We were both up at 7:30 AM. I made tea instead of coffee and we had a light breakfast. We both had 11 AM appointments with our dental hygienists and left a 9:35 AM to drive to Dearborn. We had only gone a couple of miles when we realized we did not put the trash can at the curb so we went back and did that.
Traffic was light and we arrived at Gusfa Dental at 10:50 AM. My hygienist, Michelle, took me in right away. Linda’s hygienist, Margaret, took her in on time. We both had good checkups with no new issues found or procedures required. The tooth that has been bothering me occasionally all winter may be the one on my upper left, second from the back, that had the root canal last fall, followed by a crown. Dr. Steve did not see any problem on the x-Rays or exam but said that my various complaints could all be associated with a small but persistent infection at the base of the root canal. I am due for a 6-month follow-up visit with the endodontist anyway, and was putting off scheduling it until I had my regular checkup today.
It was 12:30 PM by the time we left the dental office and we were both hungry. We wanted something other than fast food but considered going to Neehee’s Indian diner on Ford Road. We decided not to go there as it was not very good the last time we went and they had changed the menu, eliminating some of our favorite dishes. It is also several miles west of I-275 and that stretch of Ford Road is always congested and annoying to drive. We stopped at the Macaroni Grill at 7 Mile Road and Haggerty Road instead. We have always found the Macaroni Grill restaurants to be acceptable Italian food in a slightly quaint setting. Today was no different. Linda had rigatoni with arrabbiata sauce (spicy tomato), garlic, mushrooms, and spinach. I had capellini with garlic olive oil and the same add-ins. We had our fill of fresh baked bread to go with the pasta and were very full by the time we finished lunch. We used to eat like this a lot more often which is part of the reason we both had a weight problem.
We thought about stopping at Brighton Ford to pick up some literature on the F-150 but decide to drive to Lowe’s at I-96 and Latson Road instead to look at refrigerators. The smallest one they had on display was 14.3 cubic feet which gave us a chance to see the approximate size of the 13.5 cubic foot Fisher & Paykel. The F&P is narrower and slightly taller than the one’s at the store, but has a bottom freezer drawer and fits our available space much better. Lowe’s can order the F&P and it will take two weeks to get. If I decide to do the fridge swap at Butch and Fonda’s place in Indiana we will have to pick up the F&P in Kokomo as that is the nearest Lowe’s.
Driver side sleeper sofa in our H3-40 with motorized drawer removed.
When we got home I changed into my work clothes and worked in the bus. After emptying the drawer under the jack-knife sofa and removing the APC UPS from under the foot rest area I removed the drawer, footrest cover, and front end panel. I then removed the two HVAC duct transition boxes and then the two drawer slides. With all of that out of the way I was finally able to remove the four 1/2″ lag screws from the four corners that secured the sofa to the floor.
Driver side sleeper-sofa with forward end panel and HVAC adapter box removed.
Getting all of the furniture out will be much easier if we remove the front passenger seat so I worked on that next. I had never looked carefully at how it was installed until now. The chair has a 12″ wide x 15″ deep base plate that is bolted to the floor. The bolts stick up from below and the nuts go over them. I could not see the studs but I could feel the ends and eventually realized that Royale coach had installed the carpet OVER the base plate. To remove the seat I would have to remove the carpet or at least cut it and fold it back. The carpet had to come out eventually anyway and be replaced with vinyl tile so I removed it. It was more work than it sounds, and took quite a while, as there was not a lot of room to work under, behind, or to the left of the seat, but I got that piece of carpet out.
Villa passenger seat in our H3-40 showing inside edge of mounting plate and studs with nus. (Front of coach to the left).
Removing the seat will now be a simple matter of loosening four nuts and lifting it off the studs, except for the fact that it is heavy. The studs are presumably the threaded ends of T-bolts with the “heads” in two channels, front and rear, that are installed across the floor. There is an opening at one end of each channel that allows the T-bolts to be inserted/removed. My presumption is that all of this is Prevost factory designed and built, not something Royale Coach did, but the driver’s seat does not appear to be installed the same way, so maybe not.
Power base for Villa passenger chair in our H3-40. This thing is complicated!
I finished working in the bus around 7 PM, put my tools away, and closed up the coach. As a consequence of our big lunch we were not hungry and skipped dinner. I called Butch to discuss the project and get some advice. I then called Chuck and brought him up-to-date. We finished the evening by watching Season 2, Episode 3 of Sherlock on DVD.