The Not Very Nice, Pretty Awful Day!

We were up early this morning, raring to get going and back on the road again. We had pretty well packed up last night, so just had to haul stuff down the stairs and put it into the car. We decided that except for the food, we would leave clothes and such into the car and take it all back into Auntie Violet after we stopped for the night. When we got to Uhlmann's, we had them fill the propane tank, we hitched up the Toad, we paid our bill (a little over $400 that was not covered by our extended warranty on a bill of over two grand) and we started off.



Forry noticed that one of the inner rear duals (which has a periodic slow leak) was down to less than 90 pounds, so we pulled around back so that Clayton could air it up. As we came around the corner, something went "POP" and the left windshield wiper went flying! (We had been so pleased yesterday that Uhlmann's had a set of 36" wiper blades so that we could have new ones put on.) I hopped out of the rig -- in the rain -- and picked up the whole wiper assembly. Forry had managed to stop just before the front wheel ran over it!


We thought at first that the wiper blade had not been attached securely and had come off, but the whole assembly had broken about three inches from the hub --

It turns out Uhlmanns did not have any of the brackets that fit the Alpine in stock. We waited around while they did some calling to other dealers. Finally, Guaranty RV referred them to a place in Oregon, A.M. Engineering, that actually makes wiper assemblies. Clayton removed the wiper assembly from the passenger side of the RV and put it on the driver's side so that we would have at least one wiper.

We weren't on the road ten miles when that wiper started mal-functioning! It wouldn't work continuously or intermittently at all, but Forry finally got it so that it would give one swipe at a time. (All this going on while we were outside in the rain!) He only used it sparingly when visibility got really bad...

We drove three and a half hours -- in the rain -- to just outside of Jefferson, Oregon. Found the building; couldn't park in their lot as there was a semi blocking it; parked alongside the street; walked a block back in the rain; then had to walk all the way around the back -- in the rain -- to the public entrance. Only to have the guy take one look at the part and tell us that they didn't make any that big! His only suggestion was that we check with Guaranty RV again or with Cummins NW to see what they might have...

So it's now after 4:30 and getting dark. We debated going to an RV park in near-by Albany, but realize that we might be looking for this part for a few days! We gave our son-in-law Todd a call and wangled an invitation to park in their driveway in Hubbard. Another hour of miserable driving -- in the rain -- with the last of it on Oregon's notoriously narrow no-shoulder country roads in the dark. Cold, wet and tired, we found the grand-kids and Todd fixing dinner in their nice warm house. What a treat to sit down for steak tostados with Daughter Dawn and her family when she returned from work!