Following, at sunset
Happy Valley RV Repair, no, Purcell's, no, Cole 'N' Sons' Tire & Auto
So it's like we're on a cross-country treasure hunt, charged to find out what the Bounder's real problem is. We left Price Automotive in Eureka in high spirits around 1pm thursday. The paid bill must have left them in high spirits too. I have to admit to a fleeting burst of sadness as we knew we were truly leaving the area and Price's hospitality.
Oh so hot out. The buffet at the Flying J down the road in Sullivan was delightful. Melon, white cake, enchiladas, green (truly) beans almondine, coleslaw. Ah. Those few moments of innocent pleasure before the anxiety began. Again. The same rigamarole started somewhere near the Ft. Leonard Wood exit of I-44. The mechanics we consulted there guessed vaporlock. Bounder literature warns about gas with methanol in it, and it's in all the gas we can get. So we parked for a few hours there in a truck stop and let everything cool off. We took off again and the first hill brought problems. Or the second. We're in hill country here. But everything is fine. It is. We were able to sputter into a great little RV park and had a good night there.
When it began acting up the next morning, we separated. I followed in the car and we began our wild goose chase to garages and landed in Lebanon at Cole 'N' Sons'. Not long before our repair appointment, Andre suddenly got into a wireless network. I rushed to my computer, got a signal, but no connection. We surmised it might come from the library. Frustrated, I walked across the hot asphalt of the shopping center parking lot and entered the new Lebanon library. Cool. Beautiful. With a souvenir shop. A small cafe. And a Route 66 museum! Luxurious upholstered sofas and chairs that match. Computers galore. A Computer Training Lab! Even books. Where, oh where, do they get their funding? There's no place like home—Arms Library—but Phuphuu and I are not in Shelburne Falls anymore.
Waiting time again. Wanting so much to finally see Jeanie and Bob, and Dad. Instead, waiting. But in these forced stopovers we tourists float more deeply into other rhythms, other lives. The daily life of the repair shop: phone calls, parts ordered, wives calling, talk of children, the weekend at the lake, people like us coming in wanting to be anywhere else, waiting to hear How Much $$. Stacks of old magazines. The mechanic's wife home with a broken air conditioner and five children. Closing down for another weekend.
At Cole 'N they were convinced it was a fuel delivery problem. Not carburetors as others suggested. Found water in a fuel filter. (There had been water in the new tank they couldn't get out. But we put in dry gas.) Changed the filter. We paid and left. No go. Came back. Removed a check valve. Ran a test. No good, back into the bay. Found an unexpected nubby little filter on the auxilliary pump. Full of water. Changed it. Another test. No go. By this time, after trouble since the day we left, Andre begins to get to the end of his rope.
The mechanic talks to the Larry, the owner. Larry says there's gotta be another reason. A hidden filter, or a crimped pipe. Steve went under on the crawler and found the hidden filter. Looked straight up, mid-way, and there it was. He could have missed it. Rusted and plugged. Probably in there since the Bounder was manufactured. After that, Larry (Daddy Cole), took it for the test drive himself. Alone—we couldn't face another failure.
When Larry pulled back into the lot, it didn't pull into the repair bay. He stepped out of the Bounder smiling. Andre paid again. And they shut down for the weekend. Friday, 5pm. We set out again, unattached; Andre in the Bounder chooses the airconditioning. I choose the wind.
Andre says it cost $200 to find that filter. At Cole, step by step. The right place, at the right time. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Larry.
So it's like we're on a cross-country treasure hunt, charged to find out what the Bounder's real problem is. We left Price Automotive in Eureka in high spirits around 1pm thursday. The paid bill must have left them in high spirits too. I have to admit to a fleeting burst of sadness as we knew we were truly leaving the area and Price's hospitality.
Oh so hot out. The buffet at the Flying J down the road in Sullivan was delightful. Melon, white cake, enchiladas, green (truly) beans almondine, coleslaw. Ah. Those few moments of innocent pleasure before the anxiety began. Again. The same rigamarole started somewhere near the Ft. Leonard Wood exit of I-44. The mechanics we consulted there guessed vaporlock. Bounder literature warns about gas with methanol in it, and it's in all the gas we can get. So we parked for a few hours there in a truck stop and let everything cool off. We took off again and the first hill brought problems. Or the second. We're in hill country here. But everything is fine. It is. We were able to sputter into a great little RV park and had a good night there.
When it began acting up the next morning, we separated. I followed in the car and we began our wild goose chase to garages and landed in Lebanon at Cole 'N' Sons'. Not long before our repair appointment, Andre suddenly got into a wireless network. I rushed to my computer, got a signal, but no connection. We surmised it might come from the library. Frustrated, I walked across the hot asphalt of the shopping center parking lot and entered the new Lebanon library. Cool. Beautiful. With a souvenir shop. A small cafe. And a Route 66 museum! Luxurious upholstered sofas and chairs that match. Computers galore. A Computer Training Lab! Even books. Where, oh where, do they get their funding? There's no place like home—Arms Library—but Phuphuu and I are not in Shelburne Falls anymore.
Waiting time again. Wanting so much to finally see Jeanie and Bob, and Dad. Instead, waiting. But in these forced stopovers we tourists float more deeply into other rhythms, other lives. The daily life of the repair shop: phone calls, parts ordered, wives calling, talk of children, the weekend at the lake, people like us coming in wanting to be anywhere else, waiting to hear How Much $$. Stacks of old magazines. The mechanic's wife home with a broken air conditioner and five children. Closing down for another weekend.
At Cole 'N they were convinced it was a fuel delivery problem. Not carburetors as others suggested. Found water in a fuel filter. (There had been water in the new tank they couldn't get out. But we put in dry gas.) Changed the filter. We paid and left. No go. Came back. Removed a check valve. Ran a test. No good, back into the bay. Found an unexpected nubby little filter on the auxilliary pump. Full of water. Changed it. Another test. No go. By this time, after trouble since the day we left, Andre begins to get to the end of his rope.
The mechanic talks to the Larry, the owner. Larry says there's gotta be another reason. A hidden filter, or a crimped pipe. Steve went under on the crawler and found the hidden filter. Looked straight up, mid-way, and there it was. He could have missed it. Rusted and plugged. Probably in there since the Bounder was manufactured. After that, Larry (Daddy Cole), took it for the test drive himself. Alone—we couldn't face another failure.
When Larry pulled back into the lot, it didn't pull into the repair bay. He stepped out of the Bounder smiling. Andre paid again. And they shut down for the weekend. Friday, 5pm. We set out again, unattached; Andre in the Bounder chooses the airconditioning. I choose the wind.
Andre says it cost $200 to find that filter. At Cole, step by step. The right place, at the right time. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Larry.
posted by Susan at 3:05 PM
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