We ran the air conditioners yesterday for the first time in over a week. The temperature topped out near 90 degrees.
Donna went for a bike ride for a couple of hours and put in 30 miles. I sat in the shade and read a book. I made a run to Costco for bottled water. Nothing too exciting.
I’m going to try to track my spending this month. I set up a budget last year, but I’ve been pretty loose with it. I want track my expenditures and see if I need to make any adjustments.
A big rig pulled into the RV park in the late afternoon. It was a 45-foot Country Coach Affinity pulling a car hauler trailer. He had to make a tight 90-degree turn at the end of the park road. When I say tight, I mean tight. There’s an eight-foot privacy fence on the outside of the turn and a wooden rail fence on the inside.
I jogged down to the corner. I knew what he was up against. There were a few people sitting outside their trailers in lawn chairs just watching. I stood where the driver could see me at the fence post on the inside of the turn. He had to swing wide enough for his trailer to clear this post, but his swing was limited by the privacy fence on the outside of the turn.
He moved slowly with the right side of his coach an inch or two away from the privacy fence. I watched his trailer draw closer and closer to the post I was standing next to. I started waving him forward like a traffic cop. His trailer was within an inch of the post when the rear axle of the trailer passed it. Once the rear axle passed, he was in the clear. I gave him a thumbs up and he accelerated down the side road.
He made a complete circuit around the park and turned into a pull-through site on the other side of the laundry room/rest rooms building from us. He had the same issue of turning wide enough to clear his trailer while being limited by trees. There was a post with the site number and night lamp at the corner of his site. I pulled up on the post and it came out of the ground easily. His trailer wouldn’t have cleared the post and he would have scraped the side of the trailer.
He jockeyed back a forth a couple of times and positioned the coach where he wanted it. He opened his window and asked me if his trailer was hanging out too far. I told him it was fine. He thanked me for the assistance. He told me his overall length with the 45-foot coach and car hauler was about 73 feet!
Tight quarters
73 feet overall length!
Most of the RVs in the park are fifth-wheel or travel trailers. I don’t think these people realize the challenge of driving a big rig pulling a trailer. A fifth wheel has its pin pivoting over the rear axle of the truck pulling it, making it fairly easy to maneuver. My rig has the trailer pivoting on a ball 11 feet behind the rear axle. This makes maneuvering the trailer more difficult, especially in reverse.
Later, I walked down to site with the Country Coach. The driver thanked me again and introduced himself. His name was Larry. He’s from Moses Lake, Washington where he ran a successful construction business. It was licensed in three states – Washington, California and Montana. He told me he did a lot of contract work in the oil fields.
Larry recently sold the business and is semi-retired. He’s only 33 years old and isn’t ready to quit working yet. He and his family are taking an extended vacation in their RV. They plan to see the sights in the western states, eventually going down to Texas. Larry is looking at an investment opportunity there.
While we were talking, he told me his generator wouldn’t run for more than a few minutes. As he described the symptoms, I told him it sounded like a fuel delivery problem. He told me the fuel filter had just been changed that morning. I thought the fittings on the filter might have a leak, allowing air to be drawn into the fuel line.
Right about then, a truck pulled in front of his coach. A man and a boy got out. Larry introduced me to Aaron. Aaron runs a repair business in Moses Lake, repairing autos, trucks and farm equipment. He made the 130-mile drive from Moses Lake to check out Larry’s generator. Aaron and his 11-year-old son went to work.
Aaron suspected a fuel pump problem and brought a new pump with him. After checking fault codes, he was sure the pump was bad. Getting to the fuel pump wasn’t easy. Getting the sheet metal cover off an Onan generator while it’s mounted to the coach is difficult. I was impressed by the way he and his son worked together. For an 11-year-old boy, he had some mechanical skills. He crawled underneath the coach and told his dad he needed a thin, 11mm open-end wrench and a pair of channel locks to get the fuel line off. Aaron didn’t have channel locks with him or a thin enough wrench. I went to my trailer and brought back a thin wrench and channel locks. About an hour later, they had the new pump on and the generator was running fine. I told the kid that it was great to have mechanical skills, but that he should be sure to get an education, too!
I grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignons while Donna made twice-baked potatoes and asparagus. She sauteed mushrooms and onions to put on the grilled filets. Yummy!
Bacon wrapped filet mignon with mushrooms and onions, twice-baked potato and asparagus
Today will be another air conditioner day. The forecast calls for a high of 93 and it’s already warm this morning. Donna and I plan to ride the scooter down to the lake.
