July 23 - July 31, 2013

July 31, 2013

Much has happened since my last posting; to begin, while Supreme Queen and I were at the Ceremonial and Banquet for Samla in Washington, DC (as noted above), Harold was at an RV dealer in Manassas, VA having the Transfer Switch replaced. Before he even left their parking lot, the generator quit again. Since the dealer basically dismissed him by refusing to look into the problem, he headed back to Kena Shrine Center to wait for our arrival from DC. The next morning, Margaret Ann and I gathered what stuff which we needed for the day and carried it into the Kena Shrine Center, found an air conditioned room and made ourselves comfy so Harold could go to a Cummins Power Systems dealer in Manassas to have the generator looked at again. The conclusion; the technician felt that the circuit board needed replacing of which they had none in stock, however, their Harrisburg, PA facility did. El Manrah Temple, Daughters of the Nile put on a beautiful Ceremonial and Banquet that evening. These ladies worked their hearts out provide us with everything we needed to be comfortable during the day and assist their Temple in showing their dedication to the order, in the evening. They did all the decorations, transforming a very large ballroom into an intimate setting, did all the cooking, cleaning and performed a well-executed Ceremonial. Kudos to all of you wonderful ladies!!

Thank you for your generosity and courtesies! The next morning, Queen Joyce delivered SQ Margaret Ann to Dulles Airport, so she could catch a flight to Omaha, NE and we headed north to Point Peninsula, NY with a scheduled stop in Harrisburg, PA.

On the road again!! We arrived in Harrisburg, PA late morning at the Cummins Power System dealer. After running some diagnostics, the technician and service writer made the decision to change the generator circuit board, however neither was convinced that this would solve the problem. However hopeful!! The generator was started and ran just fine for about an hour, then, you guessed it, shut down! This was a good thing. The code number which showed when the generator quit was Code 18, of which was not listed in their trouble shooting guide; are you kidding me! Chris, the service writer and the technician stayed on this and determined that the issue was a defective heat sensor in the exhaust of the generator, yay, we had a diagnosis! Booo, the part wasn’t in stock but could be delivered by 10 am the next morning which it was. By noon we were on the road heading north to Point Peninsula, NY with a scheduled stop at Camping World in Syracuse, NY for more warranty work to be done to this brand new 2013 motor coach. You’re probably thinking, what else could go wrong with this, right? At Camping World we spoke with Shannon, who was so helpful and on top of this. Not only did she listen to what the issues were, she teared up when she learned what this project was all about and promised to take care of everything as soon as she could. This woman made good on that promise! We left Nila with Shannon for 4 business days and the warranty work was complete. Thank you Shannon, you’re the best!! Nila is now back with us waiting patiently to get back on the tour when we reconnect with the SQ in Minneapolis, MN on August 12, 2013.

I want to remind everyone that to support this tour and the Foundation, go to www.donfdn.org make a donation in the name of the “Love for the Children Tour”. All donations to the Daughters of the Nile Foundation are tax deductible and how better to support the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children®, than to make a contribution to the endowment fund. Last year the Daughters of the Nile Foundation wrote a check for $1,700,000.00 that’s 1.7 million to the hospitals!

Thank you all for taking the time to read this blog and follow us on this extensive tour! Even through the mechanical issues which we have experienced, every day is an adventure, every day we see all the goodness in the world and every day we are blessed that we can be part of this very important project! As in the words of Supreme Queen Margaret Ann Risk, “if one child receives the help that he/she needs, then this tour will be successful. You can’t put a price on that!”