Our hopefully, NOT, never-ending saga

It's not so much us being fickle, but more Murphy winning the battle with our coach floor. If you care to go back, you can find the write-ups in Jan, Feb, and Nov posts in 2014.  So you don't have to do homework, I'll do a quick recap.

Our coach was built with glossy tile flooring throughout the entire front, galley, hallway, shower, toilet room, and partly into the bedroom.  We were never in love with glossy part of it, but it's just how it came.  Now at the end of 2013, we started noticing a broken tile in front of the refrigerator which finally became a soft spot in our floor.  Remember this is a 2007 coach.  So when we got to Florida the winter of 13-14, we knew we'd have to investigate, which we did by pulling up the broken tile.  What did we find?  A rotted out floor!  We had had a leak for probably 6 years that we never knew about.  When the coach was built, a panel had been installed in the outer wall behind the refrigerator closing off what would have been a vent had we had an RV refrigerator.  It was never sealed!  So every time we washed or it rained, a bit of water would come in, go down the wall behind the frig, go under the tile, and eventually rotted out the floor.  We did luck out a bit, as we have a 2 layer floor separated by a robust and waterproof membrane.  That saved the undermost layer, but it sealed in the water and completely rotted out the top layer over a 70 square foot area.  To say we were sick was an understatement.  But we dealt with it, rebuilt the floor, ripped out all the bad, installed new plywood, and eventually took out every bit of tile in our coach.  After rebuilding, we had a new tile floor installed in the galley, hall, shower, and toilet compartment, and installed engineered wood flooring in the rest of the coach.  We did all the demo, rebuilding, and nitnoy work, while we had a tile guy do the tile, and a wood floor guy do the wood.

Our tile man researched an appropriate mastic to use and felt he had found the best product for our application, in a moving, twisting, and bouncing down the road house.  And we trusted him.  We bought the expensive tile, mastic, and grout and he installed it in Feb of 2014.

Which brings us to today, but not quite....  2 years ago, we were in Oregon to have some work done, Jan left in the truck and headed over to the shop, it was close by, and I went to bring in the slides to join her, and KAPOW, I thought it was a gunshot, a tile broke as the slide roller went over it!  I managed to tape up the shards, got the slide in and went to the shop.  We told them what happened and Erik came in to investigate and we found the mastic the tile guy used never adhered to the tile or the plywood.  And Erik casually mentioned that eventually all of our tile would be coming up.  Just fantastic...

So to now, we had noticed several other tiles were loose, but we lived with it until now.  Since we were sitting here for 5 weeks, we decided we would demo the tile floor, yes, this will be the 3rd floor in this area.  Sorry for the long drawn-out explanation.

A couple days ago, we looked at each other and decided this was it.  Let's do it.  And we did.  This was not planned before our departure from Florida, so we are a little tool impaired, not too badly since I carry enough to do most anything that comes up.  We pop the first loose tile, and pray, even though we know we don't have any leaks, you still wonder as you lift it up, will you see signs of moisture?  Well, thankfully no sign of any leaks!

You can see how terrible the mastic was
It did not stick to the tile on the top,
and didn't stick to the floor in front

Stuck to this tile, the plywood not so much

And for the most part a little scraping and the mastic
just pops off

The mastic was so bad, but it made this job easier, as we didn't have to work too hard to remove it in most areas.  You have to find the bright spots somehow.

Plugging away

Having a blast!

We had to pull out the refrigerator to get the tile out underneath, and decided to replace the floor where you can't see with a finish piece of plywood.  Now where is my circular saw, oh yeah, in our storage unit in Florida.  I can rent one for $20/day, or buy another one for $39, hmmm.  So with our new saw in hand we can now cut our new plywood.

Frig out of the way

New floor going in

Even with the work you gotta eat, so take out it is.  Sushi in Colorado, can't beat it!

Squid salad

Tuna and salmon rolls
Yummy!

I know, back to work.  We decided this will be the LAST time we ever do this, come hell or high water, so we plan to replace as much floor as we can that is even questionable, and screw it down very securely.  So off for more plywood and screws.  We need 1 1/8" screws to fasten the 1/2" ply to the 3/4" subfloor.  And guess what, you can't find that length in Durango, so we have to order them.  Not that bad, only a couple days.  Meantime we get all the tile up and thrown away.

Tiles gone, done for the day

So amazingly, there are a couple areas where the mastic actually stuck to the plywood enough we couldn't get it clean even with the multitool, so we opt to just replace the plywood.

Bad mastic covered plywood coming up

First new piece in, even okayed by Bert

So we kept working our way along, trying to remove as much OSB as we could, and the old mastic covered plywood, kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Sizing up the pieces

Putting the puzzle together

Out with the old

We finished up all the plywood, drilled all the holes for the screws which we are still waiting on, and made an incredible mess.  You can't believe how much sawdust is created by cutting flooring with a circular saw in the motorhome!  

Jigsaw puzzle complete
A bit more scraping, and screw it down
and we'll be ready for our new floor

It took 3 days, but it is a mixed bag, terrible that we had to do it, horrible that the mastic didn't stick, but the good news is, that it made the demo so, so much easier.  Our original demo of the tile took weeks of hard work.

We did have a little scare, Jan went in to get something out of our freezer in the basement, and with a yelp, she announces the freezer isn't working!  Well after a bit of panic, we find we must have dislodged the plug with all our in and out of the basement.  We get it back on, but all of our packages of scallops are thawing.  So what is the saying, when you get lemons make lemonade, well we altered it, so when you have thawing scallops make scallop chowder, and, man, it was delicious!!

Thank you Jan, with a little help from Jasper White

It's been snowy, but beautiful!

With all the inclement weather, we were starting to feel a little house bound, so we got out and walked along the Animas River trail.  Felt good to do a few miles on a beautiful day, and followed it up with a nice lunch in town.  We have gone through a rainy and snowy period, so it's nice to see the sun shining.  

We knew with the weather our favorite hike to Spud Lake might be in jeopardy, so we went as soon as we could and found the trail a bit snowy and icy, but passable and we remarked if we had waited any longer we probably couldn't have done it.

A view of Purgatory across the valley from the trail

Engineer Mt with snow

The intrepid hikers, the red bandana isn't a fashion statement
It's hunting season.

The trail

It was a little slippery here and there, but we got up to the lake and had it all to ourselves.  It was great, dead quiet, and absolutely gorgeous.  And I know it's hard to believe, but out here in the world of little humidity, the temps are palatable, even at 36 df.

First glimpse of the lake

Spud Lake

What serenity and beauty

We went up to Silverton for lunch expecting snow on the ground there, but it was completely bare, but we did stop for a minute at Molas Pass on the way back.

Molas Lake in the foreground

Another goal we had was to go up to Kennebec Pass on the Colorado Trail for coffee, but we were stopped by snow about 2 miles short.  We talked to a guy who was running tours in a Sno-Cat to the pass and over to a mine nearby.  He said it won't be accessible with a vehicle until spring, so we made the most of a nice drive and found a somewhat scenic spot to have our coffee:-)

We made do somehow here for coffee:)

Still another goal of ours was to get out and hike along Hermosa Creek.  You have to drive up and over Purgatory to get there, so we wanted to hit it as soon as we had a break.  Mother nature complied and on a clear, 60df day we gave it a go.  We passed many, many hunter's campsites along the way, and I rigged up my red headress to at least make us feel better and more visible.  I think in the future we need to get a couple orange blaze vests to really do it right.

Nice day

A remote cabin along the way

Hermosa Creek

We had a wonderful hike on a warm day, ran into no one on the trail, and had a very enjoyable time, capped with a hot cup of coffee before heading back.  Our time is drawing nigh here, it's amazing we've been here 4 weeks already!

Our home away from home in Colorado

A quick catch up

Wow, we have already been here in Durango for almost 2 weeks.  Time flies.  We decided with leaking Pressure Protection Valve, we needed to get a mechanic to squirrel his way in there to replace the valve rather than one of us, read Jan.  The access is truly a bear, if not for that it is a 5 minute job.  Anyway, he is supposed to come out today, fingers crossed. PS: He came and fixed us up in a few minutes.  The owner of the mobile service turned out to be bigger than me, so he brought his son to do the dirty work:-)

Karen, Jan's sister, and Tom came to visit, and ended up extending to spend an entire week with us.  We had a great time, although took very few pictures.  We had several nice lunches out and several nice dinners and evenings in.  We got Tom up to Animas Forks and Silverton, as well as Molas Pass, and even hiked around Andrews Lake.  We found we missed most of the aspens this year, a little late, and with the rainy windy weather we have been experiencing for the last several days, most of the leaves are gone.  Oh well, we caught them perfectly over in Creede and South Fork.  We all went out for a hearty breakfast one morning and then Karen and Tom went for a horseback ride in what turned out to be pouring rain.

A bit damp

We took a chance and washed the motorhome, and of course, were the reason the pouring rains came:-)  Then unfortunately Jan's glasses broke and luckily she had just had an eye appointment here in Durango, so we went out to order a new pair.  
After Karen and Tom left we took a ride up to have a picnic at Andrews Lake,, and then up and over Purgatory to check out Hermosa Creek for fishing.  

A few pops of bright yellow

The next day we took a drive to Pagosa Springs to check out the Piedra River for fishing, and to go up to Williams Reservoir, one of our favorite places.  It was a bit overcast with some rain showers around, but we had a nice drive which coupled well with a lunch of Chinese food. The Piedra was seriously low as well.  No go for fishing here this year, the water is just too low.

Ominous sky over the mountains at Williams Reservoir

Williams Reservoir

Tropical storm Rosa has been impacting the area, and although the rain and wind has kept us in, we know the precipitation is so welcome.  There is even snow on the mountains now.  The weather has remained unsettled for a week now, so we've made soup, watched movies, done some more fly tying research, and read a lot.  In fact, it's kind of nice to just slug for a bit.

We celebrated another milestone this week, our 45th wedding anniversary!  It was just the 2 of us, but we made the most of it with a little bourbon, a nice bottle of wine, and a gourmet dinner.

A bit of the good stuff!

Filet, mushroom and onions, and hasselback potatoes, yummy!

So all in all, we are having a good time.  We are hoping for some better weather so we can get out and do some of our favorite hikes.  

I thought I'd leave you with a few pictures.  We took a ride up the mountain to Molas Pass and Andrews Lake to see if there was any snow.  I'll let you decide:-)

A tiny patch of color hanging on

View off Molas Pass

And another with the lake in sight

Beautiful Andrews Lake

An ominous view of Engineer Mountain

It's cold baby

One last parting view of Andrews Lake

Settled into Durango for the next month

We arrived at our campground in Creede after our grueling 22 mile drive and settled in for several days.  It is right on the Rio Grande that is not much more than a trickle right now with this drought.  We gave it fishing a gallant try, and I caught a huge 2 inch trout and that was it.  We talked to several other fishermen that said they had never seen the river this low and with it so warm, the water, and so low, the fishing was over for the year.  We were disappointed but not surprised.  We had a few welcome showers come through but it was mostly virga and did no good.

But it did make for a pretty picture

We took several rides around the area and did enjoy our time in Creede.

Our awesome view and coffee spot high above Creede

But we decided since the fishing wasn't happening, we would cut our time short by a day and go back up the 22 miles to our boondock spot that we both just loved.

Back north we go

North Clear Creek Falls

You can just see us in the circle

We settled in and took several couple mile walks out across the meadow, and just enjoyed the silence, beauty, peace, and the feeling of being the only people in the world, it was wonderful, punctuated by a little issue in the middle of the night...

Our view

Cocktail hour, a little chilly with our fire pit,
and a big smile on Jan's face!

What issue?  I have talked about our air leveling system and its air compressor before.  The computer for the system looks at how level we are every 2 hours and adjusts if necessary. It adjusts by lowering the corner to make it level until finally it needs to raise a corner to relevel, and that's when the aux air compressor comes on.  Now when everything is good, the compressor comes on once or twice in a day.  Well, we had been noticing, particularly when it was cold the compressor might kick on every hour or so, so we knew we had a small leak somewhere.  Understand most motorhomes and trucks with air suspensions and brakes all leak a little bit, it is perfectly normal, there are tons of air lines and connections and the smallest of leaks finally presents itself when you let the vehicle sit for a time.  Well, at 3 in the morning, yeah, 3am, I hear the compressor come on, then stop, then 5 minutes later come on, run for a minute or so, then go off, and 5 minutes later, again, and so on until it is running about 1 minute out of every 3!  We are lucky our coach also has hydraulic jacks for leveling, so I get up, activate the jacks to keep us level, and have to go outside in the 28 degree weather to pull a circuit breaker to kill the power to the compressor, and then try to get back to sleep.  Oh well.

So the next day, we're in no rush to leave as our next campground is only 100 miles away, Jan, aka Diesel Mechanic, crawls under after I have started the engine and got the air up to see if she can find the leak.  The good news is we can actually hear it, so that makes it way easier.  And tada, she finds the pressure relief valve on the small leveling tank is leaking, a $10 part.  And with our jacks, we don't have to be in any hurry to fix it.  I should mention that going down the road, our main engine air compressor provides plenty of air to overcome small leaks, it's designed that way.

You can see the soap bubbles showing the leak

So after successfully finding the culprit, we head back down south to South Fork to the Peacock RV Park, another place we have stayed in the past.  We are very happy to see they have down a lot of improving in the year we've been gone.  We enjoy a nice sunset that evening.

I call a NAPA parts store in a nearby town, 25 miles, to see of they might have the valve, and they say they don't have it in stock but can have one the next morning at 7am.  We drive over the next day, have a nice lunch and much to our surprise and disappointment they tell us they never got it, and don't know why.  Oh well, I'll order one from Amazon.

The reason we're in South Fork is because it puts us pretty close to Big Meadow Reservoir where we've fished with our grandchildren and hiked around many times.  It is one of our favorite hikes which we've shared with you before.

Beautiful Big Meadow

Picnic

Now we were pleased to see the lake was at its normal level, but when we looked at the spillway, we couldn't believe it.  Hardly any water flowing at all.  But obviously, just enough to keep the lake full.

The tiny outflow

The stream below almost dry

I tried to compare with these next 2 pics,
this is this year

This flow is normal

We went up the dirt road to a higher lake, Shaw Lake, where we've fished in the past a couple miles past Big Meadow, and actually drove out into where the lake normally is!

Shaw Lake normally

Same lake now

Sure hope they get their snow pack this year.  They really need it, last year they only received 22% of normal snow!  Since we were quite close to Wolf Creek Pass we decided to go over and drive up to Lobo Overlook since it was such a nice day.

Wolf Creek Ski area in the background
Yeah, it's chilly!
11,760'

So we were able to get our pressure valve and Jan installed it.  

Jan hard at work

I put in the breaker for the pump figuring all was good again, but sure enough Murphy showed back up at 1am this time, compressor running and running.  Out I go again to pull the breaker, back to sleep, worry about this tomorrow.  I start up the coach again, build up the air, shut off the engine and I think I can just hear a leak?????  Jan goes back under, but can't find it or hear it, what?   We have been joined by Karen, Jan's sister and Tom for a week or so, and with much appreciation Tom asks if he can help.  He crawls under and since he could hear it, he quickly finds the new leaking culprit.

This is a PPV, a Pressure Protection Valve
It is on the rear main air tank and its job is
to protect the brakes in a air suspension component failure
Should, say an air bag blow, it would protect air pressure
to the brakes to prevent a very abrupt stop

So, I have been doing research for the part, and find there are actually 4 of these valves on our coach.  On Monday I will try to find them and right now am debating whether to just change out the bad one or preemptively change all 4.  Access to these is definitely a problem, so a small wiry mechanic may be in our future.  In the meantime we are sitting here happily on our jacks with nowhere to go for the next month so we have the luxury of time.  The saga continues, but Bert is taking it in stride.

Ho hum, quit bothering me!