Roadrunner Memories: Camping at the Repair Shop(s)

We were in Richmond VA at the Atlantic Cummins shop earlier this month to check out our 'cold start'.

We scheduled our time here to check out our starter.  At times, it is sluggish even after preheating the engine overnight.  We have new chassis batteries, so we were thinking it may be a starter or a solenoid or a charge issue with the inverter or??

Really not sure but we wanted to check it out instead of just crossing our fingers.

The set up here for staying overnight is fine.  Completely adequate but nothing fancy.  It got us to think about where and when we have parked overnight and stayed in the repair shop parking lot.  We have done that a few times.

For the fun of it (and for curiosity sake) I decide to look back over the years and note when we had actually done that:

October 2009 - Freightliner, Dallas TX 
This was our first experience getting towed outside of Waco, Texas.  Replaced a fuel pump and stayed in the coach overnight at their new facility.  It had 50 amp service and was a brand new facility.

March 2012 - Fleet Maintenance, Fort Walton Beach FL

We stayed at the Ft Benning Army Recreation Center RV Park in Destin when we saw a leak.  We were able to drive it over to Fort Walton Beach.  They had to replace gaskets and other stuff and let us stay in the coach.  We were able to plug into a 50 amp circuit and left later the next evening.

October 2012 - Freightliner Factory Service Center, Gaffney SC
We attended the Camp Freightliner course and were able to stay free at one of the campground sites at the facility.  Had full hookups and internet.

July 2013 - HWH Factory, Moscow Iowa
Broke a foot on the rear jack and had it replaced.  Also replaced the electronic keypad on the driver's console. Parked in one of their free sites (W/E, no sewer).

April 2015 - Freightliner Service Center, Gaffney SC
Had some routine yearly maintenance done.  Stayed overnight in one of the full hookup sites

August 2015 - Bay Diesel, Red Bay AL
Roadrunner was 'chugging' going up hill.  It was a tough one to diagnose.  The mechanics worked on it all day and we stayed overnight parked in front of one of their bays.  They hooked us up with 50 amp.  Finally, after they changed a fuel pump and it was still doing it, Chris Thompson got us an appointment with the Cummins folks at MHC in Tupelo.

September 2015 - MHC Kenworth, Tupelo MS
Changed out two more fuel pumps before they figured out it was the fuel line to the gas tank that was causing the issues. Was able to stay a few nights parked outside the rear bay but hooked up with 50 amp electric.

May 2016 - Custom RV, Vina AL
Stayed out front of Brannon Hutcheson's shop.  Had a sheared bolt on the front DS which he replaced plus a number of things on our list.

August 2016 - Cummins Northwest, Portland OR
Time for yearly service on our fuel filters.  Stayed overnight in one of their eight full hook up sites at their Coach Care facility.

August 2016 - HWH Factory, Moscow IA
Had a broken chain on our PS slideout which we got repair there.  Stayed overnight in one their small but adequate campsites with 50 amp/water.

December 2016, Cummins South, Ocala FL
Made an appointment to have them check out why the Roadrunner seemed to start so slow.  They determined we needed to replace a couple chassis batteries.  Stayed one night with 50 amp/water.

February 2017 Atlantic Cummins, Richmond VA
Wanted to check out if there was an issue with the starter or solenoid.  They troubleshot as best they could but determined there was no issue.  We were OK with that and liked their customer service.  We stayed overnight parked outside one of their rear service bays with 50 amp service.

Surprisingly, that is about 12 times that we have parked overnight (or for a few nights) outside of a repair facility.  Seven times the business had a parking spot/camp site with hook ups, the other five times, they had a 50 amp electrical outlet we were able to plug into.

Though it is not my favorite way to spend the night, it always has turned out OK and been part of the intrigue of this adventure!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!



-->

Roadrunner Financials - August 2016

Roadrunner Recap
In August, we left Portland, OR and headed estate and then south from Sioux Falls to Memphis TN,.  The big event was recovering from my retina detachment surgery in Portland where we stayed from the last week of July into the middle of August.  

We also stopped along the way at:

• Portland Fairview RV Park, Portland OR
• Four Seasons RV Park, Walla Walla WA
• Cummins Spokane Jim and Mary's - Missoula MT
• Mountain Range RV Park - Columbus MT
• Peter D - Sheridan WY
• Sleepy Hollow Campground - Wall, SD
• WH Lyons Fairgrounds - Sioux Falls SD
• Griff's Valley View RV Park, Altoona IA
• HWH Parking Lot, Moscow IA
• Galesburg East Campground, Knoxville IL
• Cahokia RV Parque, East St Louis MO
• Scott AFB IL FamCamp, MO
• Hinton RV Park, Sikeston MO
• Mid South Navy RV Park Millington TN

Here's an interactive map of our travels:

Or, if you prefer and find this easier to navigate, here is a static map:

We spent the month leaving Portland and taking a route east through Montana and into Wyoming.  We were able to see the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, the spacious and scenic Montana vistas and we stopped at the Custer / Little Big Horn Memorial Historic Site.  We ended up in Memphis were we took in the fun Graceland home and museum.  It was a busy month!

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

Biggest Expenses
Our most expensive categories included:

• Fuel
• Maintenance
• Campgrounds and 
• Eating Out

Large One Time Cost Item
In August, we had work done at Cummins Spokane ($212) and then we had the slideout fixed at HWH in Moscow Iowa ($885).

Monthly Average

Our monthly average  is still sadly way above what we were hoping for.  The RV Maintenance and paying for high season campground sites also were factors in our overage.

That's a snapshot of how we're feeling about the cost of things on this Full-Time Journey.  We are in month 87 of "Living the Dream".

Hopefully, some of the thoughts and figures are of some interest/value/curiosity.  If you'd like a blank spreadsheet of what I use I'd be glad to send you it at no charge to do with what you wish.  

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

In-N-Out Cummins

The Roadrunner has been hesitating going up hills a little ever since I had a brain freeze and put a few gallons of gas into the diesel tank.  That was about six weeks ago.

While in Portland Pam called the local Cummins facility and they said it would be three weeks before they could get us in.  And they recommended Cummins Northwest which is a RV CoachCare repair facility.  It is located right outside of Spokane on I-90.

Not to overstate it, but this might be the best RV-friendly repair facility we have visited.  We were very glad to see the back-in parking spaces with 50 amp and water.

 We got in early afternoon on Sunday and had our choice of two spaces.  (Don't know why that had two school buses over there but a couple of motor homes that arrived later than we did could have parked there.)

We had time to go over the Fairchild AFB which was about five miles away.  We had been there five years ago when we had another Warner Bros Reunion in 2011.  We did some grocery shopping and returned to our parking spot.  It was an uneventful evening and watched the Olympics enjoyed the beautiful 90 degree weather.

We were there with some other folks when the door opened a few minutes before 7:00 AM and talked to Tim the Service Manager.  Pam had spoken to him a few weeks ago and he remembered.  Pam had a hunch it was the fuel filters that needed to be changed so that's what we asked them to do.

Tim said, "We'll try to work you in, but we are real busy and we may not get to you before your Thursday appointment."  That was three days away.  But we were hopeful.  How long can it take to change a couple of filters?

We explained what we thought the problem was and the fact the fuel filters are easy to get to to and....yada yada yada.

To our amazement about 20 minutes later Jesse the mechanic walked out and drove the Roadrunner into the shop!  He was waiting on parts from another job and had some time to work on ours.

Next we went into their small but comfortable Customer Lounge and used their wifi which was fast. I went over to the Parts Department and was able to get a baseball hat.  (Can one have too many hats?) Then I went back to the lounge and logged on.

I didn't get very far before the job was done!  It may have been 20 minutes.  It probably took as long to do the paperwork as it did to replace the filters.  $213 later and we had new ones on and a couple of spares in the passenger seat for next time.

We thanked Tim profusely and hooked up the car and made it to Mizzoula Montana for the night.  We had a few mountains to climb and it drove like a champ.  Needless to say we were pretty excited about how things went at the Cummins facility.  We are going to add this one to the list that is worth waiting for to get the Roadrunner worked on if we need to again out West.

It's a medium size facility with about 10-12 service bays, has electric and water hook ups and has a dump station to boot!  And the Petro truck stop is just down the street.  So we were able to fill up and get going in record time.  It is right off of I-90 and a little noisy but not a problem really.  (Especially when you run the a/c or ceiling fan.  Not much we could do about the trains but that is part of the charm in these parts...

It was a great experience at Northwest Cummins! We highly recommend and will remember this place.  That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks for stopping by.

More Memories in Walla Walla

Growing up, our family took a few road trips.  I remember a cross country one back in 1962 from Presque Isle Maine to Phoenix.  My dad retired from the Air Force and my mother had enough of cold weather to last a lifetime.  So my dad did some job hunting and found a position with the U.S. Forest Service in Phoenix AZ.

A year later he took a Forest Service job in Silver City NM where we lived for three years.  While in Silver City, we took another road trip -- this time to see my mom's sister and family in Walla Walla Washington.  I think we were 10 years old at the time.  We had a good time with cousins Gary and Greg although Greg was much older than us.  But Gary is the same age as me and my twin brother Reid.  And Gary grew up in Walla Walla.

Last week, we pulled into Walla Walla for a three day stay.  We had planned on meeting full time RV friends Geroge and Marge who were traveling from Sioux Falls.

Over the years cousin Gary and I have not really kept in touch too much.  Just a few notes back and forth on FaceBook.  I sent him a note and said, "Guess where we are -- Walla Walla".  To my surprise he sent back a note and said, 'We will be arriving tomorrow for my 45th high school reunion'!

Really?  - Wow -- we could not have planned it any better.  We found a restaurant (Olive Marketplace and Cafe) and decided on lunch with him and girlfriend Lisa.

 We had a great time catching up and learning about our lives at this stage.

After lunch we had them out to the Roadunner for a quick tour before we took them back to the Marcus Whitman where they are staying.

It was really great to see Gary again and to meet Lisa.  Lots has happened in our lives and it was fun telling stories of what has happened over the last 50+ years.  It was a wonderful time.

One thing about Walla Walla is that it is one of the most well taken care of small towns we have ever visited.  One thing I did after checking into our campground (RV Resort Four Seasons) is to get hold of a city map that showed the bike trails.

We checked them out and did a pretty good job of seeing the outskirts and neighbors of the town.  We also had dinner downtown one night and all in all -- Walla Walla is one of the great towns in America!  It apparently has no 'bad areas' -- it was all kept up well and we just didn't see any 'bad areas of town'.

We had another great time with good RV friends Marge and George.  We met them in Key West when were were there for the first time about five years ago.  Since then we've met up with them a number of places and kept track in between times being together.

They were heading west from Sioux Falls and we were heading east from Portland when we made plans to rendezvous in Walla Walla.  It worked great!

 We got sites next to each other and had dinner together plus hung out for three days.

It's always great to see these two.  They are such nice folks!  Here we are at another downtown restaurant that was recommended by the RV Campground Manager -- T. Maccarone's.

We enjoyed time at their place for dinner a couple of nights.  They have a 42 ft Winnebago Tour with a long DS slideout that goes down almost the full side of the coach.  Very well done and comfortable. The only disappointment in Walla Walla was the lack of a large produce market on Saturday morning. We were able to find a good supply of a couple different kinds of corn and managed to get hold of some world famous W2 (Walla Walla) onions and some tomatoes but we missed out on what we expected with the produce market.

But that did not dampen our time in Walla Walla -- being able to see good friends and unplanned time with cousin Gary -- it was a great three days there full of memories!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

A Memorable Drive

Have you ever been on a stretch of highway and thought, "This is spectacular!", or said, "Oh my! Wow - this is beautiful!"?  Where are some of your favorites?

A few our favorites come to mind:

• Shenandoah Valley on US Interstate 81
• The Keys - US Highway 1 Florida City to Key West
• 17 Mile Drive along Pebble Beach CA
• Drive to the Sun in Glacier National Park, MT
• Highway 101 along the Oregon Coast through Monument Valley
• Monument Valley near Arizona/Utah border
• Drive through the Arches National Park

Those are just a few that I think of including the drive over to Walla Walla, Washington from Portland Oregon.  We drove through the Columbia River Gorge along US Interstate 84, 82 Highway 730 and 12.  

These photos don't quite do it justice but it was scenic and spectacular:

We left our campground in Portland Fairview RV Park about 8:30 AM and arrived in Walla Walla about 12:30 PM.

We are loving the weather and the scenic views along the way from Portland to Walla Walla.  Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Another Look at Bonneville Dam

There is a lot to see here in the Columbia River Gorge area.  We took a 30 minute drive from our campground on the outskirts of Portland and make our way directly east along the Columbia River.  About 40 minutes later we were at the US Army Corps of Engineers Visitors Center on Bradford Island.

We've been to this place before, having visited in five years ago when we made our way west through the Columbia River Gorge.  This place had a nice little museum and a fish ladder that was made to accommodate the thousands of salmon heading up river to spawn.

One of our goals this summer was to learn more about Lewis and Clark and this place was right along their route to the Pacific Ocean.

The Chinook Indians used to live in the area and they were one of the friendly tribes Lewis and Clark met along the way while exploring the area.

During their expedition in the early 1800's (1804-1806), they brought along many items to trade with the Indians including knives and glass beads.

I liked the map that showed their route from St. Louis up the Missouri River, across the Rockies and through the Cascade mountains to the coast.

This particular facility was name after this guy.  Bonneville became a pretty well know name in the history of our country but I never knew much about this guy but he was another of the many expolorers of the region, having visited this area in the 1830's.

This dam was one of eight federal dams and locks built along the Columbia and Snake Rivers.  This was built between 1932-1938 to provide electricity and spur economic development in the Pacific Northwest.   

I am amazed at the things this country built in the 1930's:  Hoover Dam, this, Golden Gate Bridge, Norris Dam in Tennessee (TVA) and I'm sure there is a long list...

Here's some photos of the area near the visitor center:

Outside the visitor center along the walkway that shows  some the fish ladders

And inside - I thought they did a good job with explaining all the fish that climb upstream.  You can even watch the fish do their thing

They have been counting types and kinds of fish for many years here.  These are the numbers for the 2015 and the 10 year average.

Fascinating!

It was another interesting time at the place.  We saw Boy Scouts there as well as a bunch of visitors like us.  It was a fun way to spend some time.

We drove around the property again and went over to the volunteer RV park where folks stay and check it out.  Would be a nice place to work/live for a few weeks or even the summer.

That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for joining us.