Soooo, in our continuing saga, we found ourselves in Pigeon Forge, with jacks that were jacked up and slightly fixed, but not completely. We did manage to get the oil changed. We found another RV park that we could afford to stay in, thanks to the Passport America program, and stayed two nights, only to prepare to leave, and have the jacks get stuck in the down position. We were unable to raise them for about two hours, before we found the solution, and found a way to lock them in the up position, so we could at least drive.
While we stayed in Pigeon Forge we did our best to get the kids their twenty first junior ranger badge at the Great Smoky Mountains. Their badge was very different from the others we've done, in that every activity had to be a Ranger led program. They had a vast schedule of activities, but they were each on an opposite side of the HUGE park, meaning hours to get from one side to another. We had a very hard time collecting all of the requirements, one time we drove to the location, and missed the turn, on an eleven mile loop and therefore missed the activity. The next day, we drove all the way over the mountains to the other side (a full day), only to find that the program we tried to attend didn't start until the following week. It was very frustrating, but we managed to make it work. Eventually.
We drove to the other side of the mountain, in the RV and it was a nerve-wracking drive up and then down the mountain, but we made it, and found a place to spend the night, not too far from the end of the national park. It was a Jellystone Park (Yogi in the Smokies), but to be honest, I don't know that I'd stay there again, it was expensive and tight and not very comforting, but maybe that is just me (plus, not being able to drop the jacks, or extend the slide).
I was glad to hit the road again, and we drove toward the only military base we could get into, Shaw AFB with an eye toward setting up and finding repair shops and a little down time, only while we were there, the AC went out on the car. And we got bounced from our spot at the RV park and ended up in overflow, running electric off of a splitter from someone else's site and generally being disappointed and frustrated by everything. We tried to go to a national park in the area, but it was closed on Sundays, which I knew but had forgotten, and it was over 100* outside, so we couldn't really do a ton, no hikes or whatnot. Generally just frustration everywhere, but I did finally find a place to get the jacks worked on, in Myrtle Beach, SC.
So, we traveled to Myrtle Beach, found a place to stay that was WAY out of our price range, but near the repair shop, so we made it work. While awaiting repairs, I noticed that the walls around the girls' beds were literally falling away from the walls of the RV, with a gap of over an inch at the top. I called Thor, again, and they said they'd ask our repair techs to take a look at it. Unfortunately, there wasn't much that they could do as they didn't have a ton of workers there, and the jacks were already taking more time than they should have. But they did get the jack motor replaced, so that was a plus.
We left Myrtle Beach at about 5:00 on a Friday afternoon, jacks working, bunks out of commission, but Thor had found another shop to work on them Monday morning, in Statesville, NC. So all we had to do was get there. Night one we made it to Lumberton, NC, and a newly-acquired KOA campground where they were very nice, and took good care of us. We considered staying a second night, but there were tornado warnings in the area, scheduled for the afternoon, so we headed out, only to hit the rain storm, and have the windshield wipers stop working. Again.
Lightning, with thunder less than a one count away, and we ended up making it only about an hour away to Fort Bragg, where we got into the RV park for one night only, again with no bunks, and girls sleeping in my bed and the couch and whatever else. But we were able to hit a commissary and grocery shop, a much needed trip. Sunday night we parked in one of the worst RV parks I've been too - very close, with trees in the way of driving, so they hit the top of the RV as you drove through, very nearly scraped the side of the RV and/or car a few times on trees, but we made it to our spot, only to find that we couldn't find a level spot, so was went to the office and tried again, and in our second spot, got into level. We went to the pool for a while, and relaxed a little and cleaned a little. I was happy to be able to extend the slide and have some space.
The upside was that this park was less than 20 minutes from the repair shop, so we dropped the RV first thing this morning. Hoping they reset the zero on the jacks (make it easier to level), fix the windshield wipers, and get the bunks put solidly back into place so the girls can sleep comfortably in them again.
In the meantime, we are in a hotel for tonight, next to the airport in Charlotte, as my mom is flying in tomorrow. RV parks in this area are very expensive, and it was actually cheaper to stay here, with free breakfast in the morning, than to get back up to Statesville and into the RV, and frankly it is nice to not worry about things for one day. Plus, the hotel has a shuttle to pick mom up from the airport! Score!!! Tomorrow night... well, we'll see.
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