What a day . . . (4)

We woke up this morning at a truck stop in Laramie, WY.  I have to say, first of all, that truck stops like Flying J and Pilot and Petro (we stayed at the Petro) are really nice and full of amenities for the traveler.  We were really grateful for this since we woke up early, tossed the kids out of their bunks to sleep on our bed, and started the motorhome to head off to Cheyenne and meet up with our group.

Well, that was the plan.  Thing was . . . the motorhome wouldn't start.  Oh boy.  So, we started fiddling, sure that at any minute, we'd solve the problem and be on our way.

No such luck.

Thankfully, we have made some amazingly good friends in this crowd of people who love FMCs as much as we do.  So, when we called the group to say that they shouldn't wait for us, one of them said they were on their way.  And, they came and joined us . . . drove an hour out of their way to join us in Laramie and spent 6 hours diagnosing and fixing our FMC.  Amazing people.

Still, what a day.  They solved an electrical problem that was preventing a spark, put in a new fuel pump and filter, and replaced a broken fanbelt which gave us back power steering.  When we were done and the motorhome started up, we cheered and got on the road.   We stopped for the night at  Cabela's World Headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska.  They have an RV park there so we are hooked up with electricity (charging all our electronics that we can't function without) and showered and ate some non-fast food and we'll sleep well tonight.

In the morning, we're going to shop at Cabela's, possibly get the motorhome washed, and head on down the road.  We'll pick up another FMC guy at the airport in North Platte and continue on our way to Minden, NE and the rest of our group.

What a long, strange trip it's been . . . and, folks, we're just getting started!

Embrace the orange

I think I've mentioned that orange is NOT my favorite color.  If I'd had a choice in color for our FMC, I'd have picked "not orange."  :)  But, the best one at the best time for the best price was . . . orange.

For a long time, we planned to change it.  We always intended to redo the interior but now . . . I don't know if it's everyone's comments about how retro and cool the color is or if I've just been worn down but I have a new motto.

Embrace the orange.

We got new towels for our big trip.  Wow, now, that is orange!

708 goes to Disneyland

For our Spring Break Trip this year, we went back to Disneyland.  #708 went 865 miles on new wheels and tires.



We spent our first night at Jalama County Park in Santa Barbara County.  This park does not take reservations. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and found a site just one row off the beach.  It was beautiful and I know we'll be back.

From there, we headed to Anaheim (with a detour to Simi Valley for a dinner with Greg's aunt, uncle, and cousins).  We always arrive there in the middle of the night which allows us to avoid the worst of LA's traffic.  We had three wonderful, magical days in Disneyland.  So much fun!  We like to stay at the Anaheim RV Resort.  It is very handy to Disneyland and is on the shuttle route for Disneyland.  The shuttles used to be free but now have a very reasonable fee.

During our stay in Anaheim, we discovered a rather significant transmission leak.  Greg was crawling under the vehicle, taking pictures, and posting them to the FMC Mailing List.  Within an hour, he had answers from a few kind FMC owners and ended up calling one who talked him through his own issues with the same problem.  He learned that we couldn't stop the leak at the park but could make it home safely.  Whew!  (When we got home, Greg did fix the leak and may have fixed the FMC's parking brake in the process!)

On our way out of town, we spent a night with family in Pacific Palisades (sleeping in their driveway!).  I forgot to take a picture of 708 in the driveway but trust that we slept well there.

Finally, we spent a couple of days relaxing at Flying Flags RV Park in Buelton, CA.  This is fast becoming a favorite park for us.  Not only are they exceptionally nice people with a clean, nice park, but they are also very accomodating.  On our way down, we stopped there and left our TOAD so that we didn't have it with us in LA where we wouldn't need it but could still use it to explore around Central California during out stay at Flying Flags.   A mere $32 to leave it for days!  Very handy!

A great time was had by all -- as usual when we travel in the FMC!