Jim and Barb's Adventures: Westward Ho!

After spending 4 weeks in Salt Lake we were anxious to get back on the road. Both Jessica and Shane are pretty much recovered from their surgeries and Forrest and Somer pretty much have everything moved and are just waiting for their closing date.

In the meantime Kendall had her 2^nd birthday and we got out shooting in the desert with Forrest and Lily!

Forrest with a 9mm and Barb with a .45

Lily with the ever annoying Cabela's popgun

Happy Birthday baby K!

We are adjusting to camper life, learning how everything works, how to maneuver in such a small area. For one, I don’t even think about getting out of bed until Barb is up, ready for the day and taking Daisy out. Then I can get up and do my thing.

Although most components of the camper are similar to our 5^th wheel, there were certain nuances that we needed to get used to. For example; the camper has a built in Generac propane generator, works great, fires up quickly but we have never had a built in before. Then there is the whole bathroom shower thing where the bathroom is the shower, never had that before either…do you stand when you shower or just sit on the stool? There is also a weird electrical connection on the outside of the camper I was not accustomed to, neither Barb or I knew what it was for…..we later learned that it is very important.

The whole bathroom/shower combo thing is new to us.....

What is this plug for?

We have only had two issues so far; one minor, one that took a little more time and money. We could not get the fridge to work on gas. Worked fine on electric, would run for a while on gas (2 minutes to an hour) then would cut out and the “check” light would come on. First thing I did is take it all apart, cleaned the burner real well, cleaned the jet and replaced the thermocouple. Same issue… After a little internet research I decided to replace the control board. Camping World did not have one in stock and ordered it in. This particular fridge needs a 3 way board (AC, DC and gas) and they have 3 substitutes since the original. When I got it the pin configuration was totally different and I had to install an additional relay. After deciphering the wire diagrams of each and blowing one fuse I finally got it to work and it stayed working!!!!!

Issue #2 had to do with the generator. It worked fine the few times we tested when we tried it on the first night we were on the road, we fired it up….it ran fine but we had no power to any of the outlets. Checked all the fuses, turned it off and on a few times but no power! Read the troubleshooting guide, it talked about fuses, transfer switches, loose wire but I could not figure it out. RV Dreams Forum to the rescue! I did a search or Generac Generators on the forum and got a handful of posts. One of which said “Our old RV required moving the shore power cord to the generator plug”

I thought to myself….. “Self… you don’t suppose that’s what that plug is for on the outside of the camper?” So I go outside and plug the camper power cord into the plug, fire up the generator and it worked!

Who would have ever thunk that the shore power had to be plugged into here for the generator to work?

It is great to be back on the road, it is kind like starting all over again. We have been planning this trip for so long and it is finally here! The biggest change besides the smaller living quarters is the fact that we get to drive together rather than me following in the jeep.

We took turns driving……I drove….

Barb drove…..

Day one took us west out of Salt Lake on I80 watching the miles of salt flats and several salt plants along the freeway. If you did not know any better, you would swear you were back in Wisconsin looking at a frozen lake with ice fisherman out there.

246 miles out of Salt Lake we pulled off at Elko, NV and did a diesel price search on Gas Buddy. Along the freeway diesel was $2.45, in town $2.25 but we found a small station in town at $2.13. Fueled up we found the Walmart and tucked ourselves in for the night.