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).

Overheating, downshifting, and radiator cleaning

The following post was written to document our overheating problems and the excellent service we received at the Warner Truck Freightliner Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. We hope it may help other motorhome owners that may have such troubles.

[From Craig]  Since we started north through Arizona and Utah, our Alfa has been having problems with overheating. On I-17 between Phoenix and Sedona, and again between Sedona and Flagstaff, our engine temperature got high enough that the dashboard started giving us serious warnings. In neither case did it get high enough that the engine went into a reduced-performance protective mode, but it was touch-and-go for a few miles.

We tried to get the problem looked at by Freightliner Flagstaff, but they are quite dedicated to truck service and did nothing for 2 1/2 days out of a 3-day estimated time to repair, so we got out of there. An independent truck service center in Flagstaff changed our air cleaner and helped us try to clean the radiator, but this did not help much. We tried again to clean the radiator ourselves at Red Canyon Park near Panguitch UT and Bryce. We left a nice legacy of black diesel dust on the gravel spot, but even after two cleanings the temperature gauge remained touchy on any uphill grade.

There are experts on the Alfa internet forums who swear by Simple Green as a radiator cleaner, but radiators are made of aluminum and Simple Green slowly attacks aluminum. Simple Green HD is a more aggressive cleaner that is safe for aluminum. It is available at some Home Depot and Lowe's stores. 

Our cleaning helped with overheating, but more important was the fact that we learned to downshift the Allison transmission lower than 4th gear by slowing our road speed until the required engine RPMs were low enough for the computers to allow the downshift. At such lower road speeds, it's a good idea to turn on your 4-way flashers to alert other drivers that you're not able to maintain normal speed.

On our Alfa and most other engines, the speed of the fan that blows through the radiator is proportional to the engine RPMs.  To avoid overheating on uphill grades, the objective is to drive in the highest gear in which the engine can maintain the highest recommended RPM for sustained operation.  In our case that's 2500 RPM. It will be higher for gasoline engines and lower on some diesels.

By careful downshifting on uphill grades, we had an annoying problem under control.  At least until we made a wrong turn near Heber City while driving to Wasatch Mountain State Park.  We turned east on US 40 instead of west, which put us some long uphill grades, though less steep than we'd seen on I-17.  Performance of our CAT C7 engine just kept getting worse until we found ourselves in 2nd gear at about 20 MPH.  This kept the engine cool enough to avoid overheat warnings, until we finally topped a summit, upshifted and cooled back down while realizing that we were going the wrong way.  @&^*%&$%!

This fun ride convinced us that our cooling system needed professional help.  We made an appointment at Freightliner Salt Lake City for the next week, and took the flatter way around the Wasatch Mountains (west and north not east and north) to get there.  This facility is part of Freightliner's Oasis network, whose members are supposed to be nicer to RVers than their regular truck centers like the one in Flagstaff.

They were!  We arrived Tuesday afternoon, and got signed in to have our rig looked at Wednesday.  Their examination confirmed that our cooling system was  in bad shape both externally and internally.  Here is their list of recommendations, which we approved:

• Remove the radiator and CAC, then degrease and steam clean all 4 sides
• Replace fan belt and water pump belt
• Replace air cleaner again (the recently-new one wasn't installed right)
• Remount radiator and CAC
• Replace surge (overflow) tank
• Replace radiator cap + misc hoses and clamps
• Flush cooling system until outflow is clear

Now that doesn't seem like such a big list of things to do, does it?  Work started at 6 AM Thursday and finished at 7:30 PM Friday.  We were charged for 19 man-hours, which works out to a lot of money.  

CAT designed the C7 engine for use in the front end of a tractor cab, in which the top lifts off the engine and both the radiator and the CAC are easily accessible.  Then Alfa installed the engine under the sleeping bed in its diesel pusher RV, and built the rear end so that it just enclosed the radiator.  To quote the service report: "***VERY TIGHT ACCESS***".  If the engine had been designed to go in the back of an RV, it would take much less time to do this work.

The following images are courtesy of Robert Velarde of Freightliner SLC.  He seemed to be the service manager, but he also does all work on RVs.  This is an important reason for RV owners to choose Salt Lake City FL, a division of Warner Truck Centers.

This is the side of the radiator that faced the CAC and the fan:

Here's a closeup of the same side:

Remember, the fan had to try to blow air through this plus 3 more sides, two of which were comparably dirty!  It's amazing that there was any airflow. Robert said it was one of the ten dirtiest cooling systems he had ever seen, and that he was surprised we didn't overheat on the flat lands.

This is the same radiator cleaned up:

I forgot to ask Robert to get a picture of the junk that was between the Radiator and CAC. 

If you want to avoid a big expense like this one, Robert recommends having your radiator steam-cleaned once a year.  Hopefully also the CAC if you have a diesel.

Saturday we drove out of Utah into Idaho. The route included at least one hill that would have caused the Alfa to heat up in the past. We left all the shifting to the Alfa, and the temperature needle never varied at all after initial warmup. 

My tentative conclusion is that folks who carry on about vigilant downshifting are either 1) going through real mountains, or 2) in need of a good radiator cleaning.

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.

North to Wasatch Mountain State Park

After five nights at Yuba State Park, which is about a hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, we once again got the big wheels rolling and headed to Wasatch State Park, east of Midway Utah. I'll post about that drive and our new park next time.

The best thing I can say about our stay at Yuba was that it was very peaceful. Except for Friday night and Saturday morning, there were fewer than ten rigs there. In the picture above, our Alfa is almost in the center. 

We did have wonderful big skies, with a storm on Saturday afternoon with lightning and thunder. It's cozy in the rig in a storm.

My first reaction to the landscape was that it was very dull compared to the outrageous color and formations we had been seeing for weeks. But after a few days I began to appreciate the subtle pastels and earth-tones of the rocks and distant mountains.

Yuba State park is next to a 22 mile reservoir used primarily for agricultural purposes. On the campground end there are two islands. Craig observed: "Just like Crater Lake, only a different color water".  What a stretch!

I recommend Yuba State Park as a safe, inexpensive ($20 - full hook-ups) stopover if you are driving north thru central Utah. It is on Hwy 28, off of Hwy 89, parallel to I-15.

Pharoah

[From Craig] It has been 37 years since the same horse won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes (the Triple Crown) in one year.  I was young then!  

This drought has been ended by American Pharoah this year:  

The original motion pictures (movies) were developed because people couldn't tell with their naked eyes, whether all of a running horse's hooves were ever off the ground at once.  See above for how easy it is to see this with modern technology...

The horse's name was submitted by a fan who had spelling problems (should be "pharaoh").  One of the reasons for this success was putting earplugs in the horse's ears. Next year, 1) many thoroughbred registrations will be submitted with misspelled names, and 2) many horses will have earplugs.

I've been watching triple crown races since about 1960.  While Secretariat remains the best I've seen, Pharoah shares the characteristic of never having been significantly gained on (caught up to) by any other horse in the last quarter of any of the three races.

A great champion!  Merikay says the country and the world needed such an example of excellence about now, because it gives us hope!

P.S. Maybe there's hope for ending the California drought?

Two Happy Old Goats ...

The temperature in Moab on Monday hit a high of 97°. When we were on our boat trip, the guide told us about a small Movie Museum nearby. Many Western movies and TV shows have been shot on locations around Moab, in Snow Canyon, and in Monument Valley.

We decided to go check out the exhibits at the Red Cliff Lodge. 

The 14 mile drive was along the river, and once again the rock views were quite beautiful. If you are in the area and want to take a river level drive, go east on Hwy 128 which is right by the Colorado River bridge on the north end of town. There are many places to stop, plentiful smaller dry camp sites, and even some sandy beach areas.

The Museum was a series of well lit rooms with wall-to-wall framed pictures of movie production. It was very well done, and the many movie posters were great.

Not all of the movies made in the area were westerns. Thelma and Louise was one, and The Greatest Story Ever Told was another.

I guess Utah really does look like the promised land!

One exhibit had set design materials. Below is a model of a building used in "Riders of the Purple Sage", a TV program I do not remember.

The actual building still exists. In fact it was almost part of the RV Park we were staying at!

Seeing all the landmarks around Moab and being reminded of all the 50's and 60's westerns, made me think of my dad. He passed away at age 49 when I was 16 years old. In the last few years before he died, it was my job to fix and serve him dinner each night. My parents owned a small neighborhood tavern and my mother would take over bartending for a few hours each evening, so that he could come home for a meal and a brief rest. After he ate, he always laid down on the couch for a nap. He would leave the TV on, and his favorite programs were the Westerns. He said he liked them because he could fall asleep during the beginning of one, and wake up at the end of another, and not miss a thing!

I bet he would have enjoyed seeing all these places in person, and in COLOR!

Good-by red rocks, we will return.  The "Two Happy Old Goats" images below are from a card I bought at a Moab tourist site.

We left Moab on Wednesday and headed northwest about 178 miles to Yuba State Park. We will be there for five nights. I picked it for no other reason than it was a reasonable drive in the direction we want to be heading. It is a typical Western State Park campground. Paved roads, large spaces, covered picnic table and fire ring. We have water and electric, with a dump station in the park. The space fee is $20, plus a reservation fee of $7. I always end up making a reservation for peace of mind, but it sure wasn't necessary here. There are only a few other rigs here, but it might get busier on the weekend. There is a reservoir for boating, and lots of off road trails for ATVs.  The best thing is it is about ten degrees cooler than Moab, and the Verizon signal is stronger.

If you want to know where we are and where we are going, click this link or the one in my sidebar. I have made a few changes an additions.

We wish "all the best" to all Happy Old Goats out RVing!

What to do on Hot Days in Moab

The National Weather Service forecast much higher temperatures here for Sunday through Tuesday. So we decided we have done enough hiking, and it was time to find some cooler activity.  What better than a three-hour jet boat ride down the Colorado River?

boat picture from web

I collected a number of brochures from the local racks and decided the three hour tour offered by Canyonlands by Night and Day was the best choice for us. 

The cost, $89 per person including taxes, was on par with the other companies offering similar trips, but their boat looked better. Covered from the sun and open on the sides with an aft deck for aggressive photographers. Our driver and guide was cheerful but not tiresome, a local guy that kept us smiling without overdoing the trite jokes.

We were not alone on the river. The folks below were equipped to take a much longer ride. Raft trips can span many days with camping at night. We saw at least one other raft that appeared to be part of this party.  We saw them at our hour-and-a-half turn around spot. Our guide said that one hour on our boat equaled almost a day on a raft, and that he had seen the same raft up river on his morning run. Without that umbrella the sun would be brutal!

It was neat to see Dead Horse Point from below, when we had walked to it several days before.  Dead Horse Point is the right end of the large rectangular butte on the right. The expanse to the left is close to the West Rim Trail that was the second half of our hike.

Our guide said there were many versions of the story about horses being left there to die, but that none of them were true. As a local, he said there is an area of white rocks below the point that looks like a large ghost horse, and it is this that gave the place its name.

Once again, so many fascinating red rocks. Do you see the Lazy Boy recliner?

The sand stone has so many textures and layers. In some places it looks like it could crumble away in a single storm.

These are quite smooth and rounded.  They are like the formations that Arches NP calls "petrified dunes", but the river has cut through them. The streaks of dark color are called rock varnish.

These 1600 year old petroglyphs were at least twenty feet above the ground level. I asked the guide how "they" had reached so high and first he said: "Indians in Moab were really tall".  Then he told us there had been sand and rock below that had been removed when the road there was made.

The end for today, but check back, there are more hot Moab days  coming up.