Interesting I-75 Rest Stop

On the way to Naples, today, we stopped at a rest stop around about the 340 mile marker on interstate  75 South. Just before that, a hay bearing farm truck kicked up a BIG rock and cracked our new (well, ok, two month old) Tiffin windshield. I was following Eldy in the car to charge up the battery for about an hour in hopes of keeping it from dying today, and so he pulled in to assess the damage and so we could hook the car back up to tow. Darned if that farm truck didn't pull into the rest stop as well! I wanted to go give him a piece of my mind and maybe get his insurance info, but as Eldy says, he couldn't help kicking up a rock, it could have been from his tires, but probably was off the road anyway....so I left it alone...the crack is about the size of a quarter...I think it's bigger, but we hope it can be fixed without replacing the windshield. We have a $1,000 deductible on the RV, so we're out of pocket on this one. Makes you sick when something like that happens but sooner or later, it's bound to happen!

At any rate, we pull in to the rest stop and a very chatty guy comes over and starts talking to me about what a nice rig we had, the windshield crack, the weather, etc. I was a little suspicious of the way he was really engaging me in conversation almost like he was trying to distract me, so I chatted just for a minute or so, then I got in the car to get the tow ready. He then turns to Eldy and says very insistently, "C'mon over here, you gotta see this..." Pretty soon he's got Eldy over by a group of truckers. They were all gathered, about six of them, watching some guy mess around with cards on the ground. A couple of them were holding $100.00 bills and the guy with the cards is holding a WAD of 100.00 bills...apparently, some guy's wife won $200,000 at a casino and the husband was throwing out hundred dollar bills around at people to guess which card was red...he appeared to be drunk and there were only three cards on the ground so guys were helping each other guess which was the red card. My question was, WHERE WAS THE WIFE? I missed all the fun, darn it! I was doing THE PROCEDURE with the car--running it through the gears. Eldy thought it might have been a scam or something and didn't feel very comfortable about what was going on, so he quickly walked away and we headed out....I don't think casinos give out huge amounts of cash when you win, don't they write you a check???? Heck if we know. At any rate, we felt sorry for the guy as he was going to be out a LOT of money before too long, the way people were taking advantage of the situation. I thought he was going to have a LOT of explaining to do to his wife about where a chunk o' money went today!

"pineapple" palm

The weather is lookin' G-O-O-O-D for Naples, our destination for tonight....each time we got out of the RV to stretch our legs or make a stop for fuel, it got warmer and warmer as we went....beautiful travelin' day today....gorgeous skies, very little wind...we are getting 9.1 miles to the gallon today...whoopee!  That's very decent for a new diesel pusher.....

One thing we learned today and are questioning and need more information....recently we had an oil change and a 6,000 mile checkup at the Freightliner dealer in Elkhart, IN. In the back of the Freightliner manual, there are tear out pages for each service that have listings as to what you are supposed to have done at each checkup. When we turned in the sheet for the 6,000 mile checkup, it had a left hand column that said "check"  or "change"...under the transmission fluid, it had "change"....we did not notice that  as we handed the tech the sheet. About $900 later, we were shocked and asked why an oil change and the 6,000 mile checkup was that much. He pointed out that the transmission FLUID alone was $225.00...ouch! Well, we figured, ok, the transmission was on the "change" list and we had to bite the bullet and pay...later, we did some more research and the transmission fluid and filter are marked "change" for EVERY oil change. That can't be right! We are calling Freightliner to find out exactly what DO they recommend for transmission changes for the RV.  Just a heads up for anyone so you don't make the same mistake we did. An expensive lesson, I am thinking! We're coming into Naples now....the streets are beautifully lined with planters full of palm trees in the middle with gorgeous flowering shrubs--azaleas, hibiscus...I think we're gonna like this town! See you tomorrow....