RV'ers lament

September 30, 2021

Springville to Provo loop, Take 2

Boy! I don't even know where to begin with today's lengthy post, so I guess I'll start with this story that actually started yesterday.

I had gotten up at my usual 5 am and went out to the kitchen make some breakfast where I discovered that it was 65 degrees inside the trailer!

Yikes, that's a bit chilly! So I went back to the bedroom and fiddled with the thermostat to try to get the furnace to kick in - but it kept shutting off. Finally it kicked in and stayed on. At least for awhile.

I went ahead with my morning routine which involved going over to the bathhouse. Like a lot of other KOA's, it required a code to enter the building - I guess to keep out the bums?? Haven't seen any of those around here.

Anyway, when I tried to leave, I couldn't get the outer door to open. What??!! It had worked yesterday. There was another door, so I tried that one - same thing.......it was locked from the outside AND inside!!! I was trapped!! I could just picture it now - the fire department rescues KOA camper from the bathhouse!!

Now keep in mind it was 5 am and there usually aren't too many people up other than me. I didn't know what to do. Don was asleep in the trailer and had no idea I was even gone. Plus I didn't have my phone with me - I mean - who carries their phone to the bathroom?!

Luckily a woman appeared on the outside of the door and was able to let me out - yeah!! Sheesh - what a way to start the day!

When I got back to the trailer, I woke up Don to see if he could help with the heat issue. Maybe we were low on propane? Or had air in the line?

He said that no, we were ok with propane since he just filled up one tank yesterday. But maybe there was air in the line. So he did all of the things you do to purge the air.

The furnace issue continued through the morning with the blower starting, but no heat coming out and then next it would work correctly for quite a while.

Don tried to puzzle it out by reading the owner's manual but since it looked to be an intermittent issue, he didn't want to call a repair person yet. By bedtime, it appeared to be working correctly.

So today I get up and once again find no heat! And this time the blower wouldn't even start. Oh boy, now we've got a SERIOUS problem!!! With nights in the 40's, we've got to have a working furnace. Especially because we're soon headed for Bryce Canyon which is notoriously cold at night at this time of year.

Fortunately we have a heat pump system on our AC that works best when the outside temperature is above 45 degrees. It's supposed to help just take the chill off the inside, not completely heat the trailer.

The temperature outside was barely above 40, so I rousted Don out of bed so I could ask him what to do. Don said we better go ahead and use the heat pump, so we turned that on. He also messed with the furnace controls, but didn't have any better luck than I did and since he was awake, he went ahead and got up.

We both had breakfast and watched the news for awhile until it was late enough that he could call the Airstream warranty service. After being on hold forever, a "technician" called back to help us access the problem. Well, she wasn't much help and wasn't what I would call a "technician" - more of a customer service rep.

She asked Don a bunch of questions, trying to troubleshoot the problem, but it was like she was reading a script from the owner's manual! We had already read the operating guide in the owner's manual and Don had checked all of the things suggested - fuses, soot around the controls outside etc.

Finally she admitted that we needed to take it to an Airstream dealer for repair so she said she would contact dealers to see if where could take it. Usually there is only one dealer per state and luckily Salt Lake has one.

She called back and told us that the earliest the Salt Lake dealer could get us an appointment was in DECEMBER!!!!!!!!!! Now that clearly wasn't going to work!!!!

Next she said the Las Vegas dealer could maybe get us in and thought it was a just a switch, which was an quick fix. Hmmmmm, Vegas didn't seem like a good solution either. She told Don that if we had a mobile RV service come out that it might void the warranty.

The conversation kind of ended on that note and she apologized for not being able to help more - yeah, lady - you were no help AT ALL!!!! Sheesh, what's the good of having a warranty service that can't at least provide a mobile service person to come out to fix things.

It's not like we can easily hitch up Tango and get her to a dealer - would we have to get a motel if repairs took longer than a day, what about our bikes and the food in the frig????!!! What about our camping reservations?????!!!

After Don hung with the warranty person, he called the Airstream dealer near us and was able to talk with the service manager who gave some suggestions on checking things around the outside of the furnace itself like dust or lint that might have gotten into the mechanism, or maybe a loose connection.

Don fiddled around with things, wiped the area out and it worked! Whatever he did seemed to fix the problem as now the furnace was able to kick in properly and stay on. Yeah!!!! Problem resolved!!!

Now onto solving the next issue which was replacing my camera. It appeared that the spot on the lens was likely on the inside since no amount of cleaning would remove it. Since the camera is several years old, we felt it was time to find a new one.

Don checked all of the retail stores around here that might carry what we wanted, but couldn't find the right brand (a Lumix) and price we could live with. Hmmmm - now what to do?

I suggested that maybe we could order one on Amazon and have it shipped to the KOA, so Don went to the office to see they would accept a shipment. They said yes, so we went ahead and ordered one.

But it won't come until the beginning of next week which means that we needed to lengthen our stay here more days. We had planned to move to Hanksville, UT on Sat. but I told Don I would rather stay here longer and forget about Hanksville. It's not like we haven't been there before on 2 bike tours.

He agreed, so double checked with the office and they said, 'sure, you can stay until Thursday next week'. That was great news so we went ahead and changed out reservation, and ordered the camera.

Now we could relax and go do something fun like a bike ride this afternoon!

It was a sunnier day than yesterday and a bit warmer when we started out after lunch. Don had put together a route that would take us north and west to Utah Lake, but there were a lot of turns to make. So he wrote them all down and gave the notes to me so I could help navigate.

At first we headed north on the same roads I had taken along the railroad, then turned west. The "fun" started then when we missed the first street to take.

We did a u-turn but couldn't find the correct turn, so took another street that ran west. I hadn't looked at the route on the computer, but Don thought he knew where to go in general. HAH! No he didn't!!

We were supposed to be circling a shopping mall, but ended up roaming through a parking lot of a large office complex. Boy, was this annoying! But I kept my mouth shut.

Eventually we found another street to take that did go by the mall where we found the correct streets that went under the interstate and into a residential neighborhood.

Ok, things were looking up now! But I kept my eyes on the sheet Don gave me so I could tell him when to turn which caused other issues when I couldn't read his writing. I only have a distance prescription in my cycling sunglasses which makes it impossible to read up close. And as a result of my recent cataract surgery, I can no longer see up close without my glasses on. Maybe I need a magnifying glass on the bike!

Anyway, we made a lot of turns and soon found ourselves going down what looked like an alley. It was kind of interesting, especially when the pavement ended at a dirt hill where some some new homes being built.

It was just a short section and Don was able to walk the bike back to pavement.

Things went well after that and we made it to Utah Lake State Park where we got on the Provo River trail. It was rough riding as tree roots had pushed up the pavement, but it was pretty along the water.

We passed a buisness that had zip lines, climbing walls, and was putting together a Halloween night time river run with ghosts and witches hanging down, with pumpkins lining the shore. What fun!

I thought we were golden at this point as Don said we could take this trail for quite a ways. Until we encountered a 'trail closed' sign. And the road next to the trail was also closed.

Oh for goodness sake! Well there wasn't much we could do except turn around to return back to the state park to get onto road we came in on.

From here Don said we had better just retrace the route back to camp as we already had done more miles than he had planned on with all these wrong turns.

So we did that, although reading the directions backwards was a challenge for me! At least we found the roads we should have been on earlier in the ride and had no problems returning to the KOA.

Boy, what a day we've had! From furnace woes to getting lost in Provo!

The rest of the evening was uneventful and we even got in some dancing on our floor while we enjoyed watching all of the RV's try to park in their sites. Man - some of those rigs are HUGE!!! And I thought Tango was long at 27 ft. Many of the buses are 45 ft long and also are towing a vehicle behind them. Not our thing.

We went to bed feeling good.

These grape vines along the alleyway were loaded with grapes. I tried one and they were pretty tasty. But Don said I'd better not take any with us as it could be private property. Party pooper!

At this hew home construction site we noticed this label on the lumber. Brazil???!!! Hey, I think there's good wood coming from Idaho!

This had to be the largest collection of gas station signs we had ever seen! Literally hundreds of them! They lined the sides of the road, as well as, along the perimeter of the adjoining storage business. There were some cool ones there like the Sinclair with a dinosaur. I wish we had just stopped to take a closer look, but Don was kind of on a mission!

This was another interesting business we passed. It looked like a practice spot for skateboarders or BMX bikes.

Near the state park we found the Provo River trail. It would have been a pleasant ride but sadly was closed.

Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 695 miles (1,118 km)

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