Time to wrap it up

After leaving St. Louis we stayed 2 nights in Mounds State Park just north of Indianapolis. Its a beautiful wooded campground with about 80 sites, only 4 or 5 were occupied. They had great walking trails for Darlene and Tara. As for me, they didn't allow bicycles on the trails so I tore up some roads with it instead. 

Speaking of the bike, I've really come to enjoy this thing. With my fallen arches (darn genes), questionable hip (darn motorcycles) and early stages of emphysema (darn cigarettes), walking any distance is not an option for me.

I used it most in Branson. The RV park was about a 10 minute walk from Branson Landing, the "happening" part of town. I could do it in a couple of minutes. The beaches were a lot of fun too.

You've seen it in previous posts but here it is again on the beach at Mustang Island near Corpus Christi.

I had to look a long time for a bike that was rugged and would fit someone 6' 2". My last bike, when I was 12 was state-of-the-art and had 3 speeds. This one has 24 and I use 3 of them. But its nice to know I can select a fourth for the really steep hills. In a really low gear I can peddle the bike right out from underneath me, he, he. (video to follow)

But lets get back to the (nearly over) trip. Our next, and final stop was to be in Charlotte, Michigan, at the Spartan Chassis factory service centre, for the "$5000 oil change".

The Unit has performed flawlessly for the past 6000 or so miles since it left home last October. It braved high winds and salt spray near Galveston, torrential rain and flooded highways in Dallas and 100 degree heat in Big Bend. It never missed a beat.

And then when we were less than 30 miles from the factory on Interstate 69, all hell broke lose. It felt like we had just driven onto the washboard road in Big Bend, only the washboard was ten times worse plus there were grinding noises. I pulled over to the shoulder while watching in the mirrors to see if we were leaving a trail of engine/ transmission parts or body panels on the highway behind us, but there were none to be seen. 
Now what!? 

I went outside to the back of the coach and noticed that the tow bar for the CR-V which was usually horizontal, now sloped down to the Unit's hitch at about a 30 degree angle.
The rear end of the Unit was practically dragging on the ground. Since we didn't have 4 flat tires back there the rear air suspension had obviously deflated. We were running with absolutely zero suspension, the chassis was sitting squarely on the rear axle. Ouch! Now what!?

I couldn't get underneath to take a look, with only 3" of ground clearance. It needed to be jacked up and I don't carry a jack. But wait, the Unit has levelling jacks which can actually lift the rear wheels right off the ground. And lift it did. Now I had lots of room to crawl under there. I noticed right away a thin rod hanging down below everything else. When I looked closer, it turned out to be the rod that connects the axle to the ride height valve (which keeps the rear of the coach at a predetermined height by inflating or deflating the rear air bags). The rod had slipped out of it's socket on the axle. I re-inserted it and tightened the screw, problem solved. I retracted the jacks and the back end came up just as it was supposed to.

On to Spartan, now 20 minutes behind our original ETA. 
I love a quick fix, it could have been a lot worse.

The $5000 oil change is a bit of an exaggeration but it still wasn't cheap. We had the creaking ball joints replaced (finally) and the front air bags too as they were original (1999) and getting tired. I don't want any more air bag problems. The offending ride height connecting rod was replaced with a newer (more dependable) version at a cost of $13. Along with the new ball joints came an alignment and ride height adjustment. We opted out of the actual oil change since a shiny new oil filter could raise questions at the border (ie. "what else did you have done"...)

Here is the Unit being driven by the mechanic, to the service bay which would be its home for the next 2 days. 

Spartan has a lot with electrical hook-ups so you can stay in your coach overnight. We opted for a hotel. Sadly, after not watching even one minute of TV for 5 weeks we made up for it at the hotel.

This was the spring 2016 trip.

We got home yesterday afternoon. Tara was ecstatic, she ran around the yard in circles and....you won't believe this.....she actually barked (I think I'm getting a little verklempt).
Cosmo (the cat) was beside himself too and is still purring uncontrollably even a day later.

Everything is back to normal, life is good, the weather here sucks.

Thanks for coming along, hope you enjoyed the ride, hope to see you next fall.