Nuestra casa rodante – Our Airstream, travels and such…

roger March 10th, 2010 (23 hours ago)

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted or we have planned to go somewhere.  Both are happening now!

We are going to Paso Robles this weekend with our WBCCI unit, and another one for a joint rally.  It will be held at Wine Country RV.  We are using this as a great excuse to get out with the trailer.  We like Paso since it is pretty close to us and we are familiar with the town (lots to do).  We also have not been out with our WBCCI unit for about 3 years and we can reconnect with some of them.

Just because we have not had the trailer out does not mean it has been quiet in our RV life.  The tow vehicle, our F250, has given us some grief.  You may remember the problems we had with it on our Albuquerque trip and the transmission issue.  About 1 month after the trip the truck started surging at idle and it threw a code.  The code was for an ICP (Injection Control Pressure) valve.  As this was happening, I had the batteries run down to the point where it just had that clicking sound when starting.  Once I got the batteries charged, the truck started running rough and threw another code!

Wow!  Two at once!  The code mentioned something about an injector had low pressure.  I know that injector repairs are EXPENSIVE!  I decided to attack the ICP problem first.  A trip to Ford and about $200 later, that was fixed.  But the truck still was running rough.  I lived with it for a few more weeks.  Now it was time to take it to a local diesel shop.

The first thing they saw was the batteries were very low and were not holding a good charge.  Diesels are very hard on batteries, hence the reason for two in our truck.  They need a minimum voltage to start correctly.  These were having problems with voltage and they recommended I get them replaced.  I still had 1 month left on the full Diehard replacement so I hauled them both to Sears.

Their tests concluded the batteries were fine, naturally.  I tried to convey the information, from the diesel shop, that batteries in diesels are under a different set of requirements and the standard automobile load test is not pertinent.  After a day or two of ‘discussion’ the Sears manager was willing to warranty replace one battery but I had to purchase the other outright.  I can live with that.

I took the batteries back to the diesel shop.  They installed them and started looking for the injector problem.  It was gone, it cleared up after the new batteries were installed.  We deduced that the fuel injection control module (FICM) is very susceptible to low voltage but once the fresh batteries were put in, it relearned its program.  Fantastic!  Plus the shop only charged me two hours for easily four hours of their time.

So was that it?  No!  Next I started hearing a squeal when the A/C compressor would kick in (defroster).  I wasn’t sure if the belt was just slipping (preferable) or was the bearing going out on the compressor (oh no!).  It turned out it was the belt tensioner.  It was fixed in place and not movable, as it should be.  Hurray, another repair!  The tensioner’s are pretty pricey, about $180!!  So we replaced the belt at the same time, it was due at 90K miles.

The truck seems to be running good now (knocking on wood – my head) so we will test it out on this trip.

Our extended warranty expired in August around the same time we paid the truck off.  It seems that the truck knew the warranty expired.  However all of these repairs did not reach what our payment used to be so we are still ahead of things.  I am just curious if the people that determine these warranties are the same ones that make the actuarial tables for life insurance?

I will post about the rally after we are back, maybe even during.

• F250 , Trips , WBCCI , repairs
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roger October 13th, 2009

I have uploaded the photos from the trip, including the balloon fiesta.  They are on my Flickr page here.

• Airforums groups , Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , F250 , Trips , WBCCI , repairs
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roger September 26th, 2009

We tried to do this earlier in the year.  We were going to meet some friends there and just relax.  The winter is the best time to go to the desert but if you hit the spring at the right time it can be even better.  I remember we went to Red Rock State Park one weekend in the spring.  The weather was cool but the wildflowers were blooming all around.  We saw many of them on a ranger walk.  We were hoping that visiting Anza Borrego State Park at the end of March might give us some nice wildflowers also.  At least we had reservations this time.

Before we left we had a minor modification done to the trailer.  When we refloored our house with laminate flooring we got some extra for the trailer.  The installer (our neighbor) did the trailer for us also.  We no longer have the white carpet (well mostly white) and have a surface that is easier to clean.

Our reservations started on Monday and we had 3 nights there.  One plan was to leave early on Monday from home and get there later in the afternoon/evening for a total of 354 miles!  Roxie worked on Sunday but she had a plan.  Let’s leave Sunday night when she gets home.  I agreed that we could try and we would be able to do another first for us:

Wal-Mart!  This was the first time we have ever stayed overnight at a Wal-Mart.  This was in Palmdale and we got there about 11pm.  I checked with the security guard and he said we would park there no problem but no longer than 2 nights.  Suited us just fine.  All that I did was put down the tongue jack (remembering to park nosedown) to level it out and I unplugged the umbilical cable.  You can easily see why Wal-Mart likes this because we proceeded to spend $80 the next morning at the store.  The nice thing was that this evening trip essentially cut the remaining distance in half making a much more managable drive.

Our friends (Rich, Eleanor and Emma) had arrived a day earlier and were not around when we arrived.  We went through our normal procedures.  When we saw the Luhr’s, they introduced us to some other Airstreamers that met them there also.  Ken & Petey, Adam & Susan were introduced to us all and the Airstream bond was created.  On Tuesday we all got together and took a road/hiking trip.  We were lucky enough to go in style with Ken & Petey.  The first spot was the slot canyon.  This is where the flooding of Anza Borrego has created very narrow and interesting canyons that you can go hike in.  We weren’t concerned about flooding at this time.

The next stop were the wind caves.  Cavern type areas carved out by wind and rain.  This hike was a bit more strenuous than the first.  We had a steep climb to start then some up and down.  However it was well worth the hike.  The formations are very interesting and a lot of fun to scramble around on.  Here is Roxie in a cave:

We also stopped to see Font’s Point which gives you an overview of the badlands area.  You can go to my Flickr set of this trip for other photos that I took.

Wednesday we decided to take the hike to the Palm Canyon oasis.  I remember doing this when I was a child and the others had done it many times previously so we were on our own.  The first part was ranger led and there was a big emphasis on spotting some Bighorn Sheep (the park’s namesake).  Everyone was hoping to see some and started out with high spirits.  The day was a  bit warm, very little breeze and a constant uphill elevation change.  The ranger stayed with the group about half way but there were no sightings of Bighorn.  The ranger turned back but continued on to the oasis.  About 2/3’s of the way to the end (for us) we found a little cave that was in the shade and decided to take a bit of a break.  I thought I would scan the opposite mountains for any movement (I can pick up movement pretty good).  Looking up about 2000′ above us and I saw something.  It was a Bighorn.  So now I get to tell Roxie where it is.  Not an easy task to try to tell someone which rock(s) out of thousands they should look at to see something that was so minuscule.  However she was able to see it.  I tried to tell others as they passed by but they weren’t able to see it.  But I do have proof:

Look for the arrow and this was at maximum zoom on our camera.

We were able to complete our hike but we were pretty beat.  It was very warm at the end.  We had just purchased some water backpacks and were depleted also.  We went back to the trailer and rested a bit.  The next day we took our requisite trip to Julian.  It was about the same as it was before but we always enjoy going there.

You can see Rich Luhr’s account of their Anza Borrego trip at his blog.

Here is a shot of our trailer at Anza Borrego and a shot of my parents trailer many years ago.  Same campground but a different spot.

Now it is time to leave.  Do we go straight home in one day?  My birth grandmother lives in Riverside and we haven’t seen her for 4 years so we will see where we can stay for the evening.  Riverside does not have too many places to camp and a weekend is coming up.  So we try for another first and see if we can take advantage of some courtesy parking.  The WBCCI has a listing for that in the membership roster book but Airforums also has a place to list such.  We looked for someone in Riverside and found Towster!  We had met Vince and Virginia at some other rallies but did not know they lived in Riverside and we contacted them about parking for one evening.  They graciously agreed and even moved their trailer so we had room for ours:

We attempted to repay them for their kindness by taking them out to eat that evening.  It was nice to visit with them and get to know them better.  Sometimes it is hard to talk to people at the rallies since there are so many people.  We were able to visit my grandmother twice while we were there and then we pushed on home on Saturday.

A good trip, not rushed, a couple of firsts for us and new Airstream friends (Ken, Petey, Adam, Susan, Vince and Virginia).

• Airforums groups , Airstream , Trips , WBCCI
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caadoptees November 1st, 2007

Back in July we met up with the Sierra Nevada unit of the WBCCI (see the previous story). One of the blogs that I watch is theirs. Most recently they have a link to some old photos from one of the members. I enjoy seeing pictures of old Airstreams in their original environment, as you can tell.

• Airstream , WBCCI
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caadoptees June 28th, 2007

It is about time!! We finally have plans to take the trailer out. We are going to join the Sierra Nevada WBCCI unit for their rally at Obsidian dome. It is between June Lake and Mammoth Lakes on the east side of the Sierras. We will be going through Tioga pass to get there then we will stay a few nights at the Yosemite Pine RV park and visit Yosemite and/or the Gold Country. I will put up a postmortem when it is over.

• Airstream , Trips , WBCCI
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caadoptees May 23rd, 2007

Blue Numbers

Originally uploaded by larock.

The big red numbers are fairly well known. They denote your membership number in the Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI). The blue numbers denote my membership number in the Airstream Forums (actually called AirForums now). In my personal opinion, AirForums may take over as the ‘official’ gathering and contact point for many new Airstreamers. This must be what has garnered the change to AirForums, to possibly avoid any future litigation.

BTW, this was posted from my Flickr account.

• Airstream , WBCCI
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caadoptees January 21st, 2007

In the summer of ‘06, we went to Salem, OR for the Wally Byam Caravan Club, International (WBCCI) rally. Since the rally was a week long, we didn’t have too much time to sightsee on either side of it.

Our first night was in Redding, CA at the Premiere RV Resort campground. It was interesting to ‘return’ here. My parents owned this campground as a KOA from 1971 until 1980. A lot has changed in that time but it was fun to look around. Here is what you see when you come in:

What you don’t see is that it hit 122° on the day we got there. It was hot all the way up the valley. I was concerned about tire temperature so I did not go much over 60mph. The first thing we noticed was that the refrigerator was not working well. I was suprised since the refrigerator was about 2 years old and had not given us any trouble. That was a point of concern. We also noticed that the plastic tab that keeps the medicine cabinet above the bathroom sink had broken. It was now swinging free.

The next morning didn’t prove much cooler but I knew we were going to a higher altitude. We stopped at a few RV shops to look for the elusive part for the medicine cabinet. We used a bungee cord to keep the door closed. We didn’t find the part. So we headed north.

The next stop was the KOA at Sisters, OR. Sisters is a cute little town. It appears that many come up there from the Portland area for R&R. We saw a few Airstreams in some of the other RV parks. We noticed that some of them had dates and times stuck in their windows. We didn’t know what this was all about, yet.

Driving back from ‘downtown’ Sisters that evening, I noticed a weigh station that was showing zero on the display. Someone left it on! I had always wondered about the weight of our rig but never had the time to check it out. I had weighed the both the truck and trailer together in Bakersfield one time and the total weight was 15,000 lbs. I was surprised since I knew the GVWR of the trailer was 6300 lbs. This meant my truck was close to 9,000 lbs?!?!? I was able to weigh it that night and, yes, the truck weighed around 8,500+ lbs. WOW!

After that it was to the rally.  One of the reasons for going to Sisters the night before was to make sure that we were at the local fairgrounds BEFORE 4pm.  That was the latest of each day that they would park you on the grounds.  If you were there after that time, you had to spend the night there (or elsewhere) and get parked the next day.  You see, 4pm is the magical ‘happy hour’ time.  One afternoon I rode my bike over to the ‘bullpen’ at 4:15 and saw no WBCCI officials but a few trailers getting ready to spend the night.

We got there around 2pm and after a very brief interaction showing our registration, etc., we were parked.  We were in the blue section and the end of a row.  One side of our trailer was on dry grass and the other was on asphalt (I have a shot of this in the photos section).  We DID have power (30amp) provided by a very large generator down the row.  However, it would shut off sometimes which was not good for our DirecTivo unit.  We also had water in a daisy-chain fashion (trailer to trailer).  Sewage was pumped out once when we were there.  A truck came around and they attached to your drain and essentially sucked it out.

At the top of this page is a panorama shot from our trailer.  We had very nice people parked by us, one was Rich C. that very graciously had a wireless hotspot setup in his trailer and invited all to use it that wanted to.  So in the evenings I would go outside, sit down with my laptop and get on the ‘net.  We made it to most of the evening programs where they had a lot of ‘old people’ entertainment.  It was OK to sit there and watch because we got to sit.

Airstream had about half of their service department there running around on golf carts and fixing people’s trailers.  They also had a parts store going.  Great!  I can get my cabinet latch from them.  I went up to the parts manager and she said she knew exactly what that was but they don’t make them anymore.  No source for a replacement.  Alas, I am still looking for a replacement and we are still using the bungee cord.  George M. Sutton RV was there to sell new and used Airstreams.  We got to see a few models but did not get to see the Front Bedroom Classic since someone bought it the first day and removed it from the floor.

There were things to do at the rally but very few that attracted our interest.  There was one talk about wheel, axle and trailer loading that was very good and made me realize that I was running my tires at too low a PSI.  Since the activities were so slow, we took a few afternoons to go visit some other sites.

First up was the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation museum:

Next was Silver Falls State Park:

The last full day of the rally was the 4th of July (Wally Byam’s birthday).  All that we saw going on was the WBCCI parade and an Elvis impersonator at the evening show.  We decided that we would pass and leave a day early.  By doing this we changed a single day 400 mile drive to a 2 day, 200 mile each day drive.  Much better.  We also got to camp right on the Rogue river at the RiverPark RV resort.  We even talked with a few vintage owners there.

The next day we travelled to Humboldt Redwoods State Park (below) for a couple of nights.  Along the route we saw many other Airstreams, probably heading home also.

We made a stop at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield.  We were going to take the tour but the line was too long.  We made it to our last stop, the Stockton/Delta KOA for one night.

Headed home the next day.  Why does the last 100 miles seem to take the longest?

All in all, I am glad that we went.  We will NOT be going to this years rally in Perry, GA.  Summertime in Georgia does not sound like a good idea to me.  We will plan to go to the rally in 2008 in Bozeman, MT.  The last time the WBCCI, in 1989, was there, they had around 5000 trailers and LOTS of MUD!

• Airstream , Trips , WBCCI
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caadoptees September 12th, 2006

We joined the local San Joaquin WBCCI unit right after we got the Airstream. We were able to get my parent’s old number (#27380) by having my mom send a letter to WBCCI HQ. This was easier than changing numbers and I had it memorized already from travelling with my parents. The first rally was in Shafter at the KOA. It was odd because we knew none of the members nor how things ‘operated’. I vaguely remember something about ‘Happy Hour’. We did go to the Wasco rose festival while we were there. We have continued to be semi-active in the San Joaquin unit but we both work so it is hard to get away with great frequency.

• Airstream , WBCCI
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