Thursday and Friday, October 12 and 13, 2017 (Travel to Thousand Lakes RV Park, Torrey, Utah and a "down" day)

Thursday was one of those days that you wish you had just stayed in bed...okay perhaps not that bad but it sure felt like it at the time.

We were all packed up and putting the slides in when the bolt on the big slide cross shaft broke. All I can say is that I'm so glad that Steve keeps spare bolts and knows how to fix it. This is the third time it's happened on this slide in the 7 plus years we've been on the road.

The first thing to do is measure the distance from the trailer wall to the end of each slide end to see if you have to move it in or out. Steve has to move this end of the slide 9" to match the distance on the other end.

He clamped vise grips to the end of the shaft and rotated it until he had an equal measurement on both ends of the slide.

I had to power the slide out for a split second to align the holes on the outer shaft with the inner shaft so Steve could insert the bolt. The vise grips (not shown here) would be just to the right of the round gear.

After a 45 minute delay to fix the slide...we finished our pack up and were on our way. We continued east on highway 50 into Utah...

 Another beautiful travel day and more mountain passes...love all that open blue sky!

Up we go...6280 feet...

 We stopped at the summit pull out to torque the wheels...

There was a lot of smoke in the air from those terrible wildfires in California...

Off to the right in the distance but hard to see in the haze is Sevier Lake. It's large and looked shallow with a long muddy shoreline just like Great Salt Lake...

A lot of the drive in this area was flat and boring...

Hey...there's a camel!

We continued on hwy 50 until it met up with I-15, following it north for a short distance and then took the exit to continue east on hwy 50. At the junction in Scipio, we pulled over at a Pilot Truck Travel Center to fuel up with diesel. A fellow happened to wander over to talk about the truck. We thought he was a truck driver but turns out he worked there and had noticed a slight lean on our trailer. Steve had a look but couldn't really see it. The guy checked the centre hanger between the wheels and said the shear spring had a tear in it. He had Steve feel it to confirm his findings and sure enough it was. He advised us that the shop next to the Flying J could fix us up so away we went. We were introduced to Clayton who checked out our suspension and confirmed the torn shear springs and also noticed that the top of one of the springs was hitting the bottom of the frame. Steve was surprised that they stocked all the MOR/ryde parts. Apparently as a member of Good Sam they are required to carry these parts. Okay...how much? $1600...holy S*%$!!!!

Wow...immediately there were three guys with all the parts, jacks and tools on it!

The shear spring is inside the centre hanger between the now disconnected leaf springs...

The new (hard rubber)shear spring...

You can see the tears in the old one. With the weight of the trailer on it you can insert your fingers into those slits...

And the other side is just as bad...

Clayton had also recommended eventually replacing the leaf springs as they had flattened somewhat and would eventually prematurely wear out our new shear springs. $2,052 lighter we are now proud owners of a new suspension, and the trailer now sits about an inch higher making it more level with the truck. He threw in the labour and U bolts, not sure if we got a deal but it is what it is. Wish it was the MOR/ryde independent suspension though! Clayton and the guys at G & G Service were great to deal with and were done in an hour and a half.

Well, that was an expensive stop! But with a new suspension, we were on our way again. We both commented to each other later that we initially thought we were being scammed but once we saw the damage it turned out to be a blessing. We could of had an expensive and damaging failure in the middle of nowhere.

 More beautiful scenery as we make our way to Torrey, Utah...

 Just before I-70, we turned onto highway 24, crossing I-70 and continuing southeast...

Love the fall colours...

 Time to torque the wheels...again! Steve's getting tired of doing this.

 Approaching the town of Loa...

 We went though a number of small communities before we reached Torrey...

Those red cliffs must mean we're getting close to Capitol Reef, and look...Bison!

Just before we reached Torrey, we arrived at Thousand Lakes RV Park, our destination. After registering, we made our way to site M2...a large back-in site.

With the couple of major events that didn't make our day, our luck continued with a couple of small things...I turned on the hot water tank but the red light on the switch didn't come on. Luckily we ended up still having hot water, so I guess the light is just burned out. While Steve was hooking up the water, he had a heck of a time trying to get the connections to stop leaking...how can you unhook at one spot where you've had no problems and then hook-up again and it leaks?! Next, we got the satellite dish up with stations coming in...but no sound. Looks like a loose connection was the problem there. Geez...we need a drink!

On a lighter note, this is a picture I took looking out our door...beautiful!

So...with a day like this one, we were happy to go to bed. Tomorrow has to be better!

Friday, after such a busy week...wow, we hit the road a week ago!...we decided to just have a "down" day. So we really didn't do much...Steve edited pictures and I started working on blogs.

While I was sitting at the table, I looked out the window to see the campground maintenance fellow cleaning a site. He rides a quad with a couple of rakes rigged on the back and drives back and forth...that's an ingenious way of raking and levelling the gravel. Could have used that setup at Tunkwa!

We did get out for some fresh air and pictures of the RV park. This is our site, particularly nice with no one in M1 beside us! From your blog John and Pam I think that was your site. What a view! Unfortunately folks are coming in on Saturday...oh well, we have a couple of days to enjoy an unobstructed view...

View of our rig from the laundry/showers building...

 Cabins behind the laundry building...

They have lots of pull thru sites, some quit long. You can ride your ATV's and side x sides from here too. Unfortunately we won't have time...

 The office and gift shop....

 Tent sites...with more cabins in the distance...

 Torrey Grill and Barbecue...offering all-inclusive dinners for $20 -$26

One of the reasons we chose this campground and having a down day was to have another mobile tech have a look at our leaky shower. Thousand Lakes Service Inc. is on site and does RV and auto repairs and has a great review on RV Service Reviews. The tech showed up at 10:45, and after reviewing everything Steve and the previous mobile tech have done wasn't sure what he could do. Steve told him the drain gasket was replaced, the water lines aren't leaking, the tap assembly appeared to be fine and everything that could possibly be sealed has been siliconed. To be sure he removed the tap assembly and took it to his shop to test for leaks. It was fine. He added a little more silicone around the bottom hinge on the shower door where Steve suspects the water may be getting in. It would require removal of the shower enclosure to rule that out and is a big job. Steve was hoping he had a bore scope camera to hopefully spot evidence of the leak from below but no such luck. 1 hour and $132 later...tomorrow will tell if anything has changed. Being in the middle of nowhere and no competition he's got you by the curlies with that shop rate! The mobile tech back home only charges $60.

And that was pretty much our day...looking forward to exploring Capitol Reef National Park tomorrow!