Bowling with Kim and her girls

We had an unexpected bonus visit while in the Chicagoland area -- Carl's daughter Kim was able to get a flight up to visit her brothers and she arrived the day before we were supposed to depart... So we picked them up at O'Hare and spent some time together before taking them to Steve and Shay's house where they would be spending the night...

We ate lunch and then went to Main Event to try bowling... 

Kim picking up a spare

Lianna preparing to deliver her shot!

McKenna considering how she wants to direct this attempt

Patti trying to remember her bowling class lessons from college

Carl showing good form!

Our scores after one game -- you may see that Carl just squeaked out as the winner by getting two strikes at the very end of the game! I was consistently at the bottom of the pack! The photo behind our scores is one of Lianna being silly having her picture taken.

The bowling alley sold the games by an amount of time -- we signed up for 60 minutes, and got through one game (10 frames) plus a few more frames in a second game...

Totals for all of our frames

Some interesting things to note:

• This facility (Main Event) allowed you to turn on/off bumpers on the lanes. I probably should have turned them on, but I was really trying to remember the techniques that I used to know how to do! Everyone else used them at least some of the time, though McKenna only used them for the first few frames of the first game (electing to try to challenge herself), and Carl didn't turn them on until towards the end of the first game.
• Last year, Carl and I tried duckpin bowling (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2024/05/duckpin-bowling.html). He had been concerned about bowling 10-pin that it might aggravate his shoulder. After duckpin bowling, both of us had painful knees, but neither of us had any particular pains after this bowling outing. We both used 8 pound balls -- they had 6 pound ones, but we couldn't find any 6 pound balls with large enough finger holes. 

Good family fun! 

The real dinner with cousins!

You might recall that, a few days ago, we got confused on the day for a cousin meet-up for dinner (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/09/almost-dinner-with-cousins.html). We managed to get the dinner rescheduled for Tuesday evening...

We got to catch up with Ron and Sylvia and enjoy a nice meal too!

We appreciate when we are able to meet up with friends and family along our journeys!

Continuation of roof repair

I had posted about our endeavor to do a temporary repair on the RV roof to stop the leaks (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/09/its-always-something.html). We had initially thought that we would only put the tape on, and not worry about sealing around it, but after we got down from the roof and rested a little, we realized that we really ought to put some sealant around the newly applied tape. In addition, we noticed another spot of tape at the rear cap that needed attention.

So, on Tuesday morning, we went back up on the roof to try to finish the work...

Before we went up on the roof, Carl tried using the Dicor in the caulk gun that we had left over from a previous project. We always save the leftover caulk (sealing up the end with plastic), but we have found that it needs to be used pretty soon, and it is often hardened before we are able to use it. This was the case with this tube (it was hardened), so we threw it away before we went to the roof, and got a new tube (which we also had with us) opened and ready to use.

A view of the tape on the right side of the coach (the "after" picture from our work on Friday)

Carl putting the self-leveling Dicor (caulk, sealant) on the middle piece of tape

After picture with the caulk applied to the tape just right of the left horn and between the right horn and the edge of the roof

We had noticed this area of the back cap tape had gotten pretty torn up when our shoes rubbed it coming up and down on the ladder. 

So, we did just a quick repair by doing a very small amount of cleaning, applying the tape, doing a quick application of Dicor, and we called it "done".

While up on the roof, we had also looked at the slide topper over the slide on the driver's side -- we had suspected something was going wrong up there because we were getting water on top of the slide and then inside the rig -- the slide topper should prevent that. We had a greater clue when there was a breezy day, and we saw the slide topper billowing up in the middle past the top of the roof of the rig...

Sure enough, the edge of the slide topper has come detached from the side of the motorhome. The water still pools there, but... it created a somewhat worse issue than just letting water be on the top of the slide. When we bring the slide in, as the roller rolls the slide topper onto the outside roll, it pushes the pooled water onto the top of the slide, which then, as the slide continues inside the rig, dumps the water like a waterfall over the driver's seat.

I'm typing this a few days later than the task that I'm reporting on -- we have left the campground. I considered what I could do to prevent the waterfall, and decided to go up on the roof right before we left and try to sling the water off the slide topper. That worked pretty successfully, so we didn't get the waterfall inside the rig this time. 

 

We have an appointment for a few rig repairs in Tucson when we get through there in October, but for now I know that, if it rains while we're stopped, I should go up on the roof and try to get the water off the topper before bringing in the slide. Now we just need to remember whether it has rained while we're stopped or not!

Williams Family Labor Day Breakfast

Many years ago, Carl and George (Scott's father-in-law) would go on a Labor Day morning bike ride. After a couple of years, Sue and Marty would meet them at a restaurant for breakfast as they finished their ride. Others sometimes joined -- George's son Jeremy joined, Carl's son Scott joined (and Kristin also joined for breakfast). 

Then Scott and Kristin had Blaise, and they decided that it had gotten expensive, so decided that they could do a nice breakfast at someone's house. It has grown into an annual Labor Day breakfast, and the bike ride has gone by the wayside.

When the weather is nice, and we are in town for Labor Day, the breakfast is hosted at our campsite. The weather this year was gorgeous!

We set up the tripod and cleverly took the group pictures before the meal! Picture 1

Picture 2 -- Carl was using my camera (because his is still not back) and the timer didn't work -- he said that I should delete this one, but I think the background of the group in their non-posed look is pretty funny! You also can see Carl's teeshirt, a birthday present from his brother from last year.

The second posed group shot -- identification: son Steve with Shay and Addi, sister-in-law Karen with brother Steve (peeking over shoulders) and their two sons Justin and Graham, son Scott with Kristin and Blaise and Thatcher, Kristin's mom Marty and dad George with their son Jeremy peeking over their shoulders, and finally Patti and Carl.

We had two picnic tables, but Addi decided that the extra step at the front of our rig was a perfect seat for her, and the steps to the motorhome were a perfect table. She enjoyed a couple of bowls of Greek yogurt there!

Brother Steve and son Steve

Some folks enjoying visiting around the picnic tables

Another shot of son Steve and brother Steve (with Addi at her chosen table at the front steps)

Some more visiting

Some went on a walk around some of the paths near the campground, while others held down the fort at the rig...

When Addi got back, she was in the stroller -- she was sitting right in front of Carl and giving him high-fives!

It was about time for Addi to get a nap, so her parents needed to leave...

Addi has recently learned that she can push her stroller, and she loves doing it. It was a bit of a hard go on the grass...

... so she took to examining a part of the stroller to see if she could take it apart!

We had a great time with family at the Annual Williams Family Labor Day Breakfast!

Another visit to Lake Zurich

We met son Steve and his family at Lake Zurich farmer's market...

Interesting booth in the Farmer's Market, the sign says: "Old Coots Giving Advice ... it might not be good advice... but it's free!" Maybe Carl and Jimmy can set up a booth at the New Kent Farmer's Market!

There was a playground that granddaughter Addi enjoyed...

Back at their house, illustrating that "a girl can never have too many shoes!"

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of pulled pork prepared by son Steve. Yum! Scott and family were also there, but unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures with them...

It's always something!

Carl often says, "It's always something!" -- usually in regard to things that break on the rig. 

In the past few weeks, we've had some really strong rain storms come through the areas where we are camped. We started having water dripping into the rig through a light fixture right over the driver's seat. We heard the dripping and were able to put a pan under it, but it is obviously something that needs taking care of.

We went up on the roof on Wednesday and found that some of the tape that covers a seam between the front cap and the roof had been pulled loose. We had had a problem with this a few years ago (documented here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/09/back-through-west-virginia.html and here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/10/some-tasks-around-campground.html) and we replaced part of the tape. Note: this is one of the really nice things about having our blog; I can search for terms in the "creator" part of the blog interface and find out when things happened and how we fixed it. In this case, we had recalled (inaccurately) that we replaced *most* of the tape, but from the pictures, it appears we only replaced the part on the driver's side between the left horn and the edge.

We knew that we had fixed it then, and that, theoretically, we could fix it again, but... getting up on the roof is more challenging now than it was 5 years ago, and we thought that maybe we should see if a mobile RV technician could come to do the fix.

Carl went to the office in the campground and got information about two mobile techs; I also found one on Google maps... unfortunately, the one I found is scheduled for back surgery and not doing any work, and the one whose information we got from the office first told us that Newmars don't have tape on the roof (well, ours does) and then said that he might be able to work us in on the third week of September... uh, no, we'll be gone by then.

Because we've gotten water inside the rig, and because we know that there are some soft spots on the roof, we have come to the conclusion that we will need to get work done on our roof, probably a roof replacement with repair to the wood underneath. But, we need to be "somewhere" for a period of time to get that done. We decided that we would wait until getting to Mesa to pursue that further, and for right now, to just get it covered "good enough" to seal until we get to Arizona, and, even though we didn't want to, that we would try to accomplish that patch ourselves.

Tape missing near the left most horn, but this time it is toward the center of the roof from the horn. Note, I had already cut off the loose part of the tape. This part of the tape coming up appears to have occurred more recently as the tape residue was still comparatively clean (other than there being a Japanese beetle stuck to it!). This is probably the area that is producing the leak over the driver's seat, though water can enter at one point on the roof and then travel horizontally to a low spot to drip, so we're not sure.

The other missing tape is on the right side of the right horn, toward the radius at the side of the rig. You can see that it is much dirtier, so this piece of tape has been missing for a longer time. 

We thought that it was going to be a pretty labor intensive job to get the tape residue off, but Mineral Spirits and a plastic scraper did a pretty good job. This was part of the way through cleaning the larger part on the right side of the right horn.

Remember that I indicated above that one of the mobile techs said that a Newmar shouldn't have tape between the front cap and the roof? Do you see just beyond the taped area, there is a big splotch of caulking material, and then another black thing going off around the radius over the side of the rig? That is a flexible material that we think was originally installed in the groove between the front cap and the roof -- it curves over the radius and covers the connection between the front cap and the rig to the top of the door on the passenger side and the top of the window on the driver's side. It turns out that the sealant between it and the sidewall of the coach has also cracked -- and in the last rains, we also had rain coming in above the entry door -- we're thinking from that (though it could have come in from the roof and just run down to the top of the door).

Carl had originally planned to help, but I suggested that maybe I could do it, and he let me start. But after I had done the cleaning, he decided that he may need to help with the application of the new tape and caulking. 

Carl is cleaning the area next to the left horn. He also squared up the tape remnant so we'd have a smoother area to overlay the new tape.

Carl getting ready to apply the tape. No pictures of the actual taping process as we needed all four of our hands to pull the backing off of the very, very sticky tape, hold it so it didn't stick to itself, get it straight over the area where we wanted to stick it, stick it in place, then press down over the whole length to make sure that it was well and truly stuck (the manufacturer recommends using a steel roller device, but we don't have that, so we just rolled over it with our knuckles).

Remember that I indicated that the sealant on the edge of that flexible material on the side had dried and cracked -- Carl used silicone to re-seal that area while we were up on the roof too.

I forgot to get a "finished" picture. We didn't get the caulking done during this work session... both of us were getting tired and a little shaky, so we decided that maybe it could do without caulk. After getting on the ground, we've thought more and think that we should caulk it, but will do that another day.

"It's always something!" 

(almost) Dinner with cousins

Carl and cousin Sylvia had been texting and deciding on a day and time to meet up... the two days under discussion were Thursday and Saturday, so we showed up at the restaurant on Thursday... unfortunately, that was *not* the date on which Sylvia had ultimately texted, so, we were there by ourselves...

The location was correct -- Village Pizza and Pub.

There were interesting, thought-provoking signs at the tables... we took pictures of a couple of them...

Patti looking sad in the big booth by herself because we had just re-read the text and realized that the cousins aren't going to be there!

Since Thursday ends with a "y" (as the sign suggests), we decided to have pizza! It was good and we're looking forward to having more from this restaurant when we actually meet up with the cousins there!

We also found the lunch buffet interesting -- we probably won't have time to do that this trip, but maybe on a future visit to the area!

We've rescheduled with Sylvia for Tuesday... as we already had other plans that got made for Saturday when we thought it was open. We're grateful that Sylvia and family are flexible to work with our senior minds!