Spring 2019

June 10, 2019

We have done a lot of things since the last post in March. We stayed on South Padre Island until April 18th when we headed for a Fantasy Rally in San Antonio. Unfortunately we got within 60 miles of San Antonio when we got an error message on the RV dash which said " Stop Engine". We were able to pull of the highway and called a Freightliner Dealer in San Antonio who sent a Mobil unit out to us. He was unable to fix the problem so we had wrecker tow the RV to a local Walmart where we spent the night because the Freightliner dealer was closed. The wrecker came back in the morning a towed us t the Freightliner dealer. This was on Friday and the dealer was not going to be able to look at the coach until the following week.

So on Friday we loaded what we needed into the Jeep and dove 250 miles home from San Antonio. Sunday morning we got a call from the Rally wagon master who said he had talked to the campground and gotten a deal for a cabin for the week. Since we had already paid for the Rally we decided to go, so we loaded the jeep up with clothes, electronics, food for the dogs and the two dogs and drove back to San Antonio to the camp ground.

We enjoyed the San Antonio Fiesta Rally. We saw several parades, had good food and spent a nice day in Fredericksburg. We visited the SAS (San Antonio Shoe) factory. We took a bus tour of the city and visited three Missions plus the Alamo. We took a boat trip down the San Antonio river. We visited the Brisco Western Art Museum which was really nice with many western pictures and statues. It was a very good rally.

Friday they told us our coach was fixed, they replaced the turbo actuator. We picked the coach up at 5 PM and drove t the camp ground. The problem was there was no air in the air bags which made for an extremely rough ride. We called the Freightliner dealer to have the mobile service come out, The technician could hear an air leak but he could not pin point it. A technician in the shop said he could fix it and he would be in the shop at 6 AM Saturday, We got up early and we were at the dealer before 6:30 AM.  They found a leaking check valve and replaced it. Still no air in the air bags. Then they found a plg was missing from the air tank. It had been removed by the tow truck diver to air up the brakes to release the emergency brkes and not put back in. With a new plug we had air in the air bags and we headed down the road to Fredericksburg.
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We spent a week in Fredericksburg visiting wineries and second hand shops. We took a drive to Kerrville which is a quaint town in the hill country.

We then headed toward Fort Stockton on our way to Las Cruses New Mexico for Judy's daughter's graduation from New Mexico State. Things again took a turn for the worst. We got 30 miles down the road when the Stop Engine light came on again. We tried to get mobile service but none was available so we had to drive back to Kerrville to a repair shop. They couldn't look at the coach until the next morning so we found a camp ground a short distance frm the repair shop. The next morning we to the shop and they checked the error codes and determined they were the same as when we had the problem two weeks earlier. They advised us t go back to the dealer in San Antonio, so we drove 90 miles to the Freightliner dealer in San Antonio.

The dealer couldn't look at the coach on Wednesday the day we got there, They said it would be at least the next day. We knew we would not get to Las Cruses in time for the Friday ceremonials even if we got he coach Thursday afternoon. So we loaded all the necessary things we would need including the two dogs and left San Antonio in the Jeep headed toward New Mexico. We made to Fort Stockton when we were to tired to continue. We left early the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Las Cruses, arriving about noon on Thursday. Julie had found us a pet friendly motel to stay in.

I will post the pictures from the Fiesta in the next post as well as cover all graduation ceremonies. We did eventually get the RV fixed.

Dick and Judy