Bill’s Blog on the River

Sorry to take so long to post back to the blog but when you read “The Rest of The Story” I think you’ll understand why no posts were forthcoming during the remainder of the trip.

As my last post mentioned, had to pull of the road on Sunday night in Davenport, IA due to all the ice and snow and enormous amounts of accidents on I-80.   Gee, you would think that the folks who live in Iowa would know how to drive in that type of weather…apparently not.

Woke up early Sunday morning raring to go and  get the coach to Nappanee that night so I would be ready early Monday morning at 6 AM for the appointment at the Newmar factory for some warranty repairs.

Walked the puppies, had some breakfast, got the coach ready for the road and then went to start the engine.  That’s when all the problems began.  The engine cranked but would not start.  Tried for about an hour to get it started all without success.  Finally got on the phone to the Good Sam Emergency Road Service to explain the problem.  Good people there.  They got right on it and dispatched a tow truck.

While on the phone to Good Sam, I made it real clear that it wasn’t a battery issue but rather I thought, an issue with freezing since the termperature had gotten down to 8 degrees that night.  I also made it very clear that the coach was 45 feet long.   Of course, two hours later, when the tow truck showed up it was a small tow truck on a Ford 250 chassis and so damned old I had my doubts that it would be able to pull a Volkswagon.  It damned sure wasn’t going to lift the motorhome.  The first thing the driver said when he got out of the tow truck was; “ain’t no way I’m gonna be able to pull that thang, also not sure I have enough power to jump the battery”, grrrrr.   

While he was there I did have him give the Saturn a jump since the battery in it was dead again, then got back on the phone to Good Sam to give them a piece of my mind since time was a wasting and I had to get going.

This time I spoke with a woman at Good Sam.  Explained to her the situation.  She pulled up the account and couldn’t believe that the previous Good Sam representative had sent a small tow truck.  She said to give her a few minutes and she would be back to me with a resolution.  She called back about 15 minutes later and said she had arranged for a Heavy Duty Tow Truck to come out to the motorhome and then to pull me just across the interstate to a place called Truck Country and they were going to put the coach in their garage and let it warm up and see if they could get it started.  She also said that Truck Country closed at 4 PM and the problem was the HD Tow Truck couldn’t get to me until about midnight since the Iowa State Police were using all of them to get the overturned trucks off the Interstate.   Again I’m saying, grrrrrr. 

I got the number of the tow truck company and gave them a call…nothing but an answering service.  About that time my generator quit working and would not restart.  So, there I am, sitting at a truck stop with an engine that would not start and a generator that would not start.

For those of you not familiar with motorhomes, when the generator stops…your batteries are no long being charged so you only have power (including heat) until the batteries are drained.

Thinking that the tow truck would not be there until midnight, and it was by this time 1 PM, I figured I’d better start looking for a hotel.  Of course no hotels in the area allow dogs.  So, drove a Saturn to the nearest hotel, checked in and then snuck the dogs in one at a time.

The next morning, now it’s Monday morning, and I’ve already missed my appointment at the factory, I called Truck Country to see if the coach was there.  It wasn’t and of course the guy I spoke with new nothing about it.  I got cleaned up and headed back over to the truck stop to check on the motorhome and it wasn’t there.  Now, I beginnng to panic a bit so I drive over to Truck Country and there it was sitting outside.  Seems it was being towed there as I was speaking to Truck Country on the phone earlier.

To make a long story short, they finally got it repaired.  Just a clogged filter and a 5 amp fuse that needed to be replaced, cost….$979.00  !!!!!, grrrrrrr.

I was back on the road by 5 PM that night and pulled into the factory at Nappanee at 11 PM Monday night.  On Tuesday morning they came a got the motorhome and the dogs and I started the last leg of our trip to the house in Seaford, DE, arriving at about 3 AM Wednesday morning. 

Needless to see, all I did on Wednesday, after finally waking up, was to unload the car.  Thursday was spent unpacking boxes, finding and hooking up the computers.  Finally got everything hooked up and running today, Saturday.  What took so long was that I didn’t have any computer desks at the house and had to go buy two.  Those damn things have to be assembled and they must have had a thousand screws each.  Fortunately good friends came over (thanks Paul and Trina) and helped to assemble them.

So now I’m up and running.  The good thing is that by the time I got here John (and those good friends again) had the truck completely unloaded!

It’s good to be home.  Tomorrow John flies back to Palm Springs and I get back to work unpacking boxes.

Thanks for being with me on the trip to Palm Springs to Delaware. and have a very Happy Holiday Season.

Bill

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Filed under: Daily Update, Inclement Weather, Motorhome

Left Walsenburg, CO on Friday morning.  Took the puppies out and really thought they would just turn around and come back in, but surprise, they acutally stayed out, did their business and played in the snow a bit;

The day started out nicely with a beautiful view of the Rockies out the left side of the coach.  Here’ s a photo taken out the driver’s side window as I was driving.

As pretty as it was you can see the clouds about the Rockies.  Radio said that a storm was coming in from the Rockies with the potential for some serious snow.  Well, they weren’t wrong, by the time I got to Denver at about 10 AM it started to come down.  Within an hour or so it was really coming down.

These picutres were taken out my window as I was driving.  I guess I was lucky since I was just a bit ahead of the really heavy snow.  If you look closely at the second picture you can see how blurry the window was.  That’s because my windshield wiper broke about 15 minutes after I started using it.  I guess living in Palm Springs they don’t get a lot of use and just couldn’t stand up to the ice and snow.

The wiper has two arms.  One of them became detached from the motor.  I stopped and tried to get it back on, but short of taking the whole cap off the front their was no way to get to it so I just kept going figuring I’d stop at a truck stop as soon as I found one.  I did find a couple, that is, when I could see the signs for the exit due to the snow, but alas, seems that most truckstops aren’t really truckstops anymore and only have fuel and food…..no garage.  So, just ended up coming on in to Hasting, NE peeking through the streaks in the windshield.

Got to Hasting about 6 PM.  Stats for the day were:  552 miles traveled, total drive time 8 hours and 21 minutes at an average speed of 66.1 mph.  That’s because I was trying to keep ahead of the worst part of the storm.  Fuel mileage dropped substantially due to the several thousand pounds of ice I accumulated on the coach and the tow car.   Take a look:

As I said, even with all the snow and ice and problems, made it to Brandy, Tom and Sam place in Hastings…….and, it was worth the trip!  Everyone is good and Sam (Samantha Natalie) is growing like a weed.  She celebrated her first birthday on Dec 12th…but actually having a birthday party today. 

The puppies had never seen such a tiny human, so they had a ball playing with her and she had a ball playing with them.   Here is Sam and Jake:

As you can see, Sam is a real ham….posing for the camera everytime I picked it up.  Here is one of her and Oscar…this time she couldn’t pose for the camera:

That’s it for today.  Brandy and I are heading over to Wal-Mart to get me a pair of boots.  These mocassins just aren’t cutting it in this snow!  Who knew….don’t need snow boots in Palm Springs!

Will be leaving out of here later today and heading towards Chicago on I-80.  Hopefully can find a truckstop with a mechanic and get the wiper fixed.  If not, I’ll just get it fixed when I make it in to the Newmar factory on Sunday.  Hope to get there Sunday afternoon, leave the coach there and drive the Saturn on in to Delaware.

John made it to Amarillo, TX night before last and then to Ft. Smith, AR last night but not before breaking down in the Penske rental truck.  Penske was there within an hour and got him back on the road.  I’ve got all the snow…he’s got torrential rain.  He did say that coming thru Oklahoma City that it looked like the city had been hit by a bomb.  Nearly all of the big trees were destroyed by the ice storm they had last week and limbs were laying everywhere.  He also said it was very weird driving through Oklahoma since most of the electricity was still out.  I guess hundreds of thousand of people are still without power and more snow expected Sunday or Monday.

Bill

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Filed under: Daily Update, Motorhome, The Puppies

Still in Holden, AZ at the Flying J Truckstop with a dead battery in the new Saturn Vue.  In order to tow the Saturn you must put it in neutral and turn the key to accessory.  Well, when you turn it to accessory it turns on stuff like the clock, radio, dash lights, etc.  Seems like everytime you stop for fuel you are supposed to turn it on and charge up the battery and at night turn it to off, remove the key and lock.  Of course, I did none of those things so when we got ready to leave and I went and checked it, the battery was dead as a door nail.

Went inside to the scenic Flying J, photo below, and bought some battery cables.  Jon ten got the Penske truck and we jumped the Saturn.  Got it started and now waiting for it to charge.  Should be out of here by noon or shortly thereafter.

Take a close look at the two guys sitting in front of the Flying J.  They are hitchhiking across the country…..brrrr.  Not as bad as it was, it’s now up to 35 degrees.

Here’s a photo of John, Oscar and Jake braving the cold in front of “Big Bertha”, the motorhome.  Not sure who is the unhappiest, the puppies or John.  I asked him to smile, that’s all I could get.

That’s it for now….time to check the Saturn and get back on the road. 

More tonight,

Bill

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Filed under: Daily Update, Motorhome, The Puppies