Redding and a LONG story!

Monday morning:

We fired up the motorhome at Oh-Dark-Six-thirty, dumped the tanks and headed for the Freightliner shop. I got to the first light and…chug, chug, hiccup, hiccup, cough, cough and it slowed to 5 mph. It then started going again but did its little tricks three more times within the four-mile trip to Freightliner…but we made it! They ran it inside and ran a diagnostic on the engine. Hmmm…whir, whir, cachunk, click, click and out came the report. Bad fuel pump. Hey, we just replaced that. No, we replaced the “lift pump”, which is a little fuel pump that brings the fuel to the main fuel pump which is the one that is now bad. You following this? Guess what a brand new fuel pump for a Cummins diesel engine costs? $5,000…Five Grand…five BIG ones…more than a set of tires…and that’s PLUS one full day’s worth of labor to remove the old one and install the new one. We (luckily) do have an insurance plan that SHOULD cover it all but a $500 deductible. They only pay for a rebuilt pump, not a new one, but the guy at Freightliner says the rebuilts are just as good. So…we are now back at the Redding Elks Lodge for the night while they get a rebuilt pump shipped from the Bay Area. We will take the rig back to Freightliner tomorrow morning for the new rebuilt pump to be installed. They say it will be done tomorrow. I asked if he was sure. He said, “Trust me!” RIGHT!

Oh me, oh my, what shall we do today? Oh, let’s get the oil changed in the car and do laundry! OK, we’ll get the oil changed and do laundry. What the hell! While we were getting the oil changed, my phone rang. “Hello” “This is Mark at Freightliner. Everything has been approved, but they don’t pay for freight to get the part here”. “OK…how much is freight?” “$487 and change” “WHAT!!!!!!!”. I sat down! “Wait a minute. Let me check that again”. After a few minutes, Mark told me that Freightliner had screwed up and that the shipping would be $50 or less. I told him he owed me big time for a near-fatal heart attack.

After doing the laundry, I went for a swim. Gizmo pouted because he couldn’t go in the pool area. The pool at the lodge is huge and beautiful. It even has a diving board and separate diving area. After cooling off, the board beckoned. I haven’t been on a diving board in a long time, a VERY long time. I walked out on the board and bounced a few times. It was very springy. I tested it with a standard old front dive. Not bad…probably about a “7”. I felt a little shaky, and my back has been acting up, so I didn’t do what used to be my signature dive, a forward 1½ . Probably a very smart thing. I retired to the rig and we kicked back for the night.

We got up at a normal time and got ready to head for Freightliner. Before we left, we had to watch Gizmo’s favorite TV show, “Predator Quest”. This is a show about hunting coyotes and the introduction shows coyotes being called with a wounded rabbit mouth call. The camera is positioned so that most of the coyotes are running right at it. Gizmo just loves this part. I hold him up in front of the screen and he is absolutely memorized by the sight of all the “dogs” running toward him.

Gizmo watching "Predator Quest"...his favorite show

We finished the show and headed for the shop.

Don met us at the shop and, after checking that all was on schedule, we left for the mountains to see his cabin. Don and Pat have a great little “cabin” in a small town called Old Station.

Don and Pat's cabin

Lunch with Don

View from the kitchen

They had a fire there a few weeks ago that got really close to the cabins on their road. The firefighters threw a bunch of stacked wood away from the house to reduce the fire danger to the house itself and we spent some time moving the wood from a neighbor’s property back to Don and Pats and putting some sheetrock back on the porch. Both Gizmo and Don’s dog, Kimberly, went crazy running around the area, chasing lizards and each other.

Kimberly and Gizmo

We wound up spending most of the day there and then returned to the Freightliner yard. The dogs slept on Claudia's lap for the whole trip home.

Two very tired dogs!

Due to a miscommunication between two service writers, no work had been done to the rig. We had been working with one service writer (Mark) but a new one (Rick) talked to me this morning. I was told by Mark that the new fuel pump should be in about 10:30 and that they could start working on it then. If Larry, the mechanic, couldn’t finish it by 5:00 pm, the night shift could finish the job. OK, fine! I did tell them that if there was any possibility they couldn’t finish the job today, don’t start it and we would bring the rig in tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7:00 and they could have it all day and get it done. Well, Rick called me twice about 11:00 to tell me the part had gotten there but they didn’t have enough time to finish the job. We had no cell phone service at Old Station so I didn’t get the message. About 11:30, I called Mark from a landline phone at the cabin and he told me the rig would be done by 5:00 or 6:00. Mark and Rick weren’t communicating so nothing got done, which probably is good thing in the long run. At least we have a place to sleep tonight! Now, tomorrow, it goes in at 7:00 am and they promised it would get done.

Our schedule is still tentative at this time but it looks like we will be taking off from here on Thursday, Friday at the very latest, barring any major glitches. The plan for now is to head north on I-5 to Grants Pass and then over to Crescent City. We may stay in Crescent City or go on to Brookings, OR. That’s the plan right now but, as y’all know, our schedule is, shall we say, flexible?