2019 Recap, Part 3 It's a long one

I hope you're not too bored with all this so far, this is the last installment and also the longest.  Grab an adult beverage and here we go.

We are here in Grand Lake on the back side of Rocky Mountain National Park at a kind of funky campground, Winding River, we are finally back on our original itinerary.  We still have a niggling feeling about our cooling system and our new pump, it still is running higher than it has before.  Oh well, time to get back into our travels.  Lots of hiking, some fishing, and together an exploration into the park until I chicken out, then Jan by herself into the park to enjoy it.

RMNP

And some of its inhabitants 

Jan on her solo

Then over to Casper overnight then to meet Karen and Tom in Sheridan, WY.  

Not only did we see them, but we were extremely surprised returning to the awful park, Peter D's, yes I am definitely NOT recommending it, we see a Newell that looks familiar and sure enough friends Dave and Lingky are there unexpectedly.  We enjoy a nice but very short visit as we part ways.

Jan and I, Dave and Lingky 

We have good time there with Karen and Tom, get to visit and share several meals, then we also part ways.  On to Cody, WY for us where we go into the east entrance of Yellowstone for a nice hike and a look see.  

Along Yellowstone Lake

Then make the big loop over the incredible Beartooth Pass, Charles Kuralt's "Most Beautiful Drive in America"!

One of many views from Beartooth Pass hwy

Another

A beautiful rainbow from our site in Cody

Then up to Bozeman and the Gallatin River for some fishing, and bam a rock in the windshield of our new truck that we thought was repairable until we woke up in the morning and found it cracked from top to bottom.

Whoops

Another shot of the incredible memorial chapel in Big Sky.

Truly amazing!

Then on to Ennis, MT, one of our absolute favorite places.  We did a very nice fly fishing float on the Madison River.

The fantastic view from our site in Ennis

Float trip on the Madison 

With the temp still not right on the engine we figured we should try to clean the radiator stack, so we took on that project.

You can see how dirty it had gotten from all the ATF flying around

Then we started noticing our water pump was acting funny, yeah the new one, it was cycling and surging.  Could it be our accumulator tank, yup.  Replaced.

Tank replaced

Then we really get an unexpected bump in the road!  I open my email one morning to a message informing us that our mail forwarder was shutting down, IMMEDIATELY!  This is our legal address, where all our mail goes, determines our voting, this was a BIG deal.  So we spent almost an entire day trying to figure out what to do and do it right now.  So we switched over to another forwarder, tried to change all the addresses we could think of, and finally got it done.  Killed a whole day.

We had been wanting to go see the Missouri River for fishing, so we went to the tiny town of Cascade, MT, a fly fisherman destination, right on the river, nice little campground, Prewett Creek.  It was even visited on a regular basis by a herd of big horn sheep.

The mighty Mo

Our friendly herd of sheep

After conflicting reports on the fishing we elected to do a float, and oh wow, we were so glad, even though the guide was iffy the fishing and the enormous number of huge fish we caught and saw was astounding!  We will go back.

Happy Jan with one of the MANY fish we caught

On to Missoula for 3 weeks.  We had a great time there, with the fishing, exploring, eating, fishing, farmer's market, fishing.

Watched this bear with 2 cubs play in this field for over 20 minutes
at the National Bison Range

Also saw this elk eating plants from the river bottom
something we had never seen before or even believed they did!

We fished the Blackfoot a lot

One of many, many nice fish

Then on to boon dock right along the Big Hole River, such a nice experience.

Peaceful

And lots of fish here too

And then Ennis called out to us again and back we went.

Ennis, man what a cool place

Cheers, good bye Ennis until next time

Winter was bearing down on us by now, cold and blizzardy conditions were forecast to arrive in a few days, so good bye.  

So we moved about 65 miles south to this incredible spot
on Henry's Lake, ID

But now we really needed to head south, it's the end of Sep and our Oct reservation in Durango is looming.  So on to Montrose, CO first.

A milestone along the way

In Montrose we surprised Karen and Tom a day before they were going to meet us in Durango, and had a very pleasant dinner with them and their son Walker and Marisol.

Fall had arrived in Montrose

Beautiful

Aspens are turning

Then on to Durango in a caravan with the beautiful autumn colors.
We had a nice week long visit and did Spud Lake hike together.

Taking a breather on the way up

View from our site

Happy 46th to us!

Nice hike around Andrew's Lake

So we finally came to the conclusion our cooling problem, and the more we thought about it, our decrease in fuel mileage over the last year or so was a bad wax valve that was letting our cooling fan run nonstop, so we replaced it, and can say on the way back east we observed good cooling and at least a 1 mpg increase!

New wax valve

And another overdue project was replacing our rear slide seal.

Going in

Then a few more spots to visit and we had to say good bye.

A favorite view and picnic spot

Haviland Lake

Uh oh, snow, time to go

Jan squeezed in one more hike to Spud Lake.

Happy hiker

Just before we left Karen had come up on a maintenance trip and was visiting when we all caught a flash of brown, a mouse running under our dash.  But not only did we all see it, Bert did too, he was on patrol the rest of the night, but the trap ended up catching it.

Bert on guard duty

Down to Taos for a last visit with Karen and Tom, but winter is coming, we even had snow on the ground several evenings.

On the way to Taos, baby it's cold outside

We pulled into Atlanta for a month to have time to fly to Buffalo to make up for our missed visit in the spring, and it was good we did, turned out Jan needed oral surgery, so what with visits with friends, docs, and her surgery, it worked out well.

Cheers from Atlanta

Then on south, oil change on the way and back into our winter digs.

Speedco oil service along the way

Hello from BIL Tom, our new neighbor

A welcome from old friends, Jan and Harvey

A friendly gopher tortoise visiting

And just to end with a picture of food
Our first seafood lunch in Florida!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

AND

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

2019 Recap, Part 2

We left Florida on a different route than normal this year, we planned to make several long days to get to Athens, TX to have our M&G braking system installed in our new truck.  We had used the M&G system with the 2014 truck and loved the way it was a seamless hookup with proportional braking and breakaway protection.  So after driving over 1100 miles in 3 days we pulled in.

Into the shop we go

And right off the bat we had a small problem.  There is a light next to the driver's seat that indicates when the truck's brakes are being applied.  I had checked it when I installed the wiring and was sure it was correct, but as they checked everything out, it didn't work.  I told them I was sure it was wired correctly and they said their unit checked out, it had to be my issue.  I was a little peeved, but had to eat my hat after I had time in Dallas to check it out, turned out I had crossed a wire somehow, I'll blame the anesthesia:-) Then as I'm messing with the lights we notice water coming out of our plumbing bay, and find the drainage pipe into the tank had broken in a horrible, almost inaccessible place of course.  We got that fixed and tried to enjoy our visit with our daughter, Kelly, and the nice place we were parked on Grapevine Lake.

The break

All fixed

Nice view from our site

With that done we headed east for Atlanta and eventually Buffalo to visit our son Jason and Joanne.  As we were driving over the horrible roads we heard a bang, couldn't figure out what or where it was, all seemed good so we kept going only to extend our front passenger side slide in Longview, TX and saw it was sitting way too low, and was rubbing the opening?!?!  We found 2 of the 3, in the floor rollers had broken.  With a tremendous amount of luck on a Friday afternoon we were able to find a welder nearby who came right over, thought he could weld it, but the campground wouldn't let us do it there, so we drove to the welder and he was able to fix our 2 middle rollers and the front roller , "better than new".  We weren't as confident as we wished to be but we were able to raise the slide just a tiny bit, enough to clear the bottom of the opening.  We contacted several repair facilities for opinions, and the only one we really wanted touching it was in Oregon, said we might have to pull the slide completely out to replace the rollers in the floor!  A ton of money, about $7500 just to pull the slide!  But there was a possibility that if they could adjust the slide mechanism, and if that was truly the problem, and they determined the roller repair was adequate, we wouldn't have to remove the slide.  The only way to determine this for sure was to alter our plans, head to Oregon, treat the slide like eggshells, and hope for the best.

The break which prevented the roller from being adjusted or holding up the slide

Getting the welding repair done

Since we weren't yet sure what we were going to do, we kept rolling east while we worked on our new plan.  This was way more complicated and expensive than we imagined.  We have had to make more early reservations, and pay more non-refundable deposits than we ever used to have to do.  Campgrounds are more and more crowded, so this took quite an effort.  We were in Meridian, MS and this time when we extended our driver side front slide our slide lock broke!  We took that as a sign, and after tons of calls, changing, postponing, and making new reservations, we knew we'd have to turn west and cancel plans in Atlanta and have to forgo our visit to Buffalo.  So we turned around and stopped in Branson at a nice campground which had a horrible site entry, it was tilted, askew, like a very tipped ramp.  I never should have attempted going in but we did, the coach creaked and twisted back and forth and we made it but knew all along getting out would be way worse, and it was.  We backed and filled numerous times, we drug our rear end, and finally we were free.

A really nice view and place after a horrible entry and exit

We would find out we would pay for this in the future.  

So next on the list, we hit a couple days of pouring rain, and guess what, our wipers would only work now and then, in fact, sometimes I'd manage to get them on, and then I couldn't get them off, and of course exactly opposite to when I needed them the most?  We do some research and make some calls and find we need to replace our clockspring, all of our wiper, cruise control, and lighting is on the smart wheel.  We get through that and pull into a campground in Hasty, CO, our last stop before Taos, NM, and notice something all over the truck.  Do we have a leak, we don't see one, oh yeah it must be from that new road paving we drove through today.  Then, as we are boondocking here using our water pump, and just as I get all soaped up, the water stops!  Our water pump is dead!  

Hasty, CO

But, at least, we've got mountains!!

Then when we arrive in Taos the next day, oh my, the truck is covered in.......ATF, automatic transmission fluid!  And this time we sure DO have a leak from our hydraulic pump that powers our cooling fan which starts our long fiasco getting it taken care of.

Our leaking hydraulic pump

We search everywhere in Taos to get it fixed to no avail, then we look up and see our cabinet over the driver's seat is loose!  Oh man, getting discouraged.  We attributed this cabinet dropping and later in our trip our windshield popping out on the top right side to the horrible twisting the coach withstood getting in and out of the site in Branson.

It's falling down

Jacked up and getting repaired

We face facts that we can't get the pump fixed in Taos, so we make an appointment in Colorado Springs to have the pump pulled and rebuilt.  I should interject this pump was built in England by Sauer Danfoss and they don't make it anymore.  They sold the rights to a small company here in the US that builds it on request for about $2000 with a 6-8 week lead time, but they do have a rebuild kit which they will overnight into Taos.  It doesn't come and we decide we have to get to Colorado Springs for our appointment, so we fill the hydraulic reservoir, leave the truck unhooked so it doesn't sprayed and we take off for COS.

Jan stayed way, way back:-)

A small idea of the mess

So we are in COS and the part arrives in Taos finally, so we jump in the truck and drive back the 210 miles one way to get it.  The pump is rebuilt, all seems good until we leave COS and go over a pass and our engine is overheating, something it has never done before!  And it is snowing, in May!  I manually downshift, monitor the rpm's and am able to keep the engine in acceptable parameters into South Fork, CO, where I take the time to replace the water pump and clock spring in case we want to use our wipers again:-)

South Fork, CO

Replacing the clock spring

Just so you understand, we are heading west, but our earliest appointment in Oregon isn't until June 16th.  So while here we try to take a hike around Big Meadows Lake, one of our favorites, but there is still too much snow to make it all the way around, in June.

Big Meadows

Then we cut more north through Creede to our "secret" boon docking spot on Clear Creek to try to fish, but with all the snow the runoff is intense, so no fishing.

Our "secret" boon docking spot

So since no fishing we decide to go for a hike, which turned out very nice, by a natural arch, and then finished up by having coffee at a favorite overlook.

A great hike!

And a nice spot for coffee

But when we return to the coach after our hike, we find the galley faucet leaking like a sieve, note to self, maybe we should turn off the water when we leave the coach.  So we mess with it for a bit and decide since it's almost 13 years old, we might as well replace it.  Okay, but where?  And without it, it is a challenge washing dishes in our bathroom sink.  Well, Durango, that's the nearest place, so off we go 125 miles one way, buy a new faucet at Home Depot, have lunch, come back, and install it, whoops, no we don't..... the new fittings are not compatible?!?!  So off to a little hardware store in South Fork, only 46 miles back down the same road we just came up, and no, they don't have any fittings.  So I tear apart the old faucet, it's out anyway, clean it up, lube it up, and reinstall it until we get somewhere more urban, and cross our fingers it doesn't leak again.

We did get it replaced eventually

So now we think if the faucet is dying from age and use, what about our refrigerator?  It is 13 years old, the seals are leaking, can't find new parts, hmmm, what if it dies somewhere on the road?  Because of where it is mounted, it has to be a very specific model and dimension to fit in the hole.  Let's think on that.

So as I said we couldn't fish, but we were visited by an inquisitive young bull moose.

Our visitor 

Now we need to make more of a straight run for Oregon, so we go to Gunnison, CO, then Denver, where we get the faucet fixed, across Utah, Nevada, and into OR.  But we definitely have to watch the engine temp like a hawk!

The flooded Colorado River near Glenwood Springs

Some fun art in the salt flats west of Salt Lake City

We get amazingly good news when we get the coach to the repair shop for the slide, they are able to adjust the slide mechanism, and declare our welded rollers are better than new, so we dodged an enormous bullet, as our repair bill was only $390, not the $8000+ we were expecting!!!!!

Marty adjusting the slide mechanism 

So we still have to deal with the hydraulic pump, so after much, much research I find a company in California that worked with a US hydraulic company to build a pump with similar specs and mated it to a mounting flange that is compatible with our set up, and he has one on the shelf.  We order it.  Then we start thinking, bad news, about our refrigerator again.  So we find out Lowes is having a sale on our frig, over $700 off, and there is no sales tax in OR, so we order one to arrive in Bend, OR, and confirm we can remove and replace it in their parking lot with some help from them, YES.  So after several more challenges with the pump, we finally get the new one installed and all is well, we think.

The new, blue, hydraulic pump

With that in, we head over to Bend to get our refrigerator, and end up staying at that most expensive and disappointing park that I mentioned in the first installment.  And the simple couple hour job replacing the frig ended up taking 8 hours with a tremendous amount of help from Lowes.

Pulled in, ready to go

Squeezing the new one in

All in, including the door lock

So now to get back on schedule, we stop at an interesting lava field and Crater Lake on the way back.

Having a good time

Yeah, still a little snow at Crater Lake!
End of June!

Beautiful Crater Lake

We're going right through the Boise area which gave us an opportunity to visit Jan's cousin Kris and Sandy and see their new house.

It was great seeing Kris and Sandy

Then to Picabo, ID to finally fish a bit on Silver Creek.  We had a great time and liked it so much we want to go back.  Jan caught the first fish!

Not exactly a giant......

Then we took a beautiful drive north into Idaho around Stanley, gorgeous!

What a view!

We stopped in Boulder, WY, enjoyed a nice sunset. 

Boulder, WY

Then on to Buena Vista to put us in position to drive the truck down to Taos so Jan and her sisters could complete a personal obligation.  That accomplished and with a nice visit with Karen and Tom, we returned to Buena Vista and went north to Grand Lake, CO, back on our original itinerary on July 17th!