Hello fellow family, friends, busnuts… I shamefully open a Word document, tail between legs, full well aware of the fact that it's been 5 months since my last entry (or perhaps regurgitation would be a better word). Many thoughts and stories regarding our latest Coach endeavors have been lost due to my inability to sit still long enough to type a few paragraphs. However, I will do my best to distill the memories from my brain so that those of you who are interested can learn of what we've been up to over the winter in regards to our beloved new toy - and rather large project - The Coach.
Last we left off we were in the midst of extracting the Coach from the very
capable hands of General Tire in Redwood City. In hindsight, the whole experience
went off well - the Coach has a brand new pair of very shiny shoes that we have
become very possessive of as it turns out. I'm currently entertaining numerous
ideas for how we will construct wheel covers for the tires so that they don't
deteriorate in the sun. The tires are on the large side, so I doubt we will
be able to find a set of covers at CampingWorld without special ordering them
for some frivolous sum of money. I imagine I'll just end up sewing them myself.
And I digress already…
Back to the new tires. A very humble thanks and eternal gratitude goes out to
the Colorado contingency of my family for making the new tires a possible endeavor.
Many warm thanks to John for working with Denny, taking the time to carefully
pick out all the parts as if he were doing it for his RV. And lots of love to
the whole family for helping lift the financial burden and cheering us along
at a moment when we thought we'd have to move the Coach to a very big back-burner.
Your encouragement couldn't have been more happily received. It has only determined
us more to continue on down our path renovating the Coach and turning her into
something our children will make memories of. It was a tremendous gift and it
will never be forgotten.
We
were finally able to pick the rig up and swing her just round the corner to
Docktown RV and Boat Storage where we received much of the same friendly service.
Nice joint they've got over there - clean and well kept, although I have to
say that I could have done without the leering I received on numerous occasions
from inmates taking a break from their basketball match at the police station
(the storage facility shared a chain link fence with the minimal security prison
yard). But hey - I could have made some new friends. And that should not take
away from the fact that our entire stay there was uneventful and well managed.
Our one hiccup was when we pulled the rig in to park it and Trevor was unable
to get it into reverse to back-up into the spot. The reverse lock-out solenoid
was sticking. I was able to manually engage it while Trevor was trying to engage
it from the driver's seat - something we'll have to look into further at a later
time to make sure it doesn't happen again. And off to get married we went.
We returned from our honeymoon to things much the way we left
them. The Coach was doing very well in the new storage facility and our next
plan of action was moving her up to Sacramento to be near the house where we
could more easily work on her. Our first task to ready The Coach for the move
was to figure out what was with the alternator. The batteries (or I should say
"battery" as we are currently working off of one) had not been taking a charge
when running the engine and we needed to determine why.
Trevor
and I spent an evening pulling the alternator out of the engine and took it
down to the neighborhood Kragen only to find out they didn't have a big enough
tester to determine if it was putting out voltage or not. Trevor ended up taking
it the next day to a shop that Specialty Truck in San Jose recommended and they
were able to throw it on a larger tester that determined the alternator was
fine. So we put it back in the engine and after that it seemed to be charging
the batteries just fine.
Now that the alternator seemed to be charging the batteries succesfully we just needed to find a storage facility near the house and pick a weekend for the big move. We chose a weekend late in January and started making plans. I found a storage facility about 5 miles from the house, East Elk Grove Mini & RV Storage. Trevor arranged with Denny to bring the rig on over to General Tire on our way out of town to have the lug nuts tightened per his recommendation.
The weekend of the move came quickly and we got up early that Saturday morning and headed over to the rig to start the process of moving. We fired her up and very easily moved over to General Tire for the lug-nut tightening. Unfortunately the alternator had stopped working again and we spent a greater part of the morning and afternoon looking into the issue. Long story short, the alternator was perfectly fine. The relay that controls the field current between the alternator and the battery compartment was not working. A tapping on the outside with a screwdriver jiggled loose whatever was sticking on the inside of the relay box and the battery started charging instantly. It was nice to find out that we didn't need to acquire ourselves a new alternator. The guys tightened down our lug nuts and on the road we went - at 4pm. At this point we were not to be deterred by darkness. By this point we had determined that most of the rear lights on the rig worked, our main concern was the lack of working headlights. Trevor decided that we should at least drive until we felt the lighting was too dark and then find a spot we could square the rig away for the night - most likely among a flock of other over-nighting big rigs.
Our planned route of travel took us down the peninsula to Highway 237 where we would travel around the Bay rather than risk taking any bridges. We wanted to avoid putting ourselves in a position where we might stall or have any other unfortunate issue and NOT have a shoulder to pull onto. Once on 237 we planned on taking I680 to I580 which we would stay on for a short while until we got to Livermore. From Livermore we would take Old Altamont Road which is a much lower grade than I580/I205 - obviously a safer route considering we haven't had the brakes looked at by a professional and this drive would be the first real test for them. Old Altamont Pass road takes you through the hills and spits you out in Tracy where we would then get back onto I205 and continue until it hits I5, the last leg of our journey.
We took our planned route with much success all the way until just before Dublin. The sun was going down and we had about 30 minutes of decent lighting before it would be completely dark - I had already turned on my own headlights as I followed behind The Coach in my car. Trevor called me from his cell to discuss our options. We were both feeling rather motivated, and quite honestly thrilled that the rig was doing so beautifully. We mutually decided that we should keep going. The route we were taking was lit well enough by cities that it was really of no consequence that the rig had no headlights. We thought we could at least make it to Tracy before it became too much of a concern so we kept going. Trevor also planned on using the spot light on the roof of The Coach (we had determined it worked) for Old Altamont Pass Road if it was too dark by the time we got that far.
Oh how foolish we can be.
Perhaps I should mention at this point that we had most recently been falling
victim to foggy weather of late and if the reader has ever been to the Bay Area
they would know that the valley - the mountain passes especially - are prone
to the most delightfully thick fog. It's compared to Pea Soup for a reason.
Don't get too excited or nervous for the hero and heroine of the story. We obviously survived. But I look back on it and crack a grin on my face when I consider the foolishness and subtle hilarity of it all.
Trevor took the exit for the Old road and I dutifully followed. We plugged along like normal, making good time. Darkness had fallen, but the single headlight on the roof of the rig seemed to light the road ahead for us enough so we weren't worried. Then the fog slowly started to pour in. At first it was subtle - I hardly even noticed it. Then the soupiness began. I thought not much of it as the road in front of me was well illuminated from my headlights. Trevor on the other hand, I came to find out later, was gripping the steering wheel, sweating, and hunched over with a squinty look on his face. The headlight on the roof of The Coach was proving to make things difficult as it produced uncomfortable glare.
Back in La La land with Mary - I finally gathered something was wrong when I looked in the rear view only to find that we had quite the following behind us - the road was a two lane road and conditions were such that only the most suicidal would try passing. And Trevor wasn't pulling over! I pulled out my cell phone, assuming he just wasn't aware of the long line of cars, only to find out I had no signal. After about 15 minutes of trying, the cell phone gods finally allowed my call to go through - and miraculously Trevor's cell phone received it. I informed him of the entourage we had acquired and he informed me there was no where safe to pull over. Well worth the 15 minutes of trying to place a phone call. Finally there was a shoulder large enough and he pulled over. At this point I took a moment to converse with him in person only to find out what a horrific drive he was having. We had no choice but to keep on going - there was no where we could leave the rig without violating private property. Since his taillights were working we decided that it would be safer if I took the lead and he followed behind. We took back to the road and continued on our way, only about 20 minutes from Tracy - a well lit city. This is where the hilarity comes into play. I pulled onto the road and Trevor pulled in behind me. Sci-fi movie comes to mind. It was the most ridiculous B-rated movie scene I can possibly think of. Here's this retro bus following behind me ensconced in the creepiest fog with nothing more than a single spot-light coming from the roof. Everything's dark, damp, and cold - and here's this Cyclops monster of a vehicle looming along behind me.
The headlights will definitely need to be a top-priority.
We made it into Tracy - fog lifted as soon as we got off the dark roads as luck would have it. At this point Trevor was completely spent and as happy as he was with our progress, he was also overdosing on adrenaline and needed a good meal, large quantities of good wine, and a soft bed. We found a nice spot near downtown Tracy where we left The Coach for the night - a popular place for other big rigs to camp out for a night or two. We headed up to the house and called it a night.
All things considered we couldn't have been happier with the progress we made. The Coach had proven itself to be an incredibly reliable and comfortable vehicle so far. The worst case scenario - leaving us on the side of the road waiting for a Big-Rig Tow Truck - was no longer a concern.
The next day was thankfully uneventful. We headed down to Tracy
early in the morning, fired up the rig and drove her in to Elk Grove.
Our first stop was at the house where we unloaded everything that wasn't bolted
down. Our plan here is that we want to start from scratch as much as possible.
The refurbishing project we have in mind will only be easier the less crap we
have lying around. We emptied the underbays and instantly found a viscous substance
was hanging out on the surface of the mat lining the floor. We pulled the mat
out and discovered that the auxiliary fuel tank stored in there has a hose stemming
off from the pump - with no cap. The hose had dribbled a bit over time and left
this varnish-smelling syrup on the floor. Trevor hosed the compartment out -
no harm done. Later Trevor found that the pump on the tank still worked and
even better yet - the tank didn't even have a gallon of diesel in it. Huge relief
here because we were worried we'd have large quantities of expired diesel to
find a home for. This makes it much easier (not to mention cheaper) for us to
pull the tank out to have steam-cleaned.
After an afternoon of tinkering and showing off the rig to friends we drove it over to the Elk Grove mini-storage facility and tucked her in. Very nice facility over there - we lucked out with a great spot that allows for easy pulling in and out, and there's a dumping facility on site.
Our Maiden Voyage was finally over.
The following weekend we brought the rig back over the house so Trevor could crack into the generator compartment. Not much to report back here, the generator miraculously started up and runs just fine. Trevor couldn't have been happier knowing that he didn't have to put much work into getting it started - he had some serious doubts about it working at all. We then spent the rest of the afternoon doing a full bumper to bumper inspection of the interior and exterior with a clipboard in hand. We wrote down a full list of all the things we need to do down to the littlest of things. It's about 3 or 4 pages long, with very little detail - I entered it into a Excel worksheet and Trevor will probably create a link for it right…about…here:
This is our attempt at tracking our progress so that we have a
comprehensive record of what we did, when, and how much it cost. Seems long
and intimidating but it actually has helped us keep a lot of things in perspective
and kept us from getting overwhelmed. That just about brings us up to date.
This weekend we popped over to the Coach briefly to replace the inner workings
of the kitchen sink. It had the most annoying habit of dribbling water out the
back whenever it was on. We picked up a delta sink kit at Home Depot and after
about 30 minutes of tinkering the sink no longer dribbled. Check that one off
the list!
I promise to be better about keeping our log up to date!