Westward Ho! Summer/Fall 2024

 Since Dorcas and I bought our Newmar Dutch Star we have attended a number of rallies and events hosted by the Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK).  The one thing we have never done is go on an organized caravan.  We enjoy the independence of traveling on our own, but everyone we have talked to that has been on a caravan really enjoyed it. Consequently, we signed up for an NKK caravan to the Canadian Maritime provinces for May of 2021, but that event was cancelled due to COVID.  We signed up for the same event again for May of 2022, but we ended up canceling our reservation due to Matilda's poor health and my pending knee surgery.  So it goes.

This year, NKK is hosting the Grand Circle Caravan, which travels a loop to all the National Parks in Utah, from September 2-30. Dorcas and I had not been to that area since 2007,  shortly after we bought our Country Coach, so we were intrigued.  One problem though, it would conflict with our annual Boundary Waters wilderness trip, which we have been doing every year since we met in 1997.  The other problem was that I was not willing to drive that far if I had to do all the driving myself.  Dorcas can drive the coach, and does a good job, but she doesn't like to and recently she has suffered vision issues related to cataracts.  However, Dorcas committed to sharing the driving if she could get her eyes fixed.  COOL!!!  So we made the commitment and signed up for the Grand Circle Caravan.

Since we would be headed out west anyway we signed up for the NKK Fulltimers Rally in Colorado Springs 7/21-26 and the NKK International Rally in Pueblo CO 7/27-8/3.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  That leaves us another 4 weeks to putter around Colorado before we meet up for the caravan in Moab Utah on September 2.

OK, we have a summer/fall plan.  Dorcas had her 1st cataract surgery on 6/24 and her 2nd on 7/8.  All went well and she now has 20/15 vision without glasses.  No more excuses about driving the coach.  Daddy is thrilled.  

Unidentified patient undergoing preparation for surgery

In the meantime I'm doing maintenance on the coach.  I changed the fuel filter, fuel/water separator, and engine air cleaner myself.  I used to change my own crankcase oil, but I now having trouble getting under the coach to do that. So I had a local mechanic drain and replace the engine oil and replace the filter at a fraction of the cost an RV or truck service center would charge. 

See my shiny new engine air cleaner?

There are a number of other maintenance items that are long overdue that I am either unwilling or not capable of doing.  So I made an appointment with the Freightliner factory service center in Gaffney SC to perform the long-neglected scheduled maintenance items, specifically all points inspection & lubrication including: replace drive axle oil, replace mechanical gearbox oil, replace hydraulic fluid & filter and replace air dryer filter, coolant test, coolant system pressure check, check all fluids, ride height check, chassis lube, tire pressure check.  Whew!!!!.  

Finally, Freightliner repaired a pesky headlight issue that has been ongoing since at least October last year.  When I turn on the headlights, only the right side headlight comes on.  When I turn on the brights, only the left light comes on. Weird right?  On-coming traffic must think I am winking at them.  In Tampa last January a Freightliner technician spent over 2 hours trying to diagnose the problem, to no avail.  With malfunctioning headlights I had a heck of a time getting our required NC DMV safety inspection done last year in order to renew my tag.  Don't ask me how, but I got 'er done.  I don't want to go through that again!  It turned out to be a missing 30A fuse in a chassis fuse panel.  How does a 30A fuse go disappear????  It was located in an unlabeled position in the fuse panel and there was no extra 30A fuse anywhere else in the fuse box.  Go figure.

That's me on the left at lucky Site #7 at the Freightliner Factory service center

Early to bed, early to rise

Customer lounge.  I spent a bit of time here on Monday

Freightliner service rates are pretty high, but we've seen worse.
The labor rate for my local mechanic is only $105/hr, plus I can bring my own oil and filter.  
Also, there is a huge savings on my DIY service.

My service appointment at Freightliner was Monday 7/15 at 6:45 am in Gaffney SC. All service and repairs were completed by 3:00 that day.  Dorcas has her one week post-op exam on Tuesday 7/16.  I had driven the coach to Gaffney on Sunday afternoon and parked in their service campground.  I intend to meet Dorcas on I-40 near Marion on Tuesday afternoon, where we will hook up and head west towards Colorado Springs.  We have less than 5 full driving days to make the almost 1700 mile drive to our rally venue to arrive on Sunday.  Certainly doable, but no much time to dilly-dally.  After we get to Colorado we can slow down and smell the Columbine.