July 28-August 2: Coach Upgrades in Junction City

August 2, 2012

Junction City, Oregon

As always, feel free to click on any picture for a larger version...

We left Kamloops as planned, well, a day early according to the RV Park.  We were staying for 13 nights but it was cheaper to pay for two weeks.  We had an uneventful drive, retracing much of our route up from Vancouver (TC-1 to PH-5 to PH-3, back to TC-1 then south on PH-13 to the US-Canada Border).  The queue at US Customs was about 30 minutes, but it wasn’t any different at the three other nearby crossings (according to the real-time signs along TC-1).  The crossing itself was uneventful, just a series of questions and a “have a nice day”.

Since we came north this way, I’d planned a couple of stops in Bellingham:  fuel (avoiding higher-priced diesel in Canada) and Costco (avoiding a travel-night meal preparation with a rotisserie chicken).  Other than a pretty tight parking lot at Costco, we were able to accomplish both of these with no issue and were soon on our way south along I-5.

We soon had a decision to make: how far should we travel?  Being 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoon, we decided to push on through Seattle and stop closer to Portland.  This proved to be a good choice, as we only had a couple of slow spots along I-5 and were able to get to the Toledo/Vader area, about 55 miles north of Portland.  Finding a spot in a great Rest Area, we had dinner and called it a night early.

All this made Sunday’s travel relatively easy.  Back on I-5 heading south, routing around Portland on I-205, and rolling into Eugene early in the afternoon, we were soon parked at the Eugene Elks Lodge.  It’s a water-electric setup with a separate dump station on the grounds, so I took the opportunity to dump, give the tanks a good flushing, and recharge the water softener.  Since we had some time, we took a ride and made sure we knew where our stops for the next few days were.

Up early on Monday, we headed to RV Glass Solutions.  I wanted them to look at two of the side windows, one with a fogged pane and another with a water leak.  While we were there, I had them assess all the nicks and chips in the windshield.  They recommended replacement and had the glass in stock, so I called the insurance company and got that ball rolling.  They agreed to come out to the cabinet shop where we were having work done, and we were fully ensconced at Amazing Creations/Kustom Coach Works in Junction City before noon.

You may remember that we caught up with Scott and Bobby in June at the FMCA Rally, and we’d made arrangements for a custom desk/cabinet to be made, and the original refrigerator to be swapped out for a new model.  All the pieces lined up, with the glass guys replacing the windshield and removing the side windows early in the afternoon, and the fridge swap partially completed by the end of the workday.  Using a forklift, the refrigerators were (relatively) easily slid in and out through the driver’s side window.  Definitely not something I could have done myself!

Now, you might wonder why the refrigerator needed replacing.  No, it wasn’t broken, per se, but the performance left a lot to be desired.  It was a 12 cubic foot model that worked on both 120v AC power (when plugged in) and propane (when not plugged in).  It was pretty difficult to keep the refrigerator side below 40°F, which is a food safety issue, and nothing really froze solid in the freezer.  Plus, the unit was subject to several recalls and the model has been known to start RV fires notoriously.  Yikes!  This was a good time to replace before something really went wrong.  The swap was completed by the end of Tuesday, after Bobby lowered the floor of its compartment and shortened the drawer underneath.

Then, it was on to the desk/storage unit.  We’ve wanted to replace one of the couches (the shorter and less comfortable one) for some time.  I knew basically what I wanted, a combination of more storage (we love to cook and have had issues storing all the kitchen appliances) and a place for the computer equipment (iMac, scanner, printer).  Well, Scott did a great job of giving us exactly what we were wanting.  By the end of Thursday, everything was fabricated and installed.  Quite a bit of the finish work (like the keyboard/mouse rest) were custom fit right at the end.  It works very nicely.  

We’ll end up rearranging contents over time, I’m sure, but we’re off to a great start.  And, the new Samsung unit shows -2°F in the freezer and 38°F in the refrigerator.  These two upgrades will prove to be some of the best changes we’ve made to the coach.

Now, we’re off to the Monaco Service Center in Coburg to have an adjustment made to one of the slides...