The day we got to Lincoln City, I thought our luck had changed because my friend immediately suggested that we change the plugs and wires on the engine, and even though I doubted it would be true, that was all that was needed to get the engine running as it should. Had I known that, I would have given it a tuneup the day the problem started. Since then, we have averaged 7.2-7.6 mpg, a nice change from the 6.0-6.2 we were getting.
But our good luck was short lived. We drove from Oregon to Randle, WA and dropped anchor at Tower Rock RV Park, not to be confused with Tower Rock Campground, the place our Garmin got it confused with. The park is without a doubt the worst place we have ever stayed at, making me wonder why I picked it. It was closer to Mt. St. Helens than Mt. Ranier, which worked out for the worse because the road to St. Helens was still closed due to snow. Apparently, the WA DOT only plows the roads to the south of the mountain and leaves the roads to the north to simply have the snow melt away, meaning anyone staying at this park will be out of luck seeing the mountain for all but possibly July and August, if that.
The park had sites on grass and dirt, not level, and had only 30a electric, no television, wifi, or cell service from any provider. This was the epitome of being "off the grid," with the exception of the utilities.
We drove to Mt. Ranier, was unimpressed, and found out that because of the lack of cell or internet, I missed the chance to meet with one of my favorite authors when I finally did get my email. We decided that because there was nothing to do there that appealed to us, we would leave early. We had planned on staying for four nights, but left after two. This is the only park I know of that takes your money when you leave rather than when you arrive, so there was no issue with leaving after two nights.
That was when our luck on this trip turned for the worse. We drove on US 12 until it was time to turn onto I-82 and take it to I-90. We took the exit for 82 East and didn't realize until we were a good 30 miles down the road that we had gone the wrong way. At that point, 82 runs north to 90 as it goes west, not east. So we took 82 all the way to WA 395 which would connect us with I-90 and not be really that far out of the way.
When we were about a mile south of I-90, we got hit with a wind gust that took part of the roof off the coach. I think we were lucky that was the only damage we incurred because on the nightly news in Spokane that evening, one of the news stories was about how much damage the wind had done to businesses in the area. There apparently were 40 mph sustained winds with 60 mph gusts. I believe we were fortunate not to get blown over with that gust. I heard something happening on the roof above my head and within seconds, the sound traveled to halfway back on the coach so I pulled over on the shoulder and climbed up on the roof to find parts of the filon completely gone and the remainder flapping in the strong wind, ripping more with time.
I climbed back down and got the Eternabond roll of tape I carry in case of emergencies and my utility knife. On the roof a second time, I found myself having to lie virtually flat to avoid being blown off. I tried to get on my knees one time while working with the tape and was blown backwards almost off the coach. I had to work on one section while holding another section down with my leg. I ran out of tape, a 50 ft roll, about ⅔ of the way through.
I climbed down and got the roll of Gorilla Tape I also carry and went back up a third time to tape the rest of the filon back down the best I could. Judy was begging me to drive one more mile to I-90 before finishing the job because it would point us east and give us a tail wind so I wouldn't take the chance of getting blown off the roof. I explained to her that if we didn't get the damage taped down now, it would only get worse, even if it was exposed to straight cross winds for only a mile. Since the Gorilla Tape was only 2" wide while the Eternabond was 4" wide, it took considerably more tape to complete the job.
When finished, I called my coach guy back home and asked him for suggestions on how to weatherproof the damage. The only thought I had was trying to tarp it and secure the tarp as well as possible with tape. My mechanic told me that would only be possible while stationary because regardless of how well I taped it down, wind would find its way underneath and blow it off as soon as I hit the highway. He suggested going to Home Depot and buying a roll of roofing underlayment because it is sticky and would sufficiently weatherproof the area. He suggested overlaying the edges rather than butting them to avoid any spaces where water could get through.
We stopped in Spokane Valley at a Home Depot and did exactly what he suggested, using more Gorilla Tape to secure every edge of the underlayment. I cut the underlayment after laying it over the aluminum corners because I didn't like the way it raised up and thought it would be better to ensure the wood layer below was completely covered. That idea was approved by a service advisor at Winnebago in a later phone call. We stayed that night in the Home Depot parking lot.
I had already called the owner of Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT to make sure I could arrive two days early and we drove there the next day. This is a very nice park I have stayed at before on my way from Yellowstone to Glacier because it is roughly halfway between the two parks. It is one of the parks I was giving serious thought to work camping at, and the owner and other hosts are interested in me working there. I think it will be a no go however, because the season is May 1st to September 30th, and I am not interested in suffering through cold weather for that long.
Long story ended - I have climbed up two more times since then to add more tape. I called Winnebago to see if there was any chance they could take me when in their area later this month. They will be out of the way, but we could make it work without too much inconvenience. Unfortunately, they told me that when the filon is ripped off the roof, they will replace the entire roof all the way down to the interior ceiling, reusing the lights and a/c vents if possible. Total cost - around $35,000. Time to repair - 10 days. Earliest they can take it - October 4th. I made an appointment for that day even though I really don't want to have to drive the coach home to Florida and then drive back up there by myself and have to stay in a hotel for 10 nights. My insurance company was willing to have me do it but didn't say if they would pay the expense for travel, preferring to only commit to the cost of repair. I called my coach guy again and asked what he would do if given the job, and he said he would replace the filon and veneer below it along with the gutters and vents, but not the interior. His cost would be somewhere between $12-15,000 and I wouldn't have to drive it more than a mile and not worry about a hotel. And, he'll do it before October. I think my insurance company will be pleased to have to pay less than half what they have already been quoted. I have had him do enough work for me to know he is a perfectionist and will do a good job.
But our problems were nowhere close to being over. Yesterday, we drove from Garrison to Gardiner, a little town just north of Yellowstone NP for the most expensive week of the entire trip. They charge $78 per night, no weekly rate, and they don't know who Good Sam is, nor do they recognize veterans when it comes to discounts.
We drove to our site, a relatively level dirt site, a short walk to the Yellowstone River and commented that this appeared to be a small, but very nice park. We dropped our jacks but knew we wouldn't get completely level until the slides were out so I tried to let out the largest living room slide. The front of it went completely out but the rear of it didn't. I walked outside to see what the problem was and my next door neighbors told me that unless it was my a/c, I had a leak under the coach. I told Judy to bring it back in but it wouldn't come all the way in. I told her to give it another try and when the front was out far enough, I saw the leak the neighbor had mentioned dripping very fast from one of the hydraulic cylinders in the middle of the coach above the drive shaft. But now, the front of the slide was within two inches of being all the way out and the rear was still almost all the way in.
Long story short - the slide has bound up and will not move either in or out. I downloaded the HWH manual for emergency retraction, did all it said to do and tried to manually retract the front of the slide. No go. My neighbor has an electric impact wrench, so he tried it. He got it to move about an inch before it locked up completely, bending metal inside around the ram and the track bolt. The rear of the slide is going to have to be let out and even it up with the front before it's going to move.
My research online (thank goodness we now have internet and cell service) led me to find out there are no mobile mechanics in this area currently available to me. Two are on vacation and the third is out of the area and charges $1,350 for a service charge plus $160 for the first hour of labor, and if parts have to be ordered, which I am sure they will, a second trip will cost another $1,350. I checked HWH's listing for the area and found an RV dealer that is an authorized HWH repair center in Billings, about 168 miles from here and called them this morning. They asked for photos to attempt to determine what kind of HWH setup I have because according to them, there are about 38 different ways HWH built these units. They said they have an ample supply of parts but think from what I have told them that parts will probably have to be ordered and at this time, it will take about two weeks to get parts unless they request expedited shipping, which of course, will cost more. I told them to get any parts they need as quickly as they can regardless of cost because we will be staying in a hotel room with three large dogs and will be paying nightly fees as long as this takes. I would imagine faster shipping won't cost as much as the hotel room.
My biggest worry now is how it is going to be towed to the shop with the slide out at the angle it is. I am hoping Good Sam will cover the cost of getting it to Billings, even though this shop isn't the closest. We haven't yet figured out how we're going to handle not living in the "house" we have been in for the past two months. Everything we need to survive is in this coach and we're not sure what, or how much, to take with us when they tow the coach away. I have worries about additional damage to the slide rams while being towed. Frankly, I don't even know how the tow company is going to do it, short of loading it onto a carrier rather than trying to tow it with two wheels down.
Since we have already paid for this park for a week, we decided to make the best of the situation that we can and still see Yellowstone, waiting to have the coach towed away until next Monday. That will cut our visit here short by one day but give the shop five working days next week to determine what is wrong and get it fixed. Fortunately, they are open on Saturdays, so if the coach arrives late Monday, they'll have Tuesday through Saturday to work on it and told me over the phone they would. They are hoping on having the coach only four or five days.
If we get lucky and can hit the road again by the following weekend, it will only cut into our plans with reserved sites by two days. That's best case scenario and probably quite unlikely. Worst case scenario but still have the coach repaired will be waiting a couple of weeks in a hotel while they get parts and rebuild the slide hydraulics and possibly repair any damage done to the slide, rams or components. If we can't leave Billings until the end of June, it will effectively destroy the remaining trip for us. From here, we had planned on seeing a friend in Belt, MT for a day, then drive to Theodore Roosevelt NP in Medora, ND, then to Wall, SD to tour the Badlands, and then head to St. Louis for a week. After the roof damage, we decided to skip ND and SD since those states are known for high winds most of the time and drive straight to St. Louis. I had already called our park there and asked for two extra days at the beginning of the stay. Now, it looks like I may have to call them again and cancel the entire stay or cut it short. We were going to visit Judy's mother in Illinois for several days after St. Louis and then drive to Nashville with reservations at a park there for two nights. Then, it was dry camping the rest of the way home, taking our time and stopping whenever we chose.
Fortunately, the bulk of the "vacation" is already over because we have visited most of the national parks we wanted to see and connected with the friends and relatives out west we wanted. But I have warned Judy for a couple of years about the possibility, really probability as time goes on, that something major could or would go wrong with the coach while we were on the road that would delay or destroy one of our trips. It has now happened. It makes me wonder how much longer I want to keep this money pit and how much more money I want to throw into it. I expect this repair to be in the thousands.
I'll provide you the details of the repair after it is completed and we are back on the road.