Austin, TX (rainy, cold, 42 degrees)
We enjoy our fulltiming lifestyle and sharing some of the beautiful places we visit. RV maintenance is another part of it and the most challenging and expensive. John is very handy and can handle some of this and we also budget for maintenance and emergencies. This time it was more than expected. It's important in Florida to schedule maintenance appointments way in advance. One place we have received good service is Cummins in Ocala Florida.
We have a big adventure ahead of us (Alaska) and made an appointment to have a checkup with them four months ago. Filters, oils, and a grease job were completed. All went well until at checkout. We were told the exhaust manifold was leaking and they did not have time to fix it. Our schedule did not have a lot of wiggle room and the soonest they could get us in was late February. Good grief. We called several surrounding Cummins locations and finally got an appointment with one in Kenner Louisiana. The only snag was we could not stay in the rig and the refrigerator had to be turned off. Oh, and it was close to Mardi Gras. Trying to find a reasonable hotel was not easy but luckily we snagged a nice room at the nearby Navy Base. We gave all our food away at Betty's RV Park and headed back for the service appointment.
They ordered our parts ahead of time and were very efficient and helpful to us upon arrival. The manifold was to take two days but soon they told us the exhaust needed a major repair and parts would have to be ordered. Now we were getting very close to Mardi Gras and the price tag just doubled. After four days we were able to pick it up and scooted out of town just prior to the big crazy event.
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| WW II Museum (photo from website) |
During our waiting time we did visit the World War II museum in New Orleans. What an amazing museum. It took most of the day to just see the highlights. If you go be sure to pay extra ($5) to see the movie narrated by Tom Hanks. It's 4-D and took five years to complete. It's a huge museum and it takes you through each of the conflicts in a timeline as you walk through it. There are lots of testimonials you can listen to which were fascinating.
We also visited the site of the Battle of New Orleans in Chalmette. The ranger spent a lot of time with us explaining all that had occurred at this historic site. Be sure to watch the movie. It is well done. One of the great benefits of fulltiming is visiting the places which were important to the history of our country.
We left New Orleans and all seemed to be going well until the fuel filter light went off. We arrived late in the evening and John went out in the rain and cold to see if he could change it. The filter was hard to remove and the filter wrench he was using suddenly cut the filter and diesel fuel poured all over him. Good grief. It took forever to get him and the ground cleaned up.
The next day we left and John even got out of the motorhome a couple of times and walked around to be sure all was OK. We arrived at the state park in Austin Texas and as we backed into the site we found the jeep, kayaks, and the inside and outside of the back of the motorhome covered in thick oil. What a mess. Oh, and again it was sleeting and so cold. We called a local mobile mechanic and he recommend calling Cummins in the morning in Austin. It took us two days to get in and all that time to wash the jeep and motorhome. We had to stop at Walmart to get some special stuff to get the oil off and other stuff to try and remove the diesel fuel from Johns clothes from the previous day. What a mess.
John was worried that another expensive repair was ahead of us and we had a deadline to meet in Albuquerque for doctors appointments. Luckily it turned out to be an easy fix. They found a bolt was not tightened down on the turbo which caused the big leak. The even better news was the Cummins in Kenner picked up the cost of the repair without us even having to ask. So, we are back on the road heading to Albuquerque with fingers crossed.
