak, but it didn't.

So a couple of days ago we gave Eric a call and set up an appointment for him to come out this morning at 10am. He showed up at 8:40am, checked things out, and removed the toilet and took it outside to work on it. Long story short, he removed the pedal and the first thing he saw was a rubber grommet that had slipped out of place, which likely was causing the leak. Then he noticed the plastic flange on the pedal hinge was turning very stiffly inside the shaft. He removed the flange and rubbed vasoline all inside the shaft, cleaned and lubricated all the moving parts, and put everything back together. It now works like new... the pedal snaps back up, and there's no more leak. He worked for almost two hours, but only charged us one hour of labor. (Eric says he removed the "BS" time from the total... Jim asked him a lot of questions and he was very generous with his tips and time.) So if you're ever in the O'Fallon/Scott AFB, IL area and need some maintenance, call Eric at A+ Mobile Maintenance, (618) 979-3440. He's reasonable, honest, and fair.

After he left we started to pack for our weekend road trip to visit our good friends Cindy and Ken in Quincy, IL. We'll talk about them more tomorrow, but we're excited about seeing them again. They've graciously offered to put us up for the night so we don't have to move the rig. Sunday morning we're stopping by Troy, MO to spend the day with my sister Doris and brother-in-law Herman. I went for a quick trip back to Eckert's Farm to pick up some more apple items. And the rest of the day was just a normal "hang out." We'll have plenty to talk about tomorrow night, but it may be another late night blog. We're going to do some visiting and catching up.