Domo - We are trying to see as many national parks out west as possible within 90-100 day time frames. DW is still working but has a boss that will cover for her if she is gone for longer than 90 days. Our first destination is Chiracawa NP in NM, and we'll stay at Rusty's RV Ranch in Rodeo, NM. After that, we'll head into AZ and see the sites before going to South Utah. I'll let everyone know what we see and include something about the RV parks we use along with the roads along the way.
Phil - you're right; we had to stop at Walmart today to get a few things forgotten or broken while at our first overnight park stop. There's always something.
The first day on the road was a challenge and one we thought would never end. Things went well until around Tampa when the engine began running rough, sounding as though it was missing and/or bogging down when put under any kind of load. Since we are towing, it already has a sizable load, so going up a hill of any grade can be a challenge. On that day, the slightest hill made the engine bog down to the point that I was getting scared. We made it to our first stop, a Cracker Barrel in Lake City, FL, and then next morning, began calling RV mechanics within a 50 mile radius, only to be reminded by each of them that this is the busiest time of the entire year for this business anywhere in Florida because all the northerners are leaving to return to their homes up north and at the same time, all RV owners are taking their RV’s out fo storage and putting them in the shop for any necessary repairs. This meant everyone was booked up no less than a week, and up to a month in advance, making it impossible for them to service anyone on the road with an immediate issue.
I called my chassis mechanic in Fort Myers and he put me on speaker phone so all of the mechanics in his shop could participate in the call, troubleshooting the problem and trying to come up with a cause and solution. A secondary problem that caused a lot of consternation was the fact that my knock sensor #2 was throwing passive codes and making the CEL come on. We weren’t sure if this was another part of the same problem or something completely different, especially since this has happened three times in the past two years.
After having me drive the coach while cold to see if the issue was temperature related and finding out that it wasn’t, and having me reset the CEL and clear the codes to see if that would make a difference, which it didn’t, we came to the conclusion that the problem was fuel related. The air filter hadn’t been changed for 27,000 miles and was a mess, so that was one thing that would affect fuel consumption. In addition to that, the mechanic was under the impression that I may have gotten a bad tank of gas that had water in it. He suggested putting the proper amount of octane booster in the tank to see if that would make a difference. It did, between that and a new air filter. He also strongly suggested that I use premium gas for at least the next several tankfuls and when I hit the mountains out west. Interestingly, after putting a tank of premium in it, the engine began running nearly as good as it had before, only missing, cutting out or back firing on rare occasion. He also told me to get the fuel filter changed as soon as possible because if there was water in the tank, it would show up in the filter and could cause problems until the filter was removed.
This all took place on the second day of the trip. At 3:40PM, we decided to try to continue the trip, hoping that these remedies would resolve the issue. We were already eight hours behind schedule and decided to simply drive as long as we could. Actually, it meant as long as I could since Judy damaged her shoulder a month ago and will need surgery as soon as we return from this trip in July. There is no way she would be able to drive with both arms, meaning the first time she gets passed by a big rig, she’ll get blown off the road. I had gotten a good night’s sleep the night before after getting no sleep the night before we left. Because of that, I was able to drive until nearly 10PM and get to our second night’s planned stop in Pensacola. The farther we drove, the better the engine ran. For the 30 miles between getting a tank of premium and stopping for the night, it ran nearly as well as before the problem.
On the third day, Wednesday, we drove to Henderson, LA, a distant suburb of Lafayette and stopped at an RV park named Cajun Palms. This is a large park with probably around 450 sites, cabins, five pools, sauna, club house, three eating joints and golf carts for anyone staying there. The sites are all concrete with picnic tables, plenty of grass for the dogs, and easy to hookup utilities. The park is quite attractive and the sites are spread out so your neighbors aren’t close enough to listen to your conversations. With the Good Sam discount, the cost was a little over $42 per night. The park has excellent cable tv but no internet or wifi without paying $12 per day for it. For me, that is a turnoff. Otherwise, this is one of the nicest parks we have stayed at and a very pleasant surprise in the middle of Louisiana.
The roads we were on - I-75 and I-10 - were both in very good condition most of the time through the state of Florida. Alabama and Mississippi also maintain the roads quite well and surprisingly, Louisiana has begun doing the same, with considerable amounts of work being done nearly all the way through the state thus far. The area I lost my generator on that had road so bad it bottomed out on its springs and severed the conduit to the transfer switch is being addressed right now. There is still a much shorter portion of westbound road, maybe 2 or 3 miles long, that is quite rough and difficult to drive on. Otherwise, the interstate is in good shape.
We are presently finding the cheapest gas of the trip in Louisiana with regular prices running around $2.49 and premium prices ranging from $2.95 to $4.00.
The weather has been great so far. We did have a fairly serious storm last night for about two hours with tornado warnings north of where we are. This may have been the strongest storm I have ever spent in the coach and it seemed to hold up well. We had a very small puddle of water on the dashboard in front of the passenger’s seat and I will be looking for its cause since I have caulked everything I can think of on the front of this cab. Considering how hard and for how long it stormed, I doubt I am the only coach with a bit of water inside.
Day four has been a rest day with Judy going to the pool and with me catching up on email, expense control and internet usage from having my phone used as a hotspot, something Verizon doesn’t like when you’re on the senior plan.
Day five will find us driving to west of Houston. It will take three days to get through Texas, the only state taking longer than Florida. Chances are I won’t be able to update this blog until we get to our first destination in Rodeo, NM.
Because my hotspot will not allow large files to be transferred, I'll have to wait to share some photos of the park we are staying at.
