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 28th 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, 8th 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 30th 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!
No comments:
Post a Comment