Camping World, Bakersfield, CA

We moved today. This is the shortest move we have ever done. One mile!

Actually, we have a pretty good spot. We feel secure and safe here. 30 Amp service. And free!

Here is our spot.

I really like palm trees, and this one is really cool.

We got our truck back. I mentioned that there was a 'clunk' when putting it into park. They said that is normal.... They said they checked the tranny and it looked good. It did get up to 239 degrees during our 'troubles'.

They said give it a try, and bring it back it it fails again.

Not what I wanted to hear. Our deductible was $200.00 on a $7,700.00 repair bill. 8 new injectors.

I am not convinced. I don't want to connect our house and start up that mountain pass again...for the third time!

Options...

We looked at trading our truck and 5th wheel in on a motorhome. Here is a 2006 Newmar Kountry Star diesel pusher that we thought about. 29K miles. $104,000.00

 Then a 2000 Ultrasport 2000 by Damon. A diesel pusher, but way to old for me.

They really wanted to sell us this 2014 Fleetwood Southwind 32VS. This was a nice 33 foot rig that would have worked for us.

They have a lot to choose from....

But they won't give us crap for our Bighorn in trade.

Truck, yes.... RV, no!

Other options....

I thought of trading in our 2008 truck in for a new one. They will give us 25K in on trade.

We are really thinking about this. Financing is a GO!

How much is 'Peace of Mind' worth?

We may not make it to Albuquerque in time for the Balloon Fiesta, but that's ok. It happens every year.

Tomorrow we are going to go to a church we found here. We are giving it to the Lord. His Will. We are listening.

Something is gonna happen soon!

Life is STILL GOOD!

Tomorrow We Test Our Truck

The Chevy dealer finally got approval for our warranty repair on our truck. They told us we may get it back tomorrow afternoon. You better believe I will test the heck out of the truck before I reconnect our house and head up the mountain towards Barstow. We still have hopes of Albuquerque and the balloon fiesta.

While we have been here, I have discovered some things.

We thought about going to a motorhome instead of 5th wheel/truck. We thought about trading my truck in on a new Silverado.

Here is what I discovered.

Nobody will finance a person who lives full time in his RV.

Now this is something we didn't learn about during our research. Get your RV before going full time. We had the credit scores, down payments, etc. Turned down by all the finance companies, banks, and credit unions because all we had was our South Dakota (Americas Mailbox) address. I am not going to lie about where we live and who we pay rent to (yes, this is what Camping World wanted us to do).

We are going to get our truck back. Give it a test. And continue on with our dream of traveling the country, seeing the sights, and smelling the roses!

We have faith.

Weighing Our Options....and Waiting.

After a crazy Friday, we have plenty of time to think things over and explore the various options. I am a bit gun shy now and am questioning the upcoming repair.

Questions, questions, questions.

Some worries:

Will $7,700.00 worth of fuel injectors really fix the problem? Or is this just the next logical replacement step?

Can I trust my truck after the repair?

Was I trying to tow too much? How big is too big?

We are paying $44.00 per day in this park, and no way to move it.

More thoughts:

What is better?  A fifth wheel/truck or Motorhome/toad?

How much trade in value is our rigs?

Can we still make it to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta?

We walked across the street to a big Camping World here in Bakersfield, and looked around. Couldn't help noticing the Motorhomes for sale there. We did look at some. Lots of thinking to do.

Meanwhile I had to explore this RV Resort we have found ourselves in. I went to the pool area looking for the gym.

It's in there somewhere.

Found the laundry room.

Lots of machines, and clean too. $1.50 per machine. Glad we have our own washer/dryer. ???

I found the gym. Nicely equipped.

I dinked around there for awhile and then time to cool off and relax.

Hope to hear some news tomorrow. Then figure out some next steps.

Meanwhile...

This life is still GOOD!

Not A Good Day.....Pretty Bad Actually!

We knew that we were going to be going over Tehachapi Pass, elevation 4,064 feet high, on CA58 between Bakersfield and Barstow. Since the temps were going to get into the 90s, I decided that we would leave early to beat the heat. We packed up and were ready to leave bright and early Friday morning.

We got up at 5 AM and dumped our tanks and were on the road by 5:30. I didn't want to drive at night, but I thought we could break this rule this time.

We were passing through Bakersfield when the sun came up, around 7 AM. Temp was 65 degrees.

Started the uphill climb on CA58.

So far, everything had been going good.

And then everything changed.......

We had the truck heater on to keep the engine cooler. All of a sudden 'Engine Performance Reduced' popped up on my display. We lost ALL power and the truck started slowing down and it shifted all the way down to 1st gear. 10 MPH!

I put the flashers on and drove on along the right side of the road. There was no place to pull over. There was a concrete barrier separating the 4 lanes. Slowly we crept up the road. Engine and tranny heating up. I thought we wouldn't be able to continue moving al all.

Up ahead was a dirt turnout. I stopped there and let everything cool off.

When I restarted the engine, I had a check engine light and a display saying 'replace fuel filter'.

My display said 'oil filter' was at 68%, but the 'fuel filter' was 0%.

Still no power, but there was a place where we could turn around and go back down hill to Bakersfield, 22 miles away.

We found a Chevy dealer, Three Way Chevrolet, and headed there. They had us unhook the 5th wheel in a small soccer field next door, and got our truck in after a 2 hour wait.

The tech seemed to think the loss of vacuum was from a clogged fuel filter and replaced it for a $144.00 charge.

Off we go again. Temp was now 85 degrees. I did notice that the 'fuel filter' stated it was 100 % now.

At the same spot, the same thing happened again! Fuel filter shows 0% again.This time on the way back to the Chevy dealer, we had to stop because I could get the truck moving on flat ground!

Now after a 3 hour wait, we got the news that I needed 8 fuel injectors replaced! I pulled out my Extended Warranty that I bought when we got the truck. Thank goodness! It was going to be around $7,700.00. I about fell over.

Then more bad news. The warranty company was on the East coast and could not arrange a person to come look at the issue and approve the repair till at least Monday.

There was an RV park a couple of blocks away and we were able to borrow our truck to move our rig there. It is nice there, but pretty spendy. We paid for a week. We also have a rental car, paid for by the Chevy dealer.

We now had some hard decisions to make. We cancelled the reservations we had in Blythe. We were going to stay there 3 nights and visit Donna's son Scott and family. Then we cancelled reservations we had for and RPI park in Bullhead City, AZ. We were going there to visit Donna's brother Gene and his wife Cyndi. We were going to cancel the reservations for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, 5 nights, but it is to late and can not cancel.

We will find out more Monday. Maybe we can do Albuquerque. We will see.

I knew we were traveling too fast, I guess the good Lord slowed us down for a bit. We can sit and relax now for at least a week.

Making lemonade!!!!

Bakersfield RV Resort is pretty plush.

If we have to be here, this is a place we can enjoy.

Here is our site.

We are doing what has to be done. Just a little bump in the road.

Sequoia National Park

While in Visalia, we had to go visit Sequoia National Park. It is just 39 miles away.

Off we headed.

We got to the park early. It was cool, and the roads were steep and curvy. The less traffic, the better.

We headed up the little, curvy road. By an old rock formation that use to be a tunnel, back when autos were smaller.

We saw a black bear along the road, but couldn't stop there and get a picture.

We spent some time walking the trails in the giant grove of trees.  Awesome!

These things were big.

We checked out the Museum.

My big truck looks small.

A neat day with the giant trees.

Then down the mountain we went. Back into the California scrubby, dry, hot landscape.

A nice trip into the forest. Another couple of stamps in our National Parks Passport book.