More updates- Day 388 (Yr 2, Day 21)

Raleigh, NC

Mitch passed the last part of his gas line inspection exam, so he is now certified to work in the Carolinas.  Apparently, if there are any other locations he wants to work in, he needs to take the tests again.  No word yet on the IT job, but that's something he wants to negotiate for.  (On Thursday, he returned to the hotel at 5:30.  I was sitting in the cafe area in the lobby all that time, working.  Neither of us had food since 6:30 that morning, so we went out for a quick bite before hitting the road and returning back to Raleigh at 11 pm).

Regarding the truck - this proved yet again that plans are made in jello.  We've been waiting for the running board to be delivered.  It was supposed to have arrived on Wed. 7/15, so that the truck would be ready to pick up tomorrow (Mon. 7/20) and we would leave on the 22nd for Concord.  Turns out that the part won't even be shipped until the end of next week (maybe).  And if it's sent by freight, it could take another 2-3 weeks to arrive here.  Frustrating to say the least, but again, we could be stuck in worse places.

On Friday night, Lara, Paul and the 2 boys joined us for a very lovely Shabbat dinner.

I had also forgot to mention that last week, Donna, Hugh, Lily and Foxy (Jessica's in-laws, niece and their pug) came to Raleigh.  Lily was attending a class at NC State, and as it turned out, Griffin had a training class up in Boston.  Jess joined him up there, so the Grants were house and dog sitting while they were gone.  We all went out for dinner and to play trivia on Monday night (our 2 teams were the Hatfields and McCoys and we tied for 3rd place).  On Tuesday morning, after dropping Lily off at the college campus, Donna and Hugh joined me for a nice breakfast of bagels & lox (first time for Hugh!).  On Saturday night after Shabbat, we met up with them for dinner and then went back to the house and waited for Jess & Griffin to return (they came in at 11:30).

Rig-wise, we noticed that the level was very, very low.  It appears that the hydraulic system lowered on the gears.  It could be a bad seal, or a leak in the system, or (most likely), air got into the system which would also cause these symptoms.  Air can get in if the slides aren't opened and closed in a specific order.  I think since a lot of work was done on the bedroom slide and they probably had to open and close just that one to test it, that could be the cause.  In order to remove the air, we need to close the slides in proper order and raise the jacks.  Can't raise the jacks unless we're attached to the truck (so that the hitch will take the weight) and since we don't have the truck.....

Our friends, Rusty and Charrita returned here as well.  We didn't have a chance to see them yet as either we were away or they were.  Hopefully tomorrow we can catch up.  Perhaps they may even let us borrow their truck to hitch up for purposes of raising the jacks.

Since we won't be leaving this week, no real plans yet for the week yet.