Beach Time - Home Cookin' - RV Brakes - Tropical Storm Ana

(Cherry Point MCAS, Havelock, NC)  Hi 75 Lo 64 -- Thursday we drove across Bogue Sound and spent a couple of hours with our feet in the sand at Atlantic Beach. We usually try to get some beach time when we get to this area. It was cloudy, windy and cool. There weren't very many people on the beach, but there were a few surfers, including one very skilled kite surfer. He was fun to watch. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

My Mom had us over for another wonderful home cooked meal. She cooked up a delicious baked flounder and potato casserole, with veggies, and scrumptious strawberry shortcake for dessert. (Here's a tip for the next time you make strawberry shortcake; instead of regular shortcake use Twinkies. The cream filling really adds to the flavor!) Thanks Mom, your cooking is still the best! (I don't think Dee minds me saying that. In fact I think she'd agree.) 

This is what happened when we got to Mayport, FL last month. 














That's brake fluid, which leaked out from one of the wheels. I decided to very carefully drive the rig here to NC because my sister Sharon's boyfriend Jimmy is an excellent mechanic and offered to repair it. We thought the problem would be a simple broken bake line or fitting. But it turned out to be a missing brake pad on the caliper. How one of the brake pads just dropped out we'll never know. Jimmy convinced me that if we need to replace one of the calipers we might as well replace all four of them. I ordered four new brake caliper kits from Amazon and they came in yesterday. So Jimmy and I spent the afternoon doing a complete brake job. With our Big Foot leveling system it was easy to jack up the rig so the wheels were off the ground. 

One of the new brake calipers.

Jimmy is a man of many talents. He's an expert construction worker who has built many homes in the area, along with being a top notch mechanic.

I was the cheerleader and chief wrench-passer. I also provided some muscle to help lift the (very heavy) H-rated tires and wheels back onto the hubs. (My back didn't like that part very much.)

The new brakes are installed, the lines have been bled, and hopefully we'll have some good braking action when we leave next Wednesday. Thanks Jimmy!

Forgot to mention, when we removed the wheels and tires I discovered one of our H-rated Goodyears had a small area where the tread was starting to separate. Last summer we had a blow out in Arizona due to a separated tread. That's two tread separations on our four Goodyears, which are about four years old. The good news is, I took the tire to a local tire store (not an authorized Goodyear dealer incidentally), and the shop owner was kind enough contact Goodyear for me. He ordered a brand new tire through his supplier, and it turns out Goodyear replaced it for free. So all I was out was a small mounting and balancing fee. That's pretty good service, from both Goodyear and Baldree's Tires in Havelock, NC. What's interesting is, when we had the blow out last summer Goodyear would only pro-rate the tire and I had to pay a little over $100 for a new tire. Go figure! I gotta admit though, if I were getting new tires right now I probably wouldn't get Goodyears again. Maybe Michelin.

We are under a tropical storm warning for the weekend, with T.S. Ana coming our way. It's the first named storm of the year and well ahead of the June 1 start of hurricane season. It will be more of a nuisance storm than anything, but Sharon and Jimmy live only a few miles up the road if it gets too scary in the RV. We've also been following the news of all the tornadoes out west. By brother lives in Houston, TX and we're hoping he stays safe. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone out that way.

See you in a few days.