RV’in the Art of Flexibility

One of the first things you learn in RV life is that the itinerary is merely a suggestion. The RV, however, apparently gets a vote.

We planned a quick stop in Elkhart—one day to fix a water leak (again) and a second day to repair the leveling foot. Two days. Easy.

Apparently, I was being optimistic.

The leveling foot turned into two days, which started messing with schedules. Then the water-leak rework took a few more days. And while we were waiting between appointments, the RV decided it wasn't quite finished with Elkhart. One of the windows developed that lovely gas-out fogging problem.

At this point, we weren't really visiting Elkhart anymore. We were becoming residents.

We worked with Renegade Service, and they have a replacement window coming in about a week.

Since the RV was in and out of service, the Elkhart campground cabins became our temporary home. Honestly, not a bad setup. The cabin was clean, about the size of a hotel room, and—most importantly—much easier for walking three dogs. The bathroom had more of a rustic cabin feel than a hotel bathroom, but when you have three dogs, convenience beats fancy tile every time.  Transitioning from the RV to the cabin was much easier than checking into a hotel.

And there was one very important upgrade over a hotel:

A campfire.

Apparently, hotels frown on starting a campfire in the parking lot so you can make s'mores.

Go figure.

And Then There Was the Thump

On the way from Massachusetts to Elkhart, we started hearing a loud thump every time we hit a downward bump.

Thank you, Pennsylvania roads.

I dug through all the usual suspects—anything loose, rubbing, banging, or generally unhappy—but found nothing. As the thump got louder, we reached out to Truck Centers in South Bend for help.

The have do an initial check-in inspection; they found the small oil leak I'd mentioned and a second one I hadn't noticed. Both were repaired quickly.  

Their mechanic took the truck out with contact paint on several suspect areas. Nothing obvious showed up until he spotted a couple of scratches in the frame-rail paint next to the front shock-mount bracket.

He put a pry bar on it—and it moved.

That was the culprit.

It was subtle enough that the problem couldn't be found with the rig sitting on the ground or with the front end lifted. The bar was the trick.

He shifted the bracket away from the shock and hit it with an air gun to really crank it down.

Thump gone.

I had installed the bracket myself with Loctite and a torque wrench, so apparently my definition of “tight” and the truck's definition of “tight” were slightly different.

The truck apparently wanted “tight plus a little pissed off.” 😂

Huge kudos to the mechanic at Truck Centers. Great diagnostic work and an excellent example of knowing where—and how—to look.

And just like that, the mysterious Pennsylvania Road Noise of 2026 has been eliminated.

So… What's the Plan?

We're finally back on the road.

The new plan—subject, of course, to RV approval—is to hit a couple of big-rock locations in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and spend a couple of weeks exploring before we swing back through Elkhart for the window replacement.

Then it's on to Guido's, followed by Moab and the Balloon Festival.

Will that be the actual itinerary?

Probably not.

But that's the beauty of retired RV life.

You don't really make plans. You make suggestions to the RV and see what happens.

So far, the process seems to be:

Make a plan.RV breaks something.Change the plan.Fix the RV.RV finds something else wrong.Change the plan again.Fix that.Finally leave town.Start making the next plan.

And somehow, we're still having a great time.

That's RV'in.

The art of flexibility. 😎