Why? An " RV only" Blog Post

Well, we are on the road again.  The following short post does NOT include anything about our winter trip.  I have a few more posts to do about it, but this is about what we are up to now!

We drove from Jojoba Hills to Fruita (Grand Junction CO area) in three days. It feels great to be out again, and the scenery has been beautiful. We've had a few problems, but overall, everything will work out!

So, WHY does Craig have a fly swatter suspended from the pull string of the large shade on the driver's side window?

Because while we were traveling down the road a fly kept bothering him. 

He successfully swatted it, but in doing so the swatter got tangled up in the pull string on the shade. 

An amusing situation, but not permanent. We untangled it when we next stopped. And scraped the fly off the window.




Here's another one.  Why are the bedroom windows of the Alfa draped with a bedsheet? 

Because ... We took down all of the mini blinds so we could have them professionally cleaned and restrung using an Ultrasonic process.

After many years of having no more than a light dusting now and then, the blinds were getting quite gross. I had heard about this "Ultrasound" process, and had tried to get it done over the winter when we were at Jojoba. I called several companies, and either they did not service our area, or they did not return my calls. So I found one in Grand Junction CO and made an appointment for now.  I will let you know how it worked out in another post. We took them all down ourselves and took them into the company that will clean them. It will take two days, and although we don't mind if other campers can see into our kitchen at night, we really don't want them to be able to look into the bedroom. 

We started our summer 2019 travels four days ago. The first days of driving can often be extra hard as we get used to the travel routine and deal with mechanical failures or problems that so often happen after a long parked period.  

This time one occurred when Craig was leveling the coach on our second night of travel. We don't know if it was the leveling jacks that caused the problem, or just a timing coincidence, but as he was leveling we heard a horrible noise and smelled electrical burning from under the entry steps. Craig shut the leveling down and quickly opened the access door and saw black smoke coming from the Xantrex inverter/charger.  

Thankfully there was no fire, we did get leveled for the night, and were able to continue on the next day.  It was clear the Xantrex was dead and must be replaced. Craig tried to find someone in Colorado who could order a new unit for us, and install it in a reasonable time. No luck. Most RV repair places are booked out weeks in advance.  

Craig was able to find one on Amazon, and it will be here at our park on Monday. He has evaluated it as a simple installation, since the new one is exactly the same model as the old one. Meanwhile he bought a small charger to keep the batteries charged. 

One view from the tower at the Museum of the West

The scenery driving across the Eastern part of Utah and into Colorado was beautiful, and we look forward to exploring some of it by Jeep. 

Today we started our Colorado experience with a visit to the Museum of the West in Grand Junction. We have been to other Museums with similar objects, but it is good to refresh our feel for the history of where we are.

Check back for more news.