Some RV’ers love boon docking…others not so much. Boondocking is essentially camping without hookups. You may also hear it referred to as ‘dry camping’. Often dry camping means staying in a campground without hookups, whereas, boondocking typically means staying in a completely undeveloped area and the bonus is you are a bit isolated and its quiet.

Despite the expansive BLM lands around Moab, it isn’t actually easy to find a “real” off the grid experience anymore. Due to overuse, the BLM closed most of the traditional boondocking spots and implemented a policy of designated campsites only (in fact on the main roads it’s prohibited to camp anywhere else & they can/will fine you for doing so). There are very few select free “dispersed camping” sites listed on the BLM website of which most are more suited to tent campers or truck campers. Finding a site for a larger coach is more difficult, but worth a look for those with smaller rigs. We checked out many of the designated BLM campgrounds while in Moab and many of them were very busy with loads of ATV’s roaring around kicking up dust all hours of the day and night.

In our first year as year as nomads, we did not do any real boondocking. Okay, dry camping overnight in the Freightliner parking lot doesn’t really count in my book!

 

 

 

The Road House has everything we need to go off the grid. The refrigerator, hot water heater and furnace run off either propane or AC. The stove and oven are propane only plus we have four house batteries which along with the AC inverter run our lights (mostly LED) and the fans for the furnace. The 8 kilowatt generator will charge the batteries and run the air conditions if we need them. Additionally, we can hold 90 gallons of fresh water, 60 gallons of gray and 60 gallons of black water.

 

Continue reading →

Finally, the waiting, waiting, waiting is over. There was a different song playing on the radio this morning. No more Sunny and Cher “I got you Babe”. …good bye ground hogs day, good bye Twin Falls. We are rolling down I84 with Moab in our sights and Willie is serenading us. Typically we like to drive around 5 hours or 250 miles a day but today Wally has the pedal to the medal. We are going to be on the road for 8-9 hours and will travel about 450 miles.

 

 

The coach is running great and the final diagnosis for the issues we were having was the aftermarket performance module which was installed by the prior owner. The service tech, stymied by the low pressure in our HEUI pump finally thought to disconnect the module and reconnect all the sensors directly to the engine. Bingo, no more low pressure issues and the fault codes stopped appearing. WOO-HOO!!!

This HEUI pump is kinda a big, damn deal when it comes it comes to the operation of the Cat engine on our coach. The Hydraulically actuated Electronically controlled Unit Injectors (HEUI) use a hydraulic pump and engine oil to generate fuel injection pressure, and an ECM to control the pressure and amount of fuel injected into the cylinders. No pressure = No fuel which is why we couldn’t get the coach started back at Bruneau Dunes.  My non-professional summary is that the performance module was going haywire and sending erratic signals to the HEUI.

 

What is super frustrating is that the tech spent 11 hours (at $128 an hour) troubleshooting other issues and actually had disconnected sensors from the module to test them. He never thought to bypass the module until yesterday at 3:30 pm. Well, he got an education and so did we to the tune of $1,935 …ouch. I suspect that the HEUI pump that we had replaced before we left Anacortes hadn’t failed and it was this damn module all along.

Yesterday was mentally exhausting with all the waiting and wondering. The upside was it was warm and sunny so we spent the day walking the Canyon Rim Trail and playing ball with Bentley in Centennial Waterfront Park as Sucia watched from her crate. Poor buddy, she was in her crate again for 12 hours and it will be another long one for her today.

 

 

We also got to watch two base jumpers, attached to parachutes dive off the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Gorge and glide to the ground below…wow, that takes some nerve!

 

 

I had a fabulous birthday lunch at Chipotle Mexican Grill, a hot shower later and a nice bottle of wine! Life is good…..On the road again…just can’t wait to get on the road again.

 

 

So I am guessing you have figured out we are still trying to get the issues with our coach resolved. You can check out the link for the rest of the saga if you are just tuning in.  Waiting, Waiting, Waiting. I can safely say that today will not be my most exciting Birthday ever but it will certainly be memorable.

 

 

Since we were relegated to a KOA just a few miles from the Freightliner Dealership for the weekend we decided to make lemons into lemonade and explore the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway. Driving through the Snake River Canyon on US 30 between Hagerman and Twin Falls, it’s easy to see how the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway got its name. An abundance of natural springs gush from the steep canyon walls and cascade into the river below. The water source is the Snake River Plains Aquifer, one of the largest groundwater systems in the world. It creeps through an area of several thousand square miles under southern Idaho’s porous volcanic rock before emerging from the springs in the cliffs. Today, hydroelectric projects divert some of the water so while you won’t see literally a “Thousand Springs” it is still an impressive sight.

 

 

The most outstanding experience was Miracle Hot Springs…not miraculous in that it solved our mysterious issue with the coach but miraculous in that it was just the soothing, blissful hour that we needed to soak away our cares. Truly, if it had been open we would have been back on Sunday for another hour. The best $28 I have ever spent.

 

 

The facility itself could be described as spartan but the mineral water was the real deal. Miracle Hot Springs is truly a Geothermal Oasis in the Desert. We Rejuvenated in the continuous flow of natural hot spring water that is soft to the touch and odorless with a sensational alkaline pH of 9.6. For $28 we had a VIP soaking pool for an hour which had a private dressing room and a private outdoor pool surrounded by a high stucco wall. Since I was with my man of 25+ years there was no reason to don the swimsuit!

 

 

 

We saw some jaw dropping beautiful country, visited the Hagerman Narional Fish Hatchery, saw the Devils Washbowl at Malad State Park, checked out the Hagerman Fossil Beds Visitors Center, took a walk in the Niagara Wildlife Management area and had some delicious ice cream at Cloverleaf Creamery. All in all, a nice day and a great way to get our minds off the real reason we were still in Twin Falls.

 

 

On Sunday our traveling friends, Tom and Laurie detoured over to Twin Falls to cheer us up. We were supposed to meet in Moab and spend our BD’s (Tom and I are just days apart) hiking in Arches National Park. We had a great dinner at Elevation 486 which overlooks the Snake River Gorge and spent the next day seeing some more of the local sites.

Did you know that just outside of Twin Falls was where the Minidoka War Relocation Center was built. The Minidoka War Relocation Center was in operation from 1942–45 and one of ten camps at which Japanese Americans, both citizens and resident “aliens,” were interned during World War II. Under provisions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, all persons of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the West Coast of the United States. At its peak, Minidoka housed 9,397 Japanese Americans, predominantly from Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.

 

 

 

Now a National Historical site, it serves as a grim reminder of how actual US citizen of Japanese heritage were treated during WW2. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that it was illegal to hold US citizens as prisoner so they were given $25 and sent on their way. Wow, Roosevelt and Trump may share some common views on immigrants – scary.

 

 

I will spare you the ground hogs day episode of everything that went on with the coach on Monday but we spent the night again in the Freightliner parking lot.

 

 

Suffice to say, its not looking like we will make it to Moab for my birthday (Tuesday). Hell, at this point I would be thrilled to be rolling down I84 going anywhere. So come on Freightliner…Make this gals birthday wishes come true.

 

 

And so it continues… After our day of being DEAD IN THE DUNES and being towed to a Freightliner Elite Service Center in Twin Falls Idaho on Thursday, Road House was put on the service schedule for the next morning.

We got up early on Friday, packed up the pets and a bag so we would be ready to go when they knocked on the door.

Waiting and more waiting…. At 10:30 our coach was rolled into the service bay. We headed up to the customer lounge with Sucia in her crate to wait for an update. Bentley was hanging in the car as he’s not a lounge kinda guy.

Waiting and more waiting…. By 12:30 we were ready for lunch and had seen the Traeger infomercial on the big screen TV so many times that I was repeating the recipes. Time for a gourmet lunch…Subway sandwich delivered by Wally.

Waiting and more waiting…I think I was being really patient but knowing the staff were having a chili cook off at 1 pm I was beginning to wonder if anyone was really even working on our coach. After a chat with the very nice Customer Service Coordinator Rebecca, I learned that they were still diagnosing the problem. Hmm, not good news. The Service Manager said they need a couple more hours.

Tired of waiting, we decided to load up Kitty Sucia in the car with Bentley and go for a drive. I needed a cable to charge my iPad keyboard so we went to a nearby Best Buy. Got the cable and discovered that beneath the bridge we drove over was the Snake River Gorge. WOW,  what a beautiful sight right from the BB parking lot.  Out in the distance we could see waterfalls dotting the sides of the gorge.

After some further googling, we found nearby Centennial Waterfront Park down in the gorge. Again, stunningly beautiful. Bentley was thrilled as he got to go for a walk, play with sticks and run off leash as NO ONE was there. Well, it was raining off and on and windy. Really, windy…like 30 MPH windy. So maybe that’s why no one was there?

More searching on Trip Advisor suggested Shoshone Falls, also known as the Niagara of the West, is a must-see. With a 212 foot drop and a width of 900 feet, it is one of the largest natural waterfalls in the United States.

 

WOW, all I can say is WOW. We were both blown away and the only people there was a young couple. We happened upon them as the fellow dropped to his knee and proposed. Aww, that was so romantic and sweet. What a spectacular backdrop, maybe they will get married there too!

We left feeling a bit more relaxed but a very frustrating call to my gal Rebecca at Freightliner quickly erased that bliss. Seems they had the coach running but needed more time to diagnose some other issues. This might run into MONDAY…now I am not feeling any bliss. I calmly asked her what was causing the delay, was it a part they needed to order?  Well, she need to find out more and would call me back. Can I say at this point that communication is not their strong suit.

Waiting…so 30 minutes later she rang me back. No issue with parts but the mechanic was off at 5 pm and would be back at work on MONDAY. Seriously, this is an Elite Service Center and they only have one certified Caterpillar mechanic. Well, he was going to keep working on it until 5…lucky me! So we headed back to the service center to discuss our options. We needed water in the coach, could we stay on it there, could we drive it to the KOA just a few miles away? At this point I was way frustrated by the lack of information and the fact that had I not called back we might have not found any of this out until who knows when and our options may have been dramatically different.

Back at the service center, I had a nice chat with Rebecca. I apologized if I seemed frustrated but what were our options. After a chat with who knows who, she came back and said yes, we could drive to the KOA but would need to come back on Monday. And that was that…don’t know what the mechanic actually did to the coach, no one from the service department gave us any kind of update at all.

We got to the KOA, coach ran fine and I was way wound up by then but glad to be back in the coach with power, water and a full hook up. After a marathon venting session, I promised Wally I would let it go.

Turns out the KOA brochure was a wealth of info on the local area and things to do. With all the natural beauty we had seen earlier in the day, exploring around Twin Falls over the weekend would be fun. Bonus …there are natural hot springs and soaking pools nearby. I feel some bliss coming my way.

 

 

 

It started with the day that wouldn’t go out easy.  Our stop at Bruneau Dunes State Park seems to be doomed…then the weather forecast for Friday was grim, really grim. Being out in an open plain when the wind is gusting up to 40 mph did not sound like my idea of fun.

 

 

Well, that meant we needed to get rolling early the day after we arrived. Wahhh, was my response when Wally the weatherman informed me of the storm headed our way. “ But we just got here…so we won’t even be able to explore the dunes…this side trip was all for naught”. Yes, I was whining but knew he was right, we needed to roll.

 

 

Getting the coach ready to roll doesn’t take long and thankfully Ernie’s battery had fully charged overnight. The weatherman who is also the electrical guru and mechanic found a blow fuse in Ernie so hopefully our towing would go easier today.

Well, all was going well even with all my whining until Wally tried to start the coach. Engine was cranking but not starting. Yes, really.

After looking at the troubleshooting guide, Wally the mechanic tried cleaning the giant air filter and bleeding the fuel line. Still no go when he tried starting the engine, only a whole lot of black smoke. Next step was to run the onboard diagnostics. The error code suggested that the fuel actuator pump had failed. Now, we are seriously unhappy as that was just replaced during a routine maintenance evaluation before we left Anacortes.

 

 

No fuel pump means we were dead in the dunes…not going anywhere without the help of a really big tow truck who could get us to a certified Caterpillar engine repair center. Luckily, I had cell reception and found there were two within 80 miles. Yikes, this is going to be a whopping tow bill.

An hour later and two calls, both dealers were a week out for any type of diagnoses or repair. Well, as luck would have it there was also a Freightliner Elite Service Center in Twin Falls that is a certified for Catapillar engines and could actually get the coach on the repair schedule within 24 hours. YAY!!! Things were looking up.

Now to arrange a tow. Geico is our insurance carrier and they have RV policies with road side assistance. Looks like we were going to get to test how good our coverage is and how the customer service would perform. The Freightliner Dealer had given us a referral for a tow company that had the capability and equipment to service our 30,000 lb coach. Towing a coach is way more complicated than a passenger car for so many reasons.

After almost an hour on the phone with Geico and two reps later, I was getting slightly frustrated. Truly, patience’s is not always my strongest virtue but one thing I do know is that please and thank you get way more done than a bad attitude, so somehow I managed to keep my frustration in check! The first rep was talking so fast and most of the time I couldn’t even understand her. Somewhere along the line we were disconnected…I was actually thankful. After some searching for an appropriate vendor, the second customer service representative agreed that Big Tow looked like the best option but she needed to get approval from a supervisor.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting….there was considerable extra time spent getting authorization to use Big Tow, then working on a bid as Geico paid by the mile and Big Tow charged by the hour. Finally, Regina the Wonder Rep had everything worked out, Big Tow was being dispatched and the tow bill would be covered by Geico. It was cool that Geico confirmed the tow’s ETA of 1:57 pm via text.

While we were waiting, waiting, waiting for Big Tow we packed up the pets food, got Sucia in her crate and readied the coach for a tow. We weren’t sure how the Road House would be towed, on a flat bed or on its rear axle but know there would be some extra jostling.

Around 1pm I spotted a really big truck headed into the camp ground – YAY, help had arrived. At this point we got the pets loaded into Ernie and parked in the shade away from the loud diesel truck. Thankfully, it wasn’t a hot day and there was shade! Looking for the silver lining in all this.

 

 

Waiting, waiting, waiting….we expected it to take about an hour to get the coach hooked up but of course being doomed in the dunes meant that nothing was going to go easy. The air system need to be activated and the tow companies fitting wouldn’t fit properly.

 

 

Waiting, waiting, waiting…the rear axle needed to be uncoupled and Rob, the tow technician didn’t have tools that were the right size. Seems he has never seen such an odd bolt pattern on a coach. Really!

Waiting, waiting, waiting…boy, am I bored by now. Finally, Rob found another way to solve the problem. Boy, was he really dirty by now.

Waiting, waiting, waiting…now Rob and Wally had to figure out the best way to attach the giant tow bar to the front of the rig without damaging the generator.

I won’t bore you with any more of the details but 2 hours later the coach was being pulled….very slowly out of the camp site. Once it was out of the campsite, more waiting ensued as Rob…who does have the patience of a saint, used a remote control boom arm to pull the coach out of the site, then up directly behind his massive truck. I think he actually had fun doing this part!

 

 

 

Okay…we are all hooked up and rolling. I can’t tell you how many games of mindless solitaire I played on my iPad but wow, was I happy to see the Roadhouse rolling. No Willie Nelson “On the Road Again” was played during the trip to Twin Falls since we actually weren’t driving the Road House. We followed with the pets in Ernie. So glad it wasn’t a two-fer tow and he was actually running.

 

 

We rolled into the Freightliner Service Department around 5:15 pm and more waiting began. Even though they were open until 9 pm, we finally found out that our coach was on the service schedule for Friday morning. The only good news was that we could stay onboard for the night in the parking lot.

 

 

Exhausted from all the waiting, Chick-fil-A just 2 miles down the road seemed like a good way to fill our bellies. That, a glass of wine, a hot shower and my electric blanket cranked on high put me right to sleep despite the drone of the adjacent freeway noise. Drifting off to sleep, I was sure we would be back on the road tomorrow. Hmm, or was that a fantasy dream?

 

 

 

 

Have you had one of those days that starts out seemly fine but unexpectedly turns on you then just won’t go out easy? That was our day driving from Walla Walla to Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho.

We left Walla Walla right on schedule at 9 am and our stop at the propane dealer on the way out of town was easy peasy, so conveniently located just 5 blocks from the RV Park and right near the freeway on ramp.

The drive to Baker City was beautiful and the fuel/lunch stop was uneventful.

The weather was fine…some wind in the passes, but sunny with spectacular fall colors.

 

The coach was running great but for some reason Ernie, our Chevy Equinox was not getting charge through the power cable from the coach. And that my friends is where the day started getting hinky. No charge means a dead battery which mean the power assist steering could be problematic which means Ernie could have problems adjusting his steerage to the bumps in the road – NOT GOOD!

Every hour we stopped to find a dead battery and spent time charging Ernie’s battery back up. Wow, did the drive time start to get really long. The five hour drive was now a seven hour drive.

I didn’t even connect the dog poop that I stepped in at our third rest stop as a bad omen.

Finally, we neared the cut off for Bruneau. Of course, that is where the freeway work started. Lanes rotated to the other side of the freeway which meant we missed the exit that google suggested. No worries, there were two other options suggested by my buddy google maps.

Hmm, it seems we actually took the most convoluted option.

 

We finally arrive at Bruneau Dunes State Park around 6:30 pm. Still not tragic and it appeared that the park was virtually unoccupied – sweet!

 

 

After pulling into the loop that suited us best, we discovered that yes, Ernie’s damn battery was dead…of course. Again not tragic but we needed to get the car disconnected from the tow bar in order to back the coach into the site.

Well, guess what now??? The tow bar wasn’t cooperating. The large bracket pins would not release come hell or high water. This really has never happened. On top of that when we tried pulling the coach forward the tow bar wouldn’t come out of the hitch receptor attached to the coach…really weird.

In the mean time, Wally had connected the battery charger to power and onto Ernie’s battery thinking we could recharge the battery in 15 or 20 mins while we disconnected the car from the tow bar. Seemed like a great plan except the battery was still 0% charged after 50 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to release the car from the tow bar. Can you sense frustration setting in?

Sometime during this 50 minutes of sheer frustration, I decided to accomplish something and slipped into Ernie to disconnect the air braking system. Hey…that was actually easy! Once I got that done, I put the car into park and set the emergency brake. Being a safety conscious gal, this seemed like a prudent idea.

I step out of  Ernie feeling jubilant when Wally informed me that if he ever got the damn car disconnected we could just roll it back off the road and hope the battery would charge over night. Hmm, I just put the car into park and without the battery charging further, the car couldn’t be shifted back into neutral. Well, Crapola!! The look on his face when I told him some dummy girl put Ernie in park was priceless.

In the mean time, Sucia was serious unhappy as she has now been in her crate (with a litter box) for over 9 hours – that constitutes kitty abuse according to her. So I fed her some super delicious squishy food and promised her that she would be freed from jail soon.

Did I mention we were missing a really beautiful sunset?

 

 

After some pounding, jostling and a bit of blood…Ernie was free. Miraculously there was enough charge in the battery to get him into neutral and rolled off the road. Yay..that means we could get the coach backed into the site and set up.

By now, it was dusk but we had the smarts to put on our bluetooth headsets and got the coach backed into the site with no further trauma. We got set up, fired up the traeger, freed the cat, fed the dog and then I poured us a glass of wine.

 

 

Things were looking better until I knocked Wally’s wine glass off the counter (silver lining… the glass didn’t break) and he came back from his dog walk to find Bentley managed to step in his own poop. Yep, I can’t make this stuff up. Are you ready for this day to be over? I know I am, except I am starving and craving some brown alcohol.

I know what you are thinking.. we burned dinner or the BBQ stopped working. Nope, we came through dinner unscathed and I sat down to write this post with a glass of Bulleit bourbon and ginger beer. Sigh, things are looking up!~!!

Well except, we took a look at the weather forecast and discover that Friday is going to be a windy, windy day here in Bruneau. EEK… 30 MPH with the possibility of gusts up to 40 MPH. I am going to keep sipping my delicious drinkie and hope the weather forecast changes but really…this day just needs to give it up!!

Four days ago we moved off the Beach House and are back in the Road House. It’s truly official when the galley on the Beach House is decommissioned, the pets are moved back on and we have our first meal on the Road House. Slow cooked Bison Bolognese over Orecchiette Pasta served with a Kale and Radicchio Salad were served in celebration. Slow-Cooked Bolognese Sauce

 

I have not posted much lately as we have been a bit preoccupied with closing down the boat and getting the coach ready to roll. The engine, chassis and brakes on the coach got a through inspection at the respective dealers. Wally changed all the fluids on the generator and repacked the entire storage area below the coach which we call the basement. We are going to roll leaner than last year for sure but never fear there will still be plenty of wine on board.

The Beach House is sparkling clean and ready to go north next spring. I spent one full day cleaning the upholstery and carpets. Yikes, did that need to happen but wow was I whipped after that marathon cleaning day. I think I logged about 6 miles just hauling stuff from the boat to the coach which is parked in the lot at our marina. Mostly it is the food and spices in the galley and clothes. About 20 blue tubs worth of stuff to be exact! I don’t leave food on board that little critters might be interested in. All of bedding gets washed and put away in giant plastic storage bags… lots of laundry was done. Even though we keep the heat on low and have dehumidifiers in the boat over the winter, I don’t like to leave clothes on board as they do get some boat funk smell.

 

 

We pulled the whaler out of the water last week and it also got a through cleaning and the engine got a tune up. It will be covered and stored on its trailer in the marina parking lot.

 

 

Getting the Road House ready to roll took longer than it should have. We had some critters sneak on board right after the Road House was moved to the storage lot…who knows where we picked up those hitchhikers. We evicted them before we left Anacortes for the summer on the Beach House but I had some extra cleaning to do inside the coach before we could move back on. Needless to say, everything in the kitchen is sparkling clean and sanitized. All the socks and most of the clothes we left in the drawers on the Road House got an extra washing.

EEK…we now have some permanent electronic ultrasonic pest gizmos. After the hitchhikers were discovered, Wally made a trip to the local Ace Hardware and came back armed for battle. I was skeptical when he showed me the gizmos and was sure we would be coming back to the coach to clean up the remains in the manual traps but to my surprise there was no carnage. Yay for the Victor Sonic Pestchaser. These plugin wall unit emits high frequency sound waves that apparently repel rodents.

SO where are we off to this winter? Moab Utah is our first stop but we have given ourselves a week to get there. There have been several stops along the way considered but given the time of year and the weather variables we will be winging it a bit on the cruise to Moab.

Arches and Canyon Lands National Parks are what is taking us to Moab. Fall is a great time to visit the parks as the weather is nearly prefect for hiking. We are staying on a 120 acre private property with our hiking pals Tom and Laurie. They are renting this cool RV and will be parked right near us. Our coach is well set up to dry camp for a week so this will be a great start to the winter on wheels.

 

 

From Moab we are headed to Santa Fe again. This was not originally on the itinerary this fall but our plans to head to Port Aransas Texas where literally blown out by hurricane Harvey. We decided to bag Texas this year and are instead heading to Palm Springs for 2 ½ months.  Then we will head to Arizona for another 2 months. It is a weird route with some backtracking but Moab was on the way to Texas and we were planning to meet friends there to celebrate birthdays and hike. Santa Fe was not in the plans at all until we got a text from some fellow RV friends and good grief it is only 400 miles out of the way! We just could resist seeing Sharon and Joe and their adorable white Boxer Cooper. Really, what the hell, we have time so why wouldn’t we go???

 

 

It was a great summer and I will miss the water but the cold days and rain are on the way, so I am excited to get the Road House rolling south and yes, we will be cranking up Willie’s “On the Road Again”. Continue reading →