Back a week from our trip to California for daughter Sandy's baby activities and recalling a week ago today when we were in fact still over three hundred miles from home after our extra day delay in Winnemucca due to problems with our Silverado.
I had started this post while in Winnemucca so I will add to and complete it.
So over a week into our trip to California for daughter Sandy's baby shower
and to help her get their apartment set up and ready for the new baby when it occurs in September.
Stacy and I spent the week there making trips to Ikea and assembling the furniture and using our truck to take stuff away etc. to make room for the baby.
First day out on this trip and we have a problem! At our first fuel stop in Pasco, Washington, as I'm filling up the truck I notice several tufts of pink insulation showing on top of our trailer. I climb up on top and find that apparently the factory didn't properly fit the front or the 'cap' on the front of the trailer and so the roof gets about a 1 inch by 10 inch gap where the rubber roof and the Fiberglas cap meet and aren't secured properly. It may have happened earlier in our time with the trailer, just nobody ever noticed. We find an RV shop in the area and buy an 8 foot strip of an adhesive rubber repair "tape", and stick it on in their parking lot. It generally worked but the vacuum of the air going over the top front of the trailer kept pulling the rubber tape off. In San Jose we bought a roll of the stuff and several strips on the roof at the joint seemed to hold. Just a project to repair the joint!
It turned out to be an overall heat wave from Idaho to California, which is why I DO NOT like taking summer trips!! It was in the 90s in Oregon, 100s in Redding Ca., and upper 80s and 90s again all week in San Jose with the day of Sandy's baby shower just under 100 there too! And I will say that everyone had some problems due to the heat!
But Sandy said it was a great party and that's what was important. Even Stacy had a good time considering the heat helping take care of several of the kids in attendance which were overwhelming their parents at the party. It was a long hot dusty day though.
Stacy got many compliments about the table setting decorations she had made for the party, she had gotten some great ideas researching different things and had made several kinds of 'cakes' out of diapers, and other baby related things. Stacy had also covered all the bases and had brought all kinds of things for games if people needed things to do. Turned out that many people were no shows and the ones that did come came in at all different times during the day, so most just came to eat, visit and try to stay cool. I personally think that it was the heat that kept many away that day, also if it had been arranged for an inside party at a meeting hall, I think that would have been better, just my opinion!
It was also a bit of a family reunion to, as per Sandy's insistence we brought Sandy's grandfather, Stacy's father, 90 year old Selby, with us on this trip also.
He doesn't get around well anymore at all and with all the things involved in a trip like this he had quite a few problems, but he made it though!
Sandy had arranged to have a wheelchair for the week and he used that quite often.
While we were there Sandy had gotten a gift for me and Stacy, tickets to the first night show of "Cavalia" which is a 'Cirque du Solleil' style acrobats and horses show. This was the premiere night of a one month run in the San Jose area, and although Stacy and I had never heard of the show, it has apparently been in action at many locations around the US for quite a few years. There is a two minute clip of a show in the Florida area in 2010 on YouTube if you want to see a short sample.
It was very interesting, but it wasn't a show we would seek out again. My problem was the seating, the plastic seats I could live with. After all this was a show in an enormous tent and one really should expect the cram everybody you can in effect, what killed me off was the lack of legroom! I, and many others too, had to sit a little sideways to even be semi comfortable. I think if you were a kid or close to 5 feet tall it wouldn't have been a problem, but 6 feet tall or taller was crunch time!
Again the show was pretty good, we saw a couple of accidents in the first part that made the show a little more interesting, two of the horses stumbled one fell all the way to the ground and several people fell off with each incident. The second part went smoothly. Some very exciting stunts!
In addition, Sandy's cousins, one that works in research at Stanford and the other that works at Edwards Air Force Base in aviation and computers, we're able to get together too. It was the first time in three years they had been able to see each other.
Monday the 23rd and we're heading home. Stacy had wanted to stay an extra day as Sandy was to have a check up visit and new ultrasound of the baby, I had been negative because of our return deadline, turned out it wouldn't have mattered after the vehicle problem but I did not consider that happening then! Although to my defense I DID talk with her that morning about staying the extra day!
On the way back towards home and the day starts off nice but quickly becomes very hot as we move inland away from the ocean breezes. We also get to drive literally 100 miles of very bad, crumbling infrastructure, that was some California highways and freeways.
I remember very well growing up in Southern Ca. and being told that California had "the best roads in the country!", well, not any more! Cracks, pot hole like angles in the road surface that bounced us and the trailer all over the place. When we stop in Lodi for diesel fuel a few minutes are needed to put stuff back in place inside the trailer.
It was at that fuel stop in Lodi that we have the first hint of a problem with our truck. All was normal until I had to move the truck trailer up to the fuel pumps after the RV ahead had left and although the truck started fine, as I rolled the last few feet it just slowly quit running. NOT normal! Then it didn't start right back up, also not normal. But we thought it was probably due to the close to 100 degree temps, the load, etc. It finally did start and seemed fine.
Onward to the I-80 eastbound, and hours later we decided to stop and have a late lunch at the new to us rest area at the summit of Donner Pass. Again everything had seemed fine, until we were all ready to drive on and the truck wouldn't start, the starter just spinning away without catching. So up at about 7,500 feet and the truck will not start. Again Stacy's father thinks it's due to a vapor lock in the fuel lines due to heat. So Stacy fills up a gallon container and we pour it on the area of the fuel lines and fuel filter. Still nothing at first then about twenty minutes later it finally starts. I'm thinking it's the fuel filter, probably got some bad diesel someplace, which I have changed before and even have an extra one of.....................at home!
So we drive on to Reno and have to stop again for fuel.
This time, it starts right back up again so I really think it's the filter now. But I'm thinking we'd better get one while we're in a good sized town. We find one with our phones that's about a mile away, get there, get the filter and get on our way.
We drive on to Winnemucca, Nevada, get there about 8 pm, and after the long day call it a night.
The next morning I suggest we go ahead and change the filter which Stacy and I do. But then the truck won't start! And this time it isn't going to start either. It isn't hot it's been sitting all night.
Then we find while searching that Winnemucca apparently has no Chevy or GM dealers anymore. So we walk to the office and ask them as I'm sure other travelers have been stuck at this RV park before.
Continuing long story slightly shorter, we have a AAA tow to a shop that works on diesels and late that evening I call and find out a part called a "fuel manager" is bad and has been replaced, but they want to keep it overnight and make sure everything is still right the next morning. Well, we weren't going any ware so I had to say sure!
I find out the next day that apparently this part had developed a small crack that allowed the fuel pressure to escape from the line. The truck wouldn't run again unless the line was pressurized. Almost $900 for the part and installation!
By 10 am we're back on the road for the last 800 miles home. And the rest of the trip home is uneventful. Thank goodness! We've never had problems on a trip like we did this trip!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 3
I had started this post while in Winnemucca so I will add to and complete it.
So over a week into our trip to California for daughter Sandy's baby shower
and to help her get their apartment set up and ready for the new baby when it occurs in September.
Stacy and I spent the week there making trips to Ikea and assembling the furniture and using our truck to take stuff away etc. to make room for the baby.
First day out on this trip and we have a problem! At our first fuel stop in Pasco, Washington, as I'm filling up the truck I notice several tufts of pink insulation showing on top of our trailer. I climb up on top and find that apparently the factory didn't properly fit the front or the 'cap' on the front of the trailer and so the roof gets about a 1 inch by 10 inch gap where the rubber roof and the Fiberglas cap meet and aren't secured properly. It may have happened earlier in our time with the trailer, just nobody ever noticed. We find an RV shop in the area and buy an 8 foot strip of an adhesive rubber repair "tape", and stick it on in their parking lot. It generally worked but the vacuum of the air going over the top front of the trailer kept pulling the rubber tape off. In San Jose we bought a roll of the stuff and several strips on the roof at the joint seemed to hold. Just a project to repair the joint!
It turned out to be an overall heat wave from Idaho to California, which is why I DO NOT like taking summer trips!! It was in the 90s in Oregon, 100s in Redding Ca., and upper 80s and 90s again all week in San Jose with the day of Sandy's baby shower just under 100 there too! And I will say that everyone had some problems due to the heat!
But Sandy said it was a great party and that's what was important. Even Stacy had a good time considering the heat helping take care of several of the kids in attendance which were overwhelming their parents at the party. It was a long hot dusty day though.
Stacy got many compliments about the table setting decorations she had made for the party, she had gotten some great ideas researching different things and had made several kinds of 'cakes' out of diapers, and other baby related things. Stacy had also covered all the bases and had brought all kinds of things for games if people needed things to do. Turned out that many people were no shows and the ones that did come came in at all different times during the day, so most just came to eat, visit and try to stay cool. I personally think that it was the heat that kept many away that day, also if it had been arranged for an inside party at a meeting hall, I think that would have been better, just my opinion!
It was also a bit of a family reunion to, as per Sandy's insistence we brought Sandy's grandfather, Stacy's father, 90 year old Selby, with us on this trip also.
He doesn't get around well anymore at all and with all the things involved in a trip like this he had quite a few problems, but he made it though!
Sandy had arranged to have a wheelchair for the week and he used that quite often.
While we were there Sandy had gotten a gift for me and Stacy, tickets to the first night show of "Cavalia" which is a 'Cirque du Solleil' style acrobats and horses show. This was the premiere night of a one month run in the San Jose area, and although Stacy and I had never heard of the show, it has apparently been in action at many locations around the US for quite a few years. There is a two minute clip of a show in the Florida area in 2010 on YouTube if you want to see a short sample.
It was very interesting, but it wasn't a show we would seek out again. My problem was the seating, the plastic seats I could live with. After all this was a show in an enormous tent and one really should expect the cram everybody you can in effect, what killed me off was the lack of legroom! I, and many others too, had to sit a little sideways to even be semi comfortable. I think if you were a kid or close to 5 feet tall it wouldn't have been a problem, but 6 feet tall or taller was crunch time!
Again the show was pretty good, we saw a couple of accidents in the first part that made the show a little more interesting, two of the horses stumbled one fell all the way to the ground and several people fell off with each incident. The second part went smoothly. Some very exciting stunts!
In addition, Sandy's cousins, one that works in research at Stanford and the other that works at Edwards Air Force Base in aviation and computers, we're able to get together too. It was the first time in three years they had been able to see each other.
Monday the 23rd and we're heading home. Stacy had wanted to stay an extra day as Sandy was to have a check up visit and new ultrasound of the baby, I had been negative because of our return deadline, turned out it wouldn't have mattered after the vehicle problem but I did not consider that happening then! Although to my defense I DID talk with her that morning about staying the extra day!
On the way back towards home and the day starts off nice but quickly becomes very hot as we move inland away from the ocean breezes. We also get to drive literally 100 miles of very bad, crumbling infrastructure, that was some California highways and freeways.
I remember very well growing up in Southern Ca. and being told that California had "the best roads in the country!", well, not any more! Cracks, pot hole like angles in the road surface that bounced us and the trailer all over the place. When we stop in Lodi for diesel fuel a few minutes are needed to put stuff back in place inside the trailer.
It was at that fuel stop in Lodi that we have the first hint of a problem with our truck. All was normal until I had to move the truck trailer up to the fuel pumps after the RV ahead had left and although the truck started fine, as I rolled the last few feet it just slowly quit running. NOT normal! Then it didn't start right back up, also not normal. But we thought it was probably due to the close to 100 degree temps, the load, etc. It finally did start and seemed fine.
Onward to the I-80 eastbound, and hours later we decided to stop and have a late lunch at the new to us rest area at the summit of Donner Pass. Again everything had seemed fine, until we were all ready to drive on and the truck wouldn't start, the starter just spinning away without catching. So up at about 7,500 feet and the truck will not start. Again Stacy's father thinks it's due to a vapor lock in the fuel lines due to heat. So Stacy fills up a gallon container and we pour it on the area of the fuel lines and fuel filter. Still nothing at first then about twenty minutes later it finally starts. I'm thinking it's the fuel filter, probably got some bad diesel someplace, which I have changed before and even have an extra one of.....................at home!
So we drive on to Reno and have to stop again for fuel.
This time, it starts right back up again so I really think it's the filter now. But I'm thinking we'd better get one while we're in a good sized town. We find one with our phones that's about a mile away, get there, get the filter and get on our way.
We drive on to Winnemucca, Nevada, get there about 8 pm, and after the long day call it a night.
The next morning I suggest we go ahead and change the filter which Stacy and I do. But then the truck won't start! And this time it isn't going to start either. It isn't hot it's been sitting all night.
Then we find while searching that Winnemucca apparently has no Chevy or GM dealers anymore. So we walk to the office and ask them as I'm sure other travelers have been stuck at this RV park before.
Continuing long story slightly shorter, we have a AAA tow to a shop that works on diesels and late that evening I call and find out a part called a "fuel manager" is bad and has been replaced, but they want to keep it overnight and make sure everything is still right the next morning. Well, we weren't going any ware so I had to say sure!
I find out the next day that apparently this part had developed a small crack that allowed the fuel pressure to escape from the line. The truck wouldn't run again unless the line was pressurized. Almost $900 for the part and installation!
By 10 am we're back on the road for the last 800 miles home. And the rest of the trip home is uneventful. Thank goodness! We've never had problems on a trip like we did this trip!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 3
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