An Unusual Day…

The motorhome is parked at Mary’s home in Murphys, California.

I’m planning to  depart November 30th. I’ve finally finished all my routine maintenance and cleaning on both the Bronco and motorhome.

In mid-October, I mentioned in a blog posting about an intermittent  problem I was having with the motorhome…which I had diagnosed as the earliest signs of the fuel pump (in the gas tank) as getting ready to fail.

I ordered the parts I needed, fuel pump and filter…which ran $420.21. Through a friend I got a recommendation of a local mechanic who could do the work. I had it done yesterday. The first photo shows the parts…the fuel filter (left) and the fuel pump assembly (the big thing), the thing on the right is the float that tells how much gas is in the tank…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

Are we going to fit inside?…

 

 

Made it with a few inches to spare…

 

 

I was asked to remain in the customer waiting room..but managed to get a shot through the open door. Lowering the gas tank VERY SLOWLY. It was 3/4 full and weighed about 500 pounds…

 

 

Now it’s down where they can work on it. You can see the top of the old fuel pump assembly…the white thing with the three little dots on the top…

 

 

Here’s the old fuel pump assembly. We believe the pump (big white thing) was getting tired after ten years of hard work…

 

 

Miguel Nieves, the shop owner…did the work himself. He’s a very personable and knowledgeable guy. I liked the fact that his shop is a NAPA Car Care Center and he himself is an RV owner. Most place I would have too have waited a month before getting in. I called him last Friday and got in on Monday. Great prompt and professional service…

 

 

His shop is only about five miles north of Sonora, California. If you need a good mechanic while in that area…I can highly recommend him to you. He’s located at 20591 N. Sunshine Road, Sonora, California. His phone number is 209-533-4770.

Three hours and $300 later the work was done. In total the repair ran me $720.21…parts and labor. Something I do not need to do every day!

While under the motorhome he noticed that my left rear shock absorber is leaking and I’m getting ready to need rear brake pads. Since he was not able to find the parts locally, I’ll get these repairs done while in Yuma, Arizona.

It’s about an a hour’s drive back to Mary’s home and the motorhome ran just fine. In six days, I’ll depart Mary’s home to head to the sunny and warmer southland. It’s starting to get chilly around here. Time for me to get out of Dodge!!!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 66 degrees. Forecast for today is cloudy with rain and 53 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2015

MOTHERLODE CHARMS AND DANGERS

When I return home I never have any doubt that I live in one of the nicest places in California. Murphys Creek runs two miles from my house, right through town, in fact.  My daughter and her two boys came to stay for a couple of days and we drove to the creek to cool off.  The kids like to walk upstream and tube back down while we visit on the bank.

The water is low everywhere this year, and it is kind of fun to float under the bridge.

Or do some fishing from the bridge.  A tented playground is part of the park, visible in the background.

Or you can lounge around an eat cherries and corn chips, which is what we did. Relax. And, for nostalgia’s sake, we walked about two blocks to the Peppermint Stick, an ice cream parlor and enjoyed ice cream sundaes with whipped cream and a cherry on top.  Virginia worked there when she was in high school, and she regaled the kids with stories of working an ice cream parlor and candy counter where kids could order two gum drops, one licorice stick and a sucker and hand over their sticky pennies. Ice cream cones had to be consumed outside.

My daughter, who had just recently done a field trip with students and went rafting down a huge river finally jumped in to get wet and cool off. I’ve enjoyed this creek since we moved here, only more now that I have grand-kids to come and play. It’s a pleasant way to spend a hot afternoon.

While waiting for the garden soup to finish cooking for a light supper, we heard a close flying plane.

The spotter plane is  barely visible in the smoke that we hadn’t noticed until we heard the plane.

Soon the whole sky was a mass of smoke and haze and looked to be very close, which it was, approximately a mile away.

The helicopters began dropping buckets of water and the spotter continually circled to direct them.

A second copter joined the first one and a flurry of cars went up and down the road. We saw folks hauling their horses out of the canyon.

Eventually there were four helicopters and two spotters. The boys wondered why no fire engine came out. We explained to them the fire is in such a steep place, fire fighters can barely get to it. There were fire fighters from the highway side of the fire, we learned later. And my daughter took one camera and I another and we took pictures of every room in the house, every out building and the whole yard…just in case.

The copters were dipping into Utica Reservoir on the highway, and hauling back their buckets. The buckets don’t look like they carry enough water to fight a major blaze, but they do.

After a couple hours of the bucket brigade,  they brought in a long line bucket as the reservoir water got lower.  The helicopters were dumping with their lights on until it got  dark and the ground crews had to hold the lines. Fire tamps down at night and they caught this one right away.

The wind had shifted away from us before it got dark and we were able to go to bed with a feeling of safety, but fire is always a danger in the Motherlode. Other communities suffer hurricanes, tornadoes and twisters, or volcanoes, so we all have our dangers and our charms. This turned out to be a 180 acre blaze with no evacuations. We can sigh with relief and go on about our business. For me, it has been a busy month and I’ve missed blogging more than I ever have before. I have been nursing an injured muscle and have three weeks of therapy coming up as well.

And, then this morning, besides hearing the spotters work the sparks, Karen was towed home with an incapacitated vehicle.  It needs a new fuel pump. Not dangerous and not charming. Dang.