I woke up at 7:30 the next morning, a Saturday. The truck repair shop was open at 8 so I grabbed a vending machine snack and walked over to the shop. They were open until noon so there was only 4 hours to find out what would happen. I talked with the owner and he already had a fuel pump, inlet screen and fuel filter on the way. His tech put the RV up on a massive lift and started working on it while I made payment arrangements and signed off on the quote. I waited in the lobby mostly since they didn't want me out in the yard. I would have liked to have seen how they wrangled the 700 pound tank nearly full of fuel off without draining it! He told me he had two techs on it to try and get it done by closing time. If it wasn't done we were going to have to spend the rest of the weekend in vegas and wait until monday. At 12:05 the owner came out and told me they were done and it was just being test driven. He had actually reduced the labor and the parts cost a bit less than the original quote so it came out to a few hundred less than I had been expecting. He used OEM parts. The new pump had a completely different tone to it and ran at a different, steady pitch.
We boarded and prepared for the final push to San Diego. 2700 miles down, 300 to go. The big block chevy ran smoother and seemed to have a bit more power. The idle was noticeably improved. I spooled it up to my usual 62 mph and headed south on I-15. I followed a trucker for a while that was swerving from lane to lane, onto the shoulder and generally driving like a drunk. I got on the CB and told him I was going to report him to nevada highway patrol. He stopped swerving for a minute or so and then went back to it. He nearly hit several cars passing him on the left lane. I called 911 and reported him as drunk. He got off on an exit, came to a stop and was last seen hanging off the side of his rig, maybe he was throwing up, I don't know.
After crossing into CA and the late afternoon coming on I decided to stop for some more ice and some bread to make a late lunch. I had been hearing a bit of an odd sound but with the wind noise and other motorhome noises couldn't place it. As I slowed down I began to hear a screeching sound. The sound got louder as the other noises subsided and seemed to be following my wheel speed. I thought of the new front bearings I had put in and was thinking one of them had gone bad. I gave it some gas and the pitch increased with throttle, not speed. Then I realized it was a fan belt issue. I finished pulling over and shut off the motor, preparing myself for a frozen item on the fan belt circuit. I had seen the voltage before I shutdown so I knew it wasn't the alternator and figured it might be and idler or tensioner.