New York or Bust

We left you last in Little Rock, Arkansas...

Departing there, our next stop was about 4.5 hrs down the road to Red Bay, Alabama.

A beautiful warm sunny day was ours as we enjoyed the first of the spring blooms on the trees lining the main drag into town.

Red Bay Spring Blooms

Our first stop was Sabrina's RV wash.   We had an appointment for a full interior and exterior "Spa Day"

Sabrina's Red Bay

Kate and the dogs kept a keen eye on the goings on, and as usual,  were a highlight on the lot.

They started at 8am and by dark we were done and treated to a like new interior.

Our next stop was Precision RV Repair in Belmont, Ms.   Red Bay is right on the border with Mississippi.

We had some preventative maintenance performed on the big DS slide.   Afterwards it was opening and closing like greased lightning.     I also had a bad kink in the kitchen sink drain which was hard for me to get to - so I let the guys who are skilled at that clean that up for me.

Precision RV Belmont, Ms

Next was a stop at Bay Diesel in Red Bay to try and get my EGR code taken care of.

The EGR valve is on top of the engine so access is gained thru the hatch in the rear bathroom. 

They did not have an EGR valve in stock, so they pulled it, cleaned it (it was pretty carboned up) and reinstalled it.   They also replaced the EGR pressure sensor. 

The big red dust-coated Cummins

Fingers crossed that the repairs would solve our issue, we left Red Bay just ahead of the bad storms that were beginning to sweep across the country.

Traveling thru Huntsville, Al we passed the big Saturn V rocket.    The ominous clouds told us what was chasing us - not very far behind.

Unfortunately - about an hour out of Red Bay, the engine again threw off that EGR code.  This time it remained on rather than cycle on and off like it had been previously.

We arrived late afternoon at our next stop - The Two Rivers Landing RV Resort in Sevierville, Tn - just outside of Great Smoky Mtns National Park.

It's a beautiful park with Motorhome only sites that face-in on the French Broad River.

In season all of the shrubs and flowers here are quite beautiful.

View from our site

Our plan was to spend 3 nights here.   I like to pad a few extra days in our travel schedule in case of any issues, and here is where we would spend them.

After settling in, I contacted the Freightliner 24/7 help line to discuss the engine issues.     They explained that the issue could be several things, but since it is related to the emissions control system, the computer could decide to shut the bus down and put is into "limp mode" at any given moment.    If that happens we would only be able to "limp along" at something like 10 miles per hour.   His advice (no doubt from the lawyers) was to find service asap.

Considering the above, we decided to leave in the morning and try to get to NY as quickly as possible.   This way, if we did have a breakdown, we'd be closer to our destination which would give us more options.   Our pressing need was to be able to make the Vet appointment on Weds 19 March for Phoebes export paperwork.    Without that - we can't go overseas.

About 40 gas lanes at Buckees....   Wow!

It was 850 miles from Two Rivers to our destination.   I had planned 3 legs for that.    But instead we decided to cut it down to 2.     

We pulled out at 0-dark-thirty, just as the thunder from that big storm we are running from started to move in.

Our first stop would be what was going to be our second stop.    570 miles down the road we arrived at a big parking lot with RV Parking outside of Cabellas in Hamburg, Pa.     While there I ran in and grabbed a few pairs of shorts since I've recently lost 45 lbs and my pants are falling off of me.

Cabellas, Hamburg Pa

It was a great place to spend the night.   Quiet and even had a security guy driving around.   They had horse stalls and dog kennels in front of the bus where you could leave the animals if it was hot and you wanted to shop.

Cabellas, Hamburg Pa

We left Cabellas again, just as that big storm was starting to move in on us again.    The first few drops were beginning to fall as we pulled back onto I-78 east.

Our last leg was only 4.5 hours and with luck we'd be settled in with no worries about Vet appointments etc.

By 1430 we'd arrived.    3 days early - but its still winter so there was plenty of room at the inn.   Most (all) of the others here are full timers.   Brenda, the duty person who met us when we arrived was super nice, friendly, and helpful.    She got us checked in for the extra 3 days and gave us the rundown on the park.

The scenerly is sort of dingy right now.   Its that ugly time of year in the Northeast.   Grey, cloudy, the grass is dead and the trees are barren.    There is still a bit of snow on the ground and the winter potholes have not yet been filled.  That storm finally caught up to us last night and we got pounded with lots of rain and high winds, but its lost most of the severe aspects of it were gone.

I think when the sun comes out, our view will improve, but not to worry - 2 weeks from Weds we'll be winging our way to Paris!

We'll be leaving the bus here for the summer so if I was not able to secure an appointment for the repairs now, I could certainly schedule something for October when we get back.

The view at Saratoga RV Park

As luck would have it - I've scored an appointment at Cummins (the engine manufacturer) for monday morning at 0700.   So we'll be there bright and early and hopefully get this resolved once and for all.

I'm guessing that our next post might be from Belgium...

I do make more regular mini-updates of my new Facebook page.    I'm not a big FB person but it is easy to run a mini blog there.   I think this link might take you to my posts where you can follow it should you wish.

See you down the road.

On the road again

 Greetings everyone!

It's hard to believe that it's been 5 months since I sat down and updated the blog,    It's not that there's been nothing to write about....   There just does not seem to be the time to get it done.

This post will be a real quick catchup to the current day.

We are currently on the road headed to NY to meet a jet that will take us to Paris, but before I get ahead of myself, let me digress a bit.

After our summer traveling thru the Maritimes, we arrived back in Az in Mid-October.

 

It was time to get caught up on all the annual duties like physicals, dentists, car and bus services etc.

Kate also had cateract surgery on both eyes and had new lenses installed.   Her eyesight is now bionic and he no longer needs glasses.

Before we knew it January had arrived and we were off to Quartzsite.

This year was a bit quieter than usual.  Buddies Rob & Pat could not make it this year and their energy was missed.    We did have an addition to the group however.    The young nomads Chris & Morgan who are full-timing arrived with their Airstream.

We had 6 or 7 dogs at times when everyone was together.

Someone had hit C&M's truck in Austin, Tx so we agreed that Tucson would be a good place to get it repaired.    They stayed with us for a month while that was going on, and when we left last Friday they were still there.   They'll close up the house when they go.

I did get a new flat starlink dish and mounted it up on the roof with a magnetic mount.   Its been working great going down the road and now setting it up on arrival is one less thing I need to do.

We took C&M to a few of the local sights.   Saguaro National Park nearby was one day trip.

Phoebe jumps for joy at the prospect of getting her teeth brushed

We also got to see a couple of Starlink launches from Vandenburg AFB.

We left the house on Friday March 7 for our treck across the US to Albany, NY.

True our usual departure day luck, we left in rain...  then very high winds....  then snow.

Once the snow stopped we were then treated to a series of dust storms in New Mexico.

3 of which had the highway closed for varying lengths of time.

Approaching a dust storm

Highway shut down for about 45 minutes

Further down the road I-10 was closed and traffic was routed into Lordsburg.   The directions sent us thru town on the business route and everyone assumed we'd get back on at the far end of town 5 miles further on.      The problem was that an oversize load had wiped out the overpass that we needed to cross to get back on.   No police were present to direct traffic or let us know what was going on.

Everybody was making circles in town trying to figure out what to do as the town began to fill up with vehicles.    After a circle of town and 45 minutes, I heard on the CB that eastboud was not open, so I headed for the entrance at the middle of town and we once again resumed our ever lengthening trip.

The overpass on left side is toast

This large back end loader hit the bridge and came off of its flat-bed

Just when we thought we finally had smooth sailing, another dust storm hit around Deming, NM.

Once again we were detoured off of the highway onto the business route thru town.   All the entrances were closed so the 7 mile business route became one long parking lot.   Not knowing how long it was going to last, we managed to grab one of the last spots left at a truck stop in case we had to spend the night.

Looking at the traffic backed up for 7 miles thru town

After another 2 hrs or so, the traffic began moving and we once again hit the road.   We finally made it to our stop for the night in Las Cruces.    What should have been a 4hr trip had taken 8 1/2hours.

Saturday was a 500 mile drive to Abilene, Tx.   Not to be outdone by the day before, although the weather was great, the computer system on the engine threw me an error code.    I was able to make it go away but it was something to keep an eye on.

Sunday another 500 miles to a really nice city owned park in Little Rock along the Arkansas River was a rainy drive an another recurrence of that error code.    I need to try and get this looked at.

Downtown Riverside RV Park

The park is right across the river from the Clinton Presidential Library and Park.

A pedestrian bridge takes you across the river to the Library.

Riparian walkway in the adjoining park

The dogs posed in front of the library.   They are sitting on the top of a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years.

Kate is standing on this cool rubberized walkway.   It was amazing to walk on.   Very comfortable.

I think these electric scooters were free to use.   I'm not sure how it works.

We are now in Red Bay, Alabama where the bus was built.   We have a few appointments here for some minor preventative maintenance items, plus I was able to score an 1130 appointment on Thursday at Bay Diesel to have my error code looked at.   Hopefully we'll stay on schedule and be out of here Friday morning.   I do have a few days padded into the schedule if needed, and we are scheduled to be in Albany next Weds the 19th.

Once we get there, I have the usual export stuff to do for the dogs and we will fly out of Newark on April 2nd to Paris.

Just an FYI - I have a facebook page that I've been posting quick updates to.   My buddy Hayden convinced me how much easier it is to do vs the blog.

I like the blog better for its flow and record keeping abilty, but for a quick update as to where we are the FB page is pretty easy.   You might want to check that out too.

It's going to be a great summer so stay tuned.