Home ... for a bit!
What an amazing trip we have had! Two months on the road and we saw so many amazing sights it's tough to summarize it all. But here goes ...
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Valley of the Gods, Gooseneck State Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, Dead Horse State Park, Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, Capital Reef National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Great Salt Lake, Tetons National Park, Snake River Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Shoshone Falls, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, Lake Havasu and the London Bridge!
Starting odometer: 63062; Ending odometer: 70839 for a total of 7777 truck miles and 6137 trailer miles. (I should have written down the tenths to see if there were another .7!)
Whew! I have to admit it doesn't seem real yet but that will come as we have time to digest it all. Now we have to begin all the preparations and repairs on our RV so we are ready for the road again in a month. We had a repair done in California I've written about separately that repaired the corner of the kitchen slide. While repairing that, they pointed out we have an issue with a support bar underneath it that needs repair. The weld is broken and the bar is bending which had to have been from rough roads (probably I-40 on the way out!) and of course the bedroom slide is still grinding when it goes in. We have a window seal that keeps pulling out. I keep fixing it but it won't stay. I have a very slow leak in the air line on the suspension airbag system somewhere to hunt down. It drops a few PSI every 4 days or so. We have some odd wear on one RV tire and have to check that we don't have an issue with a bent spindle or something. Also, the roads are so rough that we are looking at a Gen-Y gooseneck pinbox to replace the 5th wheel pinbox we have now because it will absorb some of the road bumps rather than transferring them into the RV like ours does now. In combination with the suspension airbag, that should give us a lot more gentle ride and may help with the slide issues we've been having. Finally, we discovered that our upgraded lithium battery isn't enough storage yet so we'll need to look at adding another battery and some solar panels to charge it for those boondocking and Harvest Host nights!
We put a lot of miles on our RV and truck so we have to keep up with the maintenance. Every RV needs maintenance even if it sits around but one that is moving down the road a lot needs more! The bumps, shaking and miles in general loosen things up. You wouldn't believe how many screws I find slowly backing out that need resealing!
It's good to be back after all the moves and miles and take some down time to rest and visit our kids and grandkids but I know in a week or two we are going to be itching to head out on our next adventure!
