Scipio and new tires

25 October

 We spent the night at the Flying J Truck stop on the I-15 at the intersection of the 50 East, our route for the morning.

Have been avoiding posting this entry because Art was and is a bit cross with himself, thinking that he was taken in by a less than scrupulous tire dealer.

Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning? We woke to this, and sure enough. .  .  . .

While Gillian was walking the dogs a man wandered past and said the the right front tire looked low and that air was available at the G&G Service tire shop across the lot. Art got our air pressure gauge and exited the rig. The right front tire was about 10 psi low. The man then looked closely at the tires showing him edge of the tread (that was worn more than it should have been) stating that that type of wear was indicative of the likelihood of  air within the tire wall, a dangerous situation.

Art's first full time job after high school was at D&D Tire in Duncan, which served the trucking industry as well as passenger cars and trucks so had some knowledge albiet somewhat dated--by 50 odd years! To him, the front tires looked to have been under inflated for some time (worn on both outside edges) though we kept them at 95 psi as recommended by the Michelin chart for tire type, size and individual wheel load. With our previous tires (our current tires were three years old) we had rotated the tires annually and no significant wear was noted.

What to do? We were miles from another shop unless we went out of our way up towards Salt Lake City so decided "Better Safe Than Sorry" so replaced them both. A blown front tire on a motorhome can be very exciting.

Art became even more suspicious when the tire guy checked the rear tires and pointed out a sidewall bulge in one tire (which Art could not see) and showed him how the tread on the inside dual was very rough and appeared damaged, he recommended that all 6 tires be replaced. Again, Art couldn't see anything amiss and so declined, paid the bill and at 11:00 we went on our way. 

Susanville Ca to Utah via Austin Nevada and the US 50

23 October

Left Susanville at 11:00AM, quite late for some reason. Must have slept in. Gee, I wonder why?

Today we would be heading towards Utah, aiming for Cortez, Colorado with likely two stops along the way. We have taken the I-80 route several times, across the Bonnyville Salt  Flats then down through Salt Lake City. We have also once taken the US 50, known as the Loneliest Highway. We were pretty sure we wouldn't get through Nevada today no matter which way, so decided on the 50.

At Reno we picked up the I-80 to the US 50 at Fernley where after a couple of hours on the road we stopped at the Flying J for fuel and were pleased with the price, then a few miles later saw it at the Fallon RV Park for 35 cents a gallon cheaper. Always the way.

Once eastbound on the 50 the landscape changed to high desert.

At 2:40 we were getting a bit peckish so we stopped at a wide pullout where we noticed this sign.

After lunch the terrain continued pretty much unchanged for the rest of the day.

Just before 5:00 PM we stopped for the night at the Pony Express RV park in Austin. Very basic, no public washrooms but for $22.00 and 50 Amp power we had no complaints.

24 October
 

It was however near the bottom of a very long and fairly steep hill, and by 9:30 we were grinding up it.

But soon we were back on the long and flat desert country. This area known as the Great Basin. At one point we clocked more than 35 kilometers without a curve.

Driving through Eureka later in the morning we had to take this photo through our dirty windshield of the Eureka Opera House and the Jackson Hotel, Saloon and Cafe.

As we crossed the border into Utah we lost an hour as we moved into the Mountain Time Zone as the rain began to fall. We joined the I-15 North bound in fairly heavy rain for a few miles then called it a night at the Flying J in Scipio.

Finally out of Medford

After breakfast and walking the dogs we hit the road once again. We were hoping for Susanville in eastern California near the Nevada border.

Didn't take long on the highway to find that YES, the Cruise Control is working. A little different than the original but great to have.  I don't think we would have completed trip without it, far too hard on Art's legs. In conjunction with the Exhaust Brake, it holds the cruise speed up and down hills, even long fairly steep ones.

The shop told us that the cruise control stick was not Freightliner OEM but was in fact a GM part. It would seem that my tech's supplier had made a substitution.  Apparently, the original part required an additional electronic module which was built into the new one. Once the additional module was removed all was well. Although the recommendation on the work order was that the OEM part be installed.

The only things we lost from the fridge being off for three days was 2 litres of milk and one package of frozen smokes salmon. We thought about the salmon but the package stated "keep frozen" and it was quite soft so we chucked it. We had 6 frozen lamb chops which were fresh when frozen so figured they should be good--lamb chops for dinner three nights in a row is not a struggle.

What was really annoying was that when we mentioned this to the tech who had worked on the rig he said that we should have mentioned it and they would have plugged the rig in each night to keep the fridge running.  Oh well.

The rain seem to have left us for the most part, engine running fine, things are good. After an enjoyable run to Susanville through some very picturesque (Or as B-I-L would say "Pictureskew") country we arrived at the Susanville RV Park at 3:00PM. We could have gone on a bit further but that would have left us at Reno or at a Truck stop and frankly the last few days had left us a bit stressed.

 

Mount Shasta. Essentially cloud free for once.

 

The road from Mt Shasta City to Susanville.

Getting to Know Medford, Oregon

The Comfort Inn was quite nice. It even has a pool and hot tub and allows dogs in the room.

Breakfast was included; cook it yourself waffles, scrambled eggs (possibly from powdered eggs) which were quite dry, bacon, sausage patties, a few dry cereals, toast, English muffins, coffee, tea, juice. Nothing to write home about (which is why I'll write it here) but enough to get you going. And a darn site better than the usual stale coffee and muffin that many places call a "Continental Breakfast".

I must mention here our thoughts on this hotel, the Comfort Inn on Biddle street in North Medford (Exit 30 off the I-5). Just off the exit and a little hard to find, tucked in behind another hotel. We were very pleased with what turned out to be a three night stay. All the staff were friendly, courteous and helpful. The room was clean and spacious with a fridge, microwave, coffee and tea, iron and ironing board. And of course the hot tub. Far far better than the motel we stayed in in Seattle when we picked up Prana.

We had been getting messages on our phones, which now of course have the AT&T chip in, that after December 31st our 2G phones would no longer work on their network, and to contact them to arrange a new free replacement 3G phone. We eventually found the AT&T shop (next day) to find that yes, even for the Pay As You Go phones there was a free replacement. But they had none left. Could be ordered on line and one would be sent to us. Not though to Canada, which wouldn't do us any good at all. Art did later buy a cheap SMART PHONE! (Though to tell the truth he still hasn't transferred the sim card.) Gillian did put her phone number in it for him though.

We were directed to a great fenced large off-leash dog park a few miles away by one of the hotel staff who had her dog at work. Prana in particular needed a good play and run and had a great time.

We did some shopping, chasing down restaurants for lunch and dinner and generally kept ourselves occupied. A few comments on the restaurants:

Shari's at the north end of town ( I think just out of the city) was very disappointing. Dirty, shabby, the salad could have been made yesterday, the fries mediocre at best and when we asked for malt vinegar were given a bottle of what had probably once been balsamic vinegar but was so thick it would hardly pour. No complaints about the staff. We were told by one of the staff at the hotel that that particular location has been like that for some time and the other one in the city was much better.

Red Lobster. We ate here twice, the first time just a light lunch, a wonderful seafood chowder and a large salad. The next day we were a bit disappointed though the chowder was still great.

McGrath's Fish House  Located near the AT&T store in the center of the city. Excellent! Wonderful chowder, a large plate of breaded oysters--at least 20 small ones, MMMMM

Cicily Italian Restaurant, advertised as "Voted Best Italian". By whom? we wondered. Powdered parmesan cheese on the table though Gillian's pasta did come with grated parmesan on top. Art's salad again could have been made yesterday.

Next day the shop phoned to say that the supplier had only shipped two of the four air bags. The fuel line had arrived and was being installed, the other two bags should arrive by noon tomorrow.

The rest of the day was occupied much as mentioned above, including a run to the dog park.



Next day we got some good news from Pacific Truck Center; the last two airbags should be here in an hour, they think the cruise control problem has been solved so should be back in the rig later this afternoon.

It turned out to be quite late before all was done. We had checked out of the hotel and didn't see the value of checking into an RV Park so the shop moved the rig to a pad alongside the shop where we settled in for the night. After going out for the disappointing Italian dinner mentioned above.

A Little Help Getting Up the Canyonville Hill.

Or BCAA RV Plus to the Rescue

 Tuesday, 18 October


Since we were so late arriving at Blue Ox and since we had a lot of time to make our appointment in Redding we got off to a late start, about 11:30! Rain on and off though not the downpours we expect they were getting at home.

Art was really missing the lack of cruise control. We had had a new lever installed before we left but due to the mechanic's location and our time constraints we really had not been able to confirm it working. It wasn't. At all. At least the old one worked some of the time! Oh well, one to add to the list at Redding.

The drive continued through on and off rain and shortly after 2:00 PM we pulled of at Exit 99 to a 7 Feathers Truck Stop for fuel and lunch break and to give Art a rest and the dogs a bit of a walk. Back on the road an hour and a half later. Returning to the rig Art noted that the engine seemed to be running a little rough. In hindsight should have looked for a mechanic there instead of thinking "One more for Redding Freightliner" Thursday morning.
This was Tuesday.

While grinding up the very long and fairly steep hill over Canyon Creek Pass, near mile marker 92 the rig was pulling very hard, seemed very low on power as a car passed in the next lane honking the horn. A close look in the mirror showed grey smoke apparently coming from the back of the rig.

Art immediately pulled off onto the shoulder, turned the flashers on, set the spring brake and told Gillian to get the dogs out of the rig. He ran back to look expecting the worst, wondering when was the last time that he had checked the pressure on the Compressed Air Foam fire extinguisher, and took a look. There was definitely a significant amount of grey smoke coming from the rear grill and underneath and fuel was spewing on the ground and running down the road. LOUD RUDE WORD! He hadn't shut the engine off!

Dashed back inside, shut it down and looked again. Still smoke, no sign of fire and the fuel had stopped running out. And I mean running out, not leaking out.

Next he disconnected the towing cables etc while Gillian stood back with the dogs. The smoke soon stopped, so Gillian put the dogs in the back and reversed the Jeep several dozens of feet back and well off the road.

Needless to say the Jeep was covered in fuel oil as were the tow cables. With a bucket of warm water, a bottle of Dawn Dishwashing Liquid and a few rags we began to remove the oil from the windshield and front of the Jeep so she would be able to see while driving to somewhere there was a phone cell.

About 4:30 Gillian and the dogs set off leaving Art to baby sit the rig and have a nap. Art was surprised when she returned within the hour. The tow truck would be here at 6:35.

She had called BCAA, (answered by AAA) explained the problem, the size and type of rig we were driving and that we would like to be towed to a Freightliner shop. They gave Gillian the name of the shop in Medford which she called. The service department said they handled Freightliner and were open until 11:30 PM.

The tow truck arrived at 6:15, earlier than promised and got right to work:

Once he got the main tow attachment made he had Art put his foot on the brake and release the spring brake then sloooowly release the foot brake. The 37,000 pound tow truck was connected and holding us just fine.

Then the fun parts--where to connect the air? Apparently our rig has four air tanks, though only gauges for Front and Rear. Eventually he was able to feed air from the truck so that both motorhome airtanks showed full pressure (130 psi). Then he had to disconnect the drive shaft, connect the safety chains and off we went.

For the uninitiated a bit of explanation about air brakes; In vehicles with air brakes, the brakes are applied by air pressure. BUT the rear brakes have a secondary system where the brakes can also be applied by very very strong springs which are held OFF by air pressure. If a vehicle should loose air pressure the spring brakes apply and lock the rear wheels. So the tow truck driver had to make sure the motorhome system held air or things could get very exciting.

You have probably seen the two pairs of black rubber skidmarks angling across the road. Probably caused by the loss of air to a semi's trailer and the trailer brakes locking up.

In an hour our so we were on our way  to Medford, Exit 30 -- a run of about 62 miles.

The log book was in the rig so no times or mileages for our arrival but eventually we were parked. We were told we could sleep in the rig but the shop opened at 7:00 AM. We opted for the Comfort Inn more or less across the road. While waiting back on the highway we had profitably spent the time by packing a couple of bags (yes bags, not suitcases!) in expectation of a night or two in a hotel. We piled into the now very crowded Jeep and set off. Gillian thinking there was an entrance to the street where she had parked simply drove over the curb, turned right, them crossed the road to the left turn lane to the hotel. She should have gone back the way we came and entered the street a block or so further up with the aid of a traffic light!

By the time we got checked in it was getting late, most of the restaurants apparently close by 10:00 PM so our only choices were Denny's a bit down the road and a sports bar in the hotel next door. We couldn't leave the dogs in the room so the back of the Jeep for them while we walked across the parking lot to the bar.

We sat at the bar and ordered a beer each while we perused the short menu. The beer, from a local micro brewery, was very good. Or perhaps we were just really ready for them. It was a good thing that we were hungry; it soon became obvious that Fish and Chips were  probably not the best thing to order--we should have had the burgers. The fish was OK but the batter was actually chewy. The chips. . .  . Art picked one up with his fingers and it just drooped down like a wet piece of string. They did have malt vinegar though. At least not present was the common wailing of country and western music. The bartender and waitress were very professional, managing to deal with several difficult customers very well. An interesting end to an interesting day

We returned to the Jeep to rescue the dogs and back into the motel for bed.

After breakfast and dog walking and feeding next morning we returned to Pacific Truck Center to pick up some more things and to check the progress on the motorhome. I must say that the the staff there was very accommodating, not fussing about the several trips in to get various items such as clothing, computers, camera some times a couple of times a day!

The fuel was spilling from a fractured fuel line from the fuel pump to the injector. The tow truck driver had mentioned that he had noted that the airbags (suspension) we all showing signs of age and one had what appeared to be a crease in the fabric. The service advisor agreed that yes they were all showing signs of age, but there was no way of telling how long they would last, weeks, months or more. Having spent time on the roadside in Mexico in the past we decided to have them all replaced. They could be here next afternoon.

Also, since the new Cruise Control lever was not working Art asked them to look at that too. Of course that could not be done until the rig was running again. It looked like this was going to be at least a two day job.  Guess we'll get to know a little about Medford, Oregon.

The 2016-2017 season begins

Just as a teaser I'll start here with post or tow (That should read two--talk about a freudian Typo)  as an outline and fill in the details when we get internet again.

Monday 17 October

We had planned to set off on Sunday but the weather forecasts were not encouraging: the third of three wind and rainstorms due on the Saturday to Sunday.

We had also had the rig in to the tech last week to check an annoying small diesel leak which left a film of oil on the towbar, cables and front of the Jeep. Chris advised that is was very small and appeared to be coming from the lift pump that we had had replaced in Redding California last March and should be under warranty. Since time was getting tight we decided to have Redding Freightliner see it on our way south.

So Monday morning we caught the 10:30 Coho from Port Angeles. On the other side we didn't have to stop for the Ag inspection so Art went for fuel at Safeway while Gillian shopped there for the groceries that we couldn't bring in (Fruit, veg, dogfood). Art was in the process off hooking up the Jeep to the motorhome when Gillian arrived back the supplies so we were soon on the road south.

The rain was holding off for the most part, not a bad drive down the 101 to Olympia where once on the I-5 the rain began to increase but not too bad. Prana was traveling fairly well, a bit of fussing and wining on occasion but generally settled. Our late lunch stop was at the first Rest Area on the I-5 south of Olympia.

After lunch and a rest, we pressed on through increasing rain finally stopping for the night at the Blue Ox RV Park in Albany Oregon. We would be in lots of time for our 7:00AM Appointment at Redding Freightliner Thursday morning. Yeah, Right.

Tempus Fugit. And then some

Time flies when you are having fun! Somehow never got around to completing the posts concerning the rest of our trip home.

We got through Mexico without further drama, stopped at Death Valley for a few days--windy and dusty. Just missed the height of the desert flower blooms but it was still good the see. There were enough to keep Art's allergies working!

Back home to get the rig into the shop--found that the air drier installed in Mexico was the wrong one and far too small.

Hope to be back on the road south in less than two weeks, no saying how much blogging will get done!