5C's Que Pasa

We woke up to 26F/-3.3 C and back home it was -4C so we were doing okay.  All except for sitting on an ice cold toilet seat each  time 😯   Once again Colin went out to prepare the Jeep to be towed and again was gone a very long time.  I never anticipated the new problem.  First the good news – the braking device was working perfectly.  Perhaps it was because we had brought it inside to thaw overnight.  Now for the bad news, the Jeep has a very serious problem.  We are not sure what it is.  The car is in neutral to be towed but as per the instruction manual the last thing you do is put the Jeep in reverse to verify that the transmission is in neutral.  The car makes a grinding noise each time Colin does that and today there was a strong burning smell.  He was only able to stop the grinding noise by turning off the car.

There was no grinding noise the first two test tows nor when we hooked up on Monday.  Only yesterday morning the noise stopped on its own and today a huge amount continued until he shut the car off.  The instructions to prepare to tow are being followed to the letter.  It is still okay to tow as we are, so we continued on and were driving by 7:10AM.  Once it was 8AM I started a multitude of phone calls.  Long story short we have a Jeep dealership ( the other was very rude ) who will see us once we drive in tomorrow morning.  We plan to come in towing ( besides we have no idea it we can still drive the vehicle ) so they can see the problem themselves.  We also have an appointment with Las Vegas Freightliner to check out the A/C issue.  Because it is a chassis issue ( dash air ) we have to deal with them.  Thanks Carol for putting us in touch with Johnny Walker RV as they steered us to the right people to help us.

It was a very good thing that we decided to travel further today as we need to be arriving at 8AM tomorrow.  We spent hours discussing the right sequence of events but logic tells us that we need to start at the Jeep dealership because if the car can’t be driven we are already there.  Why have to have it towed?  Also it is likely that the Jeep repair will take longer than the RV repair.  Perhaps we can check into the RV park and rent a car or ???

We finally got to Nevada today. Let’s hope that we are not here longer than we planned.

We got a good deal for diesel in Wells @ 3.239 cash, the cheapest in town.  Still can’t get my head around the increased fuel prices this season.  I have to make this post short as we have been dealing with issues all day and are short on time.  I have so many little things that I know you like to read but I just can’t incorporate them into this post.

We have never seen snow so close to the highway before.

Our usual overnight in this area is Ely but two years ago we awoke to frost on the inside of our windows and -13.9C/6.9F.  Ely is at 6437′ elevation and tonight we are at 3449′.  Much better with a low of 40F/4.5C expected.  A quick note, I travel wearing a fleece sweatshirt or whatever you call it, covered with a fleece jacket and then a fleece shawl.  Then there are my fleece pants, cashmere ( for warmth ) socks and fleece slippers.  Oh and then I am covered by a very thick and heavy fleece blanket.  Colin travels in short sleeves and shorts.  The shawl comes off on and off during the day but I have only had the jacket off twice  in the last three days.  Tonight I am warm, I even had the socks and slippers off for a bit.  Now back to the slippers.  We only have the one heater running and are toasty at 72F.  Oops at proof reading, 74F  🙂

The light was wrong for photos as we went through the pass but I managed to catch the sun on this bit of rock.

We are actually about 4 or 5 miles south of Hiko in an area that over the past years we have said would be a great area to boondock and so here we are.  Sadly we got here just as the sun was setting and will be leaving before sunrise.  I have no photos of the RV being here.  Colin just told me that there are now 2 other RV’s beside us. We drove 474.2 miles today.  It took us 9.5 hours.  No stops other than fuel and BR breaks.  My Fitbit says I only moved 650 steps today.  But my bum is not sore.  Great airbags !!

It has been a long day and I do believe that tomorrow is going to be even longer and likely extremely stressful given the Vegas traffic which we are dealing with back and forth.  I will admit to not looking at how empty the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc is tonight.  There may a second bottle involved.  Thank goodness I have an easy dinner planed for about 9:30PM.  We won’t be hungry in the early morning as we are driving about as we ate so late.

Yup I know this is a short post and I did have some goodies to share but life has interfered  :-(. I take notes as we travel and that is how my blog is constructed along with the photos of which there were few today.  I made a lot of to do lists as we drove today and we have been knocking them down.  We plan on 6.5 hours of sleep and want to be driving  by 6:00AM.  What a whirl the past three days have been but at least I am no longer freezing.

I am going thru data like lighting.  3 GB in 3 days.  Something must be running behind the scenes.  Steve???, any ideas on how to check.  I have 5GB ( cost 50.00 USD per month ) to last me until next Wednesday but this is what I consider an emergency.  For all I know I may use up the rest tomorrow.  Not sure I want to spend another $50.00 to post over the next few days.  I get free wifi once I get into Mexico 😛  Fingers crossed that the Jeep warranty will cover the repairs.

Full disclosure, that second bottle has been opened.  Ahh that first sip of Pinot Grigio  😆

The good thing about tomorrow is that the fleece comes off and the sandals come out.  Oh gosh I really hope that I can keep it together.  However we are both aware that these glitches are nothing  compared to what many other RVers go through.  Everyone has their turn at dealing with issues and many are worse than what we have to endure.  It is just that it has been a very long and very difficult year for us.

Stayed tuned for the rest of the story.