Whatta Week!

06/13/2016

Sorry for the formatting issues! Seems Google doesn't quite have it yet!

Monday we left Guthrie, OK for Wellington, TX and the Pioneer Park campground. The park is beautifully kept and at $15 for a 50 amp service was well worth it. The park is next to the Red River, has a lot of things for kids to play on and lays claim to being directly next to the bridge where Bonnie & Clyde drove off into the Red River in 1933 where Mr. and Mrs. Sam Pritchard saw them plunge. They lived in a home adjacent to the river and rescued Bonnie & Clyde along with Buck Barrow before taking them to their home.

 On Tuesday we left Wellington and proceeded to go to Tucumcari, NM. This is where the week went to hell. On our way our TPMS system went off around Groom, TX so I immediately pulled off and went back to see our right tire on the tow dolly missing all its tread and slowly deflating. I never considered replacing the tires after we purchased the dolly because the tires were all produced in 2011. They were not that old and had no cracking on the sidewalls so I thought they were OK. We got the tire changed out and proceeded on down the road. Just 2 miles from Tucumcari and our final destination that day the spare tire we placed on the same side blows out. I hear a loud pop, the TPMS system goes off, Sara comes on the radio to tell us the tire blew and I headed for the shoulder. By the time I get over and stopped Michael asks if I have a fire extinguisher. We put out the small fire and assess the damage. The tire is obliterated and the spring plate along with all the nuts holding the plate to the axle are almost completely gone. We call AAA who sends out someone to take the tire to his shop and replace it before returning to mount it back on the dolly. We remove the car and Kathy follows Michael & Sara down the road to the campsite while I tiptoe into town to the business that brought out our new tire without losing the axle on the dolly. Two new tires and U-bolt assembly later I am able to leave and head for camp. To top it all off I split out a 3 day old pair of shorts and going through Amarillo the speedometer goes to zero. Some sort of computer error that fixed itself after we restarted. This was a long and trying day!

Tire #1 lost tread

Tire #2 blown

Wednesday was spent exploring the Route 66 museum and other sites around Tucumcari. Ate lunch at a place called “Joe’s Back In The Day 50’s Diner”. I had the “Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf” and it certainly wasn’t. I realized about an hour later it really wasn’t when I had to use the facilities at the second museum. Whew! Thank God they had a place!

Very large cross in Grove, TX

Didn't know I had it in me!

Michael & I playing Army

Any young people know what this is?

Thursday, with trepidation and concern about the tow dolly, we left Tucumcari and gingerly made our way to the “High Desert RV Park” in Albuquerque, NM. I kept a vigilant eye on the TPMS system all the way noticing the right tire on the dolly was always hotter than the left even tho the pressures were very close. We stopped a few times to check on tires but had no problems. We even got to the park early enough for Kathy to do a few loads of laundry. I made a phone call to the guy who was supposed to be coming out to fix our dash a/c unit and found out he only did the coach a/c. Apparently he never heard it was in the dash and not on top of the roof so the rest of the day was spent making phone calls to find another person to repair the a/c. I contacted every mobile RV tech I could find online or was referred to me and had to leave messages at almost every one. Don’t go to Albuquerque and ask someone to look at your dash a/c. Camping World doesn’t do the chassis items so we stopped at Freightliner. We were told they could not get the schematics so they couldn’t do it. Not even after I volunteered that I had all the schematics. I guess they only work on the new stuff.

Friday was to be a down day. Michael & I each had a few things to take care of.  We took off for Walmart where we picked up a few things including some Freon for the a/c. Then over to Harbor Freight for a laser thermometer to measure the tires, wheels and axle bearings as we travel. Back to the coach to install the Freon and see what happens. The dash a/c never worked since we bought the coach so we assumed it had a leak and was out of Freon. I couldn’t see putting Freon in if it was going to leak out so we also put in some dye to see if we get lucky and spot the leak if there is one.

 

 

We awoke early Saturday to go check out the Petroglyph National Monument and the Nuclear Science & History Museum. The petroglyphs (over 25,000 of them) are amazing and pretty much everywhere. We parked and got out to walk among them on the marked trails as we tried to figure out what they all meant. On the second trail we took 2 young men passed us as we took pictures and were about 20 yards in front of us as we heard them yell and the hiss of a rattlesnake. Their hearts were racing. They had been walking along the trail and apparently did not see the diamondback snake. The first guy jumped up and over it as the second guy walked back past us to go around and back the way they had come. We all took a closer look but gave the snake a wide berth as we passed on the opposite side of the trail. By this time he seemed to be getting pretty upset with us.

Our trail partner

Where the guy ended up

License plate after Japan bombing 

First bomb dropped on Japan

Nuclear Science Museum

After that we decided we had enough of the petroglyphs and headed over to the Nuclear Museum. I really enjoyed reading about and seeing all the nuclear related paraphernalia and items on display. The museum is laid out very well and explains everything from the discovery and inception of nuclear energy to the days during World War II that both the bombs were dropped on Japan. They also had a very large display of all the rockets and bombs using nuclear energy as well as the submarines and planes that carry them. Fascinating!

Sunday we were planning on spending the day writing a blog and watching the Nascar race but about noon I looked up from the computer to see Kathy in a lot of pain. It seems she overdid it and had exacerbated her sciatic nerve. She asked if we could go to urgent care. She had already found the one closest to us online and called them so we headed there. For those of you in California let it be known that urgent care facilities in your state are far superior to those in New Mexico. After finding our way to the facility, filling out all the paperwork, paying our co-pay and entering the initial exam room they pretty much told us they couldn’t do anything for us and we should head up the street to the emergency room. So here we go again. Got my co-pay back and away we went.

I got Kathy in the ER, filled out the paperwork once again and in the room we go. She was in so much pain! I’ve never seen Kathy like this. They took x-rays and gave her some Hydrocodone but the pain persisted. Next was a shot of Morphine. When that didn’t seem to help they gave her some Diazepam to help relax the muscles and that seemed to help a bit. They sent us home with 3 pain med prescriptions and a hearty “hope you feel better soon”! The one registered nurse on duty seemed more interested in our travels and how we live. The greatest part of this whole urgent care and ER experience was there were no lines at either facility and no real waiting. Not at all like Southern California.

Welcome to Colorado

The pic my navigator would have gotten

Monday was a travel day from Albuquerque to Cortez, CO to spend a few days and mostly so Kathy can go see Four Corners. The last time past here we were running behind to meet Mallory in Kingman, AZ to go see the Skywalk so we didn’t stop. After getting everything broken down and loaded and with Kathy riding prone on the sofa we traveled to Cortez over some of the bumpiest roads we’ve been on in a while. When I stopped for fuel Kathy even asked if we had been on dirt roads at some point. As it is, she is laid out on the sofa all doped up and on the heating pad trying to get relaxed and recovered so we can go see some sites. It’s been Hell Week for us this past week! I am however, happy to report that the dash a/c performed so well while traveling that I had to turn it off a few times because I was actually getting cold. Amazing!

What’s in store for us next?