On the Road Again - Gallup, NM

It has been a pretty hectic and stressful few days. We spent Sunday night in the parking lot at the Cummins/Onan Coach Care facility for scheduled generator service. The generator had been smoking heavily on start and there was an engine knock. There was also an oil leak. This facility is an Onan dealership and a Country Coach partner facility. We wouldn't find another facility as qualified as this one anywhere else nearby, and since we are dependent on our generator for battery charging and A/C, we decided we needed to bite the bullet and get it serviced.

The mechanic fixed the oil leak pretty quickly. The leak was due to a cross-threaded fuel filter. The smoking and knocking was likely caused by at least one fouled fuel injector. When the mechanic saw how the generator was mounted in the coach, he had some unkind remarks towards the Country Coach engineer who designed the installation. In order to service the injectors, the generator, which is mounted in the front of the coach, must be removed by dropping it out the bottom. This involved jacking up the coach, cutting a steel cross member, removing a number of other obstructions and then dropping the generator. Of course this process would have to be reversed to re-install the unit after service. Most units, including those in most other models by Country Coach, slide out on rails for easy access for service. What should have been a one hour injector service took 8 hours of mechanic time. It turns out that all three fuel injectors were extremely fouled, likely due to low usage by the previous owner. These units run best when run often and at full load. We spent Monday night at the Onan facility in their "campground", which consisted of four RV spaces at the back of their parking lot with water and electrical hookups. I'm not knocking it. With daytime temps over 100' it was good to be hooked to shore power. We also took advantage of their water and dump station and did three loads of laundry.

Work was finished about about 3:00 on Tuesday. It runs like a top now. We just beat the rush hour traffic out of Albuquerque. As we left town on I-40 west, our outside thermometer read 108'. Still, it felt more comfortable than NC at 85' and 85% humidity.

We seem to have also solved the problem with the EvenBrake in the Honda. As you may recall from a previous post, my original EvenBrake had failed. The manufacturer shipped me a new unit and it, too, was not operating properly. Subsequently I talked with the designer of the unit. It turns out the the unit, which operates using compressed air, had never been tested at elevations above about 7000'. I was at 8400' and, in this thin air, the air tank could not be pressurized before the compressor timed out. The designer promised to pull a new unit, make sure the compressor was a sound one and reprogram the processor to allow the compressor to run longer before shutting down. He essentially is customizing a unit for me adapted to for high elevations. We will talk again in about a week, and he will ship me the unit when we are laid up for a few days. In the meantime, when I re-installed the replacement unit before leaving Albuquerque (5300') it worked like a charm.

We have stopped in Gallup NM for dinner and some grocery shopping. We will drive a little further tonight and sleep somewhere in Arizona. We are starting to look more closely at where we want to go and have realized that we must make some decisions. We had wanted to go to most of the national parks in southern Utah, but if we go everyplace on our list, we will drive ourselves to death. Even though we have over 4 weeks before we need to be in Kalispell, MT, we can't do it all. I think it is better to go to fewer places, but stay longer and enjoy them. We are at a critical point, however, and need to either continue west or turn north. We are also coming up on the week of the 4th of July. We either need to make some reservations somewhere pronto (it's probably already too late for reservations) or plan to go someplace not very popular.

On the Move Again ... sort of ... for a while ... in Albuquerque, NM

Saturday June 23

I have good news and bad news: Our EvenBrake arrived as promised, but this replacement unit appears to be defective as well. We will have to continue for now with no brakes in the Element-in-tow. I left a message with the manufacturer, but they likely won't get the message until Monday. If I am lucky, they will let me pick up another unit at an RV supply in Albuquerque, and check it out before leaving. If I am even luckier, they will refund the cost of the unit, and I can install a better braking system. If I had it to do over, I would probably get the system made by M&G. This system uses the coach's air brakes to pressurize the car's hydraulic system.

This afternoon we took a bike ride. We put in at the Aspen vista picnic area (EL 10,000') and biked up a service road to the summit of Tesuque Peak (EL 12,000'). The distance was about 5.6 miles each way. Tesuque Peak is at the top of one of the two summits for the Aspen/Santa Fe ski basin. It was fairly challenging, but we both made it! There were excellent 360' views of the mountains and Santa Fe.

Later that afternoon while kicking back at the campsite, we saw a bear! He came down the road from the upper loop, crossed by the edge of our campsite and ran up the mountain at full speed. He was a black bear, but was brown/cinnamon in color. Every site in the campground was filled this Saturday night, but we were apparently the only ones who saw him. The campground host said that was only the seventh bear sighting in the campground this summer.


Sunday June 24

We finally packed up and left Black Canyon Campground this afternoon. It was hard to leave, but it was time to move on. We have been using our generator heavily, about 2-3 hours per day, because we have had no electrical hookups since leaving Texas. In the past few days, I have observed heavy white smoke on start-up, and it seems to be making a faint rattling sound, which may or may not be normal. Since we will be highly dependant on our generator for much of our trip, I have scheduled service at the Cummins/Onan Coach Care facility in Albuquerque. This facility is the only Onan manufacturer's service facility in a radius of about 500 miles. Thankfully it is on our way, although that may be hard to prove, since we don't really know where we are going next. We spent Sunday night in their parking lot in order to get into their shop when they open at 7:00 Monday morning.


Monday June 25

We make this post from the customer lounge at the Cummins/Onan Coach Care facility in Albuquerque. The coach is currently in the service bay. We have repaired the generator fuel leak. It was due to a cross-threaded fuel filter. The smoking and engine knock is more serious. This problem is caused by a bad fuel injector. This is not normally a very serious problem, however, access to the generator in our coach is problematic. On most diesel coaches the whole generator slides out the front cap on rails, providing good access to the generator. Ours does not have this rail access. The technician says he thinks the whole front cap must be removed to access the generator. I have a call in to Country Coach to get their advice.

The saga continues. Wish us luck.

Myron

Still Hanging Out Near Santa Fe

Tuesday June 20 Lounge Chair Lizards
Today we didn't really do anything. We puttered around the campsite most of the day. That eventually wore us out, so we took a nap. By mid-afternoon we decided we needed to go somewhere, so we drove about 6 miles up to the end of the highway to the Aspen/Santa Fe Ski basin. Along the way were some excellent views to the south and west including the city of Santa Fe and the Sandia Crest near Albuquerque. We scouted some hiking trails that start at the ski area parking lot that go into the Pecos Wilderness. On the way back down tour campsite we stopped and took a short hike (perhaps 1 mile each way) up Big Tesuque Creek. This slope is filled with "sun-loving" aspens. Aspens are the first tree to return after a major fire, and this grove benefited from a major fire in the 1800s. Eventually the conifers will grow through and shade out the aspens.

Wednesday June 20 Taos
Friends had told us we really needed to visit Taos, so today we drove about 70 miles north up the Rio Grande valley to Taos. The Rio Grande above Espanola and below the Rio Grande gorge offers some very fine Class II-III whitewater. We saw a number of rafts and duckies, a few kayaks, but no open canoes. We explored the BLM camping areas along the river in the Orillo Verde Recreation Area. Originally we had considered camping here instead of Black Canyon, but I'm glad we didn't. The campsites are dusty and hot, with little shade. Black Canyon is much nicer. We had what I will assume to be authentic mexican food at a cantina south of Taos at the village of Rancho de Taos. We ate outdoors in a shaded, walled courtyard. Later we strolled the Taos plaza and the shops for a while. We went to the Taos Pueblo, but it had closed for the day, so we weren't able to get in. Taos was actually a bit of a disappointment. It was crowded and commercialized. The shops we visited were essentially tourist traps. I know there are some excellent outdoors activities in the area. Unfortunately we didn't have time to enjoy them.

Thursday June 21 Nambe Lake, Pecos Wilderness
Today we took a very nice hike in the Pecos Wilderness to Nambe Lake. We started on the Winsor Trail at the Aspen/Santa Fe Ski Basin Parking area at EL 10,400'. The Winsor trail climbed gently about 500' and then dropped about 500' over about 1.6 miles. Then we took the Nambe Lake trail which climbed steeply about 1000' over 1.5 miles to Nambe Lake, EL 11,380'. There were respites from the steep climb at two very lush meadows along the trail. The lake was in a cirque at the base of high rock cliffs. It was very pretty and we had the lake to ourselves. Thunderstorms were threatening, so we ate lunch and began our descent. During the afternoon we had dodged several storms, but our luck ran out. We endured a brief storm that included heavy rain and BB sized hail. We we returned to the trail head, the ski slopes looked as though they had received fresh snow.

Friday June 22 Are You Still Here?

We had originally planned to leave Black Canyon CG this morning. Our site was reserved by other campers for the coming weekend. However, the other campers canceled their reservation, so we decided to stay until at least Sunday, maybe Monday. Really, we will leave then. No fooling. Actually, we have a lot of the Rockies yet to see and need to be moving on. When we leave here we had hoped to camp at the national park campground at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately that campground is booked solid through June and July. Ironically, the North Rim gets only about 10% of the visitors the South Rim gets, but the campground at the South Rim has plenty of vacancies. There are several forest service campgrounds near the North Rim that don't take reservations, so we hope we can get into one of those. If not, there are apparently opportunities for "dispersed camping" throughout Kaibab NF.

We have come back into Santa Fe today to take a walking tour of the historic district and to take care of some business. Roadmaster has shipped out a replacement tow vehicle brake unit, and it is scheduled to be delivered to the New Mexico Public Lands Information Center in Santa Fe between 2:00 and 3:00 pm today. We have our fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we hope to take a bike ride up a service road to Tesuque Peak ~EL 12,000'.

Santa Fe or Bust

We are camped at Black Canyon CG, Santa Fe National Forest, about 12 miles NE of Santa Fe. It is a beautiful campground on the road up to the local ski areas, and is at El 8400'. We're sucking wind pretty hard! The CG host says to expect temperatures to be in the 40s at night. A far cry and a welcome change from the mid 90's we experienced in Mississippi and Texas.

We came back down into Santa Fe to get some groceries and do some business, and it was a miserable experience. We are ready to get back to camp and chill out. We will be here until Friday. After that, we have no clue where we will go.

We have had several minor mechanical issues. First, the automatic door lock on the coach is not working. I have to use a key to lock the door. How quaint! I called Country Coach on Saturday, but they didn't return my call. I will try again some other time. In the meantime I will tough it out. Second, there is a small oil leak under the generator. It only leaks when the generator is running. I can't tell yet where it is coming from, but I suspect it is a diesel fuel leak rather that lubricant. I'll get under there and figure it out in a few days. Third, the brake for the supplemental brake on the Honda failed. I called the manufacturer, and they will send me a new unit, but they may not be able to get it here before we leave on Friday. I can't tell them our next destination until we make a plan or a reservation. The way we are traveling, it may never catch up with us. I feel fairly comfortable driving without it. The unit has been misbehaving for several days, but the coach stops very well in spite of having no supplemental brakes.

We hope to hit some hiking trails during the next few days. We should be acclimated to the altitude somewhat by tomorrow. Looks like perfect weather.

It is ironic that we are at the western end of the Santa Fe Trail. Several weeks ago while biking on the Katy Trail, we where in New Franklin, MO, considered to be the beginning of the Santa Fe Tail.

Myron

New Mexico: Land of Enchantment

Sunday June 17

Today was another travel day. After laying over two nights at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma we considered staying over another night. After all, it's paid for; we could stay up to two weeks and it wouldn't cost us any more. However, it was raining, and we didn't figure it was a good day to stay in camp. We had walked the whole preserve the day before, and, unless we bought fishing licenses and rented a boat, there was little left to do. We decided it was time to move on.
After a hearty breakfast at Ruby's Roadhouse Cafe, we struck out at the crack of noon. I have to say that the rest areas in Texas are the best I have ever seen. The one on US 287 east of Amarillo looks like a wild west theme park. They even have wireless internet service. Cool!
We bought 94 gallons of diesel at the Flying J in Amarillo. At $2.649/gal it was the cheapest fuel we would see for many weeks. We got into the one and only RV lane pretty quickly, but I sensed right away that the pump may not be working correctly. I think the card reader hanging out of the console and dangling by its cable was a hint. Not to be discouraged I sent Dorcas into the store to tell the folks to turn on pump #15. She did and the pump actually dispensed the fuel rather quickly.

We had planned to stop at the New Mexico I-40 Welcome Center at MP373 to get some travel information and plan the NM portion of our trip, however the sign said "Welcome Center Closed, Next Rest Area 72 miles". OK, fine. When we passed it we saw they weren't kidding. If there had been a rest area there before, it had been razed and buried. They were apparently fixing to build a brand new one from the ground up. OK, on to the next rest area. Maybe they would have a highway map there. At the rest area at MP 301 the sign said "Rest Area Closed Due to Contruction, next rest area 50 miles". OK, is this some kind of joke? Do they expect you to hold it until you get to Arizona? When we went by, it looked perfectly functional to me. What's the problem? OK, on to the next one at MP 251. We had no expectation that it would be there, but the NMDOT surprised us. There it was. It existed, but it was nothing special. I quess we should be grateful, but I think Texas spoiled us. It was getting late so we decided to spend the night. I was afraid if we passed it by, we would never see another one. "Land of Enchantment" indeed.

We still haven't made a NM plan yet, but I think we might turn north towards Santa Fe and Taos. I hope we can find some information on the National Forests in northern New Mexico.

Myron