Truck is back

We got our truck back late Monday morning so we were able to move out of Suntides RV Park and down the road a few miles to one of the Mossman’s friends’ house.  Abel Marichalar is a great guy and a good friend to Jim and Linda.  We’ve heard so many stories about him the last two years we were very excited to meet him and his wife, Sherry.  Abel offered us a place to stay while the Mossman’s truck was being fixed so we moved over Tuesday.

First Jim moved us over and then went back to Suntides and brought the Mossman’s RV over to Abel’s.  The Marichalar’s have a beautiful home in a canyon with a beautiful outdoor kitchen that is great for entertainment….which we did last Saturday…oh, what a party that was!

So we are in Abel’s “back 40”.  It is grassed and so very quiet…no highway noise or trains going by LOL. We will enjoy our stay here very much.  Being in a canyon we don’t have cell or aircard service, so my blog posts will be hit and miss this next week.  Right now we are in a Denny’s parking lot surfing the web with our aircard.

The Mossman’s truck was finally approved by the Ford extended warranty representative for a completely new engine, radiator, oil coolant system, etc.  So we will be here about another week till that all gets done.  Check out the Mossman’s blog for the complete story.

I’ll try driving out of the canyon once a day so I can post our blog and check Facebook….got to see how our friends are doing.

Remember, you are loved.

Second Set of Three Shoes-More Problems

First set of three problem shoes were:
1.  Propane alarm going off
2.  Truck won’t start when hot
3.  Aiming DISH satellite trouble

OK, got new propane regulator, truck in the shop, got a local retired DISH installer to determine we needed a new LMB.  Luckily, Mike had an old LMB at his house so we used that and finally got our satellite working.

Second set of three shoes to fall started an hour later!

1.  We got a strong wind storm and before Jim could get the awning down it got slammed around a bit.  The screws pulled out of the housing holding the awning arms attached to the RV!
2.  The housing on the newly mounted LMB got cracked when the wind storm toppled the whole DISH tripod.
3._______________________ still opened and ready to be filled in.

Man oh man, our luck has got to turn around pretty quick….these “shoes” dropping is getting old…… and they hurt!!!!

Remember, you are loved.

Solutions-Propane Leak & Truck Problem

Well, as some of my Facebook friends already now we have had a propane problem with our propane alarm going off.  Jim’s research found the problem, a leaking high pressure regulator. 

Ours is for our split cylinder application, where we have one on one side of the 5th wheel and one propane tank on the other side, they are not side by side.  We couldn’t find this type of pressure regulator anywhere, so we had to order it online and have it sent to Yakima.  It arrived last Wednesday and Jim installed it and all is well once again….one problem fixed, two to go!

Next was to get the truck checked out, so we made an appointment for the next day in Yakima.  HOWEVER, 50 miles outside of Yakima in Prosser, WA Jim Mossman pulled over to the side of the road because he was losing power in his truck. He couldn’t find anything, so we started off again and he stopped again.  When he popped the hood the coolant reservoir was erupting gunk like Mt. St. Helen…his oil coolant had failed.  He had to be towed…it was bad.

So Jim and I proceeded to Yakima with our rig and got it set up at Suntides RV Park (which is lovely and so well kept), then my Jim returned to Prosser and picked up the Mossman’s RV and brought it to Yakima, while their truck was towed to a Ford dealership.  They originally thought they would only have to replace the Mossman’s oil coolant, but come Thursday they were told they had to have a whole new engine!!!!  OMG!!! Luckily the Mossman’s have an extended warranty, so they are just waiting for the last approval to have the new engine ordered….that will be a $20,000 savings to them. It will take 3 days to get the new engine delivered and another 2 days to put it it. 

Now back to our truck…..happily we have found the problem this time…..remember this not starting when hot issue has happened to us three times in the last two years and no one has been able to identify the problem….Bob Hall’s Sunfair Chevy dealership accomplished that.  We have a bad fuel pressure regulator, leaking fuel filter housing and they suggested we clean the fuel injectors.  Luckily, the fuel injectors checked out and they did not have to be replaced as Jim had feared (that’s a $4,000 savings). 

Our truck is suppose to be ready Monday, which is good because we have to be out of the RV park Tuesday.  At $180 a week we can only afford to stay here one week.  Jim will move both our rigs to a friend of the Mossman’s house where we can both park for a while.  We both want to stick around here a few days after our trucks our repaired to make sure there aren’t any issues.

So that is our status now.  Both trucks in for repairs.  The Mossman’s did get a free rental from the Ford dealership in Prosser so we have some transportation at least.  We’ve had some fun happy hours with the Mossman’s Yakima friends stopping by most every night.

We haven’t done any sightseeing or anything.  Luckily we have no pressing engagements so we can saunter around after our trucks are fixed.

Thanks for all the suggestions and kind words of encouragement.  And always remember, you are loved!!!!!

Keep the suggestions coming

We’ve had a few suggestions on why our truck won’t start. Added information, it only won’t start when the engine is hot, or after we have driven a considerable distance.  Seems it will start again after the engine has cooled down.

Does that tweak any other suggestions?

Grand Junction to Salt Lake City-truck problem

We left Rabbit Valley pretty early and stopped in Green River, UT for gas and breakfast.  It is surprising how the terrain changes so drastically from Colorado to Utah.  The scenery is magnificent!

I wish I could say we had an uneventful trip to Salt Lake City, but it wouldn’t be true.  Everything was going fine. We stopped in Orem and had a productive hour’s meeting with America Land and Leisure honchos.  The Mossman’s proceeded on to North Salt Lake City to the home of our friends, Scott and Diana, where we will be staying the night in an LDS church parking lot. (We met Scott and Diana at Betty’s RV Park last spring where we spent Mardi Gras.)  Jim and I then stopped at a Camping World in Draper, UT to see if they had a high-pressure propane regulator for a split tank configuration (it had a crack in it and that’s where we were leaking propane and the alarm kept going off). When we were ready to leave the truck wouldn’t start…turned over but doesn’t “catch” and start.

This has happened twice before…two years ago in Parker, AZ and then again last October in Campbellsville. Both times we had dealership mechanics look for the problem and no one was able to see why it wouldn’t start….everything checked out fine. So yesterday we kept trying to start the truck for over an hour and finally called for tow. As we waited Jim kept trying to start it and finally it did start up….we cancelled the tow.

We enjoyed the company of Scott and Diana sitting outside under a big tree to stay cool.  Then we all went out to a Five Guys for dinner.  We plan on seeing them again when we get to southern California and maybe the three couples will travel the winter together.  Scott and Diana are great fun, great cooks and we all get along very well.

We slept well in the church parking lot and took off this morning without any problems.  We got gas and proceeded down I-15 and stopped at a Flying J/Denny’s and ate breakfast.  Then it happened again…………..the truck wouldn’t start!!!  This is the first time it wouldn’t start on two consecutive days.  Jim removed and then replaced the cables to the battery….tried a few more times and just after he told me to call for a tow….it started.  We’re not shutting it off again until we arrive at the Passport America campground in Glenn Ferry, Idaho this afternoon!!!!!

Jim is ready to trade-in the truck, that’s for sure.  This is three times this has happened and he is very skittish about the truck now…has no faith in it anymore.  It’s been a good, ole truck to us, but when you fulltime RV, you have to have a reliable vehicle.

Any master mechanics out there that may have an idea of what’s going on with our truck, please feel free to pass on any advice.

Remember, you are loved!

Bye, Naomi - hello Grand Junction

Tuesday we went to put the Jeep in storage in Alamosa.  I had my last visit with my dear friend, Naomi, at the nursing home.  It is always a bittersweet experience for me as I am anxious to get on the road again after being stationery for five months, get I hate saying goodbye to Naomi for seven months.  I took her for a walk so she could see her beloved Mt. Blanca and feel the sun on her back…..which she really enjoys.  Then a couple of photo shots and I left….crying.  Naomi will be 96 in a few months and you never know…..

See Mt. Blanca in the background?	Artwork in neighbors yard

I wanted a photo/artwork of Mt. Blanca to take with us as it represents Alamosa to me.  Sheryl Benson, a co-worker I worked with at the library and her husband, Gary, sell wooden figurines and paintings at arts and craft fairs on the weekends in the summer.  Gary paints beautiful scenes of New Mexico and Colorado.  I asked him to paint me a scene of Mt. Blanca.  I think he did a wonderful job!  The barn wood frame just sets it off perfectly….thank you Gary Benson!

Our first day traveling took us from South Fork towards Saguache and then over to Gunnison, Montrose and finally Grand Junction.  Here is some scenery we saw on the way.

Looks like the background of our new business cards!

We ended our day at Rabbit Valley I-70 West at Exit 2 on the Colorado side.  It was just a big parking lot on BLM land, but there wasn’t any highway noise and it was very quiet.  We had happy hour, of course.   

 

 

 

 

Can’t leave out the puppies.  They wanted out to play too, but they have a tendency to go wandering.

So that was our first day on the road.  Remember, you are loved!

The luxury of full hook-ups

Oh, the luxury of living with full hook-ups (electricity, water and sewer). For the past four months we’ve been boondocking (living without hook-ups).  So when we moved over to Moon Valley RV Park here in South Fork to clean up for our trip, we were in heaven!

The first night Jim and I marveled at being able to stay up and watch TV after 10 p.m. and then the next morning we could put the TV on before 8 a.m., which were the generator hours at the campground.  We haven’t seen Jay Leno or David Letterman since  May.  We switched the water heater from propane to electricity, so we had hot water all the time…..oh, what a luxury!!! To take a shower without having to remember to turn on the water heater first…or wash dishes without giving it a second thought to whether the water was hot or not. Oh, it was heaven.

Same goes for needing water without hearing the water pump running every single time (it does get irritating at times). That’s also true to needing electricity and not having to go outside and starting the generator….what a luxury!

We can use all the electric appliances we want without blowing a breaker or causing the generator to run too hard. My favorite is having the laptop fully charged all the time. Usually Jim gets up early and he starts playing Spider Solitaire. Although he tries to leave me half the battery life, it always runs out before I’m finished surfing the net and before 8 a.m. so I couldn’t turn on the generator (remember the generator hours?).  So it is a wonderful luxury to be able to get on the internet and stay on as long as I want to.

Don’t get me wrong, we love boondocking…..I’m not complaining….it’s just nice having all the amenities once in a while.  It’s like having a nice home, but enjoy staying in a nice hotel once in a while.  It’s a treat!  That’s how I feel about having full hook-ups.  It’s a luxury…a treat to enjoy once in a while…I don’t take having full hook-ups for granted.

We’re off to drop off the Jeep at Jim’s brothers’ in Alamosa.  It will stay there for the winter and be available to us next Spring.  Then I’ll have my last visit of the year with my ~96 year old girlfriend, Naomi, in the nursing home.  That will be a hard visit…..

We had to cancel our trip to Santa Fe to see our daughters because we have a problem with our propane.  The propane detector keeps going off and we need to find the problem before we head out.  Temperatures are dipping and although we have an electric heater, we need propane to cook and later to heat us.  Jim now thinks it’s a leaking regulator, but they don’t have a new one here.  So another thing to pick up in Alamosa.

Tomorrow we leave South Fork and head for Grand Junction as our first stop on our trip to the Pacific Northwest.  Stay tuned and I’ll tell you all about it…………………….

Remember, you are loved!

Ready to Pull Out of South Fork

Linda Mossman helped me go through all my cabinets and drawers and acted as my “enforcer” to make sure I got rid of anything I didn’t need or hadn’t used in six months.  Boy is she strict!!!! But I threw away a lot of stuff and had two containers of donations. Then we reorganized everything and it all looks neat and orderly.

Jim must have taken the hint because he took everything out of the basement and reshuffled, reorganized and threw away stuff.  It sure looks nice for the beginning of our traveling season.

Yesterday we all went to Alamosa for our last minute shopping and booze run.  Booze here is cheaper than we have found it anywhere else….except Illinois.  So we bought a 6 bottle case of Mist and it will last us till we return in the spring.  I’m limited to a glass of wine a day, so that helped a lot.  But I did buy one bottle of EJ VSOP brandy…..for medicinal purposes only, of course.

Yesterday we went in early so we could have breakfast at Campus Cafe and have their tasty Denver omelet with their wonderful green chili.  I was tempted to get a cinnamon roll, but they are just too darn big….at least 8 inches across….for just one!

After our running around we had a late lunch-early dinner at Chili’s to celebrate Jim Mossman’s birthday.  They had ribs and I had the shrimp.  It was very nice.

God bless my computer guru and friend, Lory Sanchez, as she took time out of working with a client to help Jim Mossman and I figure out how to use our backup programs at her client’s business. OK, now we can do regular backups….thank you, Lory!

We finally got home about 6:15 p.m.  Oh, those poor dogs!!! They were in their crates for 10 hours….they sure made a beeline to the bushes!!!

Salai is coming over today to spend the day and evening with us one last time before we leave the area.  She’s bring us some freshly roasted Hatch’s green chile.  We decided to bring a gallon with us.  I’ll portion them out into one cup per bag and freeze them.  It will take up a bit of room in the freezer, but they are worth it.  Although I am limiting my meat consumption, I do use ground turkey on occasion and will use the green chile and turkey to make Green Chili Stew.  We also like to use the green chile in scrambled eggs and on burgers….Morning Star for me.

There are certain local products I stock up on before we leave.  We really like Rice-A-Roni Mexican Rice….not the Spanish rice, but the Mexican rice.  Such a different taste and we can’t always find it on the road.  We also like Pueblo Chile Salsa that comes out of Pueblo, Colorado.  It is expensive at $5.79 a jar, but we get 4 jars for special occasions.  Then there is Sweet Baby Ray Barbecue Sauce….can’t always find it at a Walmart on the road, so I keep two extra just in case. 

Tomorrow we move from the campground to Moon Valley RV Park, also in South Fork.  They have a “3 nights for $30” deal we will take advantage of.  We want to have unlimited electricity and water to wash the exterior of the rig, clean the windows and screens and vacuum real good.  I’ll start on oiling all the wood cabinets and drawers, but there is so much wood in RVs that I’ll probably not get it all done.  Colorado has such little humidity that the wood dries out so bad.  We like to oil all the wood with Old English twice a year to keep it in good shape.

We hope to visit our daughters and grandkids in Santa Fe on Monday.  It will be a fast trip down and back, but we’d like to spend some time with them before we leave. 

We’ll head for Grand Junction next Wednesday and then northwest towards Yakima, Washington. After a week in Yakima there are no plans….we freelance from then on till we arrive in Yuma sometime in November.

Remember, you are loved!

Labor Day - 2011

We spent our last weekend at work with friends…what could be better? First we had a return visit of The Two Lindas for five days. I really enjoy when they stop by because they eat the way I do and they bring bunches of veggies to share.  They left the day before the Abeyta’s arrived.

The Abeyta Family from Española, NM came up for the extended weekend.  Although we met them first as campers at Big Meadows back in 2007, we have become friends and talk to each other several times during the year as we travel.  They come up to South Fork twice during the summer and have visited us the 4th of July in Park Creek and again last week here in Lower Beaver Creek Campground.

Teddy Abeyta is a master Dutch Oven cook.  He puts up an elaborate “kitchen” tent when he comes complete with a Dutch Oven table, a two burner stove table and a deep fried turkey cooker burner.  That’s the blue kitchen tent on the left.

 

 

 

 

Teddy cooked steaks one night to celebrate his own birthday.

Mossman’s Cowboy Beans with hamburger	Zucchini, corn and cheese casserole
Teddy adding “Teddy’s Crème Soda” to dry cake mix over fresh peach and raspberries	The finished cobbler!

The next night Teddy made a pork butt in the Dutch Oven cooked slow and low.  Oh, my, was it good!!!!

When the Abeyta’s first arrived I looked for my “cooking disk” that Teddy had promised me, but Teddy told me he forgot it…..arggggggg…..OK, we could pick it up when we go to Santa Fe next week to visit our daughters, OK, you are forgiven Teddy.  I didn’t know that Teddy told Jim (and everyone else) that what he was cooking on all weekend WAS my cooking disk.  He used it to heat up slices of sausage and jalapenos for happy hour.  It will be great to cook up a mess of scrambled eggs out in Quartzsite, AZ, this winter.

When they were ready to leave, Teddy handed me the cooking disk.  Boy was I surprised.  Now I have to find a deep-fried turkey burner to use it with.  I love the horseshoes he used for “handles”.

        

So we ended up our summer camphost season with great friends and eating wonderful food cook with love.  Thank you Linda B. and Linda S. for choosing to spend time with us in between your work assignments; thank you The Abeyta Family with Tim and Paulo for choosing to spend your holiday weekend with us…..we so enjoyed you all.

Remember, you are loved.

Jay Carter

In remembrance of Jay Carter who passed yesterday. We remember his 4 wheel trip to Ouray with Jim back in 2009.  Jay took some 400 photographs on that trip and talked of it often afterwards as a “trip of a lifetime”.

We will miss your jokes, laughter and constant smile.  You will be missed, Dear Friend……

Summitville Mine

We took a road trip with the Mossman’s to see the Summitville Mine operation.  This was a gold mine about 25 miles south of Del Norte.  Back in the 1980’s the mine was reopened and used a sodium cyanide solution to leach out the gold from the ore.  Summitville is knows for the environmental damage cause from a damaged pad liner and the release of some 85,000 gallons of contaminated water into the nearby Alamosa River.

Back in the 1998 Summitville Mine was designated as a Superfund site and clean up began.  Recently Colorado Department of Health and Environment received $17 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to build a water treatment plant up there.

The drive was pretty going further back into the mountains.

The water treatment plant is up and running.

Right after the Summitville mine there are some old structures that are weathered, but still standing.  So interesting.

Going away from Summitville was just as pretty as the ride up there.

We ended up in Del Norte. On the last stretch we saw this unusual house.

What were they thinking?  Is that roof-line part of a dragon’s tail?  And why all the odd shaped pieces of wood above the windows on the right?

Oh, well, it was a very nice afternoon drive and got us away from the campground for a while.

Remember, you are loved.