Focht Family Blog

I didn’t realize how long it had been since I updated. Sorry. So this one will be a bit long. After we left Seattle we drove down 101 (coast) through Oregon. It was raining and overcast but we pulled over to take some pictures of the ocean.

It is rather scary driving along the coast and going past many areas where the road has fallen in. We actually had to stop and wait for construction crews in a coupe of areas where there was no road in one lane. I’m glad none of the road decided to cave in while we were driving on it. We spent a couple of nights among the redwoods in northern California.

Driving down the coast in CA the weather was a little better so we stopped again and got some more pictures of the ocean and took the family out for a picture. It had just started raining so I think it is blurry because water may have been on the lens.

Next we headed down a little further for a few days in a town called Manteca. It was a relatively central location for Nathan to visit with some customers. Nathan stopped at Making It Big, a place that sells clothes for larger women and also at Artisan Sweets, a candy store that sells specialty candies. They gave us some caramels as well as some natural candies for the kids. Everything was delicious. These were both stops on the way into the campground.

The next day we went out and Nathan stopped in at Wild Horses 4×4. This took a bit longer because they sell off road equipment for broncos. Nathan is missing his Jeep. After he was done with customer visits, we went to lunch at an Old Spaghetti Factory and sat in the trolley car. It wasn’t as good as I remembered from when I was young but I still enjoyed the spumoni ice cream. :)

We spent the rest of the week riding bikes at the campground and fixing and cleaning. We also had a visit with one of mom’s friends who moved to California. On Saturday we checked out and put 10 hours of driving on the road. We made it to Kingman, AZ so we were officially out of CA. Unfortunately the Walmart there does not allow overnight but we got some groceries and called the Cracker Barrel down the street. They gave us permission.

We were up early this morning because we didn’t want to block all the spaces for Sunday morning diners so we were back on the road by 7:00 this morning and we will be stopping in Albuquerque where this whole adventure started to pick up an antennae that we lost somewhere at Aloha RV where we purchased our Newmar All-Star. We are making tracks for Indiana. We are taking the All-Star back to Newmar to get some things added. They do discounted work during this time of the year because this is their slow time. We are going to have gel batteries put in since they have more charge time plus you don’t have to check the water or worry about rust. We are also going to have the slide repaired where I caught Nathan’s jacket in it.

Originally we were planning on staying the night at a Walmart in Albuquerque but since we are making good time Nathan is thinking about trying to get to Amarillo, TX before we stop. It is going to be a long few days on the road putting at least 10 hours of driving in a day. I am looking forward to stopping in Indiana and relaxing for a bit. Since Newmar doesn’t have laundry facilities we need to go to a laundromat while there anyways so I plan on stripping all of the beds and washing comforters (cannot fit in most machines at campgrounds). I am also looking forward to going to lunch at the little cafe a few blocks away. They had great homemade soups. Samantha is looking forward to going back to reading time at the library and also going to the large playground they have in town. Hopefully there will be no tornadoes this time around. :)

Today we spent most of our day on the side of the road. We stayed at a Walmart last night and got an early start today. We were going to try to make it all the way to Seattle by tonight. However, about an hour from the Oregon border while we were still in California we heard a pop followed by a hissing noise. Nathan didn’t hear the noise but then noticed that he was losing power although the engine was still running and there were no alarms. I told him it sounded like a hose had blown.

We pulled off onto an exit but it didn’t look like there was anything on the road but snow so we limped back up the on ramp and parked on the side. We put some flares out (thanks to the police at our last breakdown) and put the slide out enough to open the access panel. When Nathan opened it we found that a metal elbow had been blown off of a hose. It was the turbo so without it we would not have enough power to get up any of the mountains unless we were going about 4 miles an hour! We called Spartan and all they would do is send a tow truck. They wouldn’t get us a flatbed tow and said we would have to sign a release for them to tow us. After the last one damaged our coach we didn’t want to do that.

We called Cummins and tried to track down the part so Nathan could fix it on the side of the road. We found one that said they had it in Oregon. We arranged for a courier to pick it up and bring it to us. When the man got to the shop to give the part to the courier he found out that although the computer said he had it, he did not. He said he could have one at his shop first thing in the morning. He arranged for a tow truck to come and get us and while we were waiting Nathan decided to try to patch the problem. Here is a picture of the elbow that blew off after Nathan patched it. The rim was sheared off when it blew so Nathan had to use some duct tape and tighten the collar a bit more to get it to hold.

Nathan thinks it blew because it is rubbing against the metal plate on the side and when the engine is flexing on the bouncy roads it was putting to much pressure on it. He thinks when they put the new engine in they didn’t check to see where everything was rubbing when they replaced all of the hoses. If there is something good that has come out of it, I noticed that one of the bolts on another collar was rubbing a hole in one of the air conditioner hoses, so we can get that fixed as well. This is a picture of the hose after Nathan moved the collar and taped the hole that was starting to develop from the rub.

We did a few trials of speeding up the ramp and backing back down. There was some air escaping around the elbow because we could hear hissing but the elbow held up to the pressure. We tried going up one mountain pass and when we made it over we canceled the tow truck and decided to limp to Oregon to get the part. The good part is that so far on this breakdown we haven’t had to vacate the RV. On the way to Oregon we found a place with a wide pull-off that had lots of snow so we stopped so the kids could see it. Timmy was up front but for some reason the other two did not answer when I called them multiple times to come out in the snow. So… here is Timmy playing in the snow.

Here is a picture of the trees that were behind Timmy while he was playing.

By this time we were starting to get into flurries and we were glad we weren’t being towed after dark in this weather. Here is a picture of the snow hitting our windshield and a picture of some beautiful snowy scenery we were driving by.

After we got into the town in Oregon we were driving to we stopped at a mall and walked around and ate dinner. We then drove to Cummins and parked for the night. Hopefully when we get up the part will be here and we can repair and get out of here in a timely manner so we can make it to Seattle tomorrow.