Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Unscheduled Maintenance, Scheduled Maintenance, and More Unscheduled Maintenance (Do You See a Theme Here?)
[Be sure to click on the photos for larger versions.]
This installment covers Friday (June 6) through Wednesday (June 11).
Friday was supposed to be a sightseeing day in Cheyenne, but that didn’t happen. Just after I had finished posting to the blog, the 120-volt electricity in the coach went out. The campground owner checked the pedestal, and there was power there. We also had 120-volt power when we turned on the generator. These symptoms mean that there is a problem with the transfer switch, the device that switches the coach between shore power and the generator.
After spending about an hour calling RV service facilities in Cheyenne; Longmont, Colorado; and Casper, Wyoming, we finally found a place in Casper that can look at the system tomorrow – most of the others either could not handle the problem or had no service openings for one to two weeks. To top things off, we had trouble starting the generator and it ran roughly. Apparently there was some dirt or water in the fuel, which we removed by draining about a quart of fluid out of the fuel/water separator.
We got a refund for tonight from the Cheyenne campground, and departed around noon for Casper. This is one of the windiest days we have had, and we had strong cross-winds across the plains for most of the 180 mile trip. En route, we stopped at a steakhouse in Chugwater where we had very good homemade cheeseburgers for lunch.
In Casper, we found an RV park about a mile from tomorrow’s service facility. In the evening we went to the local mall, where we each bought a western shirt, then saw Made to Honor at a second-run movie theater. We read some when we got back to the coach – I’m about halfway through the surprisingly humorous Mark Twain’s Autobiography and Carol is reading a series of science fiction novels.
Saturday was our second “unscheduled maintenance” day. At 9:00 a.m. we drove the coach to Rec-Vee RV Service and Supply. The talkative owner has been in the RV service business for 35 years. He is in the process of trying to sell his service building and land, after which he plans to continue his repair business on a smaller scale. In anticipation of the sale, he has let his service staff go, so he does all the repairs himself. His wife runs the parts and accessories store.
The problem indeed was the transfer switch – some of the wires had melted, apparently from a relay having gone bad. The owner was able to find a replacement switch in town at one of the other RV service centers which had not had time to see us. After about 4 hours (three of which he charged us, which was fair, because he had spent an hour talking) he had it installed and ready to go. While we waited, Carol brought out her craft supplies and did collage with the owners’ 12- or 13-year old granddaughter.
We moved the RV back to the campground then visited Fort Caspar and its associated museum. The fort was named after Lieutenant Caspar, whose only claim to fame was getting himself and a small band of soldiers killed by Indians. We never found out why the spelling changed from “ar” to “er” when the town was named.
Adjacent to the fort was the site of an early ferry crossing for the Platte River. As traffic increased, an entrepreneur built a 800+ foot bridge across the river. He charged what the traffic would bear: $1 a wagon when the river was low and there were other ways to cross, $6 a wagon when the river was high and he had a monopoly.
In the evening, we went downtown to a first-run movie, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan.
Tomorrow we will leave for Billings, Montana, where we have a Monday morning preventative maintenance appointment at the Freightliner dealer who serviced our coach when we passed through Montana last summer. This will be the last service stop of the trip: knock on wood.
Sunday we drove from Casper to Billings, Montana, where we overnighted in the parking lot at the Freightliner dealer. It was a windy driving day again, with a little light rain near the end of the trip. We saw a lot of pronghorn antelope (not a true antelope, because it has branching horns) alongside the road today, with snow-capped mountains in the distance to our west. We also saw a few scattered tumblin’ tumbleweeds.
On Monday morning, after entrusting the RV to the Freightliner dealer at 7:00 a.m. for its 72,000 mile preventative maintenance, we proceeded to downtown Billings to do a load of laundry and get the Honda serviced and washed. The combination lube/carwash/glass replacement center had free ice cream while you wait and did a nice hand wash for $17. Maybe I’ll open one in Tallahassee when I return and compete with SuperLube.
After taking care of these chores, we shopped at a downtown antique store where I bought about eight to ten late-1930s vintage newspapers (mostly from Boston) for a grand total of $6.
During the day the Freightliner dealer called to say that their inspection turned up two maintenance issues – there is a leak in the exhaust manifold which will require a new gasket, and the rear transmission seal is leaking and needs to be replaced. This extended the estimated completion time from late afternoon to late evening. To kill some time, Carol and I visited Riverside Park, where we walked about a 2.4 mile loop trail for our first real exercise of the trip. We then spent some time reading at a picnic table in the park.
After dinner we returned to the dealer’s customer lounge. About 9:00 p.m., the night foreman brought the news that the gasket replacement had not been started, and that it would be an all-day job tomorrow. We then moved the coach to the parking lot for a second night of dry camping.
Normally we would be upset about losing an extra day on a maintenance stop, but it turns out that there has been snow in Glacier National Park and the Going to the Sun Highway – which was about 2/3 plowed and open a couple of days ago – is now almost completely closed. Since there is really nothing else to see there, we will sidestep Glacier and proceed directly to Grand Falls, Calgary and Edmonton.
At 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday we again entrusted the RV to Freightliner and set out in the Honda for a day of sightseeing in Cody, Wyoming, which is about 90 miles to the southwest. We arrived in Cody shortly after 9:00 and spent several hours visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. This complex, which we had visited last summer, includes a Plains Indian Museum, a gallery of western art, a natural history museum, the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum, and a firearms museum.
Since we are near Meeteetsee, Wyoming, I called Nina Cornell, an economist who testified on behalf of MCI a number of times in the 80s and 90s. I learned that she retired in 2000 and spends her time cooking and watching wildlife from her home in the Wyoming wilderness. They see bear, moose, antelope, deer, wolves, and coyotes. This spring, a moose gave birth to two calves who lived for four days under their deck. Nina says that since the wolf population had rebounded, the moose are moving closer to human populations to give birth. Nina declined our invitation to buy her lunch at the fanciest place in Cody and we declined her invitation to join Nina and her husband at their home, which would have involved driving over an hour each way to Meeteetsee, about half of the trip on dirt roads.
After finishing at the museum, we walked downtown for lunch and to window-shop in the local souvenir stores and specialty shops. We returned to Billings in the late afternoon, where they were still in the process of reassembling the engine and turbocharger. About 9:30 p.m., we learned at that in reattaching the turbocharger to the exhaust manifold, they discovered a broken part on the turbocharger. The only solution is to replace the entire turbocharger unit. Freightliner does not have one in stock in Billings, but they expect to be able to get one in the morning from the local Caterpillar dealer.
Since the coach is inside the shop, and the engine is still partly disassembled, we spent the night at a Hilton Garden Inn. We got their last room about 10:30. After appearing piteous, the night clerk gave us the drug company representative rate which saved us 30% on the room. From the late night news, we learned that it snowing in Great Falls and is expected to continue tomorrow morning. This means we would not have left Billings tomorrow (Wednesday) even if the repairs to the coach were complete.
We slept in on Wednesday morning then had a leisurely breakfast at IHOP. We checked with the Freightliner dealer about 10:30 a.m. and discovered that a new turbocharger is not available locally, but will arrive tomorrow morning by express from Denver. It supposedly will take about 3 hours to install, so we can be on our way by tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. Given the dealer’s optimistic estimates of work times, and the bad weather in Great Falls, we have reserved a campsite in Billings for tomorrow night and now plan to depart for Great Falls on Friday. This will cut a day out of our planned stop in Calgary, but still gets us to the caravan rendezvous on time.
We found a room for tonight at Kelly Inn, which is somewhat less expensive than the Hilton Garden Inn’s drug representative rate. I am using the down time this afternoon to update our journal and blog. Late this afternoon, we went to see What Happens in Vegas, another cute romantic comedy.
This installment covers Friday (June 6) through Wednesday (June 11).
Friday was supposed to be a sightseeing day in Cheyenne, but that didn’t happen. Just after I had finished posting to the blog, the 120-volt electricity in the coach went out. The campground owner checked the pedestal, and there was power there. We also had 120-volt power when we turned on the generator. These symptoms mean that there is a problem with the transfer switch, the device that switches the coach between shore power and the generator.
After spending about an hour calling RV service facilities in Cheyenne; Longmont, Colorado; and Casper, Wyoming, we finally found a place in Casper that can look at the system tomorrow – most of the others either could not handle the problem or had no service openings for one to two weeks. To top things off, we had trouble starting the generator and it ran roughly. Apparently there was some dirt or water in the fuel, which we removed by draining about a quart of fluid out of the fuel/water separator.
We got a refund for tonight from the Cheyenne campground, and departed around noon for Casper. This is one of the windiest days we have had, and we had strong cross-winds across the plains for most of the 180 mile trip. En route, we stopped at a steakhouse in Chugwater where we had very good homemade cheeseburgers for lunch.
In Casper, we found an RV park about a mile from tomorrow’s service facility. In the evening we went to the local mall, where we each bought a western shirt, then saw Made to Honor at a second-run movie theater. We read some when we got back to the coach – I’m about halfway through the surprisingly humorous Mark Twain’s Autobiography and Carol is reading a series of science fiction novels.
Saturday was our second “unscheduled maintenance” day. At 9:00 a.m. we drove the coach to Rec-Vee RV Service and Supply. The talkative owner has been in the RV service business for 35 years. He is in the process of trying to sell his service building and land, after which he plans to continue his repair business on a smaller scale. In anticipation of the sale, he has let his service staff go, so he does all the repairs himself. His wife runs the parts and accessories store.
The problem indeed was the transfer switch – some of the wires had melted, apparently from a relay having gone bad. The owner was able to find a replacement switch in town at one of the other RV service centers which had not had time to see us. After about 4 hours (three of which he charged us, which was fair, because he had spent an hour talking) he had it installed and ready to go. While we waited, Carol brought out her craft supplies and did collage with the owners’ 12- or 13-year old granddaughter.
We moved the RV back to the campground then visited Fort Caspar and its associated museum. The fort was named after Lieutenant Caspar, whose only claim to fame was getting himself and a small band of soldiers killed by Indians. We never found out why the spelling changed from “ar” to “er” when the town was named.
Adjacent to the fort was the site of an early ferry crossing for the Platte River. As traffic increased, an entrepreneur built a 800+ foot bridge across the river. He charged what the traffic would bear: $1 a wagon when the river was low and there were other ways to cross, $6 a wagon when the river was high and he had a monopoly.
In the evening, we went downtown to a first-run movie, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan.
Tomorrow we will leave for Billings, Montana, where we have a Monday morning preventative maintenance appointment at the Freightliner dealer who serviced our coach when we passed through Montana last summer. This will be the last service stop of the trip: knock on wood.
Sunday we drove from Casper to Billings, Montana, where we overnighted in the parking lot at the Freightliner dealer. It was a windy driving day again, with a little light rain near the end of the trip. We saw a lot of pronghorn antelope (not a true antelope, because it has branching horns) alongside the road today, with snow-capped mountains in the distance to our west. We also saw a few scattered tumblin’ tumbleweeds.
On Monday morning, after entrusting the RV to the Freightliner dealer at 7:00 a.m. for its 72,000 mile preventative maintenance, we proceeded to downtown Billings to do a load of laundry and get the Honda serviced and washed. The combination lube/carwash/glass replacement center had free ice cream while you wait and did a nice hand wash for $17. Maybe I’ll open one in Tallahassee when I return and compete with SuperLube.
After taking care of these chores, we shopped at a downtown antique store where I bought about eight to ten late-1930s vintage newspapers (mostly from Boston) for a grand total of $6.
During the day the Freightliner dealer called to say that their inspection turned up two maintenance issues – there is a leak in the exhaust manifold which will require a new gasket, and the rear transmission seal is leaking and needs to be replaced. This extended the estimated completion time from late afternoon to late evening. To kill some time, Carol and I visited Riverside Park, where we walked about a 2.4 mile loop trail for our first real exercise of the trip. We then spent some time reading at a picnic table in the park.
After dinner we returned to the dealer’s customer lounge. About 9:00 p.m., the night foreman brought the news that the gasket replacement had not been started, and that it would be an all-day job tomorrow. We then moved the coach to the parking lot for a second night of dry camping.
Normally we would be upset about losing an extra day on a maintenance stop, but it turns out that there has been snow in Glacier National Park and the Going to the Sun Highway – which was about 2/3 plowed and open a couple of days ago – is now almost completely closed. Since there is really nothing else to see there, we will sidestep Glacier and proceed directly to Grand Falls, Calgary and Edmonton.
At 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday we again entrusted the RV to Freightliner and set out in the Honda for a day of sightseeing in Cody, Wyoming, which is about 90 miles to the southwest. We arrived in Cody shortly after 9:00 and spent several hours visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. This complex, which we had visited last summer, includes a Plains Indian Museum, a gallery of western art, a natural history museum, the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum, and a firearms museum.
Since we are near Meeteetsee, Wyoming, I called Nina Cornell, an economist who testified on behalf of MCI a number of times in the 80s and 90s. I learned that she retired in 2000 and spends her time cooking and watching wildlife from her home in the Wyoming wilderness. They see bear, moose, antelope, deer, wolves, and coyotes. This spring, a moose gave birth to two calves who lived for four days under their deck. Nina says that since the wolf population had rebounded, the moose are moving closer to human populations to give birth. Nina declined our invitation to buy her lunch at the fanciest place in Cody and we declined her invitation to join Nina and her husband at their home, which would have involved driving over an hour each way to Meeteetsee, about half of the trip on dirt roads.
After finishing at the museum, we walked downtown for lunch and to window-shop in the local souvenir stores and specialty shops. We returned to Billings in the late afternoon, where they were still in the process of reassembling the engine and turbocharger. About 9:30 p.m., we learned at that in reattaching the turbocharger to the exhaust manifold, they discovered a broken part on the turbocharger. The only solution is to replace the entire turbocharger unit. Freightliner does not have one in stock in Billings, but they expect to be able to get one in the morning from the local Caterpillar dealer.
Since the coach is inside the shop, and the engine is still partly disassembled, we spent the night at a Hilton Garden Inn. We got their last room about 10:30. After appearing piteous, the night clerk gave us the drug company representative rate which saved us 30% on the room. From the late night news, we learned that it snowing in Great Falls and is expected to continue tomorrow morning. This means we would not have left Billings tomorrow (Wednesday) even if the repairs to the coach were complete.
We slept in on Wednesday morning then had a leisurely breakfast at IHOP. We checked with the Freightliner dealer about 10:30 a.m. and discovered that a new turbocharger is not available locally, but will arrive tomorrow morning by express from Denver. It supposedly will take about 3 hours to install, so we can be on our way by tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. Given the dealer’s optimistic estimates of work times, and the bad weather in Great Falls, we have reserved a campsite in Billings for tomorrow night and now plan to depart for Great Falls on Friday. This will cut a day out of our planned stop in Calgary, but still gets us to the caravan rendezvous on time.
We found a room for tonight at Kelly Inn, which is somewhat less expensive than the Hilton Garden Inn’s drug representative rate. I am using the down time this afternoon to update our journal and blog. Late this afternoon, we went to see What Happens in Vegas, another cute romantic comedy.
