Day 4 - North to Alaska

Today is Thursday July 8, 2010. Our driving today was mostly up the side of a mountian and down the other. We had some issues with overheating of motor home several times. I called Dan our salesman for the RV in Mesa, AZ today about some paper work from Freightliner that he needed me to send to him. I told him about the engine overheating and he was shocked. He said there was no way even pulling a tow vehicle that the engine should overheat. He told me to stop at our first convenience at the next Freightliner service to have them check it out. Tonight we stayed at Dick's RV Resort in Great Falls, MT. Larry was talking to one of the other travelers and he obviously had been a mechanic for diesels and he said the engine we have should never give us a problem. Just another day of JOY in the world of a motor home owner!@!@ When I talked with Dan today, I told him I no longer needed a part time job because I had found a full time job--delivering our motor home for service. I told him we got a Monday morning or Friday afternoon built coach and that it was a lemon--the largest one from the very top of the tree. Not to worry though because I am making a lot of lemonade!!!! He was not too pleased with my comment and said everything is under warranty and will be corrected --YES if we live that long!! Anyway, we do enjoy traveling in the motor home. It is wonderful to get up and walk around while traveling and I can tell you for sure the cats enjoy it much more than riding in the 5th Wheel because we are at their 'beck and call' all day! They are good travelers and the only issues we have is jealousey between them. One gets more attention or has a better place to set or lay or whatever is important to CATS! It's like having our children all over again! We seem to be going to bed later and getting up earlier each day. When it comes my shift for driving I am yawning 5 minutes into my shift and a couple of times I've had to ask Larry to take over before I fall asleep and run us off the road. Speaking of driving--today we drove for probably 20 miles on a one lane road where they were doing construction. The farther we drove the narrower the driving lane became. I could hardly keep the wheels on the paved lane and in between the lanes were the orange cones dividing the driving lane from the work lane. Larry kept saying the cones seemed really close to the passenger side and yet I felt I had the left wheels on the very edge of the pavement. The farther we drove the more they had moved the cones into the driving lane and yes, I ended up hitting a cone. It sounded like it took out the side of the RV. The first chance I had, I pulled into a rest stop to take a look. No damage, thank goodness, buy it peeled away a thin layer of the clear coat wax. Nothing to worry about but sure was an eye opener when it hit. We stopped in Billings, MT to get a campsite for the night at the KOA. Every spot was full. They gave us the number of KOA and Dicks's here in Great Falls. I called on our way and KOA was full. Called Dick's and they had one site available so I secured it with credit card. When we arrived there was a line up of RV's to get into camping area and they were turning some away. Guess we better start PLANNING AHEAD!!!!