Browsing CategoryRepairs

Pine Grove, PA

After spending the past several months pulled by the temptation, and concurrent need for creativity in participating in visits and fun time with family and friends, we headed South – intent on spending a few weeks in nowhere. Pennsylvania has large swaths of ‘nowhere’. Jake staked out a swath of nowhere that happened to promise trails and an hour’s proximity to a Wegmans. We found ourselves at an off-season RV Resort in Pine Grove, PA, where we stayed for two weeks. Two glorious, quiet, weeks dotted with morning runs and two trips to Wegmans. Twin Pines RV Resort, Pine Grove,…

Sioux Falls, SD (& a ROC Trip)

As I sit here at the second truck repair shop we’ve slept at in less that a week, I still can’t get over what a great month+ we’ve had in Sioux Falls (with a 10 day trip back to ROC sans RV). Our home address! We made it ‘home’! Even sitting in this repair shop, with our broken drive axle & jacked up differential – I just feel so happy about so much of the stuff that we got to experience over the past little bit. Waiting for her day with the Dr. Repair shop? Yeah, we screwed our axle.…

Holbrook, AZ

On February 28th we rolled on all 12 wheels into Holbrook, AZ. Why Holbrook, AZ you may be asking yourself? What’s the scoop? Is it amazing and great there? Is there a lot of amazing stuff to do? No. It’d be more effective to just ask yourself, ‘why do Jake & Liz go anywhere these days?’ Correct! You’re right! Great job! Yes! Holbrook does have a diesel shop! Jake swears that this time it was ‘planned’ maintenance. At this point, I’m almost of the impression that Jake just really likes hanging out at repair shops. Except I know he hates…

Owego, NY

We boarded a ferry off of St. Thomas, flew to NYC, hopped on the city bus, ran under ground and boarded the subway, sprinted (literally) through the NYC bus terminal to catch our ($1!!) MegaBus, slept our way back to Binghamton, hopped into the car with my brother, and ended back up in my (Liz) hometown area. While we were in the B.V.I.s, Dyna was in the engine shop. And when we returned from the B.V.I.s, she still needed to spend some time in the shop – and then would need to move to a different shop. So we took…

Newark Valley, NY

We limped into my mom’s driveway early afternoon on May 15th happy to be able to put our oil coated levelers down somewhere familiar. Because: oil. It’s still everywhere. I (Liz) grew up a few towns over from where my mom now resides in a lovely old house on the main street of a tiny town in the Southern Tier of NY. I was pretty stoked to see that the lilacs were blooming when we pulled in. It’s been a few years since I’ve smelled lilacs. We spent a few weeks poking around in Dyna’s innards. Well, realistically, Jake &…

Mt. Pleasant, PA

Well, shit.   “Uh, Jake – SHIT – we have an oil problem. As in, Dyna’s ass is covered in it. And also, the Jeep’s face is covered too” – me, probably, yelling across the parking lot at a rest stop to Jake So, about those oil splatters we have been mostly ignoring on and off since Florida. They have turned from ‘light dusting’ to ‘torrential’. Shit. Luckily, we noted this new level of oil situation at 3:45pm on a Friday afternoon somewhere on some highway between Columbus and Pittsburgh. So, finding a knowledgable any diesel engine dude/woman was super easy damned…

Nashville, TN (2)

On the drive back to Nashville, TN from NY, Jake felt it coming. The ache. Except this time, it wasn’t the ‘adventure’ ache. It was the ‘oh shit, my head aches’ ache. We had been had. Had by the awesomeness of being surrounded by our people. And had by the wretched diseases they (especially their 5 year old ranks) carried. Yep, for the first time since we started our mobile lifestyle (18 months!) – Jake was getting sick. Which inevitably meant I would also be getting sick. Probably because we spend most of our time within 10 feet of each…

Medicine Bow National Forest, WY

We heard reports of some good National Forest land between Laramie and Cheyenne, so we pointed Dyna that way. Reports we confirmed- solid boondocking spot out around Pole Mountain in Medicine Bow National Forest. Seriously- gorgeous country. And, as an added bonus, we were the only folks out there for our two night stay! Double bonus: a presidential debate occurred during our stay. And personally, there isn’t a better motivator for experiencing some ‘alone time’ than a presidential debate.  Of course, it’s been a few posts since we’ve had to write about repairs. But don’t worry, Dyna’s got your back.…

Rock Springs, WY

Fun fact: Wyoming had the lowest population of all 50 states. So much land. So few people. Not always a bad thing…  We meandered into Rock Springs, WY and parked the big lug at the fairgrounds. After searching for a working water spigot to hook-up to for way longer than was appropriate, we put down our levelers and settled in for a few nights. We woke up to crazy wind and freezing rain sideways freezing hail. It didn’t stop for two days. Our weather app made no mention of the possibility of this type of weather. We noted that the weather…

Eugene, OR (Round 2)

Some stops are glamorous only in retrospect. Our second rendezvous with the greater Eugene, OR, area was glamorous only in retrospect. We spent much of our second date with Eugene hopping between RV shops. The Eugene, Oregon area (specifically, Coburg and Junction City) is a mecca for RV craftsmen. So, we hunted a few down. We beat them into submission. We forced them to agree to install a new floor, re-upholster our couch, and paint a few trouble spots on Dyna’s 15 year old exterior. (Okay, we paid them- same difference).  We also coerced these poor folks into letting us…