Closer to Leaving

Nearly all packed and ready to go

My 21 loyal blog readers are probably thinking, "Yeah, right, she keeps saying she's going to leave, but she is still in Eugene." I hardly believe myself anymore! But this long process of refurbishing a 28-year-old motorhome appears finally to be coming to an end. The new springs are installed. My rig now sits up about 4 inches higher on the right and about 2.5 inches higher on the left. It should handle better, too.

Now there are still a couple of issues. One, I found out that getting a propane tank that sits on its side in a special compartment of the moho is a special order--not like the $40 propane tanks you can get for your barbecue. So it's $175. But, hey, after all I've spent so far, as I told Gordy the mechanic, "What is another $175 between friends?" So, with that decision made, it's not really an issue anymore.

Second, they cannot seem to get both the headlights and the turn signals to work at the same time. So when I am driving at night, I'll have to use hand signals--which, of course, no one will be able to see in the dark, anyway. During the day, I will need to drive without using my headlights. So it's just a matter of making some adjustments. I don't plan to do much night driving, anyway. I'm 55 years old, and I've begun to notice that my eyesight isn't what it used to be at night, so I've already cut back a lot on driving after dark.

Gordy says the problem is that, with a motorhome, especially one like mine that has been upgraded by a former owner who was an electrician, there are just lots and lots of wires. Gordy could follow each one from beginning to end and figure out where the problem is, but it could take several hours of labor. So I will live with this problem for a while. Perhaps when I'm in Minnesota this summer, I can get my smart nephew Bill who is studying electrical engineering to take an afternoon to ferret out this problem. I think his labor rates are probably better than Gordy's and I'm sure he could always use some money.

So, let's see, it's Tuesday afternoon, I'm at Allan Brother's Beanery in Eugene using the Internet, and I could possibly be on the road by this weekend, if all goes well between now and then. At the latest, I will be out of here on my drop-dead departure date of Monday, February 14th. So I'm knocking out the tasks on my to-do list. At this point, most of the items on the list have to do with leaving the house squeaky-clean when I turn the keys back over to the landlord so I get my entire deposit back.