I thought it was about time I updated this blog, I have to get back into the habit doing it every few days or so. In my last update, we were getting ready to leave Coffeyville. We finally got around to leaving the campground at 11 am and drove 8 hours south to Graham, TX, where our friends live and it was after dark when we got there. I was so glad that the drive was over and we had nothing but long, lazy days ahead of us with NO WORK!! Well, working 10 hour days at Amazon, anyway.
Ron lost no time trying to find the oil leak we had been contending with on our drive to Coffeyville. What the guys found was that diesel fuel was somehow getting into the oil and causing the pressure to be so low the low oil alarm kept going off everytime we slowed down. But, I think the fact that every 150 to 200 miles Ron kept putting in a gallon of oil, that probably saved our engine from failure. I have some pictures to tell the story of how that came to be. So, not only did we have an oil leak, but, a diesel leak as well. They fixed some other things "under the hood" too, so it was good we took the time to look carefully around the engine.
We stayed two weeks with Troyce & Lisa, parked right next to their house. We got our doggie and kitty fix with their four dogs, plus the neighbors dog, a cockatiel and two cats and 2 kittens rescued from outside when their mother abandoned them. We shared Thanksgiving dinner with them and their family of three kids and grandkids and Troyce's parents. A great time was had by all and we all got our fill of everything. We even got to bring some of our pie back home to enjoy it. Our friends drove us all around their area to see what there was to see and we even treated them to a movie in the downtown movie house where we saw "Unstoppable". Last night, we took them to dinner to thank them for their great hospitality and help with our problem bus. We're hoping to see them again when the bus rally rolls around in January in Wickenburg, AZ.
This morning, we left at 8am to head down the road. We had planned on running the generator so we could run the heater, but, found we really didn't need it. We had a nice, relaxing drive of 8 hours to the SKP park at The Ranch in Lakewood, NM. Along the way, we stopped for diesel at the cheapest price we are likely to see heading west; $2.95. There were plenty of cotton fields and oil pumpers to see along the way, apparently, there are still black oil deposits in them thar fields of west Texas and eastern NM.
We rolled into The Ranch at about 3PM MST time and had time to set up and relax before social hour at the clubhouse. It was 50 degrees when we got here, but, once that sun went down it started getting cold fast, especially since we're at 3540 ft and we came from 1100 ft....We tried to run our heater that's attached to the A/C, but, since we also had the block heater on, (for the engine) and they were on the same circuit, it kept popping the breaker. So, we're making do with two electric portable heaters tonight which can be run on different circuits. The lows are supposed to get down into the mid 20's, so we're in for a frigid night. Tomorrow, we will probably turn the generator on to run the heater because it's still going to be frigid at 9 in the morning!
Tomorrow, our destination will be the SKP park in Deming, NM, called the Dreamcatcher. We should have a much shorter day's drive, even if we do have to go back into Texas, to get there. There is a route that goes straight towards Alamagordo, but, goes up into the mountains and since there is probably snow up there right now, we'll leave that route for another time...we're complaining about the cold now...Deming is at 4250 ft, so the lows will be down in the teens...BRRRR!! Hey, we don't have a choice, we are at the southernmost route towards Yuma that we can go, we just have to deal with it.
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