CONGRESS TO BELLEMONT AZ. (CAMPING WORLD) & A PROBLEM WITH THE RIG:((

ENGINES RUNNING & WE ARE READY TO GO

In my PJ’s with coffee in hand I stood quietly in our front yard’s early morning sunrise listening to a cacophony of beautiful bird songs all round me.  Prevalent was a male Cardinal in a nearby Mesquite tree.  Oh the sounds of happiness from our so many feathered little friends.

KELLY THROWS THE MAIN SWITCH, CLOSES THE FUSE PANEL DOOR & WE ARE GONE

We had left the fridge on electric all night just in case it might work….and it did.  Imagine our surprise to open up the fridge door to cool temps this morning.  Kelly switched it over to gas & wouldn’t you know it the fridge worked totally fine all the way to Camping World & is still working fine tonight as I write this. 

NEXT IS UP YONDER YARNELL HILL TO THE TOP OF THOSE WEAVER MOUNTAINS & BEYOND

We were in no hurry so there was no rushing around & we just took our time loading up & taking care of last minute things.  Did a walk around of the property taking photos of all the flowerbeds etc.  Need to have a visual record of things.  Photos inside of all the rooms as well.  I generally do this every year mainly as a record of what we have & where things are.  Checked & re-checked everything, said good-bye to the birds, my new shovel, the shed, the house & just about every other little thing in between.     It was exactly 11 a.m. Arizona time when rolled through our south gate.  Pheebs & I in the rig & Kelly following in the Jeep.  What a gorgeously beautiful 84F Arizona morning it was.

 

The Big EEE climbed the Yarnell Hill like it wasn’t even there & we would probably have been alright with the Jeep on but sometimes it’s just better to err on the safe side.  Pulled into Yarnell’s Ranch House Restaurant parking lot & hooked on the Jeep.  Luckily the restaurant was closed today so we had lots of room.  Smooth ride all the way to west of Prescott & then……..a problem!!!

JEEP HOOKED ON IN YARNELL AT THE RANCH HOUSE RESTAURANT

We seemed to be losing too much power getting over the summit just south of Granite Mountain.  Pedal to the floor at 10 mph.  Pulled over, shut it down for a few minutes, started it up & we were good to go again & the rig ran fine all the way up through the Chino Valley to I-40.  East of Williams is a tough series of very long grades which are known to be notoriously hard on vehicles.  And today we were no exception.  Seems to me Gaelyn from Geogypsy ran into some serious problems here a few years back.  The 6% grades stretch for about 6 miles.   It was in these grades loosing power that we had a ‘check engine’ light come on.  It was not a blinking red light so we didn’t panic.  Other than going up the steep grades the rig ran fine but we had to get onto the shoulder at a few points & shut it down for a few minutes.  Pulled into Williams & spotted a CarQuest place.  A fella came out & plugged into our rig’s computer to see what the red light ‘check engine’ codes were.  We had 5 faults with one of them being a throttle sensor.  The fellow at Carquest said that 6 mile stretch west of Williams is one of the worst spots in Arizona & it’s not uncommon for that section of I-40 to disable vehicles including 18 wheeler trucks.  I did notice some trucks plus one other Class A struggling.  We’ve done these grades with our Class A Damon, our Class C Sunseeker, & our Class C Winnebago but today was the first time we’ve had trouble.  It puts our trip from Moab to Denver Colorado in question now.  Lotta big mountains & grades going over the Rockies there.  Did it in our Damon heading west back in late 07 so we know how rugged those mountains are.

ROLLING THROUGH SKULL VALLEY

Earlier Kelly had phoned Camping World to see about the availability of staying in there lot overnight & they said sure no problem.  That saves us a pile of money from not staying at the KOA like I had previously figured on.  We knew Camping World was only another half hours drive east of Williams where we were so headed out.  The rig ran fine & didn’t cause any more problems.  Rolled into Camping World around 2 & checked in with service.  The people here could not have been friendlier & the young fella at the counter went one step further when he heard of our ‘loss of power’ problems.  He right away got on the phone to a truck garage about a mile west of where we were & the folks there said to bring the rig on down…….so that’s what we did.

EASTBOUND ON I-40 WITH SNOW CAPPED MOUNTAINS NORTH OF FLAGSTAFF AZ.

Nice people here again at the BELLEMONT TRUCK REPAIR & the fella pulled our Motorhome into one of the two bays.  He checked everything out but did not get a ‘throttle sensor error’ but did pick up a couple 02 sensor errors same as Carquest.  He said everything checked out fine but if it occurs again we should have those 02 sensors replaced.  He cleared our ‘check engine’ light as well.  He also said about that bad 6 mile stretch of I-40 & how hard it is on vehicles.  We have our fingers crossed the problem won’t re-occur but I’m not so sure.  We could also be dealing with a partially clogged fuel filter after checking out the problem on the internet.

FELLOW AT CAMPING WORLD RECOMMENDED THIS PLACE & I WOULD TOO

PHEEBS MEETS A COUPLE NEW FRIENDS

Anyway we are tucked cozily & securely away in front of a big bay door here at Camping World for the night & they also gave us electricity.  Only stipulation is that we be out of the way by the time workers show up in the morning.  So far so good at Camping World, pets are welcome inside & the staff here loved the Pheebs.  The service manager wanted to take her home.

 

TUCKED AWAY FOR THE NIGHT

YEP THAT’S OUR HOUSE WAY DOWN THERE PHEEBS

Stressful day for us & we sure hope the rest of our trip is problem free & easy going.  Weather is looking bad for this whole area with a rain front coming in for the next 3 days.  I think when we leave here we’ll head straight for Goosenecks State Park where the weather is looking much better.  We’ll do the Grand Canyon another time when the weather is better.

KELLY CHECKS OUT OUR RIG’S ‘ERROR CODES’ ON HER COMPUTER TONIGHT

GROANER’S CORNER:)) Feeling Stressed Out?

Picture yourself near a stream.  Birds are softly chirping in the crisp cool mountain air.  Nothing can bother you here. No one knows this secret place.  You are in total seclusion from that place called "the world."  The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.  The water is clear.  You can easily make out the face of the person whose head you're holding under water.  Why lookie there... what a pleasant surprise... It's the person who caused you all this stress in the first place.  You let them up... just for a quick breath... then ploop!...back under they go...  You allow yourself as many deep breaths as you want.  There now... feeling better?