Visiting in Chiloquin

Sorry for the delayed update, but the last week has been a blur of activity.    We departed Susanville on schedule last Thursday morning and were enjoying the scenery about an hour north of Susanville on our way to Chiloquin, OR when the coach started to lose power.   The dreaded 'Check Engine' and ' Check Trans' lights came on and the rig went into what is known as 'limp mode' where it doesn't want to go very far or very fast.  We pulled to the side of the road, shut it down and began going  through our check list of what might have gone wrong.    

Nothing made any sense and so we decided to try and restart to see if the problem would clear itself.  No such luck, indeed the only panel lights to come on were the ones we didn't want to see.  The rig wouldn't even restart.  Fate put us in the middle of nowhere where we didn't have cell service so I decided to take all my phone numbers and go down the road in the tow car and start making phone calls.  

I talked to a tech at Cummins in Redding, CA who didn't have any clues and said we would probably have to be towed in for service.  So I called AAA who is our RV towing provider.  Despite being at least 60 miles from any town that might  be big enough to even have a post office, they said they would have a tow truck to us within 30 minutes.  I went looking for some gas because the tow car was low and if we needed to follow the rig into Redding we would need gas.  Never got the gas, because Chuck called me to tell me that he got the rig started and that he was on his way towards me.  At the same time, the tow truck driver called to say he was almost at our position.  I canceled him with an optimistic attitude that the coach might be OK to drive on to Chiloquin.

We couldn't reproduce any issues or see any ongoing problems with the rig so we crossed our fingers and headed on to Chiloquin.  

We got to our good friends Don & Don in Chiloquin a couple hours later than planned but without further incident.

As shown in the above picture, we parked in their front drive way as we have before.  The Don's are always the greatest hosts and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at their house through Sunday.  Dinner with various 'family' friends in Klamath Falls on Friday, a BBQ at neighbors and good friends on Saturday and then another BBQ hosted at the Don's on Sunday.  Big Don is an incredible cook and Sunday was no exception.  We'll try and catch up with the diet later.

We had a little rain while in Chiloquin, but for the most part it occurred at night and didn't negatively affect our activities.  Rikki and Luci really enjoyed the grass yard to play in and the Don's three dogs to play with.

Thanks to Don and Don for their hospitality and we look forward to them getting down to Yuma this winter and spending some time at our place as they have before.

We left Chiloquin on Monday and had an uneventful and beautiful trip across the mountains over to Albany to get some work started on our coach.  We heard about an accomplished cabinet man who used to work for Country Coach who was now working at Lassen RV in Albany. We met up with him Monday to take measurements for replacing the wooden fascia ring around our new TV in the bedroom area, and some modifications to the computer desk.  He will be delivering a new TV ring to us at the upcoming FMCA rally, also in Albany.

After getting the measurements done, we retreated back to Coburg, OR where we had made an appointment with Cummins Northwest to look at engine and transmission and see if they could diagnose our Total System Failure last Thursday.  We spent Monday night at Cummins and on Tuesday, they got to work and told us that they only thing they could find in the diagnostic codes was a failing engine/transmission speed sensor that showed multiple failures and could be the culprit.  We had them replace it and headed back to Albany to check in at the Northwest FMCA rally for the next five days.

We were surprised to get 'parked' by several Yuma friends.  Actually they are all Washingtonians that we know from their winter visits to Yuma.  Good friend Kenny's father, Earv, parked us out in the grass lot and then other friends, Gary and Sue came over to make sure we had everything we needed.

Today was Chuck's birthday so we went out to eat at a local buffet.  The diet remains only a concept at this point.

I'll update more about FMCA Albany in the next few days.