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TRIP DIARY -- DENVER, CO TO YUMA, AZ TO DENVER,
CO
Tuesday, April 15, 2003 April 15 - April 23 About 3 pm, we decided we needed to make a quick trip to Yuma to look at the bus we saw on the web. I threw things in the suitcases and off we went... Wednesday, April 16, 2003 Spent the night in Albuquerque. Mark had surpised me by stopping at the exit with the Cracker Barrel. He knows that is my favorite place to eat breakfast. They've got some great turkey sausage. The remainder of the trip to Yuma was fairly uneventful. Mark and I listened to tapes of the conference we went to in March at In His Presence Christian Center. That kept our minds occupied. Also, fortunately, Mark and I always seem to find things to talk about. We called Phil in Gila Bend to let him know we were within striking distance. Arrived in Yuma about 4 pm. It was interesting to see that it is practically a RV park city. In the residential areas, it seemed like there were hardly any real houses. Most of the signs said 55 and over. Some signs said pets; others said no pets. Only a few allowed children. We talked with Phil for a while. He told us the history of the bus/RV, showed us about various features such as the toilet and the electronic chairs. It's amazing how long little things can take. Mark and I told him we'd have to "sleep on it" meaning that we needed to wait until morning to tell him our decision. We were surprised when Phil told us we could spend the night in the bus to see what it was like. On our way in, we had noticed one of the Golden Corral's with the Steak Buffet in the evening. We'd gone to one of those in Houston. It was getting late so we tried not to overeat. However, we did enjoy having a wide variety of choices; steak is always a treat. The night in the RV was uneventful. We basically went to bed. Thursday, April 17, 2003 Getting to try the shower was interesting. We wanted to see how long 10 gallongs of hot water would last. The shower had been touted as having strong water pressure. It was fairly wimpy but okay for me. As Mark proceeded with his shower, it got wimpier and wimpier until only a dribble was coming out. When Phil arrived, the guys proceeded to open the cabinet under the bed where the water pump was stored. The first guess had been that the pump must be blown. But thankfully it turned out to be a loose screw on the drive unit. One of the first plans for the morning had been to allow Mark to drive the bus. The water pump repair had taken long enough that it was now time for Phil had to rush off to take his family to the library for story time; Phoebe had been promised that they could go so he didn't want to disappoint her. We'd just started driving around the trailer park when he had to leave. Rather than just go back to the parking space, Mark decided to take the bus for a spin without Phil. Fortunately, the streets in Yuma are pretty square so we just drove around the block in a figure eight. Mark later told me he was a little scared--I thought he did a great job. The afternoon was filled with more little things. We went for another drive with Phil. He continued showing us things we needed to know such as how to empty the black and gray water tanks. I learned about putting chemicals down the toilet. We'd reserved the only auto-hauler in southwest Arizona. We finally made it to U-Haul about 5 pm. This trip was a lesson that plans never work out as planned and that everything takes more time than allotted. Mark was greeted with the news that the wiring system (for hooking up lights to a trailer) already on the bus wasn't compatible to the system on the "trailer" so we needed to put on a new wiring system. They said they usually did this type of work by appointment and were short-staffed that day. We either had to do the work ourselves or wait until another day. Fortunately Mark knows about those things. Now I know more about them than I ever wanted to know. Now I know enough to be dangerous. In the evening we went to Wal-Mart to pick up items Phil said we needed. It was interesting to see the usefulness of items for which there had previously been no meaning. My advice is to stay out of Wal-Mart if you don't want to spend money. Back to bed with the presumption that we would be headed home the next morning after a quick look at the generator. Friday, April 18, 2003 An interesting day. We spent most of the day playing with the generator. It had worked on Thursday morning but in the evening it would run for about 40 minutes and then stop. We ended up at a shop that sold fuel filters. I'd never been in a store dedicated to RV "stuff" before. Replacing the filters didn't help the problem. Then we ended up at a garage to have a machanic actually work on the generator. They did something and guaranteed it would work. So back to the trailer park for the night. We decided it was late enough that we would start out the next morning. And we'd be able to further test the generator. Saturday, April 19, 2003 Well, we had to take them up on the guarantee. We spent Saturday outside the repair shop. They installed a new fuel pump that feeds the generator and replaced the fuel lines that go across to the generator. It was a long day. I spent much of the day reading--a good opportunity to catch up on my Bible reading. We are to read the Bible within a year for the Intro to the Bible class we have taken. This is the third year in a row that I have done it. We finally pulled out of Yuma about 5 pm. Little did we know that the problems were just beginning... Barely had we gotten out of Yuma when another vehicle pulled up beside us shouting that we were on fire. Mark immediately shut down, grabbed the fire extinguisher and raced outside with me at his heels. With all the work we'd been doing around the engine and generator, we assumed something was wrong there. Nothing was happening? Huh? Then Mark notice that on of the tires on the auto-hauler was totally shredded. Guess the fire was sparks from the rim hitting the pavement. Mark finally reached U-Haul via cell phone. After waiting about an hour someone finally arrived. Unfortunately, the replacement tire had a nail in it. So we waited through another round trip. Finally we were up and running again. The next 50 miles were okay. We fueled up, checked fluids and bought propane in Gila Bend. Note: Some places will not sell propane after dark; we were there right at sunset so they did sell it to us with a warning that it was almost too late. What should have been an easy trip was one of worry. It wasn't too bad to Phoenix although we concerned about checking fluids, starting and stopping. The leveling system showed a problem. The left air bags wouldn't seem to hold. So we moved down the road lopsided. I'm sure we looked like a drunk lurching down the sidewalk. The stretch between Phoenix and Flagship has many rolling hills. On the hills, the bus slowed down to about 15 miles per hour. Even on flat stretches, we couldn't seem to go faster than 45 mph. We didn't know why except that. The switch that was supposed to help hold the RPMs didn't seem to work. We worried about the transmission. It wasn't moving through the gears that would make the bus go faster. We limped into Flagstaff about 1 am. The Truck parking lot was overflowing. Mark finally squeezed into a space at the rear of the lot. I don't know how he did it. Those big trucks were parked so closely together that one could have touched one by sticking an arm out the window. I apparently slept through a truck next to us leaving and another arriving. I am impressed with the ability these truckers have to jockey those big rigs. Sunday, April 20, 2003 Easter Morning! We had left our front curtains open. When the sun rose, we awoke to a view of a beautiful snow covered mountain, a real picture-postcard view. A beautiful awakening for honoring our Lord. We had Slim-Fast for breakfast and decided to drive over to Wal-Mart. Only to find out that Wal-Mart wasn't open on Easter. I don't blame them. We had lunch at Fazoli's. A family told us how to find the nearest auto parts store. We went over there. Fortunately, the business across the street had a large and empty parking lot. We did our shopping. A nice man volunteered to help Mark; he wanted to siphon some of the transmission fluid off. We were still concerned about the levels. Phil had said that the previous owner overfilled it. Mark wanted to see what happened when the level said normal. (The bus didn't go.) So we put the fluid back in. After a steak dinner at Outback (they no longer have sweet potatoes) and leisurely walk back to our bus, Mark and I headed to bed. Monday, April 21, 2003 We got up early so Mark could be standing at the door of Rush's truck center. One blessing was that a pay phone was outside their door so we were easily able to make calls. I checked in with Connie who graciously waters my plants and brings in the mail when I'm travelling. We had to disconnect the auto-hauler as expected. The back parking lot gave plenty of space. We took the van off; Mark suggested I go to the store. I hadn't bought a lot of food meant to be eaten cold. We knew we couldn't fire up the generator while the bus was being worked on so microwave use was out. I could have used the stovetop but didn't have pans. We own so many pans, that I didn't want to buy more. We had been unable to get in touch with Phil during the weekend. Either the phone just rang or it was continuously busy. Mark finally got in the van and went over to the Little America truck stop and sent an email message asking Phil to call us on Mark's cell phone. Too bad we hadn't thought of that before. The repair man replaced some wires that went to the RPM shift/lock (we're not sure what it is really called). That was an expensive repair; too bad we did't figure it out. He also said the shaft was gone inside the speedometer. A part of it dropped inside the transmission. We made it to Albuquerque and decided we couldn't go further with the tachometer not working. The truck stop parking wasn't near as full as it had been in Flagstaff. Tuesday, April 22, 2003 This turned out to be a very long day. We started by going into the Flying J to have breakfast and to use the internet connection. Someone finally informed us that the connection was down. Our Truck Stop book told us that another truck stop which was nearby also had internet. We got off at exit 227 and then wandered around the neighborhood trying to find Travel Centers of America. It wasn't right at the exit. It was a relief when we finally found it. There really isn't a lot to say for the rest of the trip. We stopped every 50 or so miles to check the transmission fluid. Mark had put duct tape on the tachometer shaft. When it didn't wiggle it would work. Quit about Pueblo so we didn't bother. Midnight found us cruising through Colorado Springs. Home wasn't far away. Wednesday, April 23, 2003 We rolled into Aurora about 1 am. Our decision was to take the auto-hauler to U-Haul before going home. Traffic would be lighter. Also, we hoped that if we left it at night, they wouldn't charge us extra for not making it home by closing time Tuesday afternoon. I took the car home and Mark eventually arrived with the bus. Then it was time to hit the hay! We parked on our side street. We hope that we are correct that a RV can be on the street for three days before it has to be moved. We have an RV area behind our fence but it isn't long enough to accomdate at 40 ft bus. We will need to take out a bunch of bushes. As it snowed today, we don't think we will be doing any "yard work." Well, folks, that's the end of my trip diary. I hope it gave you a few laughs and greater insight into our lives. Virginia's Journal |
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