As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I was a bit apprehensive about tackling the steep downgrades along Interstate 70 as we headed toward Denver. The exhaust brake on our Winnebago diesel pusher just doesn’t have the same effect as the Jake brake did on our MCI bus conversion.

Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School e-mailed me to say “Keep the RPM’s high, no matter what gear you are in. The exhaust brake works best at high RPM’s. Shift down often – the transmission won’t let you go into too low of a gear.  Apply the brakes very firmly and slow down at least 5 MPH when you use them.”

I followed Dennis’ advice, and we had no trouble at all. The mistake I was making in the past was expecting the exhaust brake to give me good braking power at about 1500 to 1600 RPMs. By downshifting and keeping the RPMs up to about 2200 – 2300, I saw a tremendous difference in efficiency. Thanks, Dennis! Even an old dog can learn a new trick now and then!

We pulled out of River Dance RV Resort in Gypsum, Colorado a little after 9 a.m. and headed east, passing lots more beautiful Rocky Mountain scenery all the way.

How would you like to have this for a view every day?

By the time we reached the summit of Vail Pass, at over 10,600 feet, our Cummins turbo diesel was working hard, and about all I could get out of it was 40 miles per hour.

Then we began the downhill run.

Some sections weren’t too bad, but others really made the exhaust brake work.

All too soon we were climbing up again, to Eisenhower Tunnel, at 11,158 feet high. The tunnel was long, but well lit and easy driving.

We passed more great scenery, including these old mining buildings.

The worst of the downhill run was between Eisenhower Tunnel and Denver, and the closer we got to the big city, the steeper the downgrades got. They have lots of signs warning truckers not to get careless.

We even passed through another tunnel somewhere along the way!

There are not a lot of places to get diesel along Interstate 70 in Colorado, especially when you are driving a 40 foot motorhome, towing an extended length cargo van. By the time we got to Downieville, at Exit 234, we were getting really low, and when I saw a small truck stop on the north side of the highway, I stopped and filled the tank.

We passed Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill’s grave, which we covered in one of our earliest issues of the Gypsy Journal, and soon we were hitting a lot of traffic as we entered the Denver metropolitan area. We got onto Interstate 76 and scooted around the northeast side of the city, and soon came out into agricultural fields.

It is amazing, that coming into Denver from the west, we were crawling down steep mountain grades, and less than 30 miles east of the city, we were out on the open plains, with few trees, and mostly flat terrain.

Interstate 76 had some rough patches, but we rolled along, making good time, and eventually crossed into Nebraska, where the highway ended at Interstate 80. Another 75 miles or so east brought us to North Platte, where we pulled into the Flying J about 5:30 local time.

We topped off our tank, had a less then mediocre meal at the restaurant, and  parked for the night. We covered 391 miles, and we still have about 560 miles to go, to get to Forest City, Iowa. We’ll make that easily by sometime Thursday, so we can get our name on the list for a service spot at the Winnebago factory. It’s worth pushing to get there, and then be able to get our work done, before we continue on to Michigan for Terry’s annual medical appointments.

Thought For The Day – Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet, and they’ll forward junk e-mail to you forever.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We pulled out of Juniper Ridge RV Resort about 9:30 yesterday morning, drove twelve miles  in to Show Low, and then followed U.S. Highway 60 south 48 miles across the White Mountain Apache Reservation to the Salt River Canyon, a dramatic chasm that folks here in Arizona refer to as the “Other Grand Canyon.”  The route took us from the high pine country of the Mogollon Rim to the fringe of the desert. The road between Show Low and the canyon is mostly two lane, with frequent passing zones.

The seven miles down to the bridge at the bottom of the canyon are a series of tight switchbacks, with more twists and turns than a politician’s biography. It can  be intimidating to a flatlander driving an RV through here for the first time, and the rule is slow and easy. I shifted our Allison automatic transmission down to third gear and let the transmission and exhaust brake hold us back.

Climbing back out of the canyon on the south side, the Cummins diesel engine did a fine job, and before long we were out of the curves and making good time rolling south. We did have to stop for a few minutes at a road construction zone that had the highway down to one lane.

In Globe, we picked up State Route 77, a narrow roadway with its own share of hills and curves, and took it south past the mining towns of Winkelman and San Manuel, then past the historic town of Oracle, and the turnoff to the Biosphere, until we eventually came to Tucson.

We pulled into Tra-Tel RV Park a little after 2 p.m. We had covered exactly 200 miles, dropping from 6500 feet elevation in Show Low to 2300 at the RV park. With that drop in elevation came a steep rise in temperature. On Sunday we had two inches of snow in Show Low, and it was 95 degrees when we stepped out of the Winnebago in Tucson!

Tra-Tel  is a small, friendly place, which is our base whenever we’re in Tucson. The RV park is less than half full, and we got a nice 50 amp full hookup pull through site. The minute I had the electric cable plugged in, Miss Terry turned on the air conditioner to cool it down inside the motorhome.

The purpose of our visit to Tucson is to spend some time with my cousin Beverly, who is one of my favorite people in the world, so once we were settled in, we drove across town to her apartment near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Along the way, we passed the Pima Air and Space Museum, with it’s impressive collection of military aircraft, and then the Davis-Monthan “bone yard,” where retired military aircraft are brought for storage and eventual dismantling. There sure are a lot of taxpayer dollars sitting behind those chain link fences!

We had a nice visit with Bev, took her out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and then went back to her place to chat some more. By about 8:30 I was getting droopy from our long day, so we said our goodbyes and promised to see Beverly again today. Miss Terry drove back to the RV park, and we spent the hours before bedtime catching up on e-mails that had come in during the day, and watching the Biography channel on television.

We’ll be here in Tucson a week or so, and it’s supposed to be in the mid-90s all of the time we’re here, so I expect our air conditioner will get a good workout.

Thought For The Day -  A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally! 

We were up way too early again yesterday morning, a habit that I am going to start working very hard to break. But we had reservations at the Thousand Trails in Las Vegas, and the person I spoke to on the telephone there advised us to try to arrive mid to late morning for the best selection of RV sites, because the campground is pretty full.

We pulled out of the hilltop RV dry camping area provided by the River Palms Casino in Laughlin at 8:30 a.m. and began the seventeen mile long uphill climb from the Colorado River to U.S. Highway 95.

I was curious to see what our Winnebago would do on a hill like that from a standing start,  so I just left it in high (sixth) gear and let the Allison automatic transmission do its thing, instead of manually downshifting. We averaged between 38 and 40 miles per hour on the steepest sections of the road. I can live with that.

Greg and Jan White followed along behind us in their 1999 American Eagle motorhome, and since their coach has the same Spartan chassis and 350 horsepower Cummins diesel engine that ours does, and we both run with the Silverleaf VMSpc engine monitoring system on, I was on the radio comparing notes with Greg. On the steepest inclines, the computer showed I was getting about 2.7 miles per gallon, while Greg reported back that his was showing about 3.5. Once we got onto U.S. 95, we had a long, gradual climb toward Searchlight. On that, I was averaging about 6.7  miles per gallon,and Greg reported just over 7.  Since our odometer just turned over 40,000 miles, and Greg’s rig has about 91,000 miles on it, I don’t know if his is more broken in or what. Of course, the  3/4 ton Ford extended length cargo van we tow probably weighs a little more than Greg’s Dodge Dakota pickup, so that may be a factor too.

We arrived in Las Vegas about 10:30, and Greg and Jan dropped off to stay at another nearby RV park. Our GPS steered us wrong, telling me to take Exit 70, instead of 69, where Greg got off. This resulted in us coming back toward the Thousand Trails from the wrong direction on busy, divided Boulder Highway. But I got lucky and managed to make a U-turn at a traffic light with no problems, and got back to the campground.

About 1/4 mile or so from our destination, our PressurePro tire monitor suddenly started beeping, telling us that we were down to only six pounds of pressure in the left rear tire of our van, and then the display dropped to zero. I thought that we must have had a blowout, but once I could stop and check the tire, it was fine, and my tire gauge said it was right where it should be. I have no idea what set it off and gave us the wrong reading, but I seem to recall that Mike McFall from PressurePro once told me that they will sometimes pick up stray radio signals and send a false report, so I assume that’s what happened.

The sites here at the Thousand Trails are pretty tight, but we got our 40 foot motorhome backed in, and confirmed that our HWH leveling jacks and slide-out rooms still would not work. I called my friend Phil Botnick, one of the best RV techs around, and even though I am known for my lack of mechanical skills, he patiently talked me through troubleshooting the system.  Phil’s diagnosis, based upon his experience with the coach last week in Yuma, and what I was telling him as I tried the things he suggested, was that the motor was shot. He suggested that I call HWH in Moscow, Iowa and get their input.

Phone calls to both the Winnebago factory and HWH confirmed what we already suspected. One motor runs both the jacks and slide-outs, and it was kaput. The nice lady at HWH gave me the part number for the motor, and suggested a couple of local shops to call. I did, and nobody in Las Vegas had the motor in stock. I was going to order it directly from HWH, when I remembered that our friend Mike Loscher had suggested 3Ts RV Service in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. They have worked on Mike’s jacks, and he was very pleased with them. Shoot, we were just in Lake Havasu City on Tuesday!

I called and they had two of the motors in stock, so I gave the lady there my credit card number, and she promised to have one to me by UPS today. I hope so, because with both slides in, it is pretty cramped living in our motorhome. And because we can’t use our jacks either, we’re sitting at an angle that makes life interesting at times.        

Thought For The Day - Don’t dream your life, live your dream.