Bev faulters

We enjoyed the Denver Museum of Nature and History.  We have been thinking of trying to take Submit to Cuba this winter and found the museum was showing a special exhibit for Cuba and also an Imax movie about Cuba.  They made us wonder why the US is so intent on prohibiting relations with Cuba after 50 years.  The people and country are most interesting.

We did indeed have lunch with the nicest man in Denver, Kevin and Katie.  They took us to the oldest restaurant in Denver, The Buckhorn Exchange.  It is about 125 years old and was issued the first liquor license in Colorado.   The restaurant can double as a museum and the lunch was very tasty.  We made an additional visit into the museum and then spent a second night on the side street in front of the museum in Bev.

12/27 saw us traveling southeast on hwy 287.  Our trip as far as Springfield, Co would have been uneventful except high winds again caused Bev to try to fly.  I thought the awning was secure but mother nature proved me wrong.  I found a spot with a little wind break from an old abandoned house and old equipment and outbuildings, and rolled the awing in as well as I could in the cold wind while standing on the ladder recently purchased in Billings.  From there, we crept into Lamar and I did a better job of securing the awing while parked in the middle of town, using it as a windbreak.  On we went, then, to Springfield, Co where we spent the night on a snowy icy side street hiding from the wind and cold. 

The cold morning of the 28^th found us wondering if we would take up semi permanent residence.  Bev was frozen in and didn’t want to leave.  She finally rocked free and on south we went in below freezing weather and snow all around.  We were making good progress, crossing into the Oklahoma panhandle.  All this flatland country is enduring a substantial cold spell.  Storm warnings are out.  Shortly before the Texas border, Bev said she just couldn’t go on.  Her transmission acted like I had shifted into neutral at 55 miles an hour.  I pulled over and stopped to check transmission fluid.  Fortunately that could be done from inside the warm motor home.  Transmission fluid was fine, so we started out again only to find we had just reverse and first gears.  The transmission would not shift to a higher gear.  We traveled a few miles on this major truck route at about 15 miles an hour, driving on the shoulder when cars or trucks approached from the rear.  We stopped just over the Texas line in Kerrick, a town of about six houses, a few other buildings, a school which had been closed for several years and some nice sized trees.  What to do?  For just such situations I had joined God Sam’s roadside assistance plan which covers RVs.  I called them and a helpful young fellow started to work trying to help us.  He was directed to try to find a shop within 50 miles which could repair the transmission.  He called every shop he could find, which was darn few.  Many were closed for the holidays, particularly on the Friday before New Years.  He only found 1 shop which could do the work but they would not be able to even start on it for two weeks.  He then was given permission to check farther afield.  A shop in Amarillo, 100 miles south of us, could do it later that afternoon or first thing in the morning.  He then had to arrange a tow for us.  However, Amarillo was being hit with a storm and no towing company would come get us and then tow us into the storm.  He finally called us to tell us there was nothing they could do and call back in the morning and he hoped we had enough food and heat to survive the night.

As you might guess, the time from when I contacted them to when he told us to call back in the morning took 5 or 6 hours.  Meanwhile, I’m thinking about investing possibly relatively big money into transmission repairs in a 30 year old motor home with other issues.  I start shopping online for a possible replacement.  Being the cheapskate I can sometimes be, and knowing we are not going to be using the motor home too often until we give up Submit, I was looking for something used but worth having yet for not huge cost.  I found several around Amarillo assuming we would be towed there someday.  I broached the subject to Barbara and she spent a few moments looking around her little portable home with a sad eye.  What would we do with her?  Trade her on something else?  Donate her to the Boy Scouts? Sell or give her to a junk yard?  Spend whatever it would take to repair her and keep going?

It turns out there was to be a hero in our future.  One of the possible motor homes was relatively close by.  I began emailing the owner to find out about it.  Turns out it was just 22 miles away in Keyes, Oklahoma.  The owner was out of town but headed home that night.  I explained our predicament and he agreed to pick us up the next morning and take us to look at the motor home he had for sale.  It turned out his father also had a motor home which they had just decided to sell but had not yet advertised.

We had a brief showing of our hero’s motor home and also looked at dad’s.  Each had some appeal but we decided to take a short test drive in Jarrod’s (our hero) motor home.  It seemed it would work for us but we still had to deal with Bev.  Jarrod agreed to take Bev in trade and even gave us a modest amount for her against the sale price once I assured him he did not have to deal with retrieving Bev.  I would bring her to him.  The deal was struck and he returned us to Bev.  I drove Bev the 22 miles back at 15 miles an hour.  We had been hoping to take some time to see the country, and we sure got a good look at miles of flat, snow covered country.

It took much longer than we thought to move out of Bev into her replacement, and we were surprised by how much “stuff” and Submit materials we had loaded into her.  There was hardly enough room in the bigger replacement motor home.  When finally we were done with the move, we spent time with Jarrod and his oldest son, 8^th grader Jace, going over Bev and her history and condition.  I think the transmission repair may just be a vacuum issue and a modest repair.  Then perhaps Jace can sell her and split the pot with his dad (or keep it for himself).  Wherever she goes, we hope her next owner will also love her.

Goodbyes were said to Jarrod and Jace and Bev, and Barbara and I were away in our new-to-us motor home.  By the time we arrived in Stratford, TX, 42 miles down the road, Barbara was frozen ( I was turning blue and my feet were numb!) and I was very cold.  There was no heat.  In addition, there were several other issues which had cropped up.  I texted Jarrod that we were coming back.  We shivered our way back to Keyes.  Jarrod and Jace showed up and parked us inside grandpa’s heated shop.  We were able to plug into shore power and used space heaters to warm up to spend the night. 

Bright and early the next day, Jarrod and Jace showed up to help  us.  Jarrod would take us to his dad’s motor home to look it over and take it for a test drive.  He would help us iron out any problems with his motor home if we wanted to keep it or we could change to his dad’s.  There were things we liked about each one but decided we would keep Jarrod’s if the problems could be fixed. It took more hours than any of us expected.  The deal breaker was having heat while driving.  We came up with a fix for the problem and a road test confirmed Barbara could be warm.  The final significant issue was 4 dead batteries which supply the “house” with power.  The nearest batteries were in Amarillo, 120 miles to the south.  We were headed that way and could get by with generator power in needed, and Jarrod and family were planning to be in Amarillo New Years eve for a holiday and for Jarrod to pick up his corvette race car.  Jarrod would meet us in Amarillo and replace the house batteries.

We are off again!  We make it to Dumas, pronounced locally as DOOmoss, Texas.  We had been looking forward to visiting that town because GasBuddy told us the price of gas there was $1.69.9 per gallon.  And it is!  But now we drive a diesel! $2.49.  We put $100 fuel in the tank, decide we are tired enough and it is getting late enough that we’ll spend the night of the 30^th there, in another Walmart parking lot so we could do a little shopping.  The house batteries did not charge up so we ran the generator through the night to power the furnace to keep us warm.  The diesel generator is very quiet and parsimonious with fuel.  We slept comfortably.

Today, New Years eve, after a breakfast with farm fresh eggs from Jarrod, we head south to a Sam’s club in Amarillo.  They have the necessary batteries.  By the time we arrive in Amarillo, the sky is blue, the sun is shining, the fields are clear of snow, the wind has died down and it is beginning to be comfortable.  Jarrod arrives and so does the cold front. We get the new batteries and Jarrod installs them.  Then we do a little shopping so we’ll have red wine for our New Year’s eve dinner.  We say goodbye a third time to Jarrod and find a place to park for the night to wait out some of the bad below freezing weather.  An hour later Jarrod comes by to drop off a few items he forgot to give us.  Dinner is tasty and the wine goes down easily.

Barbara thinks a couple comments about the replacement for Bev are in order.  Bev was 30 years old, no slide outs, gasoline powered, 31 feet long.  The replacement is 13 years newer, has a slide out for the bedroom and one for the living/dining area.  It has a much bigger side by side refrigerator freezer, a washer/dryer and two tv’s we do not know how to operate.  It is 37 feet long and has a Caterpillar diesel pusher engine.  It seems a little like a mansion to us.  We hope it will take us down the road for a long time with little trouble.  Since Bev’s license plate was BEV360, perhaps this one should be BEV720 for Bev the second time around.  This one is not yet named.  Suggestions appreciated.

Our special thanks to Jarrod.  He saved our bacon.  As one would hope, he worked hard to address issues with the motor home.  However, he went above and beyond.  He helped us deal with Bev and made every possible option available to us.  He took time away from visiting friends to help us.  He treated us to visit to his man cave.

And he was relentlessly cheerful throughout.  Thank you Jarrod!

Bev is on a Roll

Here we are on Christmas day parked outside the Denver Museum of Nature and Science waiting for it to open at 9am.  We are hoping the local police will leave us undisturbed for the night.

We’ve been on the road for a week and have gone 1000 miles from home.  However, we have actually traveled farther.

Travelling with two women of a certain age can have its issues.  Bev has been the recalcitrant one.  Perhaps Bev requires a slight description.  I purchased her on a whim without consulting Barbara.  1988 Winnebago Superchief 31RQ for $3500.  She started right away and I drove her home and parked her where Barbara was forced to see her every day.  Barbara refused to even look in her for two weeks whereupon she pronounced Bev to be “not as bad as I thought she would be!”.  We’ve done a little work on her since then.  By the way, her license plate issued by the state of Montana is BEV360, so she became named “Bev gets around”.

Starting our trip, the first stop was a short 37 miles down the road to a tire shop to have dynamic wheel balancers put on the front axle in attempt to eliminate a major vibration.  No luck. 

Then we went on to Frenchtown, MT to see cousins and handle some business.  Afterwards we went to Costco in Missoula, Mt to buy new batteries for Bev in hopes the furnace would run all night to keep us warm.  From there we went to dinner with grandchildren and then on to kids and grandkids house where they allowed us to plug Bev in for the night.

Next day we headed south, again with a stop at a tire shop a ways down the road to have dynamic balancers added to the rear axle to cure the vibration.  Again, it didn’t work, and while leaving the tire shop Bev gave us new worries about brakes and engine stuff.

Friends in Hamilton, Mt let us stay in their driveway for the night and I plugged in at their garage.  I did not notice until morning that I had not turned on the breakers in Bev so we used none of their power over night.  On the bright side, the batteries took care of us. We had made it about 180 miles from home.

Next morning, the local Chevy dealership said they would take Bev and try to fit her in and check out the brake and engine problems, oh, and yes, the headlight control switch problem. Meanwhile we hit the local Ace hardware store where we bought a hook for Barbara’s bathrobe and some cleats to keep the window blinds up.  I installed those while waiting for the verdict on Bev.  The light switch was made functional if you hold it just right when using it and no other problems were found.  Another night was spent in our friends driveway with the power hooked up correctly.

We had planned on traveling south on US highway 93 but weather always dictates a cruiser’s route.  A snow storm arrived over night which convinced us to tack back 50 miles towards home, then east.  The bonuses of this included lunch with grandchildren in Missoula, and, after another stop at another tire shop, on to Bozeman, Mt where we surprised children and grandchildren for an early Christmas.  Next morning, Bev went to yet another tire shop in hopes of fixing the dreaded vibration.  No luck.  However, while waiting, I studied the manuals for the refrigerator which had quit working and the wiring diagrams for the motor home and came up with an idea as to why the refer quit.  It proved correct and after a trip to the auto parts store to buy a $6.99 12 volt breaker and opening up part of the dashboard to install it, we have cold.  Given how cold it has been for days, you wouldn’t think that would have been important to us but it was.

We left Bozeman early on Dec 23^rd after deciding to head south by way of Denver.  All was going well until Livingston where we were hit by the notorious high winds.  Bev decided to try to take flight by unrolling a large portion of her 17 ft awning at highway speed.  Why it did not tear is a mystery.  It just flapped and banged against the side and roof until we could stop and get it rolled back in.  It did the same trick several more times before we stopped at a Home Depot in Billings, Mt and bought a ladder so I could go up and secure the awning.

After securing the awning and taping some leaky windows, we headed more southerly to Sheridan, WY.  We had a delightful overnight in a Walmart Supercenter parking lot.  Sam Walton knew RVers would spend money if they stopped and we did.  New non-skid area rugs replaced the dangerous old ones and we now have storage containers/bowls. 

Christmas Eve had us traveling from Sheridan to Wheatland, Wy.  However, I’m not sure how I did it but we missed the I25/I90 junction in Buffalo and ended up in Sundance, Wy before noticing.  This necessitated not only many extra miles but a bunch of back highways, sometimes very rough.  We began using the gps map system to help us get to Wheatland.  At one point, it took us on “the shortest route” around a town by back roads and under railroad tracks where we barely fit.  I guess it doesn’t understand we are a 30 year old motor home 11 ½ feet tall.

We arrived late at the only rv park open around Wheatland and were barely able to find room at the inn.  Our spot was level gravel.  It did have electricity available.  Across the street from us they had a nice laundry,restroom,shower facility.  The showers cost 25 cents for 30 seconds water. 

After showers, we hit the road south again and are now in Denver.  We’ll visit the museum in the morning and then have lunch with the nicest guy in Denver.

We are thinking we will head next through Amarillo and Dallas.  We are hoping the weather will be warm enough by Amarillo so we will be able to at last fill the water tank.  Bev was not set up for winter use so water and water lines would have frozen if we had already filled her.  It will be nice not to have to live with water sparsely provided by jugs.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!