We arrived at the California Department of Motor Vehicles office at 8:10 this morning for our appointment to register Nessie. After presenting our paperwork, the clerk told me she needed to inspect the vehicle, so we went outside and "lifted the hood" to check for VIN #'s and such. After a thorough inspection of the engine compartment and a cursory look at the mileage, we adjourned back into the office. After shuffling papers for a few minutes, the clerk announced that she could not register the vehicle because she didn't have a statement from the engine manufacturer attesting that the engine met California emissions standards. Wherever you live, I'm sure you heard my reaction because she had in front of her the two certificates from the manufacturer (wet signed and notarized no less) stating that the engine met 2013 standards for 50 states. Evidently 50 states doesn't include CA, but that's another subject....
After several consultations with superiors, and two phone calls to "the experts", she was able to find the information she needed, and deemed us worthy of writing large checks payable to DMV.
That was Good News Number 1.
So we hitched up our drawers and hit I5 North to Seattle, knowing that we wouldn't get there today, but would get a piece down the road (is it a piece UP the road if you're going north?) All went well for several hours and we stopped for lunch at the rest stop at exit 99: Seven Feathers, where we were fortunate to see a couple from Pensacola, FL, that we have been running into all week long. John and his wife are super people with a love for Boston Terriers. Can't be all bad, then, can they? Very nice people, and we wish them safe travels and hope to see them again one day.
About 15 miles south of Salem, OR, we were buzzing along a nice straight stretch of road without a care in the world when we noticed a bit of debris in the road. As we got closer, it became a large piece of tire tread, so I looked around for a place to go to avoid the rubber. Guess what...no place to go, so we straddled the debris and hoped for the best.
So Good News Number 2 was that we were able to save the pieces.....
The tire tread made it under Nessie without incident, but got hung up in the nice, heavy, chrome and rubber mud flap that extends all across the back of the motorhome and turned it into a very large pretzel. We stopped and retrieved the flap for future blacksmithing (it was still attached on one end, dragging along behind the motorhome), and went on our way hoping for a nice remainder of the day. Later inspection didn't reveal any other damage to either vehicle, so I might leave the mud flap off for a while.
We pulled into Hee Hee Illahee RV Resort in Salem for the night, expecting an early evening, a nice dinner, a little tv and bed. Hmmm.....
When I hooked up the water hose to the RV, I noticed that the floor of the storage compartments under the floor were wet. On further investigation, I discovered that I had left a water valve in the wrong position, and so while we were traveling today, the water pump was merrily pumping 105 gallons of water from the tank out the fitting that is supposed to be hooked up to shore water, which in turn filled up most of the storage areas.
Good News Number 3 was that we were able to empty and dry out the areas.
So now it's a bit later in the evening. I'm hoping that all I have to do is shower, shave, and fall into bed. Well, what could go wrong with that.......?
I'll let you know.
No comments:
Post a Comment