I was very fortunate in that the last few days at the sugar beet harvest were short shifts so I got to catch up on a little sleep and do some travel prep. Actually, my last shift was rather enjoyable. After we clocked in, they pushed the start time back. We got to reposition a piler and had enough people so everyone got to swap around and take frequent breaks.

Fast forward to the next morning. Frost on the truck windows so I had to spend some extra time warming up the motor but still managed to get out of there before 9 AM. Winds were out of the west so I got some good mileage most of the day. The bad thing about traveling this time of year is the short days. I had planned a stop in Evansdale IA. A few hours before arrival I called them and got a recording that they were closed for the season. Oops! With the help of my GF Jean, I got a plan B just a little further down the road. I got there after dark and in the rain. Lucky for me the campground was laid out well (no obstacles) and I got a pull thru site. Hooked up electric, dumped one gray tank and hit the sack.

Got an early start the next morning, again frost on the windows. Another uneventful drive through Iowa and Illinois. Stopped at another RV park in southern IL early enough to unhitch and hit a local Chinese buffet. I also saw an interesting highway sign from the IL state police. Since it was time to change clocks they advised that “Drunk drivers get a free extra hour in jail this weekend.”  Anyway, with the time change, when I woke up the next morning it was full daylight so I hit the road early. (More frost on the truck.) There was a Golden Corral about 1 hour south so, after checking satellite pix to make sure I could fit, I stopped in for a great omelet and bacon breakfast. That was a welcome change from my traveling hard boiled eggs.

I made it to my final stop very early in the afternoon. The place is packed with seasonals and Amazon workers. One of the workampers escorted me to my site, a backin. No problem. From the wrong side. I’ll deal with that too. Uphill on gravel. Really? My brand new clutch did not appreciate what I did to it getting into that site. Due to a tree on the door side, I had to do some maneuvering to get just the right distance from it. Maybe one of these days I’ll invent a device to move a huge RV sideways a few feet.

As I sit here typing, I’m pretty much set up. Need to catch up on laundry but otherwise it will be a night in before my first Amazon appointment tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, OTA TV reception is very good here. Getting 51 channels!!

I left Rochester with a couple of concerns. The first was the truck.  The local dealer suspected a bad flywheel and I got a few dire warnings on the internet about immediate repairs. It didn’t seem that bad to me so I pressed on, while researching transmission shops along the way. The second concern dealt with an intermediate stop in Trent SD. The campground sits next to the Big Sioux River and they had some flooding. My preferred route was closed due to high water on the road. The day before leaving I got a call from the campground owner that a decent route had just reopened.

So, off I went and arrived at the campground after just a minor detour through town. The water gradually receded and by the time I left I was able to drive directly to the interstate. Enter the second concern.

On my way north the truck seemed to be driving normally. A couple of times I heard sounds that could’ve been rocks hitting the under carriage. Shortly after the second noise, my speed started dropping off while the tachometer was rising. Of course, this all happened on a Saturday afternoon. Crap!!

I pulled onto the shoulder (about 35 miles south of Fargo) and quickly determined that the truck would not be moving again under its own power without repairs. Called GEICO for my roadside assistance. After some initial confusion, they dispatched 2 tow trucks. I already had an appointment at a transmission shop in Fargo so that’s where they towed the truck. An OTR tractor arrived to hitch up to the 5th wheel and take me to my campground.

I got setup in the campground without problems. Talked to the transmission shop on Monday. They dropped the transmission and confirmed that I would need a new clutch assembly and flywheel but the price quoted was about $2k less than the dealer in Rochester. I can live with that. And the truck will be ready well before the sugar beet harvest starts.

Overall, the trip could have been better, but it also could’ve been a hell of a lot worse.

I had my departure from TN all planned out. I was going to leave on a Sunday afternoon, heading north on I-65, so I could get through Nashville without fighting construction or traffic. Then boondock just over the state line in KY, before heading to my next campground in IN. Great plan, right?

Well, as I was buttoning up the 5er to leave, the kitchen slide would only come in about 4 inches. The motor was working OK. It just couldn’t make it up the bump. I tried tilting the 5th wheel to each side hoping to help it that way, but still no dice. I finally walked across the road to another workamping couple and asked for their assistance. While she pushed the button inside, her husband and I pushed on the outside of the slide. After several loud grunts, it finally retracted all the way. I thanked them profusely for their help, hitched up and hit the road before anything else could go wrong.

Since I wasn’t rushing to the next campground, I was able to think about my problems that evening. Since I was driving to NW Indiana anyway, I looked for Open Range dealers on the route. Close enough. I found one in NE Indiana, very close to the RV capitol of the world. I left them a voice mail before going to sleep, with a promise to call them back the next morning.

Somewhere in southern Indiana, I had enough of a signal to call them and started my roller coaster ride. They wouldn’t take a walk-in. But they knew of a place fairly close that had more technicians who might be able to fit me in. I called Shipshewana RV Service Center next. Bingo! They also operated an RV park right next to the service center. They sounded very encouraging. I skipped lunch and shortened a couple of fuel stops to get there before closing time. They gave me a nice pull thru spot for the night and highly recommended that I come back the next morning about 8:15 to talk to a service rep. That night I left the kitchen slide in, but did a full setup otherwise.

The next morning, the service rep sounded very familiar with my problem and said he would come to my site shortly to verify the problem.  After checking the slide, he thought a cable adjustment would correct the problem, although he didn’t think very highly of the design of this particular slide. He promised to return later in the day with another tech. I extended my stay by one night and settled in to wait. Shortly after lunch, they showed up and about an hour later all 3 of my slides had their cables adjusted.

I even had enough time to check out a little of the local area before leaving the next morning. I saw more horse drawn buggies in a few hours than I’d seen in my entire life. I checked out a Chinese buffet just over the state line in MI (not good enough to even give a review) and bought some Amish butter for my future toast.

The next morning I was on the road bright and early to spend a few days visiting family, before heading to my next job in Rochester MN.

As a refresher for those of you who don’t commit by blog entries to memory, my August 2018 accident repairs were only partially completed on the Olympic Peninsula. The RV dealer I originally contacted to do the repairs did not receive the correct parts, whether due to an error on their part or Carefree of Colorado. At the time I really didn’t care who was at fault. I only knew that my slide topper would get a free ride across the country to TN.

I took stock (and pix) of the parts I had on hand and contacted Carefree of Colorado directly. They determined the additional parts I would need and shipped them to me. After receiving them and making sure I knew what went where, it was just a matter of waiting for a good day to attach the topper. That day finally arrived. The process was a little more difficult than necessary since the slideout would need to be retracted. That’s the slideout with the drop down deck attached so that had to get stowed first.

I was pleasantly surprised that my game plan worked out so well. I did need an extra set of hands to raise the deck. Either I was very tired or it had a little extra water weight from the recent rains. The slide topper was able to rest on the main awning while I slid the fabric end into the gimp rail. A few screws later and all the hardware was secured. The topper worked without a problem when extending the slide. I was so happy about that I forgot to bring the slide back in to test that it rolled up OK. Oh well, that will come in a few weeks. I’m just glad to write ‘finito’ to the accident repairs.

I’ll admit that I’ve never given this much thought….until today. A few days ago (on a Friday afternoon) one of the fuel lines in my truck sprang a leak. I was fairly sure what happened, and even which fuel line, since it happened once before – on an interstate highway in Idaho. This time the truck made it back to the campground without pouring smoke through the vents. But after I shut down the engine it wouldn’t restart so I was stuck.

In my former life, this would not have been a major problem. I might have had a second car to use, or family/friends/coworkers to catch rides with, knowledge of the local mechanics and parts stores, and a garage full of tools. Now picture yourself in a campground without that support system and your options are limited.

So, not having the proper tools to do the job, my choices were 1) have it towed to a repair shop or 2) find a mobile mechanic. I was still pondering possible options, maybe even trying the repair myself, on Saturday so the whole weekend was shot. I did try calling one local mechanic on Saturday but didn’t get any warm fuzzies about a place that didn’t have an answering machine. I did find a place on Sunday that had an answering machine. Left a message but they still haven’t called back as of Monday afternoon. That left the roadside assistance mechanic. I called them Sunday, explained the situation and they suggested I call back Monday morning to talk with someone more experienced. OK, I could do that.

Monday morning comes. I call them around 8 AM and they tell me they already have a truck on the way. They arrive, remove the defective part, get on the phone to find a replacement part. Tell me they need to go to the dealer for the part and should be back in less than 1 hour. When they get back, it takes about 10 minutes to get the new part in and tested. Then comes the real scary part – the bill.

It was a little higher than I expected. Part of that was the part cost from the dealer instead of a parts store. The other part was driving for the part. But after looking at the bill, I couldn’t find anything to argue about. What I paid for was a lot of convenience for me. I never had to have the truck towed anywhere (another expense). I never had to find a ride to a parts store and hope to get the right part. Someone with a lot more experience than me came right to my RV and fixed my truck quickly and efficiently.

I’ve been here in TN for just over a week now and it seems that my departure from Sequim WA was timed perfectly. Not only did I miss any snowfall on my drive south but I also missed some of the biggest snow storms that the Olympic Peninsula has seen in a long time. I was getting updates from a friend who was still in Rainbow’s End RV Park. At first they were just mildly interesting – some snow on the ground and the small pond beginning to freeze over. Then the big one hit and they got 12 inches of snow in one day. The very next day they lost power, which also meant no water (no power to pump) and no TV or Wi-Fi (no power to that equipment).  A few days later (after power was restored) they got even more snow. One unfortunate couple from Canada towing a 5th wheel got stuck on a very small uphill grade in the park while trying to get to my old spot. The road was very slick with ice. They waited about 9 hours for a tow truck to get them moving again and their site was less than 50 yards away.  I might not have had ideal weather here in Tennessee during that time but it was much better than it could have been.

On January 31st, I started a 3000 mile journey from Sequim WA to Cornersville TN. I elected to move the departure up from February 1st so I would hopefully miss some forecast snow in Utah. I had already decided to start the trip southbound to Portland OR so I could avoid the mountain passes in Washington state. I’ve never put snow chains on a tire and had no desire to try it on this trip while towing my 5th wheel.

Day 1 started off easy. I had already disconnected and stowed everything except electric the day before, and brought the slides in the night before. I’m naturally a morning person so I was able to get started before the traffic got too bad on highway 101. There was a toll (westbound only) on the Tacoma Narrows bridge. I’d already paid this a few times when driving onto the mainland and there was an oversized lane that I could have used but since they have a Pay By Mail option, I chose to drive straight through with the RV. The toll will be probably be about $14 if they decide to mail it to me. It would have been $12 if I’d stopped and paid then.

Traffic along I-5 and I-84 wasn’t too bad. My first overnight stop was a small RV park in Stanfield OR. Since I’d filled up before leaving and it was a fairly short drive, I only planned one fuel stop at a Pilot truck stop on the west side of the Colombia River Gorge. Under most circumstances, that would’ve been easy but my luck changed as I turned west from Portland. I noticed tree branches bending towards me. Thank goodness for technology. I was able to say “OK Google, what are the winds at my current location” and found out the exact headwind I was dealing with. Since I had plenty of time, I slowed down to about 55 MPH and continued down the road. At that speed I was able to take in a little more scenery and spotted a bald eagle in a tree top. I was a little worried as I got further away from civilization but finally made it to the truck stop. After filling up, I discovered that I had 1.5 gallons left in the 35 gallon tank as I made it to the pumps.

Back on the interstate with a full tank, I called ahead to the Redtail RV park in Stanfield. The owner was very helpful with directions and I was fortunate that they had a site for me. Typically, I just sleep in rest areas or truck stops but this trip I wanted an electric hookup at night so I could recharge the batteries for the residential refrigerator and run a space heater to stay warm. One of the problems I’ve noticed recently is that many RV parks are mostly full of permanent residents. This park was no exception but they did have a pull thru site available for an overnight. I didn’t have to unhitch the truck and was able to get a very early start the next morning.

My next planned stop was the famcamp at Hill AFB UT.  The drive through the rest of Oregon, Idaho and Utah was uneventful until I was about 2 hours north of the base. I had not been using Google maps until then because it was straight interstate driving. As soon as I plugged in the address, I got a warning that there was a 30 minute delay due to an accident on the interstate. No problem I thought, it should be cleared by the time I get there. Well, every 15 minutes or so, Google maps would update the delay and it kept getting longer. By the time I was within 10 miles of my exit, the interstate had been closed just 2 exits north of my destination. Google faithfully routed me through residential sections of Odgen (BTW they have very wide streets) for about 30 minutes until I finally arrived at the west gate of Hill AFB. I couldn’t tell which lane to use so I stopped short and a security policeman came out to the RV to notify me that they’d had too many scrapes and scratches going through that gate so I had to go to a different gate – the one I had originally programmed into Google maps! Apparently, the interstate had reopened while I was cruising through Ogden and I was able to get to the original exit and the famcamp. Again, I’d called earlier in the day and the camp host gave me excellent directions and I got to my site without problem. There was snow on the ground all over the place but the streets and sites were dry and clear. After  a nice hot shower in the bath house and a decent nights sleep, I was on the move again before dawn. My next planned stop was just west of Albuquerque NM.

On day 3, I had to disagree with Google maps. It looked like they wanted to route me on a very scenic route between I-15 and I-70. These are usually great for cars but murder on big rig RVs. I stuck with the interstate until a different, 30 mile stretch of state highway offered to save me many miles getting to I-70. I have to admit the scenery through southern Utah was just unbelievable. I’d heard all the talk about the area and just never thought a bunch of rocks could be that impressive. I was WRONG! I wish I’d had more time to stop and see the sights but I do have plans to find a workamping gig there in the near future. I did see numerous hawks on the side of the road and even a couple of coyotes loping across a field. I took US 191 and US 491 to get to I-40 in New Mexico. 191 was a good road with frequent passing lanes so folks could get around me. 491 started off good but when it entered the Navajo Nation lands in New Mexico I had to reduce speed by about 10 mph. There were numerous stretches where dips in the road had my 5er acting like a bucking bronco at normal speeds. Also, there were no rest areas or stations to refuel anywhere along 491. I had just filled up before I turned off 191. I made it to the Dancing Eagle Casino rv park in Casa Blanca NM. This spot is a real gem for an overnight. Right off the interstate, plenty of open spots and the cost was only $11.38. As a bonus, there was a tribal truck stop right across the street where I filled the tank with inexpensive diesel the next morning.

Up to this point, I’d really been pushing it, driving long hours each day, to get ahead of a weather front and NOT get snowed in somewhere. Now I could finally relax a little. I had excellent tailwinds going through the rest of New Mexico and the Texas panhandle and ended a driving day when the sun was still up in Amarillo Texas, at the same RV park where I had my first workamping job. I was there so early, I unhitched the truck and headed into town for a Chinese buffet and more inexpensive diesel.  The environmentalist in me was very happy to see huge wind farms across the panhandle with hundreds of wind turbines, generating countless gigawatts of electricity without destroying or burning anything.

Just 2 days left now. Another early start from Amarillo, still decent tailwinds, across Oklahoma and into Arkansas. One more RV park before sunset and decided to unhitch again and drive into town for the best deal on diesel. What did we do before Gas Buddy? Also stopped at a grocery store for some traveling snacks for the next day. I’d been surviving mostly on fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs and fried ham slices. Up before dawn again for the last leg. Traffic wasn’t too bad through Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville. I made the Texas T Campground in Cornersville TN with plenty of daylight to spare, no new damage to the RV and no mechanical difficulties with the truck – a very successful 3000 mile trip in my book. Both Dakota and I were very happy to put all the slides out and looking forward to being stationary for a few months while workamping and exploring the local area.

I dropped the 5er at a local repair shop around 9 AM. Discussed the repairs with the tech, made sure to tell him about the cat closed up in the bedroom. Went to the YMCA for a quick hot tub and steam sauna session, then headed for the nearest Chinese buffet since I skipped breakfast. Halfway there I get a call from the repair shop. They say there’s a few problems. First is the wind. It really started gusting so there’s no way they can work on awnings until it dies down.  Second, all the parts are wrong. ??????? I was so upset over that I told him I’d have to call him back after I got parked. After talking in the parking lot for a few minutes, we got most of the parts issues resolved. The 2 awnings were good to go, along with the slide glide. The slide topper didn’t have all the necessary hardware (chalk that one up to the previous RV shop that didn’t get the order right) but I could live without that for awhile.

Later that afternoon, they got the patio awning up and rewired. Looks and works great now. I even got 2 bonus items that afternoon. Found out that the thermostat fuse I’d been pulling also controlled all the 12v in the kitchen slide. Great FYI for the future. And I was able to find a troubleshooting document online for the leveling system which has been giving me fits since October.

I stayed in the RV in their parking lot that night, plugged into a 15 or 20 amp circuit. It was just enough to keep the frig running and a small space heater in the bedroom. I was up early the next morning, before the shop opened, so I tried my newfound knowledge from the previous afternoon. Hallelujah! The leveling system finally quit beeping at me and the error code cleared. It took a few extra minutes to manually level the rig and recalibrate the system but after that life was good.

The techs arrived about then and we discussed the plan for the main awning. They wanted to detach the brackets from the RV, assemble the awning inside, then reattach. I asked about just cutting off the old awning material and sliding the new material on. After looking at it a few more minutes, they chose that route and about an hour later I was out of there.  Big kudos to Eric’s RV of Sequim WA

I made it back to the RV park in short order. Ever drive through a traffic circle with a 40 ft 5th wheel? I had to navigate 2 of them. Fortunately, they were well designed and I didn’t run over any curbs. Setup was pretty quick since I’d left my hoses in position and the auto-level was working again. I even extended an awning, just to show off.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the slide topper parts in TN and do that repair myself. The previous RV shop also ordered the wrong slide glide. It was thinner than the original and crumpled on first use. I’ve seen DIY plans in the Open Range forum for a stainless steel glide that works much better. That’s also on my list for TN.