San Antonio, Texas:
Who knew? Wednesday is exciting after all. 7:30 a.m.: We dropped off the Escape pod at the Ford service center and Bob gave me a ride home.
The morning was spent planning our time in Sydney, Australia. Have you ever read TripAdvisor.com? I started out with the review on our hotel. On that page were links to reviews of tours. So after clicking on one tour and reading all the reviews, I was on to another tour and reviews, and another tour and reviews...you see where I'm going with this. When the RV repairmen arrived I was STILL reading reviews of tours.
Our hotel--for the first three nights before our timeshare starts--is in the heart of Sydney's CBD (Central Business District). For sure, on our virginal day in Sydney we will go on "I'm Free Tours." They offer free walking tours: three hours for downtown Sydney, 1-1/2 hours for The Rocks area in the evening and, if I understand correctly, there is a three-hour afternoon tour. Tips are encouraged if you like the tour. All the reviews I read gave it four (very good) or five (excellent) points. Other tours that sound good are Sydney Architectural Walks (SAW) and a small bus tour to the Blue Mountains. That last tour is pretty expensive. I say we drive ourselves to the locations the tour bus goes to because we'll have a rental car. (Note to ourselves: Remember to drive on the left side of the road. How could I forget when the steering wheel is on the right? Random thought: How do countries originally decide which side of the road to drive on?)
Our RV repairmen arrived about 12:30 p.m. and were here until 1:45 p.m. The owner needed to go to his brother's funeral at 3:00 p.m., so they will return on Friday to finish up three remaining items on the list.
Today has produced some thunder which started off slowly this morning--a tease. The "100 drops of rain fell" and then stopped. When the RV repairmen came and were working outside on our electrical plug-in, more rain came, then stopped.
The teasing stopped and now there is a full-on frontal assault with loud, cracking and rolling thunder, lightning and real rain. I love a good thunderstorm! Just checked NOAA's latest forecast, 40% chance of thunderstorms (check, I can say in confidence we're having 100% of a thunderstorm), heavy rain up to 2" per hour possible and a flood advisory. And here I am listening to Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise." What a contrast to what's going on outside right now, although it is HOT out there. I went out to get you some pics of the storm and witnessed a large flash of lightning. Yikes! Wish I would have caught that in my pic! For over an hour the thunder has been loudly rolling and rumbling. More lightning!
Robert at Grande Ford Light Truck Service called me back. He had to go into Ford's technical data to find out what the clunking noise was. He read to me that the noise occurs only at the far end of wheel travel when the wheel is turned when stopped or on sharp turning, such as getting into a tight parking space. The tech report states this is normal in Ford Escapes built before 2009. He told me if it really bothered me they could replace the steering column for $1,000. "What? Are you crazy?" No I didn't really say that. I politely said, "Oh that's good to know. I don't see any reason to replace it." We can pick it up tomorrow morning.
Warning: Kitty best buds pics follow...Stop reading now if you don't like pet pics.
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| Sonnie is helping himself to part of my chair. |
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| "You wash me, I'll wash you." |
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| Kitty contemplation. Don't you wish you knew what your pet was thinking? I do. |
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| Cozy cats. |
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| "Let me clean those ears for you." |
