{"id":291,"date":"2017-10-30T03:41:54","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T03:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/?p=291"},"modified":"2017-10-30T03:41:54","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T03:41:54","slug":"rv-repairs-and-a-hotel-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/30\/rv-repairs-and-a-hotel-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"RV Repairs and a Hotel Stay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Howdy!\u00a0 I mentioned in my last post that I was writing from a hotel room….we spent 4 days and 3 nights at the Hilton Hotel in Ft. Collins, Colorado.\u00a0 A very nice hotel, right next to Colorado State University.\u00a0 AND they allow dogs…they even give you doggy dishes for the room!\u00a0 It was Gerry’s first hotel stay and I think it would be fair to say he wasn’t wild about it.\u00a0 We were on the 5th floor, he really didn’t like the elevators – they were glass elevators and the floor was slippery.\u00a0 We used the stairs as much as we could (mostly going down, it was a long way up!)<\/p>\n

We had to stay in the hotel while we were getting some repairs done to the RV.\u00a0 Somewhere in Wyoming, at a rest stop, I noticed the tires on the curb side (passenger side) of the trailer were excessively worn, especially the one in the back (we have 2 axles, so 2 tires on each side).\u00a0 We were pretty worried about continuing to drive very far on the tire.\u00a0 So, many phone calls later, we found a truck repair place near the highway not too far from where we were staying that night who said they had the right tires in stock.\u00a0 We arrived the next day for the tire replacement, and it didn’t go too well.\u00a0 First, they said putting new tires on would only mask whatever the real problem was that caused the excessive wear in the first place and they didn’t do that kind of work.\u00a0 And, after we said we would like the tires (2) replaced anyhow, so we could safely drive to somewhere that could figure out what the underlying problem was, they couldn’t get the hub off the first tire.\u00a0 They tried for a short while, then said we needed to leave and find somewhere else to get repairs.\u00a0 Yes folks, we were “kicked to the curb” on that one.\u00a0 Gee thanks!<\/p>\n

So we drove on to our next stop somewhere in Wyoming (we drove interstate 80 across the southern part of the state).\u00a0 I spent hours (literally) on the phone and online, trying to find a repair place.\u00a0 I tried RV dealerships with service departments (they don’t do this kind of work I was told by them all).\u00a0 I finally found an RV dealership that said they would look at it, and the first available appointment was in 3 weeks!\u00a0 After many calls and piecing together information from the folks I spoke with, I found a diesel truck and trailer repair place in Ft. Collins, Colorado, which is where we were headed for next.\u00a0 This was a Thursday, and they had an opening for the next Tuesday – we took it!<\/p>\n

Next, I called our super great helper, Rob, in Ohio and gave him the run down of what had been happening.\u00a0 He had me go under the trailer and take a few pictures for him, and also pictures of the tires.\u00a0 Well….why didn’t we think of looking underneath???\u00a0 I’m telling you, our brains do not work that way.\u00a0 Well….both shocks on the side of the trailer with the tire wear were completely bent!\u00a0 They are supposed to be straight up and down, and the ones on the other side of the trailer were.\u00a0 But these 2 were bent into a “L” shape.\u00a0 Those pot holes on the Alcan came back to haunt us.\u00a0 We do recall hitting one pretty hard on the way out of Alaska\/Canada – we couldn’t see it until it was too late.<\/p>\n

Rob did a great job of guiding me through looking at a variety of things on the trailer – he really is so patient and so helpful, explaining things in a way I can understand them.\u00a0 He had us take the seal out of the hub and check for lubricant – bone dry!\u00a0 Just like the batteries in the earlier story I told you – who knew you were supposed to check these things!!!\u00a0 He sent us a picture of what to buy, and of course the local Walmart in Cheyenne Wyoming had it.\u00a0 Steve was able to fill all 4 hubs with the lubricant.\u00a0 I believe this is for the wheel bearings.<\/p>\n

So we spent a couple days in Cheyenne – we had very high winds – steady at 30 mph and gusts over 60 mph.\u00a0 The RV was rocking and rolling!\u00a0 So much fun!\u00a0 We then drove to Loveland, CO and spent a few days there, and then on to Ft. Collins on Tuesday and turned the RV over to the great folks at Diesel Services of Northern Colorado.\u00a0 They even backed the RV around their building to the work area for us.\u00a0 We packed up a few bags of clothes and things and headed to the Hilton.\u00a0 It was very weird leaving the RV and moving into a hotel!<\/p>\n

Steve has a client in the Ft. Collins area, and he spent part of a day there doing some work.\u00a0 We caught up on errands and some shopping and did some hiking.\u00a0 Gerry spent a day at doggy daycare and we went to Estes Park, near Rocky Mountain National Park. We had planned to hike that day, but it was snowing, windy and too cold!\u00a0 So we walked around the cute town, had lunch and enjoyed sight seeing.\u00a0 We saw several Elk, including some males with huge antlers.\u00a0 A coyote ran across a field near us too.\u00a0 The weather here in Colorado has been crazy – 80s one day and snow the next!<\/p>\n

We also had a great visit with Sarah, Jeremy and baby Hazel (2 years old now!) who live in the Denver area.\u00a0 They kindly had us over for dinner which was so nice.\u00a0 \u00a0Hazel was happy to show us her yard with a great play house and swings and her cute bedroom!\u00a0 It was so good to see them and to catch up.\u00a0 Gerry had a blast playing with their dog, Rio, too!<\/p>\n

The RV was ready on Friday, as promised.\u00a0 They had to order some parts from the manufacturer so that took a little time.\u00a0 Luckily, the axles and frame were okay.\u00a0 The wheel was not bent either.\u00a0 So, new shocks, new tire and hub and we are good to go!<\/p>\n

We were happy to get back into the RV and moved to another RV park in Loveland, CO, where we’ve been for the last few days.\u00a0 It feels so much more like home than the hotel, and we really missed it.\u00a0 Gerry is much happier too! On the day we moved into this RV park, there was an owl in the tree right above us.\u00a0 I was making dinner, and I could see our neighbors out the window, looking up into the tree.\u00a0 So I went outside and there was the owl!\u00a0 They said a family of hawks had been here all summer, and they had enjoyed watching the young ones learn to fly and catch dinner.\u00a0 I also saw an owl along the road from Cheyenne.\u00a0 We see hawks almost everytime we are out hiking.<\/p>\n

I’ve been cooking a lot and have made apple crisp a couple of times.\u00a0 The leaves are falling here and it’s getting cold at night.\u00a0 We purchased a special drinking water hose that has an electrical cord through it, and you plug it in, outside, by the water hook up.\u00a0 Keeps it from freezing during the night.\u00a0 Again…who knew???\u00a0 A nice lady at the RV park we are staying at told us about it.\u00a0 We’re pushing the weather envelope a little, I think, and it’s time to continue east for home!<\/p>\n

I have a few pictures below and in the link of our hikes and time in Colorado.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/1drv.ms\/a\/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0plh5E31vPFJBztvGS<\/a><\/p>\n

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Roughing it at the Hilton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Driving near Estes Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Howdy!\u00a0 I mentioned in my last post that I was writing from a hotel room….we spent 4 days and 3 nights at the Hilton Hotel in Ft. Collins, Colorado.\u00a0 A very nice hotel, right next to Colorado State University.\u00a0 AND they allow dogs…they even give you doggy dishes for the room!\u00a0 It was Gerry’s first … Continue reading RV Repairs and a Hotel Stay<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}