The Good News or The Bad News????

First we can start with all the good stuff, okay????

Today marks 2 weeks since we have been on the road.  It's been a crazy adventure, for sure.


We had a delightful visit with with Merikay and Craig.  When the weather cleared some, we took a drive around the area and looked at the park and the dam and all that other fun stuff....  It was cool, but at least the sun was shining.  Some of the snow was melting.  Not all.

I worked on a meal of chicken alfredo lasagna and also traditional lasagna for supper. Merikay baked up a loaf of basil bread! I set my festive table with my southwestern dishes and pretty tablecloth from Mexico (remember those Goofy Mary?)  It was another great night of conversation, RVing stories, and fun things to see down the road.

The dogs kinda hung out under the front dash in their little doggie hideout area,

and when company went home, they came out to claim their space on the loveseat!

They are really adjusting well to this RV lifestyle.

We woke up to sunshine and warming and melting all that danged snow.  My lawn chair was finally dry enough to sit in!  Sitting and soaking it was very pleasant... ahhhhhhh

Merikay and Craig were busy getting loaded up and hooked up and ready to roll.  They wanted to reach Tucson, AZ before the end of the day, so getting on the road by 10 am was their schedule.

Heartfelt hugs and "See Ya Laters" we called out as they rolled on west....

Now it was time for Steveio to get to work!  He got down and dirty to figure out the busted brake line, and take measurements and get a good idea of what parts he would need to fabricate a new line. 

With all of his notes in hand, we trooped on into town.  He dropped me at Walmart for a grocery stock up session, while he hit the autoparts store with his list of items.  Sadly. they didn't have what he needed!  

Now here it where it turns into the GOOD NEWS!!!

The guy standing in line behind him says: "Hey, I own a truck repair shop down the highway and I can custom make that brake line for you, just bring the old one on over and we can set you up!"  Wowzer!!!! After some discussion, he said it would be better if we could drive the rig right over to his shop, and he can examine it first before fabricating the new line. He even offered to let us stay in his lot overnight if we got over there too late in the day to get started on the job!

Amazing!

What are the odds that Steve would be standing next to one of the only truck repair places in 50 miles around who can custom make brake lines and has all the lines, fittings and tools to bend them!

We rushed back to the campground and Steve donned his overalls.  (yes, he takes them along on the road just in case!)   He was able to temporarily patch in a piece of line with some compression fittings to get us limped down the highway 25 miles to the truck place.  We also have our Pac Brake engine exhaust brake to help stop us, but best to patch this line in the meantime and we have brakes enough to get down there.  So here is my Mr. FixIt Guy laying on an old Thanksgiving table cloth as he works on patching the line.

He was done and out and bled the lines while I pumped from inside. Everything held and we were good to go.


And this is where we hit the BAD NEWS!!!  

Are you sure you want to keep reading this?  I am typing it out in words to be cathartic and still sniffling and weeping as I type.  Bear with me....

We always do our hookup job on the Tracker to tow behind the motorhome on a towbar setup. Steve has 4 jobs on the outside of the Tracker hooking it up, and I have four jobs on the inside ....  We never talk to anyone while doing it so we don't get distracted.

He does
1. bars,
2. locks,
3. safety cables and
4. wire harness hookups.

I do
1. key in ignition and move the wheel back and forth,
2. emergency brake off,
3. shifter in 2nd gear and
4. transaxle in NEUTRAL...

and I am SURE I had it in neutral!!!!!

Then we swap and he checks my stuff and I check his stuff....  perfect.
It has NEVER failed us before.   And he swears he checked it all was fine.

Well.... we drove out of the campground and up to the main gate. I always watch the Tracker in our backup camera and make sure the wheels turn the first few corners and watch for the steering wheel to return top dead center.  Fine. Good to Go.

We stopped at the main gate to obtain a credit slip from the gals that we can use at the next park.  We had already paid for the night at this one and since we were leaving to get the repairs done at 3 pm and didn't think we would be back.  So as we pulled up to the main gate, we heard a loud THUNK sound behind us. We were on a steep angle to park while I got out to go into the office. Hmmmmmm I told Steve I would walk around the Tracker before going into the building, all appeared fine. He said maybe it was just a rock.   I went in and came back out, and we were on our way.

UNTIL......  about one mile further, heading down the road towards the interstate we heard a horrible CHATTER CHATTER CHATTER.... and tugging on our back end .... oh no.....

(we just destroyed the engine in our Tracker!) 

Yes... I said that.

You heard me. 

We just 

DESTROYED 

THE 

ENGINE 

IN 

OUR 

TRACKER!!!!   

Evidently the transaxle jumped into 4 wheel drive gear or perhaps on the backwards angle we stopped at the main gate, it somehow got into gear.  And we destroyed it.  Trash.


I am sick over it.  I feel so bad.  It's my job to put that transaxle into N... and I have done it hundreds of times now.  And Steve double checked it.  But I still feel so bad.

(also Steve said it was my final stomp on the brake pedal as I drove the motorhome onto the leveling blocks the other day that blew the brake line!  He didn't mean it and was teasing, but I take things like that to heart!)


So I cried.  And cried.   Not sure what we are going  to do yet.  It's trashed.  It's only a $2,000 beater vehicle, but it was such a good little billy goat of a vehicle.  We have already invested in the expensive base plate for a Tracker so we might as well remove that and everything of our own inside of it.  Perhaps tomorrow Steve can place an ad on Craigslist and sell it to someone who wants to toss a new engine in it?   The title is up in our safe in Wisconsin, so we would have to mail that later.

He is looking on Craigslist right now for perhaps buying another one the same, so we can just swap the baseplate over and we can keep on towing.  Or we can travel without a toad vehicle and just see sights from the motorhome as we go along. It doesn't make sense to tow this one around a thousand miles and then back home another 1,500 miles.  Or does it?

You know, if we do get another Tracker, from now on I am going to double triple and quadruple check that transaxle shifter!!!!!

On a positive note, we arrived safe and sound at Harold's truck repair place.  Called Emergency Truck Repair right off the highway at Caballo Lake, NM.  It's comforting to see that he is working on all the local folks vehicles, the county ambulance, and even the Derry Arrey Fire and Rescue vehicle.  If the locals trust him with their things, we should be in for a good experience.

Harold came out and checked the line on our rig, and yes, he said that he can easily make that line.  Steve suggested that perhaps he should make up the other front brake line and also one of our rears.  We had already done one on a trip to Florida, so now we will be good to go if Harold can make them.   The only problem is Harold can't do the labor himself to install them, he hurt his shoulder really bad... Harold thinks he tore his rotator cuff.  His doc appt is tomorrow afternoon.  So he said to Steve: "If I make the parts in the morning, can you do your own labor??"   YESSSS !!!!  That will save us in labor costs, and Steve is more than adequate at handling the installation of the new lines.  We even have along a power bleeding tool device that runs off our air compressor. Whew.... that is a good thing!  Silver Lining, perhaps?

So tonight we are comfortably resting in the fenced in secure lot of the Emergency Truck Repair Service of Caballo Lake, NM.  I am still sniffing.  But it will get better.  I hope.

And I ate two big slices of Merikay's basil bread that she baked as my "comfort food" with our leftover lasagna tonight.  Even the dogs got to lick the plates clean!

Tomorrow will be a better day. 

It has to. 

SNOW????? Geesh! And RV Friends Merikay and Craig

Our wonderful RV pals Merikay and Craig pulled in about 1 pm on Sunday.  We were debating if we should pull up stakes and move off the point and go up into the electric campsites next to them. Or should we stay down on the point as they were game to try boondocking for a few days?  Well, we went up to the sites when we found two nice pull-throughs next to each other. For only $14 a night with 50amp electric, water and free WiFi, we can't complain.

Steve was busy dumping our holding tanks while Merikay and Craig got settled in their campsite.  They have a 2007 Alfa See Ya motorhome and pull a Jeep.  Their blog is: http://merika-merika.blogspot.com/  We pulled our rig into the site next to them and got all set up.

We are pretty glad we did-- more about that later!

Steve also noticed a big oily spot under our rig just after we leveled off in our campsite.  Rut Roh!  Breakdown again!   Brake fluid line seems to have broken leading up to a front wheel.  Good thing we are near a large enough town to get parts.  Steve blamed me because I was driving the motorhome up on blocks to level it and he said I stomped on the brake pedal too hard!  Well, better that it breaks here in a park rather than in the middle of some mountain descent, right????

We sat out in our lawn chairs in T shirts and capris and relaxed and enjoyed the lovely warm weather.  (remember that part!)

Merikay and Craig said they had some good Wisconsin Bratwurst to treat us for dinner, and we brought over some tater salad and pasta salad.  It was good to sit and compare stories and travels and RV stuff since we saw them last summer.

We did the obligatory photos across the table of each other.... 

and they took one of us.... getting pretty shined up here I think?

OH we did follow up the meal with a wonderful Key Lime Pie! 

Four bottles of wine later, it was  time to toddle on home to our own motorhome.... let out our doggers and hit the sack.

About 2 am I heard this familiar sound on the roof... hmmm it wasn't rain. Nope.  It was sleeting ice particles pinging down.  Then it was silent.  You KNOW what that means??? Yup, the temps dropped and the rain changed over to SNOW!  The weathermen never mentioned this, it was only supposed to drop down to 40 overnight.  When I looked at 7 am it was 24 degrees!

This is what we woke up to:

Remember those lawn chairs???  My lawn chairs have NEVER had snow on them!  We always put them away before rain or bad weather.  Guess it might have had something to do with those four bottles of wine, eh?

I made up a breakfast bake pan to bring over for our morning gab session.  Here is the recipe....  (click on photo to enlarge if you need to)

We hung out till about noon in their rig, waiting for the snow to melt.  The weathermen promised 55 today, but it never got that high.  Even now at 4 pm, it's only 40 degrees and the snow is starting to finally melt.

I whipped up a pan of chicken alfredo lasagna and another pan of regular italian lasagna for dinner tonight and will be popping them in the oven as soon as I am done typing this.

It was a good choice to move up to the campground after all.  Kinda nice to be up on the electric sites for these cold brrrrr days!

Another Day of Heaven at My Favorite Campsite Of All My Life

Waking up again in this place gives me a sense of calmness... serenity... peace.  I smile inside as soon as I wake up.  I remember that I am here and give a big sigh.

Now that we have been here a few days, I don't even care about travelling any further. I can go home now and my vacation is complete.  And I know I will be back! Rattlesnake Point at Elephant Butte State Park in New Mexico.

Steve was talking about moving on and exploring City of Rocks SP and Silver City. And I was trying to come up with more excuses to stay here!   Lo and behold, we got an email from fellow RVers Merikay and Craig.... Their blog is:http://merika-merika.blogspot.com  they are coming to Elephant Butte and want to stay by us for a few days!!! YAYAYAYAAAAAA

My blog from meeting Merikay and Craig

Sooo that means we get to stay around this park longer now!   We will move today from our lovely boondocking spot on the beach and head up to the campgrounds. We will find two electric sites next to each other so they can pull in next to us this afternoon.  Since it is Sunday, there should be a lot of sites to choose from.  The park is about 2/3 full we noticed on our ride around, so moving should not be a problem.

After breakfast, we hopped in the Tracker with the dogs and water, and headed out to explore the areas around the dam and up the other side of the lake.  The views were incredible, as long as I could get Steveio to stop so I could take a pic!  He is Mr. Zoom Zoom Zoom gotta see what is around the next corner.  ARGGHHHH

It is worth it to stop and see a view like this for a few minutes...

There are a few different marinas hidden in the coves and bays around the reservoir. Each one looks well-stocked and used a lot.  Around the towns of Truth or Consequences and Elephant Butte are many, many boat storage places too.  I can imagine in the summer months, this place is packed with people seeking relief from the heat and going out in the lake in their boats.

The weatherman said it was going to be a cloudy day today. Hmmmm I guess the fine wisps of white stuff make it a "cloudy day"?   We sure don't mind.  It was gorgeous and the temps in the mid 70's.  Tshirts and capris for me.

As we drove up the road along the west side of the reservoir to check out South Monticello Campground we saw a roadrunner dash across the road in front of us!   Lacking any "Acme Bird Seed" or a Wile E. Coyote to help us catch him, he disappeared in the bush.  I mentioned on FB  that  I just saw my first roadrunner of the trip, and will make it my life's mission to photograph one before we go home.  HAHA I got a lot of advice on how to catch one.  On the return route on the same road, I think in the same spot, we saw one again!!!  Perhaps the same one????  And yes, I had the camera ready and got 5 photos of him up on the side of the road!!!!  See?

 Mission Complete.

We arrived back at the motorhome in time to take an afternoon nap.  Ohhh the clouds snuck in while we were sleeping.  We woke up to the sounds of someone stuck out in the sand. Not staying on the packed gravel in this area is a real NO NO.  We have seen a lot of idiots trying to prove their manhood or horsepower by plowing into the sandy areas here on this point and getting stuck.  We watch with delight while all the young dudes have to get out and push or flag down some other big truck to pull them out. 

But in this case, it was different. One look in our binoculars told us that they needed our help. This elderly gent and his wife were trying their hardest to get out.  Steve grabbed our tow strap and went over in our little Tracker to help them out.  Popped the Tracker in 4 wheel drive mode and he was able to get them out.  They were sooo thankful and saved them a wrecker call. 

(p.s. the wife TOLD him to not drive there)  

We are amused by the littlest things, I tell you.  It's so dry and such low humidity here that we are getting a lot of static.  Remember when I bathed the dogs the day before? Well, a good brushing out is always needed.  We laughed and laughed at the static electricity on their fur... look at how it sticks out!!  They were walking around like little porcupine butts~~~

 But Handsome Finnegan and Princess Binney don't seem to mind. 

Yes, the littlest things amuse us... 

We were playing with our shadows on the beach,

and decided we really were an alien invading the world! 

An easy supper salad was whipped together with tortilla strip chips as a base, them taco meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese on top.. and guacamole for me!  Steve hates the stuff.  But that's okay, the more for me.  Been finding ripe avocados here for 50 cents each and loving it.

We enjoyed another amazing sunset here in the park from the lawnchairs as we sit out and relax... after a day of doing not much of anything.  Well, I did knit a sock.  That was about it.

The clouds hung around and they are saying the winds might kick up Sunday afteroon.  We saw the sun setting in the west and it reflects against these rocky hills and cliffs on the eastern shore of the lake. Totally untouched pics, that is the color and that is the sky.... amazing tones!

Here is the Painted Sky of the Desert shot....  looking like everything I have ever dreamed of in a sunset.  The pinks, the purples, the blues, even highlights of golden oranges ... down to deep fuchsias and rich rosy glows....

Meeting RV Friends for the First Time and some Motorhome Jobs

Well, it's back to blogging again. I FINALLY have some RV stuff to blog about.  First off, Steveio decided that he needed to replace the back shocks from Bilsteins to Konis , then he lubed all the grease zerks, (even the elusive one on our fan shaft) and also changed out all of the brake fluid with new fresh fluid.

Note- he worked soooo fast on all of these things, I didn't even know he started on them until he was all done! That means I didn't get any pics either. arrggghhh! 

On Thursday we had the opportunity to meet up with fellow RV bloggers Merikay and Craig of the blog  http://merika-merika.blogspot.com   This link will lead you to her post about our visit, so you can read each of our accounts of the last five days.

We have read each other's blogs for many years now, and encouraged each other through the process of  downsizing, packing, selling and moving out of our large homes and into an RV to live full time.  They are now travelling full time in their Alfa See Ya Diesel motorhome and tow a Jeep around America.  (we took a slight detour after living in our rig for 5 months when Steve took another state position with the DNR to work at High Cliff State Park)

After all these years of comments, support, and emails of the journey each of us has taken, we finally got to meet IN PERSON~!   They were coming into the area after visiting relatives in Milwaukee. We guided them to a local campground about 15 miles from our home.  We offered our driveway but with only 20amp service, it might not be enough to run the air conditioners if the weather gets hot and humid.  So they pulled in to the campgrounds and got settled on Thursday.  They called us just in time to meet us in town for the free City Concert at the Fairgrounds in Chilton.  Featured was the Chilton City Band for the evening, complete with brass, woodwinds, tubas and percussion.

Last year, both Merikay and I had our eyes on a sweatshirt available from the https://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com  so we both ordered it. We knew we each had our matching sweatshirts, so it was decided, like a "blind date", that we would both wear our sweatshirts to the concert to easily identify each other!   LOL

We settled in our lawn chairs to enjoy the music, the companionship, and enjoy watching the little children dancing and prancing around to the tunes.  In between every few songs, they had door prize drawings for locally sponsored prizes.  Craig won a certificate from the local bank to come in and redeem for $5.00!   He passed it on to me later to donate to a charity, which I chose the Wisconsin Shetland Sheepdog Rescue (without them I would never have gotten Finney!)   

We stayed late past the end of the concert and headed home after dark.  They had a short drive back to the campground and we headed on home in Chilton.  I suppose we could have tried to get reservations to the same campground for the weekend, but we had some other special plans for Saturday that needed us elsewhere---- more about that later! 

On Friday, they came over to our house for our "grand tour" of the home to see it all in person.  They had followed along on our blog each step by step of the things we had done, but now they got to come and see for themselves.  haha.  We shared a glass of wine and waited for Steveio to get home from work.  Friday nights are famous for Fish Fry's in Wisconsin... and we had a treat in store for our guests.  

Many small towns dotting along the lakeshore of Lake Winnebago have residents who form "fishing clubs" which do various fundraising events throughout the year.  The proceeds are used for many things which you can read about on this link http://www.quinneyfishingclub.com/   Fishing Clubs usually have a building and grounds to hold events, fishing tournaments and places to store some boats and gear.  We drove on over to Quinney, a small burg not much more than a crossroads on Hwy 55 west of here.   

We had little coupons that were handed out in the parade in June to give us $1 off our perch frys which were $12.  Our neighbor even gave us her coupon too.  We stood in a line for a short time, then zoomed through the food process as each of our containers was filled with our choices.  Oh my.... besides the four generous pieces of big perch, coleslaw, and rye bread --- the german potato salad I chose was wonderful!   Steve chose baby red potatoes, while Merikay and Craig had french fries.

The beers were a DOLLAR a cup, and the desserts were a DOLLAR each... homemade by the best of the best wives in the fishing club, each one outdoing the next on how much goodness they could cram into each of the little boxes.  We sat down to enjoy our Wisconsin Perch Fish Fry!

With full bellies, we wandered on back to our house for a glass of wine and relax a bit on the front porch.  Soon it was dark and time for Merikay and Craig to head back to the campground. We had a BIG DAY planned for Saturday-----

I AM GOING TO DO A SEPARATE BLOG POST ABOUT SATURDAY

AND IT WILL FOLLOW THIS ONE.... 

THERE ARE JUST WAYYYYY TOO MANY PHOTOS TO PUT IN ONE BLOG 

PLUS I WANT TO GIVE THIS SPECIAL EVENT IT'S OWN BLOG PAGE.

Saturday night we were treated with a fantastic sunset over Lake Winnebago, and I was able to capture it by making Steve stop in the middle of the road to take the shot!  LOL

Let's pretend now Saturday is over....  and now it's the final day of Merikay and Craig's visit.  In the morning, Steveio decided to finish up the motorhome roof with a good scrubbing... he uses the pressure washer, but with a special wand that is a swirling scrubbing spray, NOT the pressure spray nozzle.  He hooks up the hose to the outside faucet on our house and turns a valve in the basement over to HOT instead of COLD  (we plumbed our last house this way and really appreciated the surprise of seeing this house was also plumbed with hot water accessibility to the outdoor faucet too)

Sunday afternoon, we headed on over to Columbia park to site number 9 where Merikay and Craig had their Alfa SeeYa motorhome situated.  

They gave us the grand tour and we picked out the five best things we liked that they had in their rig....

• two BIG windows almost floor to ceiling in the bedroom that really let in the outdoors.
• a cool hole in the countertop to toss things in the trash, and empty it from outside of the rig
• a clothes changing area by the closets that opens up with their full wall slide on the drivers side
• a well thought out bathroom with good storage, fixtures and space 
• adapted some deep shelving areas with pull out bins on drawer glides for easier access

Many of the other things we like are also on our rig too... but it was fun to compare and explore and see what other motorhomes have to make living comfortable.

One item I noticed Merikay using in her kitchen was a roll of plastic saran type wrap.... and it had the great plastic sliding cutting device that Glad Wrap had on their packages for a few short years.  Glad Wrap is no longer making those, and Steveio happened to accidentally throw out my last box, so I could not reuse the slider cutting device on newer rolls that didn't have one.  Well, well, well, Merikay said she got her Kirkland brand plastic wrap with cutting device at Costco!  We don't have a Costco close by, but my mind was planning on joining one or ordering on line just to get that cutter!  Ahhhhhh sweet Merikay had an EXTRA ONE saved off one of her previous boxes tucked away.   And she GAVE IT TO ME!  Oooooh I hugged her and giggled like she gave me a million dollars.  Tee heeeee

(when I got home, I wrote a warning in permanent marker on it....

and slid it onto my current box of plastic wrap

think he will heed my warning????)

Merikay served up a lovely meal on the picnic table for us while Craig manned the grill with our steaks.  After a wonderful meal, we sat around the campfire until late.  

It was so good to talk about places we have been, places we want to go, and laughing all the while.  So totally at ease with people we knew but we had never met yet. With big hugs and "see ya laters" instead of "goodbyes" we headed on home in the dark. 

As they drove past my house this morning, I heard the HONK HONK and saw them both waving as they drove on north, on to another adventure on the road.  

If you want, you can follow their blog:

http://merika-merika.blogspot.com