bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We left the park around 8:30 and traveled thru Texas to I-10. We turned west on I-10 and traveled to Ft. Stockton TX. We stayed at Parkview RV Resort, a PA park for $14/night with FHU 50 amp. We did not even disconnect the car!

Sunday- We returned to I-10 and continued west, stopping for diesel in Van Horn TX. We purchased the diesel and continued west on I-10. Our destination was to be Las Cruces NM.

We started to notice that the engine was hesitating. The ‘check engine’ light would flick on and off, only lasting a few seconds. On the slightest hill, we could not get over 45 mph.

We were driving through El Paso. So we pulled into a Flying J and Bob called Freightliner. By this time we were west of El Paso. There was a Freightliner facility on the east side, so we disconnected the car, and went to Mission RV Park, about 2 miles from the Freightliner. We received an Escapees discount, of $4 per night.

We were tired and stressed so we went to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, as neither of us felt like cooking.

Monday- We were up very early and drove over to the facility. We arrived just before 7 AM and went and checked in. We lucked out, as there was another motor home right behind us, and they did not get taken in until after 3 PM.

Their policy is that they will get you in for a diagnosis within 2 hours. Then you are in line for the repair. At about 8:30 they took the MH. So we sat for awhile, then ran around town. We picked up lunch, and returned. They were finally working on the MH. They diagnosed, what we thought was the issue, we had a clogged fuel filter. This had all occurred right after we had purchased diesel at a very busy Pilot.

The tech asked Bob when was the last time we had the routine maintenance. He told him, September in Gaffney, when they also changed the fuel filter! So they put in a new fuel filter and sent us on our way.

We left there around 4 pm and went back to the Mission RV Park.  The guy was very nice and he gave us the Escapees discount again. So we paid $36 for the night.

Tuesday- We left at around 8:30 and traveled west on I-10. The MH had lots of pep and went right up the hills this time!

Our planned destination was Sierra Vista AZ to visit Bob’s cousin Ronda and her husband Brian. We had a reservation at Ft. Huachuca  Army Base. We did not make it!

As we were going up the hills prior to the turn off, the engine kept overheating. These were not short steep hills, they were long grades. The MH should not have been doing this! We only had one time that the alarm went off, but we had to pull over and cool off the engine several times.

We decided to re-route. I sent Ronda an email and we continued on to Tucson. Bob had checked with Freightliner again, and found that on the west side there was a Freightliner facility. At least it was not the weekend again!

The gal at the facility told Bob they may not be able to get to us today, but to come on in and park in the RV area. We arrived and they took us right in. We packed up our stuff, including the dogs and settled into the ‘Drivers Lounge”. This was about 2 PM.

At 5:30 we left and went in search of dinner. Since it was hot and we had the dogs with us, we went thru the drive thru at In n’ Out Burger. We returned to the facility. Bob went to check on an update and the gal told us that they had problems with the folks ahead of us, and that they would not get to us today.

They pulled the MH back out and we parked in the RV area. They only have 4 sites, with FHU 50 amp, but they do lock up everything. We settled in for the evening, exhausted! It is very tiring to be just hanging around!

Wednesday- At least we were already checked in, so we pulled up to the gate at 6:40. We were taken in when they opened at 7.

We left around 9 and went to a car wash as the car was filthy. We made a few stops, and then returned, bringing lunch with us. As were parking, the gal called Bob and said that they had taken the MH for a long ride, up hills, and could not get the MH to overheat??? So they charged us for 1 hour and sent us on our way. Hmmm, we still do not know what was going on….there were no error messages when they checked and the radiator was clean.

I quickly called Thousand Trails as they have a park close by. We received a reservation and drove the 2.5 miles to Voyager RV Park. We parked in a FHU 50 amp site, no charge! We went to Walmart and Costco for gas, $1.99 / gal.

This is a huge park. There is the area that we are in, and two other areas. One is park models and the other is houses. They all use the same facilities.  We had a nice dinner of leftovers.

Thursday- We left early and drove to Sierra Vista. We dropped the dogs off at the groomers at 8:30, then I had a 9 AM hair appt. Bob took the car and went to Petsmart and looked at the Elks Lodge RV park for next time we are here.

After we were all done, we drove south to Ronda and Brian’s house. We had a nice lunch with them, thank you to you both. The dogs met their ‘cousins; Brian and Ronda have two large labs. Everyone had to sniff butts and get to know each other. It took awhile for them all to settle down, but they eventually did.

We had a nice visit, then left at around 3:30 to return to the MH.  We returned to the MH and went to dinner at the restaurant in the park. There was barely any parking and a line, so we knew it would be good.

Friday- We left at about 8:15 and drove west on I-10. We stopped for diesel in Eloy, $2.14/gal, the lowest we have paid for quite awhile.

We continued north, turning east in Casa Grande. We turned north on Hwy. 87 which took us to Mesa. We drove into Mesa Spirit RV Park, an Encore Park at about 11. We were taken directly to our site, as we are with the Escapees SKP Genies rally.  This is a Genealogy Rally. We parked and wandered through the club house, where they were having a flea market/craft/vendor show.

We went to lunch at Café Zupas, my favorite restaurant in the area. We both had nice salads.

We returned and at 4, went next door to the Wagon Masters, Mary and Norm’s patio for happy hour. We had a nice time. At 6, we returned home and ate dinner. At 7 we went over to one of the many club houses in this park for our first Genealogy lecture on Overcoming Dead Ends, by Carol Brown. She is a great speaker and it was a really good lecture.

We returned home at 9 and settled in for the night.

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