“Road Trip” October, 2011 Continued

Friday October 28, 2011

A quick nights sleep in Salt Lake City and we are off to Cheyenne with not so long a driving day. All was well, enjoying Kristianne reading books and the music.

One side note of interest. The propane tank on the motor home was ½ full so we stopped at a Pilot truck stop in Wyoming to fill the gas. The attendant was not the sharpest tack in the box. He overfilled the tank because he did not open the bleed valve to indicate a full tank. This overfill is illegal and dangerous. He just mentioned the overfill and took my money for the job. I looked at the tank gage and it was ¼ past full. This could put liquid propane into the system, ruin the appliances, and possibly blow up the motor home. It took about 30 min. to bleed out the excess very slowly down to just above the full mark. Got that done and we are on our way again !!!

In Rawlins, WY the motor home decided to stop running right on a bridge overpass. Just 2 ½ hours from Cheyenne we were stranded. We were towed into Rawlings with no AAA support because my membership did not cover RV towing. It was Friday afternoon and the only shop (truck / RV repair) could not even look at the problem until the next morning. Things were not going well all of a sudden. We had to spend the night in the motor home in the parking lot of the repair shop next to a leaking oil tanker truck (Kristianne took the picture). Not a major problem, it is a motor home. The problem came when I tried to light the heater so we would be relatively warm that night. The pilot light would not stay on. The pilot light system was dirty from dust and such and I would be able to clean it if I had an air compressor to blow out the dust. At 8:00 pm on a Friday night in Rawlins, WY – no air compressor. After about an hour of frustrating work I finally got the heater working so we would not freeze to death that night.

Saturday October 29, 2011

I did not get a lot of sleep that night (even though it was warm). A lot of things were running through my mind; would we be able to get the motor home fixed, if not what were the options (snow storm coming in a few days!), I was wondering if this road trip was not a good idea, plus lots of other bad thoughts. After a restless night we waited for the repair shop to open. Wait, wait, wait.

The tow truck driver showed up about 10 am for his fee because when he left us at the repair shop he had to rush right off to get a wrecked semi truck off the highway that had shut down the highway (probably texting while driving). This guys name was John Richard so I know he was a good guy (just like the tow truck driver in the movie “Grand Canyon”). We sat in the warm motor home (about 30 deg. outside with blowing wind) and discussed alternatives to the current situation. John said he could store the motor home on his towing lot for $50 month until I could get back to get it. Or he could tow it to Cheyene for $600 (150 miles) and David could store it on the Air Force Base for free. Lots of possibilities, but not very good ones. We would then pack all our stuff on the Toyota Spider and finish the trip.

About 11 am the mechanic showed up and towed the motor home into the shop to check it out. The fuel pump that had been put on new 9 months ago was not working. The shop could get a new one, but turned out to be a little different with the plastic tab in the wrong location. No other options so I told them to cut off the tab and put the pump in !!! So after pumping 20 gal. of gas out of the gas tank, removing the tank from under the motor home, putting the new pump in, re-intalling the gas tank, and refilling the tank the engine started and 24 hours after the breakdown we were on our way to Cheyenne again.

Looking back on the last 24 hours in Rawling, WY. God does protect his people. A lot of these events could have been a lot worse. The fuel pump did go out, that is the fact. We could have been stranded between cities in Wyoming. There are hundreds of miles between cities in Wyoming ! We had food in the motor home and a place to stay warm until the motor home was fixed. We even had wireless internet at the repair shop! We had good people helping us (they were a bit slow and laid back, but that’s Wyoming). The motor home was repaired and we were back on the road with less cost than I had anticipated. The bottom line is the fuel pump went out and God took good care of us. We don’t always believe this while it is happening, but we can always put our trust and hope in God.

More to come ! Stay tuned !