#286 Stone mountain state park near Atlanta

Going south to Florida we have to pass through or near Atlanta and I haven't seen my Aunt Blanche for a while. She is getting older now but I spent a tremendous amount of time around her house growing up. I have no real right to complain about what my parents offered because some kids grow under horrible conditions. I would just say that on any given day I did not enjoy the time that I spent with my Dad. He was just a little heavy-handed with the punishment. Being clever I avoided long periods where he was around. He traveled out of town extensively for work and it seemed as if my Aunt Blanche was the fun sister of my Mom. She and my Grandfather spent a lot of time together. They would come over about every day and just sit at the kitchen table and talk. There was usually something that Grandpa would be fixing. I hung out with Grandpa extensively and he was the kind of a father figure that I preferred. I imagine everything fell together accidentally as my grandfather worked at the cotton mill from the fourth grade until age 65 and as he retired I was born. I think he enjoyed hanging out with my aunt because it was just what the family did. He was good company for her and they enjoyed each other and we all hung out a lot.

In my opinion, I came along at a time when Grandpa could use some company. My cousin Jimmy and I were just like little peas in a pod and hung out with Grandpa about every day.

He always liked walking in the woods and pointing out different things. He was really big on picking up a crooked stick or a funky rock and carving on it. If I wasn't hanging out with Grandpa I was hanging out with Grandpa and Blanche.

I guess what I'm saying is very repetitively is I enjoyed the time I spent with her. She was my escape from less than the perfect situation at home. She was a lot of fun. I remember one of the things that she participated in involved her Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. The car itself is a crazy car for anybody to have.

At some point she allowed a bunch of us kids to see how many we could cram in there. We laid down sideways and stacked on top of each other and we got 9 kids in the car.

A lot of times I would go to her house on Friday night for sleepovers and watch something on TV called Hooray for Hollywood black and white films. I remember that's the first time I saw the original version of Little Shop of Horrors. I liked making a chicken cup of soup with boiling water. This was just like the coolest thing ever but it would be boring to anybody else.

Well back to reality I'm passing through Atlanta by doing what the highway says and I just had to visit her because she's getting on in age. She's about 94 now and I guess people don't live forever so I figured if you're in the area you better visit.

In the last 20 years or so she's become quirky and a lot of people think that she's not much fun to visit. I figure what do I care, we have such a history of fun growing up that I overlook all the foolishness. She's just weird is as can be but I just overlook all of it.

I called her number a day ahead or so and it was disconnected. I called my cousin and it's not easy to get her on the phone you usually have to leave a message and she'll call you back.

I sent her an email and I didn't get an answer back. Although it took several days before I reached her it seemed as if she had been a little standoffish on me seeing Blanche. She pointed out that Blanche had been in an assisted living center for some time now and had been unable to care for herself at home.

This was certainly a reality check I could have done without but people do get old.

She said that there's a certain amount of dementia and all that and she gets a little upset thinking that maybe she would like to go home now. She thinks people don't love her and if I saw her it would probably upset her and all that.

I just decided to say well there is always a risk but I would like to see her all the same.

I assume she was just being overprotective of her Mom. I guess I need to overlook that and she eventually gave me the address where she was. Once we arrived at Stone Mountain I planned a visit.

We ended up at Stone Mountain State Park and I do so with some hesitation. The South has a crazy history for the last several hundred years. The broader US including the North had the same problem for many years.

The original sin of slavery than one hundred years of Jim Crow and all of the wonderful monuments to the Confederacy that were built to remind people of color to watch your step. We might have lost a war but we're watching you and we do Lynch now and then.

Stone Mountain Georgia honors the leaders of the Confederacy General Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.

I'm sure these fellows felt like they were doing something to save the south from the mean old north but the mean old North was right in the South was wrong. It was just the most horrible event you can imagine. That doesn't make the South right that just makes them the South. Because they desired to destroy the United States of America have two separate countries or even have one Confederate States of America, I have nothing but disgust for them. I don't like monuments to them I don't like not honoring them, I don't like any of it. Stone Mountain Georgia at the peak of the mountain used to be the favorite spot to do lynching's and have KKK rallies.

I didn't want to be a person that promoted it or anything but they did have a vacancy and I needed a place to park our RV. I tried to hold my nose look the other way.

I stayed there a few years back because of the same reason because they had a vacancy and since it was a state park it was $22.

They had sold it to a private corporation and now it's Stone Mountain Georgia and it has a $20 entrance fee and then it's 40 to 45 per night.

This is a pretty offensive amount to pay for an RV site but I paid it out of necessity.

One unpleasant thing that happened is I'm still learning how to level the rig. It has an automatic computer-controlled leveling system. It was tough to get into the spot because backing into it was just tight.

I finally got it with some help from the neighbors, I have no complaints with the site itself as it was right on the water.

I did the automatic leveling and it bottomed out at the front meaning it needed more travel. I wanted to continue manually and the hydraulic motor kept on spinning for maybe 30 seconds to a minute and then do a timeout.

I tried several things to make it behave. Now I know what happened but I ran the motor so much and so extensively for so long I overheated the motor. Eventually, I smelled a smell that electricians know as the electric smell. I guess it's the smell of burning insulation or something but it smells horrible and it means something is failing.

Kind of like a burning plastic, I guess.

I opened up the hatch and touched the hydraulic motor and it was burning hot and turns out it never worked again.

We're in kind of a pickle because we haven't even slid out yet. I've been leveling so far but it would be so very nice to slide out.

I had spent some time just kind of sitting on that sofa inside or whatever a mourning a loss of the motor. The internet said there a way to do a manual override. I saw a video that showed using a cordless drill you can spin the hydraulic pump shaft if you remove the motor.

I looked at the top of the pump shaft and there was a little sticker that was covering up an Allen-type socket.

I found that if you put a certain nut driver in it and attach the cordless drill you can create hydraulic pressure. While I’m spinning India pressed the button on the inside causing the room to slide out.

Well, I was about thrilled that this was working as well as it was. We were able to fully extend the slides. I was also able to manually adjust the RV level enough to make it comfortable.

The next day I got on the phone with the Lippert Manufacturing Company the people that designed and created the system.

First I will point out that I looked up the replacement motor and it was $800.

Seems a bit much and I had intended to remove it and take it to a local motor rebuilding shop rather than buying a new one. I called a motor shop and he said it would be too expensive to rebuild and I should get a new one. This bothered me because motors are simple and I figured he could do it for 100. Not.

I decided if I talk to the manufacturer, they may warranty it. I will take a quick bunny trail to technical and explain what a thermal motor overload is. Inside or attached to a motor there's typically a thermistor device that measures temperature. If an excessive temperature is sensed in the metal of the motor it opens up like a spring switch and shuts off power off to the motor. Its function won’t let you damage the motor.

It's a perfectly smart little device because it doesn't think it's just working on temperature. There's one on the bottom of every garbage disposal that people can reset by pushing a red button if they know where it is.

If they are smart enough to put it on a $59 garbage disposal motor why don't they have a thermal motor overload on an $800 auto-leveling motor?

Well clearly, they don't because it burned right up.

I spoke to the fellow at technical at Lippert and explained my situation. I told him that it shouldn't have happened and he said well there is a circuit breaker that should have tripped.

I said well I'm an electrician and I want to remind you a circuit breaker only will trip if it sees too many amps. It never pulled too many amps it just got too hot. I reminded him a thermal motor overload would have tripped but a fuse would not. I said I can't for the life of me understand why Lippert didn't include a thermal overload.

He seemed to get that I was right and said you know what I think I'll do is I'm just going to send you a replacement.

I said well I very much appreciate but what would be the cost? He said no there's no expense to you, our motor shouldn't have failed.

You know once in a while the world just spins exactly right. Of course, his motor shouldn't have failed and of course, they should make it right but about 80% of the time companies always dodge things and refuse to make good on something. This guy was almost embarrassed that his company messed up and wanted to make it right.

It was refreshingly wonderful that they were so nice about the whole thing, they didn't even charge me shipping. It arrived about three days later. I even told him that I need it fast and he sent it the next day air.

Their shipping might have been next day air but it still takes a few days for them to get it on the plane so I got it about three days later.

Once I got my motor situation under control I decided to go see my Aunt Blanche.

I found the facility and parked. I went and it wasn't really easy to find the staff but the doors were locked in a way that visitors could leave with a code but older folks would not know the code and not be able to leave as the doors automatically lock.

I went down to the nurse's station and they told me what room she was in. I went in and she was sitting in a wheelchair near the entrance by the bed.

I really wouldn't have recognized her as age has a funny way of changing you.

I introduced myself and she wasn't completely receptive in the first second.

My cousin Kathy mentioned that she was very hard of hearing and has hearing aids but doesn't care to wear them. She really can't hear you very well and I think that explains the initial awkwardness.

I just kind of got close and down low and said hey this is Randall your nephew, what's going on. I'll tell you what, she perked up right quick.

I'm sure she said something like what are you doing here? I said I just came to see you, man. I said you want to come out go to the big room or go outdoors or something like that she said yeah let's go.

I pushed her a little bit down the hall and towards what I like to call the TV room. There was a lady in there watching TV but sometimes when you visit an assisted living place the people are not 100% with it. I asked her if she was watching TV as it was a little loud. I asked can I turn it down and she didn't answer so I just turned it down. She didn't seem to care one way or another.

We just sat there and I just talked to my Aunt and told her what was going on with us. She knew everything about us and asked about India and Savannah and I was very pleased that she knew all this. It meant certain parts of her memory were working just fine.

This is us looking into the smartphone trying to make a video. I love her expression of like this technology stuff is so cool.

I had gotten a smartphone recently and didn't even know how to use it properly. I tried to set it up sideways to take a video and I was doing everything wrong and so it took a few tries. I finally got it to record video from five feet away and it was my intent just want to do an interview video just to kind of record our visit.

Well, I certainly got better at it and I recorded about 10 or 15 minutes of video.

I will put some excerpts here on the web page just for the fun of it.

I'll tell you she was a hoot and we enjoyed our visit and later on, I went to have some dinner with her. She wasn't eating very much and I ate a lot of her sandwich knowing she wasn't going to eat. I knew they were just going to throw it away anyway.

I have no reason to doubt that she has probably Alzheimer's or dementia or whatever. I'm sure that sometimes she can be repetitive or belligerent about wanting to go home but she was none of those in front of me that day. It was just fun to visit with her and for all I know, she might not be around very long. It was good to make sure I got in a good visit. Towards the end of the meal my cousin, Kathy came by and talked for a minute. I left soon after and was glad I came by.

We also we're in the neighborhood of India’s sister Tommye who lives near Athens in a town called Watkinsville. She has a husband Neal and two kids that are college age.

We made some arrangements to meet with her one afternoon I believe on a Sunday. We had some lunch went back to their house and just kind of hung out and talked. We visited for a while and did what we do but at some point, in the afternoon she wanted to go see her horse. It was on our way back to Stone Mountain so we followed her over and visited with the horse for a while. All in all, it was a nice visit.

There is a state park called hard labor state park near where Tommye lives and we would have stayed there but there was no vacancy.

After I visited with Blanche and Tommye I would have been happy to leave but because I was waiting on the motor to arrive, we ended up extending our stay two or three days longer than I wished. Getting the motor for free was a big deal so it was a small price to pay.

I received and installed the new motor within an hour and that concluded our visit to Stone Mountain.