FIRST RV Continued

Day three (and four and five): We awoke fairly early, fixed some breakfast, and prepared to travel. Shortly afterward, a young mechanic showed up and went to work to try to find our problem. The engine would start up and run normally until you turned on an accessory such as turn signals or wipers. It would then die. The mechanic began checking and replacing items. We relaxed and watched movies as the mechanic toiled. After a few hours, he pronounced it repaired. We paid the bill and resumed our journey. We then got back on highway 99 and headed south. We traveled without incident for all of three miles and the engine quit cold. We parked on the shoulder with our flashers on, the passing trucks rocking us to sleep, and called back to the garage. You guessed it, Friday evening, it's closing time and they don't work on weekends. They could not do anything for us before Monday because they were going to their Christmas party. Merry Christmas to us.

We called AAA again and they towed us to the next town and the local Dodge dealership (another $260 down the drain). We could park on their lot but of course they could not help us until Monday.
We unhooked the VW and moved to a motel for the weekend. We had a fairly comfortable weekend, watching TV and checking out the local restaurants. It was a small town and not much else to do. But we were anxious to get on the road to Las Vegas. During the weekend, we discovered that the VW turn signals and flashers had failed. Fortunately, there was a VW dealership nearby and our VW was still in warranty. They replaced the flasher, but it is an expensive module instead of the old three or four dollar can most of us are used to. They said it was burned out because of the towing wiring we had added, but they would overlook that and fix it under warranty. By that time, the motor home was repaired and we hooked up the VW in preparation for travel. We resumed our journey and made it all of 10 feet. The mechanic had gone to lunch so we had to wait for him to return. He came back on a dead run and said I'm going to find this problem if it's the last thing I do. He completely rewired one under-dash plug that had melted down, but insisted that the problem still was not solved. After much poking, prodding and testing he finally found the problem. The rubber sheath on a battery cable was hiding the problem. The connection had broken and was just lying there barely making contact so that when additional load was put on it by the turn signals or wipers, it would break contact. He repaired that and it has performed like a champ ever since.

When we pass a motor home beside the road, my wife now yells out "Check the battery cables." We soon got underway and finally, after six days on the road, got to Las Vegas in time for Christmas. Oh yes, Arlene got on the phone and upgraded our AAA benefits to include the motor home. She says that's why we haven't had any more trouble with the motor home.

FIRST RV Continued

Back to that 24-inch refrigerator and the 24-inch door opening. Friends from the East coast arrived for a visit, saw our motorhome and wanted a tour. Little did the poor man know what he was getting into. To make a long story short, he looked, saw my problem and volunteered to help. He hadn't even gone into our house. Not too many friends are that friendly. We removed the fridge and had a great visit for the next couple days, reminiscing about our times together in the Bahamas and in Maryland/Virginia.

The fridge was tested and then hauled off to the dump. New RV fridges sell for $1100 and up (outside our budget). We had planned a trip to Las Vegas to visit my daughters for Christmas. We purchased a large cooler and temporarily mounted it in the vacancy made by the departed fridge. I reinstalled the door frame and front door and prepared for our maiden voyage with the old relic.

On our first day out, we journeyed down Interstate 5 to Southern Oregon. In our car, I had never realized how steep the mountain grades are. As we ground it out at 40 miles per hour, I noticed the temperature gage climbing. So I stopped, popped the hood and saw no indication of overheating. I touched the radiator which is normally hot under best of conditions. I could lay my hand on the radiator and it barely felt warm. I checked the temperature gage again and it indicated overheating. Mystery #1-never solved. We made it over the mountain pass and down into Yreka, California for our first night. I learned the joys of setting up a motorhome for the night in the rain.

Second day: we uneventfully proceeded on down I-5 to Redding, California, enjoying the beautiful scenery of Mount Shasta and surroundings. I noticed one time a 5-second, or so, skip in the engine. I held my breath for a while but it didn't reoccur as we continued on. During the afternoon, Arlene said she would like some KFC for dinner so we kept an eye out for a KFC. We saw a couple during the afternoon but always just as we passed the exit. Finally, as it was getting late, we just randomly picked an exit and began to search for a KFC. Oh, yes, we were towing our VW and it was pouring rain so you can imagine the stress of cruising around a strange town with a 40 foot train. We finally saw a KFC sign but it was on the wrong side of a divided street, so we began maneuvering around thru an industrial area to get back to KFC. Finally, we were making the last turn toward KFC when the engine died. We were straddling the lane dividing line, effectively blocking both lanes of a busy thorofare. I could not believe the rudeness. Drivers were driving up on the curbs on both sides of us, honking their horns, yelling at us and making obscene gestures. Finally a good samaritan stopped and he, his teen-age son and I pushed the motorhome and VW over to the curb with my wife steering. Quite a chore for her 100-pounds with no power steering or power brakes. The good sams would accept no reward and left. We called AAA who stated it would be at least an hour. Meanwhile a second good samaritan stopped and towed us to the next side street so we wouldn't be such a traffic hazzard. It was hard to believe the generosity after so much rudeness.

We went into KFC to wait and have some dinner. We had barely begun to eat when AAA called and wanted to know where we were. I told him we were at KFC as we had told him we would be. He was at our motorhome and we weren't there. I hoofed it down to the motorhome and he agreed to tow us to a truck shop that was still open. That was when we discovered that AAA did not cover RVs without a special endorsement. There went $120 down the drain.

The truck shop was still open but getting ready to close so they parked us in their truck wash bay, hooked us up to their electricity and promised to get on it first thing in the morning. We spent a comfy night in our motorhome in spite of our strange surrounding

Day three: Next posting

OUR FIRST RV

We had been retired for a couple years and had a yearning to own a recreational vehicle (RV) to see the country. I came across an advertisement listing a 1978 motorhome, almost 30 years old. Arlene and I decided to take a look at it. We looked, we bought. That seems to be a failing of ours.

We attended a presentation on timeshare vacation resorts. We looked, we bought. We attended a presentation on RV vacation sites. We looked, we bought. We attended a presentation on discount purchasing membership. We looked, we bought. There seems to be a trend here. Perhaps we should not attend any more presentations. But I digress.

We bought the motorhome, knowing that it was a fixer-upper, but the price was within our means. We just didn't know how much fixing was going to be required. We soon found that the refrigerator and the air conditioner did not work. Next time check them out before we buy. I am a pretty good handyman, so I began fixing things I found in need.

I plugged the motorhome into our home electrical system. Lights worked, water pump worked, water heater worked in electrical mode, refrigerator immediately popped the circuit breaker. Reset the circuit breaker. Air conditioner blew cool air, but not cool enough. The gas stove worked, furnace worked, water heater worked in gas mode. But I could smell propane.

I drove to an RV repair shop and had them check the electrical system and the propane system. They fixed a small gas leak and pronounced the electrical system A-OK. They serviced the engine and pronounced the rig road-worthy.

I then decided to remove the refrigerator. I removed all gas and electrical connections and mounting screws. I looked around and saw that the refrigerator had to be lifted over a kitchen counter. No way I could handle that alone. I also measured the width of the refrigerator and the outside door width. The refrigerator was about an inch wider than the door opening. That meant I had to recruit someone to help lift it over the counter and I had to remove the door frame. Would I have to widen the opening? It turned out that the refrigerator and the raw door opening were exactly the same width.

Before I bore you too much, I'll continue this story later.

First Posting

I plan to make this a fun-type blog, a family journal of sorts,but I may throw in a few serious topics as we ramble. Don't expect any great revelations, but I may express my opinion occasionally. If you want serious retirement information, go to www.idoretirement.com.