Picture Perfect

Can you tell the motorhome is smiling? Only 8 more hours to San Diego!

Day Five

Notice the sweatshirt! It is cold here at 6am.  Yea! Just heading out on our last day of travel. Beautiful view of the Sedona mountains in the background.

Motorhome Marathon

End of day, finally, after 15.5 hours of driving. We are at the Comfort Inn in Camp Verde, Arizona. I drove a total of 2 hours and roamed around the camper for the rest of the time. Great day!

Determi-Nation

Driving through New Mexico. Calm, cool, and collected....setting his eyes on California.

Smooth Sailing

Today Stu was raring to go. He wanted to drive until we dropped. Already passed Texas and now passing through New Mexico. We (meaning Stu) want to go as far into Arizona as possible.The camper is great. We have enough food. We have a restroom and we have air. What more do we need?

It is very windy today. It is amazing how the wind can push around a 15,000-pound camper like a rag doll. Needless to say, we are holding the steering wheel with two hands.

Day Four

Back on the road. Stu does his regular maintenance checks. Paying extra attention to the tires. It is so hot here that the air in the tires is expanding.

The camper runs soooooooooooo smooth. The front air conditioner is so cold, I needed my sweatshirt. We are so happy.

Unplanned Day

Almost ready to quit last night from driving when we heard a loud pop from outside. We thought it was the truck that was ahead of us. Just then Stu lost power steering and the brakes and then we knew it was us! We pulled off the nearest exit and after checking it out, Stu saw that our main belt broke and the air conditioner compressor clutch flew off.

A cop directed us to Dave's RV store up the road where we could camp and in the morning check to see if the mechanics could help us. Stu was ecstatic since he wanted to camp all along. We were in Claremore, Oklahoma 30 miles outside of Tulsa

 The next day, Dave’s RV couldn’t help us.

In fact, no one would since not many auto places will service a 26 foot motor home.

Plan B:  Stu would tackle the job himself. e ahHHhhhhhh Stu somehow maneuvered the camper five miles down the road to an auto parts store. He set up shop at the empty parking lot, bought the parts and proceeded to replace the belt and compressor clutch.... After a few hours, Stu realized he needed to replace the entire air conditioning unit. 

Broken belt

Old and new air conditioner unit.

New Belt

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Nice hands, don't you think?  Notice the hand cleaner in the background, unused.

Stu couldn't resist calling a mobile mechanic to pressurize the air system. Mike and Stu bonded over mobile businesses.

Result:  Mission Accomplished in 10.5 hours!! Stu did an awesome job!!