I’ve Got A Guy

I’m not a smart man, but I am smart enough to know that there are a lot of things I cannot do. When I was a teenager, I decided to change the spark plugs on my first car. So I took off all eight plug wires, pulled the old plugs out, carefully gapped the new ones, and put them back in. Then I discovered that spark plug wires have to be installed in a certain way, in something called a firing order, if you ever want the car to run again. Who knew?

After three or four days of frustration, my Dad finally took pity on me, and straightened out the mess I had made of things. I asked Dad what I did wrong, and how to do it right the next time, but he just shook his head and told me the world would be a much better place if there wasn’t a next time. He said that I didn’t have to know how to fix things, I just had to know how to make friends with guys who could fix them!

That was good advice, and it has served me well. So even though I can’t rebuild an RV water pump, or get a stubborn generator to run smoothly, or adjust the fit on a motorhome’s storage bay doors, I know who to call to get the job done. Yes, no matter what I need, I’ve got a guy!

The other day a blog reader e-mailed me with a question about the proper tire pressure on their fifth wheel trailer. I didn’t have a clue, so I sent a query to my friend Roger Marble, a retired tire engineer back in Ohio. I know Roger will have the answer, which I can pass on to the person asking.

If I have a question about RV weight limits or balance, I know that Rick Lang or Walter Canon from RVSEF are just a phone call away.  

We bought our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage because it is a first class motorhome, built by a respected company, and because my buddy Ron Speidel knows more about Winnebago motorhomes than most of the people in Forest City, Iowa, where they build the coaches. This rig has a lot of complicated systems that would give a wise man a migraine, so you can imagine what they do to my tiny little brain. But no problem, I’ve got a guy. I can’t tell you how many times I have called Ron to have him talk me through something I didn’t understand, and he always patiently explains it in a way that I can understand. In fact, before we bought our motorhome, Ron spent a lot of time thoroughly inspecting it for me, and once he gave it his stamp of approval, we made the deal.

I first met Greg White when he came to Life on Wheels as a student, but ever since then, he’s been teaching me. I know there must be something that Greg doesn’t know, but so far, I haven’t found it yet. He’s helped me out when we needed to replace the hydraulic pump on our HWH leveling jacks, rewired our tow vehicle light switch, solved a myriad of computer problems, and recently explained to me why I needed to have my leveling jacks up and slide rooms in before I checked my hydraulic fluid level.

When it comes to websites and computer issues, I’ve got both a guy and a girl! Chris and Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour have helped us set up websites and blogs, talked me through resurrecting a laptop computer that seemed to be dead, and solved complex issues with our wireless router.

Back when we had our MCI bus conversion, I kept Howard Best’s phone number on speed dial, and I cannot begin to count the number of times he got us back on the road with a simple fix, or assured us that what we thought was a major catastrophe was really just a little speed bump in the road.

There are a lot of other guys, and more than a few girls, whom I know I can call on when I have a question or a problem that I can’t figure out myself. And I appreciate every one of them! Thanks all of you guys and gals, for keeping me on the road, and for preventing me from trying to fix something myself, when we both know that that would only make things worse. A lot worse!

And when I want to blow off steam or climb up on my soapbox about something that really doesn’t belong here in the RV blog, I’ve got another guy! Bad Nick is my alter ego, and sometimes I think I like him more than I do myself. Of course, other times, he scares the hell out of me! Bad Nick has a new Bad Nick Blog post titled A Waste of Money that you might find interesting. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

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