Instead of driving north thru Wichita and west to Denver we thought we'd take a risk and head to TX to catch our friends motocross race this weekend. Our luck may have turned around, no problems the whole way to Amarillo. The rig even seemed to drive really smooth. We even found veggie oil at Arby's and were able to fill up half a tank. Hopefully we'll have lots of pictures and good news to post after this weekend!
We don't need to replace the motor! Whoo! There were a few different things that could have caused the coolant to spray out, nothing major, but major cost. We've gotten so much support from fellow RVers which helped get us through these past few days. Not wanting to give up the lifestyle we've come to the conclusion that living in a Class A motorhome maybe wasn't the right choice for us. We're looking into putting the RV back up for sale and purchasing a diesel truck and tow a trailer. That would give us the ability to have a vehicle to drive around town and a place to live. We'll probably pick up the motorhome tomorrow morning and then start heading back to Denver to start selling the RV. Even with all the maintenance it's still a great RV, just not for us. If this didn't work out Josh and I figure we could travel writing reviews on hotels for a living! lol
Yes you guessed it, another problem. We were on our way to Oklahoma City yesterday and the coach overheated spraying coolant everywhere. We got a tow, for free, to town and it's being looked at today. We don't think there's any damage to the engine but we wanted to be sure. This is getting old very quickly and we're debating on whether or not to just pack it in, sell the coach, and try something new. It's all just too much when we can only drive 50 miles before another problem arises, and they're not major problems thank goodness but problems none the less. We were pondering whether or not all these are 'signs' trying to tell us something....
UPDATE: Josh got his tooth fixed today! whoo! We went for a walk to find something to eat for lunch and saw a place called "My Dentist" that looked promising. We went inside to inquire about costs, etc and they were able to take Josh in right away to do an xray and see if an extraction was necessary. Come to find out all they needed to do was a little work on the tooth and put in a resin filling (which basically made him a new tooth) and it only took 30 min. We also got a call from Chevy and the preliminary diagnosis may be a temp gauge but they'll know more later when they have a chance to really look it over. We've been able to talk to many of our fellow Rvers thru the escapees forum and it seems like we're not alone with our recent mishaps. I think we'll keep moving and see where life takes us....
Yesterday we just about decided to give up this lifestyle, sell the RV, and try something else. After experiencing one problem after another it was just too much. When Josh cracked one of his molar's last night and was pulling out pieces of tooth it was the last straw. (Josh is ok but will have to get a tooth pulled here shortly.) We felt like we were being kicked when we were down. This morning we had an appointment to have the refrigerator looked at in Bartlesville, OK. It wasn't working on Propane. They ended up being the nicest people around. They troubleshot the problem but didn't have the part in stock. They also load tested our battery's and said they where all ok. Then they sent us off showing how to replace the part and didn't charge us a thing. We where so great full for all there help. Next we stopped at a shell gas station to see if they'd donate some of their grease for our adventure. They where happy to help and we managed to filter about a quarter of a tank before we hit sludge. Meeting such nice people this morning definitely made us feel better about our situation and that it seems as though things might just turn around. We are currently stopped in Tulsa, OK taking advantage of Internet access before we continue on to Oklahoma City. Thanks to all of you that are sending positive thoughts are way, they are much appreciated!!
Spring is in bloom in Oklahoma!
Our second grease fill up.
How cute are these guys!!
The RV is finally getting worked on! Whoohoo! It's been a frustrating and stressful couple of days but hopefully they can take care of the problem today and we'll be on our way. Our refrigerator quit running on propane while we've been here too, thankfully we hadn't bought any groceries, and we're pretty sure it's just an ignitor sensor that's gone bad so we'll have to take care of that too in the next couple of days. We just want to get out of Missouri!
1:44pm: We're finally back in the RV and headed to Bartlesville, OK. It should take a couple of hours, we'll stay overnight at the walmart and in the morning go have the fridge looked at.
We made it about 70 miles outside springfield mo today and parked at a flying J to dump our tanks and fill up on water when the inevitable happened, I spotted diesel leaking from the engine. Not a good sign. After doing some trouble shooting we know that it's coming from the return line hose but josh isn't able to access that area with the tools he has. So now we're trying to find some place that can just do the work for us, I don't think it should take long or be an expensive fix...we hope. These inconvieniences are getting old very quickly. On the other hand we ran on vegetable oil all day today!! Whoohoo!! What an awesome experience, we've been waiting for this for what seemed like an eternity. And no, the exhaust did not smell like french fries...it smelled like tortillas! Ole! Hopefully tomorrow sometime we can get back on the road and continue heading towards Fritch, TX where we plan to stay at Lake Meredith for a few days.
Today we got the call that our veggie oil conversion would be done so we spent part of the day hunting for grease at restaurants up and down the strip by our hotel with no luck. We found bad oil, no oil, oil that was locked up, and nasty nasty oil. Feeling a little dismayed we went to pickup the RV and learned how the new system worked. We then decided to stop at a restaurant for dinner and check out their oil. Score! They had some promising looking hot oil so we went in and ordered dinner and told the manager what we were doing and asked if we could have their waste oil. She was hesitant at first but once we told her we'd pull up and pump it out ourselves in about 20 minutes she said ok. We then began the task of pumping our first oil. (Hopefully one day we'll be able to look back and laugh because it was such a hectic event.) We have a filtration system that comes in a black box on wheels that makes it easy to transport. In the box there is an electric filtration system, a hose that runs from the dumpster to the filter and a second hose takes filtered oil to the RV or containers. We popped open the box and set everything up and flipped the switch, the result was gorgeous clean oil! The oil we're looking for can be light or dark in color as long as it's clear. We were able to fill the RV 3/4 of the way and 2 containers. Josh turned his back for a second and the hose slipped out of the filler. We soaked up the mess and wrapped up our equipment and headed back to the hotel for our final night in Springfield. Now that we've had our first experience we will be more prepared. Yes it's a little messy and takes some time to find, but by using waste vegetable oil as fuel we are being environmentally friendly, saving hundreds of dollars a week AND drastically reducing our dependence on domestic and foreign oil. 
So this weekend was kinda hectic! Luckily the oil leak was a hole in a hose caused by rubbing against the turbo! Our parking break wasn't as easy. Jenkins Diesel had it all weekend with specifics that "done or not, we have have an appointment for a fuel conversion at 8 am Monday". With that said we showed up and squared the bill at 730 this morning, started up the RV, and we couldn't shift out of park. We contacted Golden Fuels when they opened and explained our dilemma. I can't say enough about the group of people over there. They where very understanding and said they'd work with us. Lucky for all, the RV was back to the way we left it by noon and we dropped it off at Golden Fuels and they've started. Our parking brake still isn't fixed but we'll work on it after everything settles down. Till next
We made it to Springfield, MO today after stopping for a few nights along the way. After our first night stay in Salina, KS our parking brake failed to disengage in the morning. Josh, the handyman that he is, figured out how to disengage the brake so we could continue driving. We called ahead to Springfield to see if we could get someone to take a look at it on short notice. After getting passed around a handful of times Jenkins Diesel said they could at least look to see if there was anything they could do. As we were driving to Nevada, MO that same afternoon we started to smell a burning smell but didn't think too much of if. We stopped for the second night in Nevada, MO and in the morning woke up to dense fog that delayed our trip to Springfield by a few hours. On our 2 hour trek to Springfield we smelled that same burning smell and started to think maybe it was coming from us. When we arrived at Jenkins Diesel we opened the door to the bedroom and sure enough, smelled a strong burning odor. We lifted the bed and noticed an oil like substance spattered all over the place and then a large puddle of oil on the ground. "Wonderful" we thought. So we are sitting here while our RV is being looked at and it doesn't sound like it's a quick fix. They said the parking brake is the least of our worries. It's times like these when we begin to doubt making this decision but it's also times like these when we look at the alternative, a lifestyle we were not at all happy with and a lifestyle we couldn't wait to leave. Everything happens for a reason.......
UPDATE: Luckily the oil spill was only a busted hose.
UPDATE: 8 hours later we are sitting in a best western hotel room until they can get a "diode" for the parking brake on saturday. Apparently it's an electrical issue.
We are officially full-timers! We picked up the RV this morning from Nolans RV where we had our solar kit professionally installed. We can't thank Russ and Verlin enough! If you're ever in the Denver area and need some work done definitely check them out, they're some of the nicest guys out there. We're staying one more night in Denver and are then heading to Springfield, MO to have the veggie oil conversion done and then on to Lubbock, TX to watch our friend Jason race Motocross. We can't wait to start posting daily adventures from the road! Stay tuned!
While surfing the internet today in our limbo mode, I came across Rishi Sowa's Spiral Island. How amazing would it be to live on 30,000 plastic bottles. Now that's recycling. Check out the site
www.spiralislanders.com
For all you travelers www.vagabondish.com is also a cool one I ran across.
Have fun exploring!
Josh
