Big Wheels are Rolling Again!

YEAH! After two medium length drives, up a few inclines, the Alfa seems to be running very well. It's as if she can finally breathe!

We stayed in the Freightliner parking area Friday night so we could get an early start on Saturday.

Sunday's weather forecast cited 100° temperatures in Salt Lake City. Time to move north. My aim was to find a place that was not too far away, but in cooler terrain.  

I found what sounded like a delightful place listed in our Passport America book. 140 miles north, the Cub River Guest Lodge and RV park is in Idaho and is just on the edge of the mountains. We called ahead and reserved the last of their twelve RV spaces.

It was fairly easy to find and get to. Except for the eight miles on the small Cub River Road, it was not much off our chosen route. 

Personally, I liked the place very much. After several nights in the city, in a hotel and in a parking lot, I was ready for a few days at a mountain retreat such as this. Small, friendly, cool!  



What more could you want?

The answer was a clear view of the sky so Craig could get the broadcast of the Women's World Cup soccer games with our rooftop Winegard satellite dish. I have to point out that it's rare that  the dish can't see the satellites, but of course this had to be the time when it was not possible with all of the trees overhead and the sheer mountain wall that loomed over us to the south.  Most of the time, Craig would be OK with not being able to get TV for a few days, but this is Women's World Cup time, and watching the games is a major pleasure for him. 

We solved Saturday's dilemma by driving south 30 miles and going to a Wild Wings Sports bar in Logan Utah to see the game. If this happened more often he would probably invest in a secondary portable dish, but finding a sports bar is much less expensive. The hot wings were good, and their TVs were top-notch!

There are several more important matches on in the next few days, so Sunday morning we again packed up and sought a park with fewer trees. There was another park that accepts Passport America  about 40 miles away, and Craig called to ask if they had a spot with a clear view of the sky. They answered "yes".

Downata Hot Springs is a little, older park with a variety of activities. They feature a large heated pool, water slides, spa, and two large hot spring fed soaking pools. 

But when we pulled into our assigned 50 amp RV spot, we discovered there was a big tree that prevented the dish from seeing its satellites. Craig walked the rather empty RV parking area and found a spot that looked better. It was no problem getting reassigned. The new spot is only 30 amp, so we have to be a bit careful with what we have on when the AC is running. 

After a nice dinner of grilled fresh salmon, we noticed the sunset was developing. To the west of our site there is a large grass pasture with several horses. I decided to try to get a picture of both the horses and the sunset. I may have done better with our big Nikon camera, but these are what I got with my little Sony:

Looks like a good place to be a horse!

This guy was pushing his nose as far under the fence as he could get to reach some of these thistles. I pulled one and put it up on the top rail of the fence and he quickly chomped it down. 

I think he would have liked me to pull more for him, but I don't think it is right to feed other people's animals if you don't know what is good for them.

It was very cool Sunday night and we enjoyed sleeping with the windows wide open. Monday's daytime temps were in the high 70's. Sweet!

On Monday we enjoyed the hot spring waters in the early afternoon before the soccer matches.

The large pool and hot tub area attracted the children. There are two waterslides for them to use. The pool is kept at 96°.



We chose to go into the two large hot-spring soaking pools. There was one other couple in when we arrived, but soon we had both pools to ourselves.

One was 101° and the other was 105°.  The jets in the first pool were very strong and the temperature of the second was very relaxing! An added plus was they did not smell of sulfur like many hot springs do.

Life is good. Craig has his soccer,  I have hot water pools, and the Alfa is running smoothly (for now).

JELLO

I'm not sure how much I will be posting this week, and when I do, how many pictures I will include.  This is because our internet connection is miserably slow, when it makes connection at all! 

The title of this post is JELLO because of that old RV saying: "RV plans are written in Jello, always some wiggle room."

When we were in Flagstaff we had some overheating problems when pulling up the longer grades. We had it checked, almost had some service at a Freightliner Center, but after an unpleasant wait decided to try some DIY cleaning of the radiator and a new air cleaner at a different shop instead. That helped some, but not enough, and despite careful downshifting we have continued to see the needle on the temperature gage climb to the 3/4 mark.  Not fun!

So ... we have decided to "bite the bullet" and have another Freightliner service center look at it and if they agree that dropping and flushing the radiator is the thing to do we will go for it. We first tried to get an appointment at Charlie's, a Salt Lake area RV dealer that is known to do good work on Alfa's, but the wait was too long. The Salt Lake Freightliner Oasis Center can get us in on Wednesday, June 17th.

That's OK. 

Note: Freightliner Truck Centers concentrate on trucks, and although they will service RVs, truck work will sometimes be put ahead of Motorhomes in the schedule. That is what happened to us in Flagstaff.  FL Centers showing the Oasis seal are supposed to treat RVers with equal priority, plus we should get a 5% discount as members of the Freightliner Owners Club.

With this in mind, I have cancelled our reservations at Bear Lake for next week, and plan on staying here for an extra day. We will then drive over to Salt Lake City and overnight in the service center parking lot so we can be available for our 8 AM appointment.

Meanwhile, we have been enjoying the intense green and the real trees (taller than ankle level) in the area. We hope to get a few walks in yet this week, but rain is predicted for several days. Although our Verizon signal is not strong, we have a clear view of the southern sky so Craig can enjoy the Women's World Cup soccer broadcasts.

Here is one picture from one of our walks:

The trail took us across a hillside that overlooked the State Park Golf Course.

I may post again in the next week, or I may not. We are alive and well surrounded by large LDS families. The children seem pretty and well behaved.

There Will Be Breakdowns! But unexpected good things can result!

When we started out on this full-time adventure we knew there would be unexpected emergency repair expenses. Everyone has them. Ordinary maintenance on a Class A (or for any RV) can be expensive, but that is part of the deal. It is the unexpected that pinches the most. And are we getting a big pinch this week!

On the drive from Surprise to Cottonwood the engine temperature on the Alfa went very high and the check engine light came on. Fortunately we were at a summit, and the downhill drive cooled the engine enough to keep going.  But, then on the drive between Cottonwood and Williams it happened again. Once again we were able to cool down and get to our destination.

Not wanting to get into a situation where we were stranded, we decided the best thing to do was to stop at Freightliner Arizona in Flagstaff on our way to our next location, and have things checked out.  So, on Monday we were up by 5:30 and drove the 43 miles to Flagstaff, and checked in to Freightliner with no problems.

Several hours later we got the bad news. The radiator and "charge air cooler" that's behind it are sufficiently clogged that both have to be removed for cleaning, and the repairs will not be completed until Wednesday afternoon, at the earliest.  This will cost about $2600, or more if other problems are found.  These units on a CAT C7 were certainly not designed for maintainability.

We checked our extended warranty, but were told that the required work was considered "maintenance" and therefore was not covered. We know radiators need to be cleaned occasionally, especially if you drive through dusty areas, but are shocked that this will require 14 hours of labor. Craig did clean the radiator once while we were at the house, but we have not been anywhere that allows work or washing since. At least not when we had the time or inclination to do so.  

Could we have just driven away and hoped for the best? Probably, but it sounded like something we would have to deal with sooner or later. Could we have found a place that might charge less?  Maybe, but who? Where? How?  If we got in trouble in the canyon lands of Utah and had a complete overheat breakdown the cost of a tow would be enormous and we would still have to have the work done.

Life is too short to be troubled by these things. I mentally keep a place in my "budget" for unexpected repairs, so paying the bill will not be a problem. 

Unfortunately were are not able to stay in the rig Monday and Tuesday nights so we went off to a Flagstaff motel row and checked into an Econolodge. There are four or five similar motels in a row, and as we drove by I choose the Econolodge because the sign said it had an indoor pool. We could see the others had closed outdoor pools.  Unfortunately, the water was murky and I choose not to use it. Also our room smells. It is not too bad, and finally I realized it was because it has not always been a no smoking room. That old dead smell never goes away.

I'm not really complaining. We could move to another place, but doing so would be more trouble than it's worth. I'm just pointing out that not everything is perfect. 

I'm writing this on Tuesday night. We will see how things come out tomorrow when we go back over to Freightliner in hope of getting our home back. 

So, what unexpected good things happened as a result of all of this?

Because we are staying in a motel, we have had to eat out. On Monday Craig Googled "Best Restaurant in Flagstaff"and came up with a recommendation for a little place with a big name: the Simply Delicious Cafe Daily Fare. It is only open from 11AM - 4PM, so we decided to have lunch there on Tuesday. It was a bit hard to find, and if you are ever in Flagstaff you would be best to go to their web site for directions.  

It was just what I needed. I ordered Lamb Stew and a salad. The stew could be described as "Mom Food" if you had a mom who could cook! Comfort food without being heavy or greasy. My salad was also great. I have to say this was one of the best meals I have had in a year of travels. 

[From Craig] My Hot Italian sandwich was among the best I've ever had.

Then another unexpected good thing happened. The owner of the cafe came over to our table and asked a common question "How long will you be in Flagstaff?".  On hearing our plight as delayed travelers, she suggested an afternoon drive  to the Sunset Crater and Wupatki Indian Ruins which are just a short distance north of Flagstaff. 

If we had not had the breakdown, we would not have had the wonderful lunch, and would have just driven north to Page. 


All of the cables that can connect our camera to our computers are in the Alfa at Freightliner, so stay tuned for our next post about Sunset Crater and Wupatki.

Gaffney, Freightliner Service Center

The "Peachoid": Gaffney's water tower

The next stop on our travels was Gaffney South Carolina, for our annual chassis service. Oil change, lube, lots of checks and filter changes. Our Cat engine takes 19 quarts of oil, and it needs to be changed yearly to keep her purring. 

When we went to Camp Freightliner training last spring, our instructor praised the Freightliner home service center as one of the best, because most of their technicians started in the factory (building the chassis) before working there. 

Since we were heading that way, it was convenient to schedule our service there. One plus was that they have free electrical hook ups for customers, and we were able to go on a factory tour to see where and how our Alfa's chassis was built.

There is not much to see or do in Gaffney, so except for a short trip to see the Michael Gaffney cabin (pictured below), we just relaxed for a couple of days.

A very well restored cabin.

The interior was quite large and looked very livable. 

When we were sitting in the Freightliner custom waiting area, I struck up a conversation with one of the other women about blogging. She asked how to start a blog. I did better than tell her. She had her laptop with her, so it was easy to get her started. By the end of the afternoon she had her blog launched, and hopefully will be able to have some fun with it in the future.

Robyn's blog: Honeybear & Sugarbear's RV Travels

Please stop by, encourage her, and tell her Merikay sent you.

We were all first time bloggers at one time!