A Dinger and Did I Just Do That?- July 2016

Seems as if we have been incorporating a little more things in 'challenging' department lately.  I note these events and some to follow in order to not only share them, but also to remember what happened along the way...  The more we do full time and 'Live the Dream' the harder it becomes at times to remember exactly what happened and when.  But this is one day we will probably remember ;(

Last month while at brother Marty's cabin I was so excited that we got into the parking space in front of his without incident.  Like not a scratch!

I had been wondering for a year whether or not the Roadrunner was going to fit into the parking place in front of his cabin.  He said it would be no problem and was convinced that their was plenty of room.

Two years ago we were there but did not bring the Roadrunner.  We left the motorhome in the campground at Travis AFB and drove the few hours up to Arnold CA in our Honda and visited over a couple of weekends.  We did not think we'd ever bring the coach to his place despite his encouragement to do so.

But this time we did.  We drove to a campground in Angels Camp which is about 20 miles away.  Then we drove over to his place and took a look and decided yes it did look like it would fit and it was level and should be doable.

Then the day came when we drove it over, parked it in the little community center parking lot and did some tree branch trimming.

Pam helped me as I slowly backed into place and it had plenty of room.  Best thing was that we did not have even a scratch.  The trim job on the trees did the job.  

After our time there, we left and took a right out of the driveway.  Big mistake.  I should have returned the same way we took when we drove in.  But I thought we could make the very sharp turn up the hill at the stop sign 200 yards down the road where it met Moran Dr.  Nope.

I thought I had swung wide enough and gone far enough onto the other road before turned hard right.  Trouble.  I high-centered the PS on the edge of the road as I made the turn and dragged bottom in the middle.  Ugh.

That is a most awful sound.  I felt sick.  I drove it about a mile to a larger intersection where I could survey the damage.  It bend the mud flap a bit and and creased the bottom of PS doors two and three.  You can see the slight change in the lines along the bottom of the bay doors.

These are the two pictures I sent Bruce Deaton in Red Bay.  He said he thought he could fix it without getting new doors so that was a plus.  

It was a tough way to spend the day but we weren't through yet.  

This is the route we took for the 225 miles to Travis AFB.

We like to have a full tank before we find our campsite.  We found a large convenience store with diesel. It had large trucks in there so we knew we could get in and out without a problem.

Speaking of problems...it began when Pam alerted me that I was putting gasoline into our diesel tanks.  No---!!!  Yes.  Even though I had only put in 15 gallons that was enough for some big trouble.  I was stunned.  Shocked.  How could I do that??  

Oh man - this day just got a little harder.  We found a diesel service facility three miles away but I did not want to turn on the engine and get the gas all through the system.  We called CoachNet and they had a big unit come and tow us.

 Even though they were really busy, they put a technician on it and he drained our tanks.

A couple of hours later, we had 15 gallons of diesel and continued on our way to the base where we filled up.

 It was a tough day but the way I figure it.  Its all part of the adventure.  I would not wish dents or gas problems on anyone, but it happens and we just have to deal with it.  The towing did not cost us anything but we had to talk it over at length with CoachNet.

I was explicit from the first phone call explaining what I did, but they said they did not cover 'accidents'.  They relented after a few phone calls back and forth and said because they did not mention it during any one of our 5 previous conversations, they would pay it this time.  That was $800 worth of good news.

Emptying the tanks cost us 95 gallons of fuel plus $1200 and about 6 hours before it was all said and done.  Lot of lessons learned that day...

Thanks for joining us today.  More adventures and tales to come on the Roadrunner Chronicles!