Retiring Blacky

I know. It's been a while since I've posted. Not for lack of content. To the contrary, I've been busy. Lame but true. This spring we needed some distance from motorhome headaches. With those problems parked in CO storage we hit the road in Blacky The Wonder Tundra towing lil' yeti. We spent

Bent's Fort

After storage business in Pueblo we headed east on US-50. West of the Rockies this two-lane shunpike still evokes its reputation as America's Loneliest Highway. East of Colorado's front range, however, small towns adorn the road like charms on a bracelet. Baxter, Devine, Avondale, Fowler, Manzanola, Rocky Ford, Swink, La Junta.

I've driven past the sign

Tired & Belted

Leaving Ash Meadows we didn't get an early start. Instead of going east through Las Vegas and hot rodding our engines to pull steeper grades we went south to Baker CA. The plan was to cut through Mojave Preserve to I-40. But gentle headwind and uphill grade proved too much for

Grade School

Last year the old motorhome suffered a mechanical meltdown. It overheated on a long, steep pass. The engine siezed and died on the side of the road. Hard down. The fallout was a major pain between getting it towed and finding a shop to fix it. Plus a six week wait and a huge kick in the wallet. Suffice it to say that such a hard lesson motivates increased preventive measures going forward.

Since avoiding mountains altogether is not an option, the trick is

Power Trouble

The motorhome uses a typical 30A power cord. Sometimes that's not quite enough power. Recently we discovered it's just barely enough and apparently more often than we realized. Last night the microwave flickered and stuttered. No circuits tripped so I check the power post. There was arcing at the connection between