Our real trouble began June 4 when the front hydraulic legs wouldn't hold up the trailer. This is how we looked until June 13 when we traded in the Mobile Suites for the Airstream. That red truck in front of our truck and RV is Eric's/

Once we knew what we were moving into, we started packing boxes to ship back to Arizona

and bagging the stuff that would go into the Airmstream. That would make it quicker when we moved to the new RV.

These two photos give an good comparison of the size different between the Mobile Suites and the Airstream.

Here are some interior shots of the space we were moving out of.

And these show where we are now.

Whew! Downsizing is Exhausting

We began RVing in 1988, first borrowing a tent trailer, then buying our own Coleman pop-up. We traveled to the east coast and to British Columbia with that RV. We enjoyed it for probably 9 years before moving up to our first 5th wheel, a 1997 Komfort with no slides. (Our son Eric is still using that tent trailer.) We took the Kombort on many great trips, including one to the east coast. Eventually, about 5 or 6 years later, we decided we wanted at least one slide. We traded it for a 2003 Montana. Enjoying that one, we drove and rode the Alaska Marine Highway to Alaska, returning entirely on land. We also drove it to the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

In 2008 after volunteer assignments in Oregon, we were headed south into California when the front legs no longer worked. We were not able to take it off our truck until it was in the garage for repairs. While it was being fixed we checked out the dealers lot and bought a 2009 10th Anniversary Montana with 2 slides. We traveled extensively in that trailer including another trip to Alaska, after which we returned all the way to the lower 48 on the Marine Highway.

In early 2012 the front landing gear on that trailer failed. When we finally got it onto the truck, we had both front legs replaced under our extended service plan. By the end of the year, when we decided to look for another 5th wheel with 3 slides, we decided to go with a DRV Mobile Suites. We ordered it on line, using lots of advice from the Suites Owners forum and 3 different DRV dealers. After deciding which dealer to buy from, we waited for it to be built the way we wanted then picked it up in Chanute, Kansas, in 2013.

The Mobile Suites is constructed with more quality interiors, more style and upgrades than the Montanas. And it had a Lippert Level-up system that was a dream to use. Put down the front legs, removed the tow vehicle, push a button and it leveled itself automatically. That is done with hydraulic landing legs. Last September we began having serious problems with the hydraulic system ... more serious than the electric legs in either Montana. We had one front leg replaced last September after it wouldn't stay up. We had to keep stopping the truck every 10 miles as we drove on I-70 and I-25 in Colorado. This May, the system again failed: first it came down while we were parked with the RV still on the truck. Then the front end of the 5th wheel got lower and lower while we were parked.

We traveled from Arizona to Oklahoma to have the closest DRV dealer examine it and, we hoped, repair the problem. When we arrived at the dealership we were told our trailer wouldn't even be examined for 7 days, even though we had been led to believe he would immediately work on it when we arrived. Seven days later he spent 2 1/2 hours testing the legs and declared it OK. He then suggested, if we intended to keep the unit, we have the legs replaced and recommended a shop in Indiana. We left the dealership and drove directly to Amarillo. While in Amarillo the trailer legs again failed. We contacted the shop in Indiana and found that the earliest appointment was at least a month out.

We drove to Colorado without disconnecting our 5th wheel. It's difficult to get fuel, to shop for food and to visit when you have to drive a one-ton dual wheel truck and a 36 foot 5th wheel everywhere.

That was enough! No more 5th wheels for us. The living space and storage space in that type of RV is great. We have lived full-time in our last 2 for a total of 7 years. But we are no longer full-timers and we decided to downsize and look on our travels more like camping.

We arrived at Chatfield State Park near Denver on June 7. Since we couldn't take the 5th wheel off our truck, our son loaned us his pickup so we could get around without taking the trailer everywhere. The next day we went looking for a travel trailer. At Windish RV in Lakewood, we looked at several Airstreams as well as a Jayco and Grand Design unit. The latter 2 had slides so there was more living space. But they felt cheap inside compared to the Mobile Suites and Airstream. So that day, we made our choice and said we would get back to them. We then drove to Stevenson Chevrolet in Lakewood. We didn't need a 1-ton dually to pull the Airstream which, fulling loaded, weighs 10,000 pounds less then the Mobile Suites. Once we made a choice there, we returned to Windish and made a down payment on the trailer. Then back to Stevenson and made a down payment there.

Not done yet, we returned to Chatfield and spent the evening with our son Eric and his family on their boat, including another celebration of my recent birthday.

Thursday it was time to begin downsizing our stuff. When we lived in the Suites full-time, we had everything we owned (except for a small storage unit of stuff) in the RV. In late 2014 we bought a small house in Arizona and took what we needed for the house out of the trailer. We traveled in 2015, then returned to Arizona. But we still had way more than we needed for our travels. We have been sorting clothes and boxing up what we want shipped back to Arizona, keeping on what we absolutely need. The 5th wheel has a large basement storage area that we will miss. The idea is the put a cover on the bed of the truck and use that to store those items.

Friday we were out by 9 to finish the paperwork and pay for the truck. Then we returned to Windish to look again at the Airstream storage. Back to Chatfield to sort, throw stuff away and give Eric and Liz what we think they can use.

Saturday there was more sorting and packing. In the evening we attended my 55th high school reunion. Sunday was a chance to relax little. Monday we took the Mobile Suites to Windish and picked up the Airstream. Since the refrigerator wasn't cold in the new trailer, we left all our food in the old RV until the next day. But it took a while to move everything else into the new RV. We had boxed and bagged a lot of it before we got there, but it still had to be carted from one unit to the other. We used the old truck to move it. Back at Chatfield, we began trying to find a place for everything.

Tuesday it was time to trade the old truck for the new one. That didn't take long at all. The biggest task was to have all the new electronics in a 2016 Chevy explained. We still have to read about it so we remember, but all the upgrades are amazing! Then we drove to Windish to pick up our food.

Wednesday we had appointments with our dermatologist and returned Eric's truck. We made a trip to Goodwill, ordered a bed cover for the truck, ran some errands and started changing our insurance to the new vehicles.

We are exhausted. It is an effort to mentally take in all the changes. We try not to get lost when we get up during the night, looking for the bathroom. Every time we want something we stop, look around and try to remember where it might be. Sometimes it takes checking several cabinets before we find it.

Finally, Thursday, we had a full day at our site in the state park. We did laundry and continued working on putting things away. By dinner time, we finally were rid of boxes and piles on every surface. Whew.


I'll post pictures of all this in my next blog.

Change and Being Busy

We bought a new trailer and a new truck to pull it. Doing all of than in just over a week is somewhat overwhelming and very, very busy. Here is a photo of our new Airstream Flying Cloud 28 and new Chevrolet 2500HD crew cab truck.

I will be posting a reflection on the experience in a few days, but right now all I have the energy, focus and time to do is figure out what we need to do tomorrow.

A Life Preserver

We haven't drowned in the jello but it sure has been an intense week. We moved our ailing RV up to Chatfield State Park in the Denver area. We were nervous the whole time, checking to be sure the front landing leg hadn't fallen. Thankfully, nothing went wrong. That was was on Tuesday.

We had planned to take the trailer to Indiana for repairs. But we really didn't feel up to driving 1,000 miles with the RV hooked up to the truck. That would mean taking it to gas stations and grocery stores as well as RV parks. We first had a new leg installed last September. Since that repair failed, we were afraid we would never trust the hydraulics in this rig again.

On Wednesday, looking for a life preserver, we went shopping for a new RV. Our purchase means we are downsizing, since the new RV is much smaller than the Mobile Suites we have been in since 2013. We spent the first year we owned it as full-timers. That means we had everything we owned in the trailer. Then we bought our small house in Arizona and moved a lot of stuff into the house. But everything we didn't need there was still in the 5th wheel. Now we have to deal with that stuff. We have downsized from an 1800 square foot house to a 5th wheel and now to a smaller RV.

But we are living in a real mess right now. We are surrounded by boxes and bags of things we will move to the new RV and boxing up the things we won't move. We will have our son Eric ship those boxes to us after we return to Arizona. Buying the RV, signing the papers, sorting through everything. All of that has been busy and stressful.

What did we purchase? If anyone would know, the Lone Ranger would. You will have to wait till my next blog post to find out.

Jello vs Concrete

RVers talk a lot about their plans being made in jello--they can be changed whenever we want or need to do so. That's all well and good, but personally I prefer plans made in concrete. I like to plan our travels months ahead, make reservations where and when necessary, and then carry out those plans. Not this summer.

We had reservations that covered most of the time from May 3 when we left our casita in Gold Canyon, AZ, through June 26 and four nights in September as we started back south to Arizona. As you have read here, the problems with our hydraulic leveling system have made drastic changes in our plans. So far we have been unable to make it to two of our reservations. We have made plans to travel to Indiana to have repairs made in early July, so I have cancelled two of our July reservations.

Since my last blog post we have had even more problems with the level-up system. The front of the RV started drifting down fairly quickly. Now, we are staying hooked up to the truck, using it to hold up the front end of the Mobile Suites. We'll see how everything goes. Taking the RV with us everywhere is rather a pain (to say the least).

Stay tuned to find out if we will drown in this jello or find some firm footing for our plans. Will we go to Indiana for repairs or buy a new RV? We don't know yet.

Some parts of jello are really quite pleasant. This weekend we are near Canon City to visit John's sister and brother and their families. We discovered that John's great nephew is being married tomorrow and they asked John to bless the marriage. What an honor to be asked to be part of their lives.

It Was About Time

Yesterday we finally were free to leave Elk City, Oklahoma, and resume our summer travels. I considered that a pretty good present on my birthday! On May 8 we left Homolovi Ruins State Park in Winslow, Arizona. Yesterday was the first time since then we were free to travel wherever we wanted. Good deal.

We had been sitting in Elk City for a week, waiting for Slade at Rolling Retreats, a major Mobile Suites dealer, to check out our front landing gear. Early during our 12 day stay at the Flying J in Winslow, the passenger side front leg slipped down while the trailer was hooked up to the truck. Since that had happened last September, we wanted him to determine what was going on. He spent a couple of hours testing to see if there was a leak in the hydraulic system that operates the legs and found nothing. So that wasn't repaired. He did find another loose brake caliper and replaced that. He also suggested a company in Indiana that rebuilds seals on landing gear legs. We will be contacting that business, hoping they can ship two rebuilt legs to us in Colorado.

Getting things fixed is just a matter of finding a mechanic who knows how to fix it and has the time to do it, then finding the right parts. It is the time spent finding the right person, waiting for them to find the time to do the work, and getting the correct parts shipped in.

We have been living in a 5th wheel part time and full time since 1997. Breakdowns are just an unavoidable and unfortunate part of living on the road, pulling your home down the highways. This is the longest we have ever been unable to travel, but we have tried to make the best of our time, exploring the areas where we were sitting.
We left Rolling Retreats about noon and headed west. We are in Amarillo now. We are still a little tentative--with the leg staying up as we travel. But until it fails, it doesn't need fixing, I guess.

Amarillo is along the old Route 66. At our RV park we saw this old truck, memorabilia of times way past.

Never Disappointed

Thursday we drove to Cheyenne, in Oklahoma not Wyoming. That is the location of The Washita Battlefield National Historic Site. We had never heard of the battle but we know that it is always worth our time to check out anything operated by the National Park Service.

We had heard about Lt.Col. George Custer before, of course. One summer we volunteered at an RV park in southern Montana near Little Big Horn National Battfield where Custer died in 1876 fighting the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. It was one of the last armed contacts between the US Army and American Indians. But in 1868 he was in Oklahoma, then known as Indian Territory. After Col. J.M. Chivington attacked and destroyed a village headed by Cheyenne chief Black Kettle on Sand Creek, Colorado, relations between the army and Indians were very rocky.  Black Kettle had been pursuing a policy of peace with the whites and believed his village to be under US Army Protection. Black Kettle survived but at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapahoe men, women and children were killed and horribly mutilated. Under treaties in 1865 and 1867, the Cheyenne, Arapahoe and other tribes agreed to settle on reservations in Indian Territory but many tribal officials refused to sign. Warrior societies of mostly young men continued hostilities.

General William Sheridan, in charge of the army in the plains, adopted a policy that "punishment must follow crime." He sent Lt. Col Custer to enforce that policy. He ended up attacking Black Kettle's village on Washita Creek at dawn on a snowy Nov. 27, 1868. Approximately 30 to 60 were killed, including Black Kettle and his wife, and Gen. Sheridan ordered the slaughter of the village's pony and mule herds, estimated at over 800 animals.

This mural in the visitor center shows the army riding through the village.

We walked the trail to the location where the battle occurred.

The path took us through the deep grass of the prairie.

In 1889 Indian Territory was opened to white settlement under a law that said they could enter the area at a designated time to claim their homestead. Those who entered before that time to get a jump on other settlers were called "sooners" and the name has stuck in Oklahoma. The Washita Battlefield site included a small stone dugout like those built by those settlers as their first homes. The windmill is a symbol of the changes white settlement made in the area.

We felt the NPS presentation of the battle was very fair to both sides and we learned a lot. We had known about Custer and the Sand Creek Massacre but not about this battle in Oklahoma. There are so many sad stories that are part of the westward white settlement of our country.

On an entirely different note, have you ever seen this before? We hadn't. There was this pig, really I guess a hog, tied with a harness and leash, at an RV site behind us a couple of days ago.

Oh, the Memories

After we visited the Route 66 Museum in Elk City, we walked next door to the Elk City Museum. The community has constructed a small village with a school, early home, opera house and livery stable so visitors can see what life was like in the last century. Some of the exhibits dealt with the early part of the 1900s, before John and I were born. There was a shoe shop in one corner of the stable. I wondered if the Singer sewing machine had been used to repair harnesses and bridles or if  that was just an available space to display these items.

The interior of the reconstructed Rock Bluff School was interesting.

Both of us remember school desks that looked like this.

In the old house we saw toys like this 1940s era bomb pedal car and these Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. My grandmother made me smaller versions of these dolls.

Boy did these two items bring back memories.  I had a hairdryer in the early 1960s just like this.  It was THE way to dry my hair, once I put in the curlers.  Once when the heat went off in the dorm my first year of college, I got under the bed covers and blew warm air with the hairdryer hose to warm me up.

The restored house had been used as a funeral parlor at one time. This boxed suit (it opens down the back) and embalming machine brought back memories for John

A local family, the Beutler Brothers, was famous on the rodeo circuit both for the rodeo stock they raised and because one of the brothers was a really top rodeo cowboy.

There was also a display of finely tooled leather items, including suitcases, made by George Pulley, a bull rider in the 1930s and 40s.





While at the museum, we also saw this early mail truck.

There were two sets of Burma Shave signs posted in the yard. I couldn't get a whole set in one photo, but one said "Trains Don't Wander All Over the Map Because No One Sits in the Engineer's Lap." The other read, "Guys Whose Eyes Are in Their Backs Get Halos Crossing Railroad Tracks."

Wouldn't those signs be more fun along are interstate highways than motel and restaurant ads?

The Mother Road

We are traveling on I-40 which basically follows Route 66 from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City. From there, I-40 goes east to Nashville and Rt. 66 goes northeast to Chicago. You really can't forget your are on Route 66 if you venture into towns along the route. There are three museums about the road in Oklahoma, several in Illinois and more in other locations. In Flagstaff and Winslow, Albuquerque and Amarillo we see signs marking the old route through downtown area.

Wednesday we visited the Route 66 museum in Elk City, OK.

There were exhibits concerning transportation ranging from bicycles both with and without motors,

old Cadillacs

motorcycles

and airplanes.

With all this travel down the road came roadside attractions

diners and tourist courts

Of course, there were also RVs. I think we see units like this today, as well.

All those cars also help create the need for drive-in movies.

The dust bowl of the 1930s drove lots of mid-west farmers onto Route 66, headed for California with all their possessions loaded in their old trucks.

We really enjoyed the Elk City Route 66 museum. But I'm not sure we need to visit the other two here in Oklahoma.

It's Windy Here

The panhandle of Texas is very windy. As a matter of fact, so is Oklahoma. Maybe it is the entire I-40 corridor, at least out here in the west. I know I-40 through Arizona is sometimes closed because of wind.

The wind provides the perfect place for wind farms. For the first nearly 50 miles as we drove east into Texas, we saw giant wind turbines.

After a while we also saw the electric transmissions lines takes that electricity to cities and towns that need it. You have to look closely in the background of this picture to see them. They were a long way away and I was using my iPhone.

It is so windy in Texas even the trees along I-40 are trimmed and shaped by the prevailing winds.

Today we saw the smaller version of these devices that capture the wind. We were visiting the Elk City, OK, museum and its display of earlier windmills.

As we drove across the Texas panhandle we also saw this huge cross. Using Safari, I learned it was constructed by the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ Ministries in Groom, TX. They report that people come from all over the world to see the cross.

It has been windy all day yesterday and today here in Elk City as we wait for repairs to our RV.

Recalculating

Does your GPS tell you that when you don't follow the prescribed route just right? We have had devices that say that out loud. Currently it just shows that on the screen. Today we are recalculating. When our brake hub was finally repaired in Winslow, we headed east to Rolling Retreats, a DRV dealer in Elk City, OK. As I wrote about earlier, we are having problems with the front landing leg on the RV. Since it was built by DRV in Howe, IN, and there aren't that many DRV dealers around the country, we decided to see if they could help us.

They were booked solid but we were told to come in and they would work us in. We arrived today and were told it would be next Tuesday before the shop had space to check out our issue.

We will be exploring western Oklahoma and cancelling a week of reservations at Cherry Creek State Park in the Denver area. We had booked two weeks there. We cancelled the first week because we were sitting in the Flying J parking lot in Winslow. Now we will cancel the second week.

I need to recalculate my attitude as well as our schedule. But we have found several interesting museums to visit here and we have a good Verizon broadband signal so we can work online. Glad we didn't have any really important events to attend.

Trucker Contacts

During our time at the Flying J, we talked to a number of truckers, though the truck stop isn't as friendly as an RV park. We never had a chance to talk to any of the women drivers.

As we had noticed in our travels, a lot of drivers are very, very fat. They sit in a truck for 8 to 10 hours a day and often eat at diners and fast food restaurants. If I spent all day driving by myself, I would be consuming candy and chips as I traveled. One man we talked to said he really tried to eat healthy. Before each trip, he prepared food at home and froze the meals, then heated them in the microwave in his cab. I doubt I would have that discipline.

A driver gave us the advice to put on our blinkers or hazard lights when backing up to park. Another said he was 36, a mechanic and a member of AA. Yet another remarked that he was 56 and a retired policeman. He drove trucks for a friend and was able to have long layovers when he came home.

We learned about the laws controlling how long they could drive and how long they had to rest between periods of driving. We were told the new electronic logs mean the drivers have to find a truck stop before they have been driving too long. The electronic devices can't be fudged like with the old paper logs allowed.

Many truckers take their dogs along on the trips for some company. After fueling the truck, those drivers quickly find the dog run. And everyone has a cell phone. Truckers walk around the truck stop talking on the phone, many have head sets so they can use the phone hands free. One man said he spent many of his driving hours talking on the phone. During the rest periods, truckers also play games and go online with their phones.

One day we talked to the driver of a Flying J fuel truck. He reported that the fuel station there in Winslow received 22 loads of fuel a day. The drivers make two trips a day from Albuquerque where they pick up fuel. They are responsible for filling their own trucks and off-loading the fuel. There are no bellows in the fuel tank, so braking and skidding on ice can really get wave action going in the tank. There must be more than one fuel compartment in the tank because the driver said he had to take care to distribute the load for good balance. Since he has computer contact with the fuel dispatcher, he is sometimes redirected to a truck stop that is really in need of fuel.

One day a trucker backed in very close to the door side of our RV. He was within maybe 8 inches of our slide. John stood in the door watching as the truck slowly moved into place. When he got parked, John gave him an OK sign. We then chatted with him and his wife for a few minutes through their open window. His comment was, "Pretty good backing, wasn't it?"

I find I know way too much now about trucks and truckers and the loads they carry. I really pay attention to all that passes us on the road. Since we are driving on I-40, purportedly the busiest truck route in the country, I have a lot to watch.