Today's post finds Mike and Peggy still hanging out in West-Central Nevada near Carson City. My sister Marcie returned from her Montana trip last Monday after a day delay due to "weather." Although the weather in Montana has been pretty mild - apparently the airplane needed to fly her on Sunday wasn't available - so she was re-routed on Monday. We were all glad to see her safely back home ... and she was probably glad to see that Nan was not much worse off having had us as care-givers for the week!
Our weather here over the last week looked to be better than what most of you in the northeast and southeast got to experience. We did have a couple of pretty cold days Sunday and Monday with lows in the teens ... and things are looking a bit more like winter this morning with clouds replacing the abundant sunshine. In fact ... "they" are forecasting some snow for this evening and into tomorrow ... perhaps as much as an inch or more!!! With this knowledge you would think that a smart RVer like me would have pulled anchor this morning and headed south. Nope - not me - we still have a bit of visiting yet to accomplish as my cousin is going to brave a trip over the sierra's tomorrow to come for a short visit ... so we are going to tough it out here in the Carson Valley for another day or so.
We are planning to head south on Sunday morning. Our short term destination is back to "North Ranch" in Congress, AZ for a day or so and then down to Tucson, AZ. We plan on staying a couple of nights at Justin's Diamond J RV Park once again -- before we arrive for our 5 days of "Dry Camping" at the Escapee "Escapade" at the Pima County Fairgrounds just east of Tucson.
In preparation for our upcoming Dry Camping I ran a test on our new batteries last night by disconnecting from "Shore" power and letting the furnace run as needed on battery power only. The test went well as we only lost about 0.3 volts over the 9 or so night-time hours. I even used our generator for a few hours this morning to charge the batteries back up before going back on shore power. So it looks like we are ready for our few days of "roughing it" at the Escapade. Not only will we have plenty of battery power and backup generator capacity - I've even arranged to have our holding tanks pumped out on the third day!!! Hopefully Peggy's Dry Camping Stress Level will be at a minimum for the 5 days so she can enjoy the experience!
Once the Escapade is over on the 13th we will start our trip back home. Or should we? With 6 feet of snow to melt - and temperatures remaining near 0 degrees I'm starting to doubt whether that snow will be gone by the 1st of April! Maybe we should just head back to Florida and wait it out!?
Just Kidding Stacy and Eric!!!! we'll be home around the 1st ... honest!
We continue to hang out here in Minden - helping to take care of Nan, taking care of some minor maintenance chores on Winne, and mostly staying out of trouble.
Since the weather here has been pretty mild for this time of year ... and since Nan seemed to feel up to it we loaded up the Fusion and took a road trip yesterday. We drove a few miles north and took US 50 west across the Sierras climbing to over 7,000 feet in elevation before dropping back to 6,000 feet around Lake Tahoe. We crossed into California at Stateline, cruised through the small town of South Lake Tahoe, and then continued around the west side of the lake to Emerald Bay State Park.
When I was a young lad of 12 or so I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks in this area with a friend and his family. I probably only spent 2 weeks up here that summer but I have fond memories of those summer days hiking, swimming, hanging out at the Teen Center at Harrah's Club while the adults gambled - all kinds of fun stuff.
I hadn't been on this west side of Tahoe for probably 50 years and I was surprised that it has remained pretty much the same as I remembered. Once you get a few miles north of South Lake Tahoe on Highway 89 you are driving on a relatively narrow 2 lane road through some nice groves of Douglas Fir with a few Redwoods thrown in. As you continue towards Emerald Bay the road starts to climb pretty steeply and there are a few hairpin turns that would be a real challenge to any RV on any length. But when you get to Emerald Bay State Park the view is definitely worth your effort.
Although the State Park is closed this time of year ... and frequently the road is closed this time of year due to snow ... the drought in this country is continuing so we found only a few small patches of snow/ice in a few shady areas. Good for us while sightseeing in February but bad for these westerners!
After taking in some awesome scenery we pointed the Fusion east - back over the mountains to here in the Carson Valley of Nevada.
We were only gone about 3 hours total - but we had a lovely morning drive.
Things are going well here in Nevada. The weather has been pretty nice for this time of year with highs in the mid 60s and the lows near freezing at night.
Peggy and I finished our care-giver training a few days ago and Marcie must have decided we could handle the job (along with her husband Don and Nan's care-giver Stephani) since she boarded a plane on Sunday and flew all the way up to Montana to spend the week with her daughter Mindy. She has not had many opportunities to leave Mom alone for any time so I was glad she actually took this opportunity and made the trip. But don't get me wrong ... we will all be glad to see her return this next Sunday.
In between care-giving and visiting I have been planning Winne's next modification. You know me - can't leave well enough alone!
You may remember the issue we had when we left Maine and the Fusion's car battery died and therefore we had no "towed" brakes on the Fusion. As it turned out - that issue was caused by a bad connection where the electrical "umbilical cord" between Winne and the Fusion plugged into the Fusion. I discovered this cause when I had a similar issue driving up here from Arizona. The fix for the bad connection was relatively easy but who wants to find out you have a bad connection - after the Towed's battery goes dead?
So I needed a simple solution that allows me to monitor the Fusion's battery voltage from inside Winne while it was being towed. Fortunately the Invisibrake System I installed in the Fusion last year provides a signal to a light on Winne's dashboard that tells me when the Fusion's brakes are applied. I needed a simple way to monitor the voltage of that signal and then I would know the voltage of the Fusion's battery and whether or not it was charging correctly.
My solution was to use "re-purpose" an unused 12 Volt convenience outlet on Winne's dashboard. All I would have to do is wire that outlet to receive the same voltage as the brake indicator light and then plug a digital voltmeter into the outlet. Rewiring the outlet was pretty easy but finding a local source for the plug-in digital meter I needed turned out to be difficult. So that last piece of the solution is on order via the internet.
In addition to all the items listed in the Boy Scout Law:
A Scout is:
- Trustworthy,
- Loyal,
- Helpful,
- Friendly,
- Courteous,
- Kind,
- Obedient,
- Cheerful,
- Thrifty,
- Brave,
- Clean,
- and Reverent.
being an RVer requires one to:
1) Be flexible
2) Be resourceful
3) Be innovative
But above all -- the Boy Scout Motto still applies:
"Be Prepared"
We arrived here in Minden around noon on Tuesday and followed pretty much the normal arrival in Minden routine. Pull in to the local RV Park/Gas Station to disconnect the car - fill up with fuel - drive over to my sister's place - and then stop Winne in the middle of a fairly busy 2 lane road before backing her through a gate and then into her "spot" here at the Redeker RV Park and Eldercare Facility.
We have settled into our Minden routine. Lots of visiting mixed in around a few chores. This visit will be a bit different since my sister will be leaving for a week to visit her daughter in Montana so we get to use our caregiver skills more than usual.
So now for some mid-trip Maineiacs In Motion travel statistics.
It took us 4,888 miles and 43 days to make it to Minden this trip. Back in 2009 we were sorta in a hurry and we drove every day - making it in 10 days and 3,131 miles. Obviously this trip was a little more laid back. We stayed in 20 separate places along our way, including 4 new places, and we only drove 3 days in a row a couple of times.
The price of fuel was the real bonus on this trip. We paid an average of $2.02 per gallon ... as compared to an average last year of $3.41. As usual, the most expensive fuel was near each coast ($2.449 in Montvale, NJ and $2.249 here in Minden, NV) and the least expensive was in the middle of the country (this time in Orange, TX @ $1.749). It's hard to call any price in the $2-$3 range expensive but the numbers are what they are. Our best fuel cost experience was back in the winter of 2009 when we averaged $1.84 per gallon ... and our worst average was $3.87 in the spring of 2008.
Winne averaged right at 7 mpg on the westward leg. She had some good days with a tail wind and got around 8 mpg ... but she also had some bad days with the wind in her face and averaged in the low 6s.
So thems the facts m'aam.
Now here we sit for awhile. We are sorta practicing for our 5 days of dry camping next month at the Escapee Escapade as we only have 15 Amp service (at best -- we are trying to keep it below 9-10) worse case) and we really don't want to move to dump tanks or get propane. The only real issue is keeping Winne warm on these near freezing nights without much electric heat. We are using the "Stay-A-While" gadget we installed last year and a portable 5 gallon propane tank to supplement Winne's big propane tank while we are here. We'll have to fill that small tank every few days but that should allow us to make it through the end of the month without having to "break camp" to re-supply propane.
Stay warm out there everybody!
Yesterday we left North Ranch heading north ... and a bit west. We drove up US 93 joining I-40 just east of Kingman, AZ, fueled up in Kingman, and then headed north again on US 93 crossing into Nevada at Boulder Dam and then skirted Las Vegas to the south - finishing our travel day by making the big climb on SR 160 all the way to Pahrump, NV.
The great news was that Winne performed flawlessly. Although the engine temperature rose a bit on the long climbs (as expected) the fan clutch engaged when it was supposed to and kept the engine temperature in the normal range. As you know .. I love it when stuff works the way it's supposed to ... and I really love it when my diagnosis of a problem turns out to be correct ... even if the corrective action cost me some $$ and a little time.
Although my original intent was to try the Escapee Co-op Park in Pahrump for our overnight stay - it turns out that their office is closed on Sunday so I decided to try out the Lakeside Casino and RV Resort instead. Since Lakeside accepted our Passport America membership - it was really inexpensive and the accommodations were very nice.
After settling in we took a stroll around the lake on a lovely sunny afternoon in the mid 70s.
And since the restaurant in the Casino was so close ... Peggy decided we should try that as well. Although we both opted to order from the menu - and both of our meals were very good - the Sunday Buffet featuring BBQ ribs, chicken, and other yummy BBQ type stuff looked pretty darn good as well.
So ... if you ever find yourself cruising through Pahrump - I highly recommend the Lakeside Casino and RV Park.
We had another sunny travel day today. Sunny ... but significantly cooler as we traveled north through the high desert of Nevada. It was actually quite lovely this morning in Pahrump at 65 degrees at 8:30 AM but was much cooler here in Hawthorne, NV when we arrived at closer to 55 degrees.
Tomorrow we plan on finishing the westward leg of our 2015 Winter Trip with a relatively short drive into Minden, NV. We are looking forward to our visits with Marcie, Don, Nan and whoever else may show up over the next few weeks.
Winne deserves a few weeks rest before carrying us home ... and we deserve a bit of a rest ourselves. We may be resting ...but I'm sure we will find plenty to keep us busy for the rest of February.
Be sure to check in here for all the mid-trip statistics in a couple days. I know you are all on the edge of your chairs to find out all the facts on the first 5,000 miles of the MIM 2015 Winter Getaway ... I can't wait to find out myself!
Winne's new Fan Clutch arrived as expected yesterday. After picking up the part at Jim and Ellie's place (they were nice enough to let me use their home address as a shipping point) I went to work and it didn't take too long to get the fan installed on the clutch and then the fan/clutch assembly installed on the water pump. It took a bit longer to get the lower shroud back in place with all its pieces fitting together correctly - but I got that completed as well.
With all the pieces back together I started up the engine for a preliminary test. Everything worked as expected with no clearance issues between the fan and the shroud. I let the engine warm up at idle until I could see from the temperature readout that the thermostat was opening when it should. So far so good!
After we got going this morning we prepared Winne for a test drive. I was only going for a 30 mile drive but we had to pretty much do all the same preparations as we would do for a full travel day.
I drove Winne at highway speed and then at slow speeds through town. I drove with the A/C on and with it off. The highest temperature I saw was 207 degrees with the normal cruising temp at 204 degrees. These temperatures are pretty much what I am used to seeing. Best news of all - the temperature actually dropped when coming down to town speeds from highway speed - unlike the other day when temperatures tended to climb at low speed!
I'm always a bit hesitant to claim victory over a problem ... but I'm feeling pretty good about this one --- so far.
Tomorrow will be the best test. We plan on driving from here to Pahrump, NV on a relatively warm day in the mid to high 70s and plenty of elevation changes to challenge Winne ... and this time (unlike today's test) we will be pulling the car.
But first we have one more get together to attend at the Meachams' place!
I know - it's a tough life we live. But somebody has to do it - it might as well be us.
We have spent our last few days here at North Ranch taking care of a few chores, soaking up some sun, and mixing in a little visiting with the Meachams.
I was successful in removing Winne's Fan Clutch on Wednesday. The first step was to remove the lower half of the fan shroud which was relatively easy as it was only held together with a few clips on either side and one bolt on the very bottom. With the shroud out of the way all I had to do was remove the fan/clutch combination by loosening one Big Nut holding it to the water pump. I made that sound easy - and it was - once I purchased the special pulley holding tool at the local NAPA store and then figured out how to attach it to the pulley and have it stay in place long enough for me to install a BACW (Big A.. Crescent Wrench) to the Big Nut and then rap the BACW with a BAH (Big A.. Hammer) and voila ... the fan/clutch assembly was loose and able to be screwed off by hand!
The new clutch is supposed to be delivered today and should be relatively easy to install - pretty much the opposite of dis-assembly except that the BAH should not be needed.
The weather here at North Ranch has been pretty darn nice these last few days with highs in the high 70s, lows in the low 50s and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I'm pretty sure we could get real use to these conditions for a month or so each winter!
But not this winter ... we are still on a mission to get up to Nevada and see Nan and my sisters/families. So the plan is get Winne's repairs done today/tomorrow and then head north on Sunday if all goes according to plan.
But I figure we might as well enjoy ourselves while we wait on parts! So last night we had Happy Hour with Jim and Ellie here at our "Spot" and then traveled into beautiful downtown Congress for a pretty tasty Pizza.
Who knows what trouble we may get into today and tomorrow while not playing RV mechanic.
Stay Warm Ya'll!
We made the 200 or so mile drive from Tucson to Congress on Monday - a beautiful, sunny Arizona day. While transiting around Phoenix we drove right past the stadium where the Superbowl was played the previous day. I'm sure the traffic would have been much worse then!
During our drive north I kept a close eye on Winne's temperature gauge. Well ... not really the original dash gauge which is mostly useless as it doesn't hardly move off normal until the engine temp gets over 220 degrees ... but I watched the Scangauge II readout that I installed a few years ago and gives a much more accurate indication of temperature. Unfortunately the more I watched it the more I didn't like what I saw. The engine temp was pretty normal as long as we were traveling along at 63 mph on flat road but would start to climb in any stop-and-go traffic and if we had to climb any significant grades. I could keep the temperature under control by operating the coach heater but things got pretty warm inside doing that. Given that we still have about 700 miles to go through some pretty remote country, and given that those miles contain some significant long grades, I came to the conclusion that we better get Winne fixed before going much further.
Yesterday I made a bunch of phone calls to see what I could do to obtain a new fan clutch. Although Winne's engine is a GM 8.1 Liter V-8 -- you can't just go to any auto parts store to obtain a new fan clutch since that was installed by the chassis builder. An added complication is that Winne's chassis builder (Workhorse Custom Chassis) is no longer in business. I was able to source a new fan clutch through a supplier in Washington state that could be delivered here by UPS in 3 days for free or overnight for the small fee of $103. I opted for free!
I took a look at what would be necessary to replace the fan clutch right where we sit and it looks fairly straightforward ... so I have a couple of days to remove the old one before the new one arrives. Ah ... the joys of a do-it-yourself RV'er!
Now back to the more fun stuff ...
After we arrived here at the Escapee North Ranch RV Park in Congress, AZ and got settled in we found our way over to Jim and Ellie Meacham's new (to them) home here in the park. This park, like a few other Escapee Parks contains a pretty standard RV Campground as well as several hundred deeded lots that Escapee Club Members can purchase and use for parking their RV, or building a small home, or both. Jim and Ellie recently purchased a home here in the park and are in the process of fixing it to their liking while living in their motorhome onsite. We visited with Jim and Ellie for a short while and then returned to our spot in the campground before returning around 4ish for Happy Hour at the Meacham residence. After we got "Happy" we then headed out to nearby Wickenburg for some good authentic Mexican Food.
Wow - that was a full and fun day -- well except for the overheating engine part!
We spent Tuesday sourcing repair parts and doing a bit of shopping in Wickenburg. We have only seen a small bit of Wickenburg but it looks like an interesting place that requires some more exploring.
Before long it was time to get Happy again over at the Meacham's. Those Meacham's sure are Happy people. And it turns out that their new place is a gathering spot for other Happy people around 4 PM so we got to meet more new folks!
Not only that ... we were treated to some great grilled chicken cooked by Jim while visiting with he, Ellie, and Mike and Pat McFall. Mike and Pat have been RVing for many years and are well known in the RV community having been the #1 vendor of the Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Monitoring System to RVers. We purchased our system from them back in 2008 and it was great to meet them in person.
So that's how things are here in the desert. Warm days and Happy nights. I should say I'm sorry to all our friends and relatives back in Maine dealing with all the snow they have received the last week ... so here ya go ...
Sorry
I see from my calendar that today is Groundhog Day. It's pretty early in Mountain Time as I write this in Arizona so I don't know if Phil is even awake - but I think most New Englanders are ready for an early spring ... just sayin'!
Speaking of New England - How about those Patriots ... Super Bowl Champs once again! It certainly was a heartbreaking loss for the Seahawks ... but we Patriot fans have certainly had our share of those as well ... so if it helps any - we feel your pain. But not for long!
Peggy and I traveled further west since my last blog entry making it to Tucson, Arizona on Saturday. Our two days of travel from Fort Stockton, TX were both uneventful although a bit rainy. We have traveled through this country several times in the past but this was the first time seeing rain drops on the windshield and puddles in the desert.
Winne continues to run pretty well although she is starting to complain. She just turned over 120,000 miles and seems to want some attention. She has developed a new exhaust leak on the passenger side manifold that can be heard on cold start-ups in the morning but goes away fairly quickly once things warm up. I suspect another exhaust manifold stud has broken and will need replacement but I think (hope) that it can wait until we get home. I have also noticed that the engine is running a bit warmer than normal and I suspect the thermostatically controlled fan clutch has quit working. Fortunately the relatively cool temperatures we have seen while traveling have helped keep any overheating problems under control ... but I think this issue may have to be dealt with before we make the return trip. Perhaps the Redeker RV Park and RV Repair Center will be open when I get to Minden, NV.
Oh by the way - if you ever find yourself traveling through Tucson, AZ this time of year - and if you tend to travel without making many advance reservations as I do - you might want to make sure the Tucson Gem Show is not in progress. When you combine the fact that this area tends to be an RV haven this time of year with Tucson's biggest attraction of the year - you can find yourself scrambling for a place to park with "hookups." Who knew that there were so may rock hounds in this world?
But it's "all good." The nice folks here at Justin's Diamond J RV Park took care of us for the last two nights and we are heading out this morning for "North Ranch" -- the Escapee Park a few hundred miles north near Congress, AZ. We plan on spending a few days at North Ranch warming up before heading north into the cooler climes of central Nevada.
Time to get these Maineiacs back In Motion once again.
