Month: February 2018

11

 

We headed back in to Big Bend. Our initial destination was Chisos Basin again. On the way into Chisos we saw a Gray Bobcat (Lynx Rufus) cross the road. Very cool. Donna researched where the Window View Trail was and we wanted to see it. It starts right by the Chisos Basin store and is literally only a couple of hundred yards long. It is totally paved and could be done in a wheel chair with little effort.

After the very arduous (NOT!) Window View Trail we headed for East Big Bend. Our first stop was Boquillas Canyon. Nearby is a border crossing where you can pay to cross the Rio Grande in a row boat and visit the Mexican Village of Boquillas. Reviews did not make it sound that great and we would have to leave Maverick in the car so we didn’t try it.
The Boquillas Canyon trail starts with a 102 ft ascent and is about 1.4 miles round trip. It follows the Rio Grande. While pretty, you never really get a good view down the canyon like we did at Santa Elena Canyon. If you are just looking to hike it’s OK, but we felt the effort to scenic ratio wasn’t that great. Mexicans clearly cross the Rio Grande at will here. On the trail was a Mexican man singing and selling trinkets. I’m sure he is from Boquillas. We got very hot on the trail. There was no wind, and direct sunlight. The outside temp was only about 65F. I can’t imagine doing this hike in 100 deg summer weather. When we got back to the car we immediately changed into short sleeve shirts that were much more comfortable for the rest of the day.

After the trail we went to the park at Rio Grande Village. There is nice motorhome camping, a store, gas, and very nice picnic area. We considered staying here when planning this trip but it was already totally booked up. The lack of availability was probably because the other motorhome campground, Cottonwood, was closed at this time. We packed our lunch today and enjoyed the picnic area with only a few other folks.

After our lunch we headed back West. On the way back we stopped at the Hot Springs trail. The trail was about 1 mile round trip. The trail follow cliffs that are very interesting and that have some petrographs. The Hot Spring was truly hot and had three people in it. The springs was a square concrete structure only about 1-2 feet deep. It could hold probably about 8 couples comfortably. The neatest thing is the “springs” basically stick out into the Rio Grande. While we packed our swim gear based on the possible use of the springs, once we experienced the hike in we didn’t want to return dressed for the springs. The hike was enjoyable with or without experiencing the springs. Be aware the road to the springs trail head is very narrow, winding, and pretty rough in spots. Easy in the jeep or a pickup but would not be cool in a normal car. RVs and trailers are prohibited.

After the hot springs we felt we had seen most of Big Bend without committing to much longer hikes than we were interested in. We headed back to Lajitas for a shower and dinner. Refreshed we decided to eat at the highly rated Starlight Theater restaurant. When we arrived we were shocked to see the parking lot full and people waiting outside to be seated. Nowhere else did we experience any crowds. Our backup plan was the High Sierra Bar and Grill right on the highway. We dined on the 2nd floor open air patio. The food was good, the view and weather were great. We were very pleased with our backup plan.

Today we explored West Big Bend National Park. We took the Maverick Road (unimproved gravel) to Santa Elena Canyon. The trail at the canyon was a little bit of a climb at the start of but really beautiful once you get to the end. It is a very dramatic canyon carved by the Rio Grande River.  Afterwards we went to Castalon where there is a visitor center and store. We ate lunch on the picnic tables and afterwards we went to Chisos Basin camping area. Chisos Basin is a really beautiful area surrounded by mountains.  Chisos Basin is higher altitude and has more vegetation including some pine trees. Some of the longer hiking trails start here.  The lost mine trail looked popular based on the parking log. We didn’t do any trails at this time.  We looked for the Window View Trail but didn’t find it.  We left Chisos Basin and went to Panther Junction.  Nothing really there and we were tired so we turned around and headed back to Lajitas.   We had dinner at the Lajitas Resort restaurant called Candelilla Cafe. A very nice place and the burger was excellent.

 

We departed Sonora TX about 0930, got diesel and headed for Lajitas TX and Maverick Ranch RV park.  Lajitas is a short distance West of Big Bend.  We chose it because it is a nice RV resort with amenities. Some of the parks inside Big Bend were closed and what remained was pretty much “dry camping”. We were tired of that after the repair and needed some place nicer. Maverick approved based on the name.

Today is the big day. The repair shop finished up the steering box about noon and I paid out. We had to take the old steering box to the big UPS shipping center so it could be shipped back to Weller in order to get our $200 core charge refunded. By the time we returned it was about 1pm. Time to test drive. Immediately I realized a problem. Steering was VERY difficult. I debated if it was even safe to test drive around the block to assess the problem. I decided I could make it and about 100 yards down the road suddenly it fixed itself (most of the way). I made it back to the shop and checked the fluid and determined the air had not been fully bled from the system and was now about 1/2 gallon low on fluid. This was after I helped bleed the system with the shop and had verified fluid levels were actually a little too high. I re-filled the system and worked the steering to further bleed it on the lot. After 30 minutes or so I was ready for another test drive. This time the steering had no issues. I rechecked the fluids, and we hooked up the car. We were super eager to leave. We headed out Hwy 71/Hwy 290 with a plan of stopping in Sonora TX. Because of our rush we didn’t empty the holding tanks and now we discovered bad sewer smell. Crud. Due to the smell we made a very short detour to Perdenales Falls Texas State Park to use their dump station. It was a nice quiet park with partial hook up sites available. We considered staying but it would add another day getting to Big Bend so we pressed on. We got to Sonora about 6:45 just after dark. Mike the manager of the RV park actually met us in town, led us to our parking spot, and even helped hook up the RV. The park was just a parking lot but was quiet and we relished the full hook-ups for the first time since leaving home. It was wonderful to be away from the repair shop.

No good pictures today, just our route.

Today is Sunday so no work on the coach.  I was actually surprised and pleased they worked Saturday.   Unfortunately with the coach in the bay we don’t get satellite.  This afternoon is Super Bowl and we have no Satellite.  What to do?  We headed to Chili’s early for snacks and drinks to watch the game.     We actually had a really nice evening with exceptional attention by the wait staff.

 

We got up extra early this morning so we would be ready to move the coach into the working bay as soon as Fleet workers arrived. It took a while for Fleet to get vehicles rearranged and they started work at about 0830. By 1145 they had the new gearbox loosely in place but they had ruined the nuts with a torch getting them off. They can’t get new 7/8 locking nuts until Monday morning so our hopes of departing today are dashed. It is probably good I didn’t try the repair myself on the road after seeing how hard it was for the shop to get the old gearbox out.

Donna and I went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch and then decided to checkout Bastrop Texas State Park, a short 30 miles east on Hwy 71. Bastrop had nice facilities and nice trails. It was probably a very pretty park prior to 2011 when decimated by the worst and most damaging Texas wildfire in history. This park connects with Buescher Texas State Park. This park has a small pretty lake, lots of hiking and wasn’t quite as hard hit by the fire. Sorry, I didn’t grab any pics at these parks.  We also headed back to McKinney Falls (yet again) so Maverick could have some fun trail time.

We are still staying in our coach waiting until Monday so they can finish the steering gearbox job. All of the hard parts should be behind us so we “should” be free by noon Monday. We will probably head direct for Big Bend since we no longer have time to go to Corpus Christi as originally planned.

Ran around and did errands all day. Spoke with Fleet this morning to let them know I had all of the parts for the gearbox and to see when they expected to start. They were startled that I had actually procured the parts and indicated it was their policy to NOT install owner supplied parts. They understood my predicament and said they would check with their boss about helping us anyway. The rest of the day we ran errands. We ate lunch at Serranos and it was pretty good mexican food with a passable Margarita. After lunch I took Donna to urgent care because her cough and chest congestion has flared back up. We are scared not to address it after my brother Rick’s experience with Sepsis and with all of the chatter in the news about the flu. While Donna was at urgent care I went to Tractor Supply and got the required bolts for the gearbox swap and checked multiple places for tools I would need if I were to try the gearbox repair on my own. I hadn’t heard back from Fleet and was getting worried I would be on my own. I was just getting ready to buy the first tool at Harbor Freight when Fleet called and said they would install my parts. They would start first thing in the morning (Sat). The doc said Donna had severe allergies from the extra high levels of Cedar in the Austin area.

Sorry, no pictures today.   Tractor Supply wasn’t that interesting anyway 🙂

Today started with a call to Weller Truck Parts. I spoke with John in the Weller steering department in MI. I explained to John I needed parts as soon as possible since I was broke down in Austin. John checked stock and the parts were available in Irving Texas. He asked me to expect a call from the Irving Texas store. Weller in MI has developed the steering gearbox swap database and work with RVers to make sure we get the right parts for a Sheppard to TRW swap. They also give special pricing to the RVers swapping steering boxes. Donna, Mav, and I went to Macs for our morning Diet Coke and before we got there Weller Irving called. They said they had everything ready for us. We chose to make the drive to Irving and back to make sure the parts would be available as soon as Fleet Maintenance was ready for us. We took off at 9:30am and got back to the Coach about 6:30pm. Having the parts in hand now enables me to tackle this project myself if Fleet drags this out. We are VERY anxious to get on the road.  I “can” do this myself but would really prefer professionals do the job.  My fear is Fleet will keep delaying.  The good news is as soon as they bring the Coach in they now have everything they need for the swap/repair. Weller has been very supportive and knowledgeable.

Tomorrow is the “how close are we to getting in for repair?” conversation. Based on that we will decide if I do this myself. The challenges doing this myself include:

• 500 lbf torque bolts – requires big cheater bars or expensive torque multiplier tool
• Handling a gearbox that weighs 80 lbs
• Drilling a 2″ hole in a steel plate 1/2″ thick that also requires a right-angle drill
• Somewhere between $100 and $400 worth of tools I will probably never use again.
• Finding a location I can use to perform major maintenance.

Maverick was very disappointed with today’s activities. He has been accustomed to walks on trails with waterfalls. We did end the day with a very brief sunset walk at Ladybird Lake.