Summer Travel Map

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

A World Away From Home

January 8, 2008
Indio, CA

Sorry for the delayed post. We’ve been on the move and getting settled.

Friday was the day we planned to get ready for our 2-week trip. We got things ready in the morning and went to get the coach in the early afternoon. We figured we’d load everything but the refrigerator and take the coach back to storage. Nice plan, but it wasn’t meant to be.

I saw a little coolant leak while the coach was in storage. This was of some concern, since our coaches have had a history of failed radiators due to vibration. It was all dry at the storage site early in the week, as I crawled under there to check. When I brought the coach from storage to the house for loading, I had a heavy-duty drip going. I got a plastic bin under there and headed for the flashlight and rags. By the time I got back, I already had ¼” in the bin. I knew this wasn’t something I could live with until we got back from Indio/Quartzsite.

The coolant was running down the hoses from the forward side of the radiator. I was able to determine that it was the hose going to the Aqua-Hot furnace, on the pre-heat loop. As I felt along the hose, I came to a hydraulic line that was resting on the heater hose and pulled it away. There was the leak, squirting away like a banshee when I pulled the other hose away. I relieved the pressure from the radiator cap and clamped off the hose with vise-grips. Fortunately, there was a hose clamp and fitting just aft of the tag, so I pulled that off and snaked the hose back through the guides. Unfortunately, my arm hit the vise-grips and they popped and I was drenched with coolant. I closed my eyes and mouth ASAP and didn’t get too damaged, and managed to get the end of the hose in the bucket and re-attach the vise grips without causing the EPA to be called. Through all this, Geri was a trouper, running for tools in the garage when needed, and getting me a wet cloth to clean my face after getting flooded with the coolant.

After a quick shower, I dashed off to Napa for replacement hose, clamps, and a nipple to splice it in, and a couple of gallons of coolant. It took all of 10 minutes to splice in the new piece and attach it with zip ties so it wouldn’t rub again, and I replenished the overflow with the 2 gallons of coolant and 1 gallon of water. I was able to get 2+ gallons back in the containers (I had the jug with the hub oil pending recycling), so I probably only lost a quart or so of 50/50 on the road. I flushed everything with water, so I hope we’re OK.

After getting cleaned up again, we finished loading what we could, but decided to leave the coach in front of the house overnight. This was the first time we did that, and it worked out fine. We were able to load our remaining stuff in the morning on Saturday. We hit the road for California around 9:30 AM, just about on schedule. The drive was easy, a little over 4 hours with a rest stop. Since we’d filled the fuel tank shortly before we arrived home in December, we didn’t need to stop for that.

We arrived at Wayne and Eva’s place in Indio and were able to get parked in their driveway with no problems. Their house has an enclosed RV garage, and we just fit in the driveway between the garage and the street. With 50 amp power and a water line, we were all set! In the afternoon, we went to a local market, Cardenas. It was a large, clean supermarket that caters to the Spanish-speaking population. It was interesting to see the majority of the signage in Spanish with only a few in English. They had a great selection of fish, meats, and vegetables at absolutely fantastic prices. We had lunch at their prepared foods counter, and bought what we needed for dinner. Eva made a great chicken dish, and spent the time to teach Geri how to make pork wontons.

On Sunday, Wayne and I took a ride over to the Fairgrounds where the Rally is being held. It turns out that they opened the holding/parking area early, so we decided to get our coaches ready and move over early. I topped off the water and dumped the tanks, and we were able to get parked by mid-afternoon. We went back to the house for dinner, where Eva made a wonderful slow-cooked brisket with vegetables and we were joined by their neighbors, Diane and Will. After dinner and dessert, Geri and I headed back to the coach for the night.

Sunday night, the rains came. It rained fairly heavily overnight, causing the GCFI outlet we were plugged into to trip. We ran the generator to charge up the batteries when we got up in the morning, since it switched over to inverter power automatically.

Yesterday was a quiet day as we got settled in. The Rally doesn’t officially start until Wednesday; we’re just taking advantage of the early arrival opportunity. We hung out, deployed our outside stuff after the weather cleared, and relaxed. Wayne brought over some chicken for the grill and Geri made some neat baked macaroni with secret ingredients. We had some good wine and conversation before calling it a night.

Today was a bit more productive. Eva made slow-cooked pulled pork for dinner. Wayne and I did some shopping for parts for projects that both of us had planned: connecting our gas grills to the low-pressure side of our coach LP tanks. We got most of what we needed, although I need to exchange one fitting tomorrow. We’ll hook it all up and see how it works. This project will allow us to not have to carry two 20 pound LP tanks around with us, increasing safety, reducing weight, and freeing up space. A good deal all the way around, if you ask me.

After dinner, we’re relaxing a bit before calling it an early night. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.

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