After a MUCH longer hiatus than we had planned, we are finally back on the road! After making the trip from Florida to California, and discovering some issues with the bus, we felt like we should take care of a few things before we hit the road again. It just took alot longer than we thought it would! 

We are currently at the Wanderlodge Rally in Hood River, Oregon. More on that, but let’s back up…

Once we got back from Florida, we parked at Shahin’s cousin’s house in Concord. Thank you Arman, for your sweet hospitality! Shahin started looking for a mechanic who could replace the air-springs and shock absorbers, service the engine and generator, and rebuild one of our jacks that failed. Even though we had been told that it was hard to find mechanics to work on these birds, we didn’t realize how hard it would be.   After a couple weeks at Arman’s and a week in Livermore at Del Valle Park, Shahin finally located a mechanic near Rocklin who said he could work on it. We drove up to Roseville and Rocklin where my mom and sister live and took turns parking in front of their houses for a couple more weeks. We took the coach to the mechanic, but Shahin was not impressed. He was very disorganized and unresponsive to Shahin’s emails about what he wanted to do (along with part numbers and schematics!).Then Shahin found another mechanic in Fresno.

In the meantime, I was sitting around doing not much, so I decided to re-upholster the cornices over the windows, re-paint the walls from gray to white, and make new pillow shams for the bed. My mom helped me with all that and I think it turned out really pretty. Thanks, Mom!

Before

After (pic)

I wanted to re-upholster the headboard and make slip covers for the living room chairs, but I haven’t gotten to that yet.

We had previously planned a trip to Holland and that was coming up, so we parked the bus in a Stockton warehouse that belonged to Shahin’s company and flew off to Holland. Once we got back, we picked up the bus, drove to Fresno, dropped it off at Diesel Diagnostic Tech, and checked into the Residence Inn. Shahin spent the next ten days back and forth to the mechanic, supervising work, troubleshooting Wanderlodge specific issues with lots of input from the WOG, and ordering parts. In the process he made good friends and developed a strong mutual respect with the owner, Rami. We would definitely recommend Rami and Diesel Diagnostic Tech if you are ever in need of a diesel mechanic in the vicinity of Fresno! 

From Fresno, we went back to Concord for a couple days and then up to Rocklin. We still had a jack to get repaired and we finally got it done at Rocklin Hydraulics, but we have yet to get it re-installed.

Another issue we had been wrestling with was whether or not to tow a vehicle and if so, what? After many weeks of hemming and hawing, we finally decided to tow the 2004 Honda Element that we already had. We had to order a base plate, a wiring harness, and a supplemental braking system for the car. Once again, it was a struggle to find someone to install the base plate for us. Shahin wanted to make this event in Oregon, so we were on a time frame at this point. We ended up driving two vehicles up to Oregon and we are having the base plate installed up here.

Stay with me for more about the Rally this week.