2018 September Route 66

 RT66

A couple of 6-8-week trips between work assignments similar to construction work (feast and famine), and it is time to hit the road again.  This trip is to follow RT66 west, 4 corners and National Parks, Montana for fishing with my brother, then follow the Oregon and California coast south visiting family along the way.

We put a lot of work into the RV to get ready for this trip. Not to bore you with too many details, I am going to list the items an 18-year-old RV needed to operate as functionally and economically as possible.

• Most significant is to replace 2 oxygen sensors and mass airflow sensor, this increased gas mileage significantly.
• Replaced ignition coil, spark plugs and wires.
• Smoke tested the vacuum system and repaired leaks.
• Replaced refrigerator thermocouple adapter, refrigerator runs well now.
• Removed kayaks (roof mounted 18’ sea kayaks), don’t expect time available nor locations for kayaking.
• Installed rear view camera, wired it to be on constantly, makes great traffic aid.
• Replaced front tires, discovered they were 18 years old!
• Replaced cracked windshield
• Adapted shower drain to not drain into black tank.
• Front dash AC has felt strips that are worn out and air leaks everywhere. Placed plastic bag over the cabin air filter to stop hot outside air from entering cab. Significant increase in cooling.
• Replaced generator with a hitch rack mounted generator.
• Installed hitch rack, ½ is generator, ½ is storage.
• Added leaf springs, kept air bags on as well, and stability is greatly increased.
• Created an expense tracker in Excel to calculate the total cost to operate so it is easier to see if premium or regular gas is more effective.

 

Goal for this trip is for the first 2 days was to make some miles, check out the RV operating condition before getting too far from home base. Leaving Maryland 1 September go west through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and stop for a short visit with my Aunt Bea. Carl and Bea are still active and having a great time in their retirement. Love to visit, will have to spend more time when possible.

Continuing on through Illinois until reaching St Louis, MO where we pick up RT66. The Arch area had construction and we could not get near it. This is Tanya's first view of the Mississippi river.

Tom had an idea to place a plastic bag over the cabin air filter to prevent the hot air from coming in the vents. He has another great idea: place a window shade over the passenger window to block the sun.

The roof air conditioner works very well, so Tom added a clip-on fan to push the roof air conditioning into the cab area.

Generator muffler bolt replacement makes it much quieter.

We noticed some toilet odor when the window is open, so Tom caulked it with silicone around toilet flanges. Tanya tied the screws – teamwork!

We are tracking fuel type, cost and mileage during this trip. We found that premium fuel costs 1-2 cents per mile more, but it increases MPG and allows the RV to climb hills faster and easier.

Passing through Indianapolis, IN we stop and visited Tom's aunt Bea. Although we only spent a few hours together it is always enjoyable to visit. Aunt Bea and Uncle Carl are always so much fun to be around, catching up on what has happened and where other family members are keeps family connects alive.

Casey, MO is very cool, it has 12 largest items. Rocking chair, wind chime, bird cage, mailbox, armor of murals on building walls. We caught a picture of a pair of love birds in their cage?

Galena, MO has neat murals all along RT66. Cool cars and gas station, great pull outs for cutouts and signs on a side road called historic byway.

 

All of OKLAHOMA I44 is a toll road.

Cuba, MO
We saw several very pretty murals in Cuba, MO, and a huge rocking chair further down the road. Tanya tried fried pickles and fried jalapenos at Huddle House for the first time and liked them. As we travel down this stretch of route 66, we see that everything was closed because it’s Labor Day weekend.

Tuesday September 4

Tanya accidentally knocked the charger out of the socket and was trying to get it back in. During that time, the back-view camera was off, and we didn’t see the police car driving behind us for several miles. When we finally saw it and stopped, the police officer looked like he was ready to give us a strong rebuke for not stopping right away. When Tanya explained to him that she accidentally disabled the camera, he smiled (and probably wanted to roll his eyes), said that his wife would have said exactly the same thing, and let us go without a ticket.

We saw a creek named Coffee Creek, it sure looked like coffee, black with some cream? I wonder if it gets that color after it rains or all year long, maybe due to the color of the soil?

In Oklahoma, we drove down a 2-lane road across the plains, then rose slowly to a ridge with a lot of scattered windmills that seemed to be constructed without any order, but in fact they probably followed carefully studied wind patterns.

We reached the first 2000 ft hill in Oklahoma. Thanks to all the repairs Tom made, the RV rides very smoothly and climbs hills strongly.

After several hours of diving, the average MPG is 15.9. Tanya celebrates reaching 16 MPG by not using the gas pedal on a downhill run. The drivers behind our RV were not very happy, but Tanya was!

We saw several road signs that read "Hitchhikers may be escaped inmates”. We haven’t seen any hitchhikers yet. These signs probably make it difficult to catch a ride for those who are not escaped inmates and just want to share a ride.

TEXAS

NEW MEXICO

Tanya loves the climate in Albuquerque. Hiking and being outside in a dry climate is much easier than in high humidity. We went to two sites where petroglyphs are found. The first site required a hike up the mountain, on a narrow path near the cliff edge. Tom moved up very easily. For Tanya, the climb was scary, but she found the way to reduce the fear by not looking down. The reward was a beautiful view of the valley and many boulders with petroglyphs. The other petroglyph site was located near a housing development and didn’t require a climb up the mountain. We didn’t see as many petroglyphs as at the first site, but we enjoyed the hike and saw a huge jack rabbit and many small lizards.

Some places were inaccessible

Can you imagine living back in the good old days?

Sky City, NM