I'm struggling a bit with how to present today's update. That's because we're, umm, not really here.
What I mean to say is that we are parked at the new up-and-coming home of a business that is not yet open and therefore whose details I can not yet share. Suffice it to say that the owner is a long-time friend of ours and his new business here will involve RV renovations and updates, and he has graciously agreed to help us with replacing our carpets with a more durable flooring that will not retain pet fur as the carpet did. As soon as the business actually opens I will post the details here. At this point, I don't think I can even discuss the actual flooring material, other than to say that it is a woven vinyl material with a rubber backing that goes down very similar to sheet vinyl flooring, but is at the same time more resilient and more durable. We've chosen a weave that looks similar to a far-eastern woven mat of, say, rattan or bamboo, which complements our maple cabinets without being too close in color. We'll try to post some photos when it's done.
We arrived Thursday morning in the hopes that we'd be done by Friday afternoon, but various complications got in the way. Notably the fact that once we removed the carpet, we found areas that will need to be trimmed out in some way -- plush carpet over ten-pound pad hides a multitude of sins. Also, since the rough carpentry for the living room and penthouse assumed from day one that the flooring would be carpet, there were a number of spots on both levels that needed to be sanded flush, and corners that needed to be squared off or rounded off depending on which way the new material will run. So it looks like we will be here right up until the July 4th holiday, if not beyond. That's fine with us, as it gives us this weekend off to catch up on a few things, including posting here to the blog.
While the guys worked on getting the carpet out and taking their measurements, I squeezed myself into the right front wheel well to deal with the flaky ride-height valve. I'd done this before, so I was a little surprised when I had trouble squeezing my body in between the wheel and the fender (once inside, there is plenty of room to sit upright and work). And I know I've lost weight since the last time I was in there, dropping from a 36 to a 34 waist. Then it hit me -- we'd changed from 12R22.5 to 315/80R22.5 tires, and the extra girth was not mine, but the tire's. We had to run that wheel up on 2x6's for me to finally squeeze in.
Once I got the valve apart the problem was immediately evident: there was a hard clump of crud sitting right on top of the piston, perhaps 1-2mm in diameter. I'm sure just brushing that off would have cured the problem, but as long as I had the valve apart I pulled both piston heads and the spring, cleaned them and the inside of the chamber, and carefully put the whole thing back together. After half an hour in the confines of the wheel well I was more than happy to be done and squeeze back out. We aired the bus up and -- voila! -- the other valve (on the driver side) immediately began leaking. Harumph.
I had had enough claustrophobia for one day, so we decided to just let the air compressor run every few minutes, as the left side leak was much slower than the right had been. Also, I know that often this problem just goes away on its own after I drive a few miles, and whatever dust particle is trapped in there, keeping the piston from sealing, flushes out on its own in the regular operation of the valve. Sure enough, after a full day of compressor cycling the valve closed of its own accord, and I am hoping I am not in for another valve rebuild for some time to come.
Yesterday we got booted out of the bus while the flooring was being cut to shape, so we contented ourselves with sitting in the shop reading or surfing the net. It did rain quite a bit yesterday, and we were disturbed to note a continuing leak above the left Peninsula window -- I'm closing in on it, though, and have narrowed it down to an area of the front cap just below the rain gutter. I need to get out the compressed air gun and a bottle of soap solution to pin that sucker down.
Today's project was fixing an annoying squeak in the bathroom FanTastic. I spent a couple hours on the roof, pulling the fan/motor assembly out of the housing. After removing the hub set screw to remove the fan blades, I discovered that the fan hub was corroded to the motor spindle, and nothing I did would shake the two loose. Both the motor mount and the fan blade are plastic, which have likely become quite brittle in four years, and I was only willing to put so much pressure on either one before I gave up. I squirted some WD40 (yeah, yeah, I know -- it's a solvent, not a lubricant, but it's the only thing I had that would reach) as best I could in the general direction of the motor spindle and bearing, and put the whole mess back together. It squeaks a bit less, now, but I foresee a replacement FanTastic in my future.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
We now return to our regular programming
We are back on the road after a full week in Portland.
We had a good, if somewhat exhausting, conference, which ended Sunday night. We spent a good deal of Monday recovering, and trying to get more details posted on the conference blog (I'm still not done with that). Monday evening we decided to take advantage of the fact that our transit passes still had another full day on them, and rode the bus down to the Olive Garden. It turned out to be only half a mile away, so we worked off some of our pasta by walking back. Chalk the close Olive Garden up as another selling point for this particular stopover.
The dog's ear has been bothering her lately -- we noticed she has been shaking her head a lot. So yesterday morning was given over to taking her to the vet. It turns out that Tri-Met allows pets on board, so long as they are in a carrier, so we walked her over to the Max station and put her in her cage for one stop, then had another two block walk to the vet. Even though we couldn't see it that far down, she had a mild infection in both ears. So we've got a couple weeks of antibiotic drops ahead of us. And kudos to Portland Tri-Met for the pet policy -- evidence of a real commitment to getting people out of their cars (along with the generous pass policy, and the fact that the entire downtown core is "fareless").
After the vet, Louise brought Opal back home, and I headed to OMSI, where I had a hankering to see the submarine. I lucked out: being the only person to show up for my scheduled tour time, I got a private showing. Last night we used our passes one last time to go to dinner downtown at Pazzo, an upscale Italian place in the historic Hotel Vintage Plaza.
This morning we finally buttoned up and headed south, stopping in Salem to do laundry. Tomorrow morning we need to be in Harrisburg to deal with getting the carpet replaced, so tonight we are at the Pioneer truck stop (map), essentially a big lot behind a Travelodge hotel, a restaurant, and a 76 station with a truck island. The place is familiar, as it was a regular food stop for us when we were hauling up and down I-5 in the car while Odyssey was under construction (although I note that the hotel was a Best Western in those days). We had a nondescript dinner in the restaurant, just to make ourselves official customers.
We've gone for a good couple weeks without any real bus-related problems, so we were due: when we got parked here, we noticed that air was rushing out of the right-front ride-height valve. The valve is sort of stuck in a mode where air is trying to to into the bag from the supply side, at the same time it is venting out of the bag from the exhaust. We've seen this before, on the left side valve -- the cure was to disassemble, clean, and rebuild the valve. I didn't want to start that at 6:30 in the evening, so we'll spend the night with no air at all (and the front door held closed with bungees) and I will take care of it tomorrow while the carpet is being replaced. I have my fingers crossed that cleaning the valve will do the trick -- if it needs to be replaced, we could be in for a long wait.
We had a good, if somewhat exhausting, conference, which ended Sunday night. We spent a good deal of Monday recovering, and trying to get more details posted on the conference blog (I'm still not done with that). Monday evening we decided to take advantage of the fact that our transit passes still had another full day on them, and rode the bus down to the Olive Garden. It turned out to be only half a mile away, so we worked off some of our pasta by walking back. Chalk the close Olive Garden up as another selling point for this particular stopover.
The dog's ear has been bothering her lately -- we noticed she has been shaking her head a lot. So yesterday morning was given over to taking her to the vet. It turns out that Tri-Met allows pets on board, so long as they are in a carrier, so we walked her over to the Max station and put her in her cage for one stop, then had another two block walk to the vet. Even though we couldn't see it that far down, she had a mild infection in both ears. So we've got a couple weeks of antibiotic drops ahead of us. And kudos to Portland Tri-Met for the pet policy -- evidence of a real commitment to getting people out of their cars (along with the generous pass policy, and the fact that the entire downtown core is "fareless").
After the vet, Louise brought Opal back home, and I headed to OMSI, where I had a hankering to see the submarine. I lucked out: being the only person to show up for my scheduled tour time, I got a private showing. Last night we used our passes one last time to go to dinner downtown at Pazzo, an upscale Italian place in the historic Hotel Vintage Plaza.
This morning we finally buttoned up and headed south, stopping in Salem to do laundry. Tomorrow morning we need to be in Harrisburg to deal with getting the carpet replaced, so tonight we are at the Pioneer truck stop (map), essentially a big lot behind a Travelodge hotel, a restaurant, and a 76 station with a truck island. The place is familiar, as it was a regular food stop for us when we were hauling up and down I-5 in the car while Odyssey was under construction (although I note that the hotel was a Best Western in those days). We had a nondescript dinner in the restaurant, just to make ourselves official customers.
We've gone for a good couple weeks without any real bus-related problems, so we were due: when we got parked here, we noticed that air was rushing out of the right-front ride-height valve. The valve is sort of stuck in a mode where air is trying to to into the bag from the supply side, at the same time it is venting out of the bag from the exhaust. We've seen this before, on the left side valve -- the cure was to disassemble, clean, and rebuild the valve. I didn't want to start that at 6:30 in the evening, so we'll spend the night with no air at all (and the front door held closed with bungees) and I will take care of it tomorrow while the carpet is being replaced. I have my fingers crossed that cleaning the valve will do the trick -- if it needs to be replaced, we could be in for a long wait.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Settled in to Portland
We are at the Gateway Elks Lodge, in Portland (map).
We had an uneventful and mostly scenic drive down from Chehalis yesterday, a route that is extremely familiar to us. We did cross the river in Longview to get a slightly different set of scenery on US30. I did notice, since the last time we came through, that they have finally torn down the coolant recovery tower at the defunct Trojan nuclear power plant in Rainier.
Somewhere along 30 we stopped at a closed Oregon weigh station. (Oregon helpfully puts a scale display in full view of the driver and leaves their scales turned on when they are not open.) We found we've added about 250 pounds to the front axle since our last weigh-in, also in Oregon on our way north. That's about what I expected due to the new, heavier batteries we just put in, bringing our steer axle to right around 13,000 pounds. We put 160 gallons of diesel in at the Flying-J in Troutdale, where we nearly coasted in on fumes. We also took advantage of their dump station.
We chose this Elks lodge because it is a two-block walk to the Max light rail station, and from there a 15 minute ride to the convention center. $19.50 buys us an all-you-can-ride seven day transit pass, good for the Max and the buses, and you can't even park a car downtown for one day for that price. There is also a Fred Meyer store across the street.
The lodge is pleasant enough, although I am a little miffed by their "campground" operation. Generally, we prefer lodges that just ask us to park in some empty space out back and leave us to our own devices -- we usually have no need of power or other hookups. Our generator will come on as needed, including should we need to leave an air conditioner on standby for the dog.
At this lodge, they have set up an actual campground in the back, with a dozen spaces. Unfortunately, those dozen spaces share only six power pedestals, each with one 30-amp and one 20-amp receptacle. So the second rig next to any pedestal gets a mere 20-amps -- again, usually no problem for us, except that generators are forbidden here. On top of which, the paucity of power means that air conditioners (as well as electric heaters) are also forbidden. In Portland, this is usually no problem, except that this week is something of a hot spell, with temperatures in the 80's. We've got all the windows open and the fans on, but, still, I do worry a bit about the dog while we're away. I may try to get back here during the day to check on her and take her out.
In any case, they are charging us (umm, "requesting a donation") $12 a night here, which would be reasonable if we got some power and could run an air conditioner. But for what amounts to dry camping ten feet from another rig, it's a bit excessive. Beggars can't be choosers, though, and we need the proximity to transit, so we ponied up.
In a few minutes we will hop on the Max and head to the convention center to start our conference, the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association. For the rest of the week, we will be blogging our experiences there as congregational delegates over at a blog we have set up for that purpose, the CLF Delgates' Notes blog. I will likely not post much else here until General Assembly is over.
We had an uneventful and mostly scenic drive down from Chehalis yesterday, a route that is extremely familiar to us. We did cross the river in Longview to get a slightly different set of scenery on US30. I did notice, since the last time we came through, that they have finally torn down the coolant recovery tower at the defunct Trojan nuclear power plant in Rainier.
Somewhere along 30 we stopped at a closed Oregon weigh station. (Oregon helpfully puts a scale display in full view of the driver and leaves their scales turned on when they are not open.) We found we've added about 250 pounds to the front axle since our last weigh-in, also in Oregon on our way north. That's about what I expected due to the new, heavier batteries we just put in, bringing our steer axle to right around 13,000 pounds. We put 160 gallons of diesel in at the Flying-J in Troutdale, where we nearly coasted in on fumes. We also took advantage of their dump station.
We chose this Elks lodge because it is a two-block walk to the Max light rail station, and from there a 15 minute ride to the convention center. $19.50 buys us an all-you-can-ride seven day transit pass, good for the Max and the buses, and you can't even park a car downtown for one day for that price. There is also a Fred Meyer store across the street.
The lodge is pleasant enough, although I am a little miffed by their "campground" operation. Generally, we prefer lodges that just ask us to park in some empty space out back and leave us to our own devices -- we usually have no need of power or other hookups. Our generator will come on as needed, including should we need to leave an air conditioner on standby for the dog.
At this lodge, they have set up an actual campground in the back, with a dozen spaces. Unfortunately, those dozen spaces share only six power pedestals, each with one 30-amp and one 20-amp receptacle. So the second rig next to any pedestal gets a mere 20-amps -- again, usually no problem for us, except that generators are forbidden here. On top of which, the paucity of power means that air conditioners (as well as electric heaters) are also forbidden. In Portland, this is usually no problem, except that this week is something of a hot spell, with temperatures in the 80's. We've got all the windows open and the fans on, but, still, I do worry a bit about the dog while we're away. I may try to get back here during the day to check on her and take her out.
In any case, they are charging us (umm, "requesting a donation") $12 a night here, which would be reasonable if we got some power and could run an air conditioner. But for what amounts to dry camping ten feet from another rig, it's a bit excessive. Beggars can't be choosers, though, and we need the proximity to transit, so we ponied up.
In a few minutes we will hop on the Max and head to the convention center to start our conference, the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association. For the rest of the week, we will be blogging our experiences there as congregational delegates over at a blog we have set up for that purpose, the CLF Delgates' Notes blog. I will likely not post much else here until General Assembly is over.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Back at our home park
We are at the Wal-Mart in Chehalis (map).
We awoke this morning to a beautiful day on the coast, in contrast to yesterday's bleakness. It was so sunny and clear that we had a nice view of Destruction Island and its historic lighthouse, perhaps five or six miles away, where yesterday had only been a drab silhouette on the horizon, with only the flashing of the beacon after dusk to betray the lighthouse's presence.
We really didn't want to leave such a lovely spot so soon, but we have to be in Portland tomorrow, and we needed to get underway. With plenty of time, though, we did make a brief side excursion along Quinault Lake, stopping for lunch at a Forest Service picnic area overlooking the lake, half a dozen miles from 101. This afternoon's task involved a quick stop at the outlet center in Centralia -- I needed a couple pairs of khakis, which I buy almost exclusively at VF Outlet, which discounts Wrangler and its various sub-labels.
That led us here to Chehalis, and the last friendly Wal-Mart until we hit the Columbia in Longview. We'll likely cross the river there, just to get off I-5, and take US30 all the way in to Portland. We're nearly out of fuel, so we'll actually overshoot Portland for Troutdale, another ten miles east on I-84, where diesel at the Flying-J is running $2.71 a gallon (it's 25-30 cents more than that here in Washington). I expect to be in quarters at the Gateway Elks lodge by mid-afternoon.
We awoke this morning to a beautiful day on the coast, in contrast to yesterday's bleakness. It was so sunny and clear that we had a nice view of Destruction Island and its historic lighthouse, perhaps five or six miles away, where yesterday had only been a drab silhouette on the horizon, with only the flashing of the beacon after dusk to betray the lighthouse's presence.
We really didn't want to leave such a lovely spot so soon, but we have to be in Portland tomorrow, and we needed to get underway. With plenty of time, though, we did make a brief side excursion along Quinault Lake, stopping for lunch at a Forest Service picnic area overlooking the lake, half a dozen miles from 101. This afternoon's task involved a quick stop at the outlet center in Centralia -- I needed a couple pairs of khakis, which I buy almost exclusively at VF Outlet, which discounts Wrangler and its various sub-labels.
That led us here to Chehalis, and the last friendly Wal-Mart until we hit the Columbia in Longview. We'll likely cross the river there, just to get off I-5, and take US30 all the way in to Portland. We're nearly out of fuel, so we'll actually overshoot Portland for Troutdale, another ten miles east on I-84, where diesel at the Flying-J is running $2.71 a gallon (it's 25-30 cents more than that here in Washington). I expect to be in quarters at the Gateway Elks lodge by mid-afternoon.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Back on the coast
We are at the South Beach campground in the Olympic National Park, along US101 (map).
Yesterday we had a lovely drive from Port Townsend to Sol Duc Hot Springs, also in the Olympic National Park. The drive along the north coast and then along Crescent Lake was breathtaking. We spent last night at the "RV park" at the hot springs (map), really just a gravel lot with a handful of power posts, operated by Aramark, the resort concessionaire. Just another hundred yards up the road was a Park Service campground, which we had been advised not to attempt. When we walked through it later, though, we discovered half a dozen sites that would easily have accommodated Odyssey, although they were already taken as it was Saturday night. No matter -- the RV lot was only an extra $11 ($23 plus tax, vs. $14 for the Park Service), which included water and 30 amps of electricity, and it was nearly as idyllic. Plus, it was much closer to the hot springs.
The springs are accessed by a series of concrete pools, also operated by Aramark's Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. Daily use is $11, but they have a reduced rate of $8 for the last two hours, from 7-9pm. So we had an early dinner around 6ish, and then walked over to the springs for an hour's soak. The water comes out of the ground at something above 105°, and it's nearly that hot in the smallest and hottest of the three adult pools. A somewhat larger pool is filled by means of a fountain in the center, which serves to cool the water down to around 101°. The largest pool is chlorinated (the other two are untreated mineral water from the spring) and mixed with cold fresh water, presumably from the Sol Duc river, to achieve a temperature under 80°.
We spent our time in the two hot pools, although I did take a "refreshing" plunge into the large pool -- not for the faint of heart when the outside temperature is in the 50s. A pleasant side-effect of availing ourselves of the evening rate is that the hordes of day visitors had mostly departed by the time we went in -- during the day, the large pool was inundated with children.
Today we continued along US101, stopping for lunch in the town of Forks. We stopped here at South Beach because it is really our last opportunity to spend the night in the National Park, and also our last opportunity to see the Pacific until after our conference in Portland. Also, it looked promising for getting on-line, in contrast to our digs last night, under the trees and in a deep valley.
Tomorrow we will continue south on 101 only as far as Hoquiam/Aberdeen (thus closing the loop from our visit to Ocean Shores), then head back inland to Centralia and down the I-5 corridor towards Portland.
Yesterday we had a lovely drive from Port Townsend to Sol Duc Hot Springs, also in the Olympic National Park. The drive along the north coast and then along Crescent Lake was breathtaking. We spent last night at the "RV park" at the hot springs (map), really just a gravel lot with a handful of power posts, operated by Aramark, the resort concessionaire. Just another hundred yards up the road was a Park Service campground, which we had been advised not to attempt. When we walked through it later, though, we discovered half a dozen sites that would easily have accommodated Odyssey, although they were already taken as it was Saturday night. No matter -- the RV lot was only an extra $11 ($23 plus tax, vs. $14 for the Park Service), which included water and 30 amps of electricity, and it was nearly as idyllic. Plus, it was much closer to the hot springs.
The springs are accessed by a series of concrete pools, also operated by Aramark's Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. Daily use is $11, but they have a reduced rate of $8 for the last two hours, from 7-9pm. So we had an early dinner around 6ish, and then walked over to the springs for an hour's soak. The water comes out of the ground at something above 105°, and it's nearly that hot in the smallest and hottest of the three adult pools. A somewhat larger pool is filled by means of a fountain in the center, which serves to cool the water down to around 101°. The largest pool is chlorinated (the other two are untreated mineral water from the spring) and mixed with cold fresh water, presumably from the Sol Duc river, to achieve a temperature under 80°.
We spent our time in the two hot pools, although I did take a "refreshing" plunge into the large pool -- not for the faint of heart when the outside temperature is in the 50s. A pleasant side-effect of availing ourselves of the evening rate is that the hordes of day visitors had mostly departed by the time we went in -- during the day, the large pool was inundated with children.
Today we continued along US101, stopping for lunch in the town of Forks. We stopped here at South Beach because it is really our last opportunity to spend the night in the National Park, and also our last opportunity to see the Pacific until after our conference in Portland. Also, it looked promising for getting on-line, in contrast to our digs last night, under the trees and in a deep valley.
Tomorrow we will continue south on 101 only as far as Hoquiam/Aberdeen (thus closing the loop from our visit to Ocean Shores), then head back inland to Centralia and down the I-5 corridor towards Portland.
Shame on me for not posting any photos in such a long time! Fortunately, Sean is much better about writing regularly.
Odyssey having her transmission fluid changed at Infinity Coach in Sumner, WA:
The Xantrex battery that went bad. Note the bulging top:
While on the lift, we were able to get a clear view of the damage to the A-frame from our incident in Las Cruces.
Odyssey having her transmission fluid changed at Infinity Coach in Sumner, WA:
The Xantrex battery that went bad. Note the bulging top:
While on the lift, we were able to get a clear view of the damage to the A-frame from our incident in Las Cruces.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Circling Mount Olympus
Well, we decided we had plenty of time to do the Olympic Peninsula anyway. Yesterday, we followed the length of the Hood Canal, following WA106 from Belfair and picking up US101 just south of Hoodsport. We spent the night in Port Townsend, at the Jefferson Transit park-and-ride lot (map).
The transit agency has striped about ten RV spaces in this lot, and allows an overnight stay of one night after checking in with the dispatcher by phone. In spite of this being a weekend in the "high" season, we were the only rig here last night. $1.25 gets you an all-day pass on the entire transit system, and we rode the #11 "Downtown Shuttle" into Port Townsend's historic Victorian downtown, where we browsed the shops and had a nice dinner at the Silverwater Cafe. As a bonus, the park-and-ride lot is immediately adjacent to a Safeway, so we did a little grocery shopping after we got home.
Had we not wanted to ride the shuttle, we might have eaten right across the street at the Port Townsend Brewing Company. When we got back to the coach, live jazz was emanating from their back patio -- it looked quite pleasant.
Today we will continue along the north shore of the Olympic peninsula past Port Angeles, then turn in to the park and head up to Sol Duc Hot Springs.
The transit agency has striped about ten RV spaces in this lot, and allows an overnight stay of one night after checking in with the dispatcher by phone. In spite of this being a weekend in the "high" season, we were the only rig here last night. $1.25 gets you an all-day pass on the entire transit system, and we rode the #11 "Downtown Shuttle" into Port Townsend's historic Victorian downtown, where we browsed the shops and had a nice dinner at the Silverwater Cafe. As a bonus, the park-and-ride lot is immediately adjacent to a Safeway, so we did a little grocery shopping after we got home.
Had we not wanted to ride the shuttle, we might have eaten right across the street at the Port Townsend Brewing Company. When we got back to the coach, live jazz was emanating from their back patio -- it looked quite pleasant.
Today we will continue along the north shore of the Olympic peninsula past Port Angeles, then turn in to the park and head up to Sol Duc Hot Springs.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Regrouping
We are once again at Infinity Coach, in Sumner (map).
The local Truck-Lite rep pulled a rabbit out of the hat and got the replacements for our LED tail lights to Infinity yesterday afternoon, and we came down here to have them installed. It was also a good opportunity to get the upper windshield trim adjusted, as it was not as tight as it should have been when it was redone on our last visit. Everything was done and wrapped up by around 7pm, at which time it was really to late to head out, so we just spent the night here. Infinity has power hookups and a dump station available for customers. As long as we were here, we went out for a nice dinner with Infinity proprietors Bob and Shirley Lewis, who are always gracious hosts.
Speaking of Truck-Lite, we are a bit miffed. We bought our very expensive LED lighting from them at a time when they were so confident in the LED products that they offered a "lifetime" warranty. So far, so good, even if, as always, the replacement labor is not included in the warranty. However, of the three styles of lights we needed to have replaced, two of them are no longer made, and Truck-Lite had to substitute more current (and, IMO, less attractive) products. Also so far, so good -- at least, good enough (I would rather have had direct replacements for what we took out, but, oh well). But, come to find out, Truck-Lite no longer offers a lifetime warranty on these products (gee, I wonder why). What they are now telling me is that the replacement units are only warranted for two years. Now this, I can't tolerate -- we bought lifetime lights, and boy, did we pay dearly for them -- worthwhile, we felt, to never again have to buy a lamp. So I fully expect that Truck-Lite will continue to replace, if needed, any of these lights for as long as we own the vehicle, as per the terms of the original warranty. So readers of this blog, take note: Truck-Lite does not intend to honor its warranties -- I suggest you buy Hella or Dialight products instead. Believe me, if we ever have to replace these at our own expense, we won't be putting more Truck-Lites in.
And speaking of Infinity Coach, I am told now that they are looking to sell some of their Flexsteel demo furniture as well as any take-outs from coach remodels that are in good condition. So shameless plug for our friends at Infinity: If you are looking for some good deals on furniture for your conversion or RV remodel, give them a call.
Now that we've "blown" several days backtracking to Kent and Sumner, it seems no longer practical to head around the Olympic peninsula, as had been our plan after Trawlerfest. We are now regrouping and trying to decide how to proceed from here, considering we need to be in Portland on Tuesday. One option is to head over the hills and visit our property in Mattawa, then head back west along the Columbia river valley. We should have our minds made up in the next hour or so, and then head out to battle the weekend traffic.
The local Truck-Lite rep pulled a rabbit out of the hat and got the replacements for our LED tail lights to Infinity yesterday afternoon, and we came down here to have them installed. It was also a good opportunity to get the upper windshield trim adjusted, as it was not as tight as it should have been when it was redone on our last visit. Everything was done and wrapped up by around 7pm, at which time it was really to late to head out, so we just spent the night here. Infinity has power hookups and a dump station available for customers. As long as we were here, we went out for a nice dinner with Infinity proprietors Bob and Shirley Lewis, who are always gracious hosts.
Speaking of Truck-Lite, we are a bit miffed. We bought our very expensive LED lighting from them at a time when they were so confident in the LED products that they offered a "lifetime" warranty. So far, so good, even if, as always, the replacement labor is not included in the warranty. However, of the three styles of lights we needed to have replaced, two of them are no longer made, and Truck-Lite had to substitute more current (and, IMO, less attractive) products. Also so far, so good -- at least, good enough (I would rather have had direct replacements for what we took out, but, oh well). But, come to find out, Truck-Lite no longer offers a lifetime warranty on these products (gee, I wonder why). What they are now telling me is that the replacement units are only warranted for two years. Now this, I can't tolerate -- we bought lifetime lights, and boy, did we pay dearly for them -- worthwhile, we felt, to never again have to buy a lamp. So I fully expect that Truck-Lite will continue to replace, if needed, any of these lights for as long as we own the vehicle, as per the terms of the original warranty. So readers of this blog, take note: Truck-Lite does not intend to honor its warranties -- I suggest you buy Hella or Dialight products instead. Believe me, if we ever have to replace these at our own expense, we won't be putting more Truck-Lites in.
And speaking of Infinity Coach, I am told now that they are looking to sell some of their Flexsteel demo furniture as well as any take-outs from coach remodels that are in good condition. So shameless plug for our friends at Infinity: If you are looking for some good deals on furniture for your conversion or RV remodel, give them a call.
Now that we've "blown" several days backtracking to Kent and Sumner, it seems no longer practical to head around the Olympic peninsula, as had been our plan after Trawlerfest. We are now regrouping and trying to decide how to proceed from here, considering we need to be in Portland on Tuesday. One option is to head over the hills and visit our property in Mattawa, then head back west along the Columbia river valley. We should have our minds made up in the next hour or so, and then head out to battle the weekend traffic.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
To Infinity, and beyond...
We are at the Tulalip Casino near Marysville (map).
We drove up here from Kent yesterday to have dinner with friends John and Susan, who were kind enough to drive up here from Everett and pick us up. We had a nice dinner and spent a few hours catching up. While we're not likely to take another caravan (not really our style), John and Susan are great to travel with, and perhaps we will get a chance to meet up with them again on a more relaxed schedule.
The casino here has a designated lot striped for 30 or so RV's, and it was actually quite full last night. This appears to be a popular way station for travelers to and from British Columbia. There were even two other bus conversions here last night, a '72 MCI from BC, and an 80's-vintage Marathon Prevost. Speaking of which, I meant to mention that a late-model Prevost, also a Marathon, had joined us down at Pacific Power, sporting (I am not kidding) spinny hub cabs. And an early-model Prevost converted by Executive Coach also rolled in -- I did not recognize the bus, but the mural depicting the Dallas skyline on the back was familiar to me from someplace.
In a few minutes we will depart for Sumner and Infinity Coach, where, apparently, our final replacement Truck-Lites have come in this afternoon.
We drove up here from Kent yesterday to have dinner with friends John and Susan, who were kind enough to drive up here from Everett and pick us up. We had a nice dinner and spent a few hours catching up. While we're not likely to take another caravan (not really our style), John and Susan are great to travel with, and perhaps we will get a chance to meet up with them again on a more relaxed schedule.
The casino here has a designated lot striped for 30 or so RV's, and it was actually quite full last night. This appears to be a popular way station for travelers to and from British Columbia. There were even two other bus conversions here last night, a '72 MCI from BC, and an 80's-vintage Marathon Prevost. Speaking of which, I meant to mention that a late-model Prevost, also a Marathon, had joined us down at Pacific Power, sporting (I am not kidding) spinny hub cabs. And an early-model Prevost converted by Executive Coach also rolled in -- I did not recognize the bus, but the mural depicting the Dallas skyline on the back was familiar to me from someplace.
In a few minutes we will depart for Sumner and Infinity Coach, where, apparently, our final replacement Truck-Lites have come in this afternoon.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Notes from Heisenberg's cat
We are at Pacific Power Products, the Detroit/Allison dealer in Kent (map).
We arrived late Monday afternoon, and the night shift started looking at our TPS problem. It is always a bit frustrating when we come to a big Detroit distributor, because they always insist on running the troubleshooting procedure from step 1, even if you've already done that work.
After an hour or so confirming what we already knew, to wit: the wire harness and TPS pedal all check out fine with a VOM, and there is no apparent problem with the ECM, they had us fire up the coach and demonstrate the problem. After several stall-tests in place, and a trip around the block, pretty much everyone was stumped. We could reproduce the problem with 100% certainty either driving or stall-testing in place, but only in gear, and more interestingly, only in forward gear. As a final task at the end of the night, one of the techs crawled down the hatch below our bed onto the top of the tranny, and poked and prodded at the wire harness from the ECM to the first bulkhead connector. All appeared fine, and we buttoned up to wait for the day shift.
Of course, as fate would have it, we could not make the problem re-appear for the day shift no matter what we did. Several stall tests and a road trip failed to reproduce the problem. Which prompted me to come up with the following theory to explain all the observed facts:
A small fracture in the wire or one of the connector pins, or more likely a deposit of corrosion on one of those pins, was the source of our intermittent problem. At rest, acceptable contact was being made, and things worked fine, however, under load, the engine twisted ever so slightly in its mounts, enough to cause the wire or pin to intermittently lose full contact, causing the TPS dropout symptom. In reverse gear, the twist would be in the opposite direction, thus explaining why the problem only occurred in forward gear under load. Just a theory, but it fits the observations.
So poking and prodding the harness and connectors has either abraded the corroded area or relaxed the fractured area so as to make good contact. When the day shift worked on it yesterday, we could not cause the failure to recur by wiggling the harness further. At this writing, things seem to be working fine, and we're going to leave here and keep our fingers crossed. If the problem recurs, at least we know to start looking at the harness between the ECM and the first bulkhead connector, and I have a pretty good idea which wire will need to be repaired or replaced.
We were actually finished and buttoned up yesterday afternoon, but we had run some questions up the chain back at Detroit Diesel HQ, and we decided to wait here until they got back to us this morning. Last night we hopped on the city bus and went down to Kent Station for dinner, at Duke's Chowder House. News this morning from Detroit was no additional help, so we are packing up and will be heading up to the Everett area just as soon as they're done figuring our bill.
We arrived late Monday afternoon, and the night shift started looking at our TPS problem. It is always a bit frustrating when we come to a big Detroit distributor, because they always insist on running the troubleshooting procedure from step 1, even if you've already done that work.
After an hour or so confirming what we already knew, to wit: the wire harness and TPS pedal all check out fine with a VOM, and there is no apparent problem with the ECM, they had us fire up the coach and demonstrate the problem. After several stall-tests in place, and a trip around the block, pretty much everyone was stumped. We could reproduce the problem with 100% certainty either driving or stall-testing in place, but only in gear, and more interestingly, only in forward gear. As a final task at the end of the night, one of the techs crawled down the hatch below our bed onto the top of the tranny, and poked and prodded at the wire harness from the ECM to the first bulkhead connector. All appeared fine, and we buttoned up to wait for the day shift.
Of course, as fate would have it, we could not make the problem re-appear for the day shift no matter what we did. Several stall tests and a road trip failed to reproduce the problem. Which prompted me to come up with the following theory to explain all the observed facts:
A small fracture in the wire or one of the connector pins, or more likely a deposit of corrosion on one of those pins, was the source of our intermittent problem. At rest, acceptable contact was being made, and things worked fine, however, under load, the engine twisted ever so slightly in its mounts, enough to cause the wire or pin to intermittently lose full contact, causing the TPS dropout symptom. In reverse gear, the twist would be in the opposite direction, thus explaining why the problem only occurred in forward gear under load. Just a theory, but it fits the observations.
So poking and prodding the harness and connectors has either abraded the corroded area or relaxed the fractured area so as to make good contact. When the day shift worked on it yesterday, we could not cause the failure to recur by wiggling the harness further. At this writing, things seem to be working fine, and we're going to leave here and keep our fingers crossed. If the problem recurs, at least we know to start looking at the harness between the ECM and the first bulkhead connector, and I have a pretty good idea which wire will need to be repaired or replaced.
We were actually finished and buttoned up yesterday afternoon, but we had run some questions up the chain back at Detroit Diesel HQ, and we decided to wait here until they got back to us this morning. Last night we hopped on the city bus and went down to Kent Station for dinner, at Duke's Chowder House. News this morning from Detroit was no additional help, so we are packing up and will be heading up to the Everett area just as soon as they're done figuring our bill.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Reversing course
We are still at the Clearwater Casino in Suquamish.
Trawlerfest was really good, at least for us. The seminars were informative and well-run, the boat exhibits had several good examples of what we are looking for, and we met several nice and interesting people. Considering the venue and the number of attendees, exhibitors, and boats, the staff also did a great job with the logistics, although I was a bit irked that some of the evening items, such as the charity auction on Friday night, happened after we had to leave on the last shuttle back to the casino. (To their credit, the staff was very responsive when I complained about this, making certain to complete closing ceremonies on Saturday prior to the last shuttle's departure.)
We have a list of take-aways and to-dos from the show, and are looking forward to attending another Trawlerfest in the next year or so. We also have a list of boats we'd like to look at, and we'll be tracking the other big shows to see if any of those will be helpful to us.
In response to several people who have written in about this: No, we are not just on the verge of buying a boat. It is, however, our plan to buy a boat as our next residence, whenever we decide to be finished with Odyssey. We don't have a timetable for this: we are very much enjoying our travels in Odyssey, and intend to continue them for the foreseeable future, quite probably for several more years. We're starting the boat research now for several reasons:
While we are in Kent, we will try to get up to Everett to visit friends John and Susan who are staying there. They were the wagon masters on our Mexico caravan, and contacted us when they saw on the blog that we were in the neighborhood. It will be good to get a chance to catch up with them.
Trawlerfest was really good, at least for us. The seminars were informative and well-run, the boat exhibits had several good examples of what we are looking for, and we met several nice and interesting people. Considering the venue and the number of attendees, exhibitors, and boats, the staff also did a great job with the logistics, although I was a bit irked that some of the evening items, such as the charity auction on Friday night, happened after we had to leave on the last shuttle back to the casino. (To their credit, the staff was very responsive when I complained about this, making certain to complete closing ceremonies on Saturday prior to the last shuttle's departure.)
We have a list of take-aways and to-dos from the show, and are looking forward to attending another Trawlerfest in the next year or so. We also have a list of boats we'd like to look at, and we'll be tracking the other big shows to see if any of those will be helpful to us.
In response to several people who have written in about this: No, we are not just on the verge of buying a boat. It is, however, our plan to buy a boat as our next residence, whenever we decide to be finished with Odyssey. We don't have a timetable for this: we are very much enjoying our travels in Odyssey, and intend to continue them for the foreseeable future, quite probably for several more years. We're starting the boat research now for several reasons:
- We have a lot to learn about boats and boating. We certainly don't want to put it off until we are already on the water, and we also don't want to try to cram it in in the few weeks or months before we are ready to buy. Starting years ahead lets us study at a relaxed pace, and allows a certain amount of opportunism: we can go to shows and classes when they happen on a schedule and in a place that is convenient to our travels.
- Life is uncertain, and any number of unpredictable issues might bring an early end to our bus travels. This is certainly exacerbated by the problems inherent in owning a 21 year old bus for which parts in the US are becoming scarce. The day may come when we decide that we'd rather hit the water than try to keep Odyssey in full-timing condition, and, by starting now, we will be more ready if and when that time comes.
- Given the amount of attention Odyssey draws, I am also not ruling out the possibility that someone, somewhere, will see it and decide they absolutely have to have it. Everyone has his price, and there is a point above which any offer would prompt us to sell the bus, and move on to the next phase of our travels. Here again, by studying the market now, we will be more ready if that opportunity presents itself.
- Just as we bought a used bus, we will almost certainly be buying a used boat. The boats we are looking at today as factory-new will be among the boats that we will be looking at on the used market in a few years. By collecting new-boat specifications and details now, we'll have them on file when the boats show up used and their sellers may be inclined to embellish the details, or simply no longer have the factory information after, perhaps, a series of owners have had the boat.
While we are in Kent, we will try to get up to Everett to visit friends John and Susan who are staying there. They were the wagon masters on our Mexico caravan, and contacted us when they saw on the blog that we were in the neighborhood. It will be good to get a chance to catch up with them.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Off-line in Poulsbo
We are parked at the Suquamish Clearwater Casino (map), on the Kitsap peninsula just west of the Agate Pass bridge to Bainbridge Island. The casino issues free RV parking permits and requests rigs to stay in the northeast corner of the parking lot. Unfortunately, due to the extremely low look-angle of our internet satellite at these coordinates (just 23 degrees above the horizon, in the southeast), we can't get on-line due to a row of tall trees along the east side of the lot. Consequently, I am posting from an espresso bar in downtown Poulsbo with free wi-fi (and excellent lattés).
We left Infinity Coach yesterday afternoon just past 3pm, our absolute deadline to arrive here in Poulsbo during the registration hours for Trawlerfest. Fortunately, in the week we were there, Infinity managed to complete all the tasks on our list, with the minor exception of warranty replacement of the four brake/tail lights. (The manufacturer, Truck-Lite, managed to send us replacements for the three rear turn signals and two rear fog lamps that also had bad LEDs, which arrived just in the nick of time yesterday afternoon, but the four stop lamps were mysteriously not included in the package. We'll have Infinity send them to us when they arrive.)
So we now have eight new batteries, new battery racking, new wall covering in the bathroom (the original wallpaper was lifting due to water intrusion), new window coverings in the penthouse, and plenty of new sealant around the windows and the roof joints. We also had all the water-damaged woodwork refinished.
The bad news is that the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) problem that was again rearing its ugly head as we were en route to Infinity has gotten much, much worse, and we were fearful as we pulled out of the shop that we might not make it to Poulsbo at all. We're somewhat at a loss to know what we are going to do about this -- it's quite possible that we will have to roll back across the sound to Kent after Trawlerfest to have the folks at Pacific Power Detroit/Allison take a look at it. We have one further data point now, though: the problem does not happen in reverse gear.
It was a little touch-and-go even getting out of the driveway, but once we were under way the drop-outs became a bit more manageable. On the highway, I was able to operate most of the way under cruise control, thus bypassing the problem. We arrived in Poulsbo just before 5, and parked across two parallel one-hour spaces on the main drag while we registered and attended the first half hour of the welcome reception. A little more touch-and-go to drive off from town, and then we were able to make it to the casino without much more trouble. We were in quarters by 6:30, and had an excellent dinner in the casino's steakhouse.
Starting this morning, and through the rest of the show, the casino is running an hourly shuttle to Poulsbo, so Odyssey will remain well-parked in a patrolled lot while we come here every day, allowing us to, umm, more fully participate in the evening cocktail hours. We'll make daily appearances to walk the dog, which is where Louise is right now.
We attended interesting seminars this morning, and so far have toured one boat (a 40' Nordhavn). This afternoon we will look at more exhibitor boats, and do the "trawler crawl" involving open-houses on visiting boats.
Given the logistics of getting on the internet here, I'll likely be limiting my posts while we are here.
We left Infinity Coach yesterday afternoon just past 3pm, our absolute deadline to arrive here in Poulsbo during the registration hours for Trawlerfest. Fortunately, in the week we were there, Infinity managed to complete all the tasks on our list, with the minor exception of warranty replacement of the four brake/tail lights. (The manufacturer, Truck-Lite, managed to send us replacements for the three rear turn signals and two rear fog lamps that also had bad LEDs, which arrived just in the nick of time yesterday afternoon, but the four stop lamps were mysteriously not included in the package. We'll have Infinity send them to us when they arrive.)
So we now have eight new batteries, new battery racking, new wall covering in the bathroom (the original wallpaper was lifting due to water intrusion), new window coverings in the penthouse, and plenty of new sealant around the windows and the roof joints. We also had all the water-damaged woodwork refinished.
The bad news is that the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) problem that was again rearing its ugly head as we were en route to Infinity has gotten much, much worse, and we were fearful as we pulled out of the shop that we might not make it to Poulsbo at all. We're somewhat at a loss to know what we are going to do about this -- it's quite possible that we will have to roll back across the sound to Kent after Trawlerfest to have the folks at Pacific Power Detroit/Allison take a look at it. We have one further data point now, though: the problem does not happen in reverse gear.
It was a little touch-and-go even getting out of the driveway, but once we were under way the drop-outs became a bit more manageable. On the highway, I was able to operate most of the way under cruise control, thus bypassing the problem. We arrived in Poulsbo just before 5, and parked across two parallel one-hour spaces on the main drag while we registered and attended the first half hour of the welcome reception. A little more touch-and-go to drive off from town, and then we were able to make it to the casino without much more trouble. We were in quarters by 6:30, and had an excellent dinner in the casino's steakhouse.
Starting this morning, and through the rest of the show, the casino is running an hourly shuttle to Poulsbo, so Odyssey will remain well-parked in a patrolled lot while we come here every day, allowing us to, umm, more fully participate in the evening cocktail hours. We'll make daily appearances to walk the dog, which is where Louise is right now.
We attended interesting seminars this morning, and so far have toured one boat (a 40' Nordhavn). This afternoon we will look at more exhibitor boats, and do the "trawler crawl" involving open-houses on visiting boats.
Given the logistics of getting on the internet here, I'll likely be limiting my posts while we are here.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Down to the wire
We are still at Infinity Coach.
After a lot of noodling and reworking my battery-bay drawings, we figured a way to cram the Trojans in (by rotating six of the eight batteries 90 degrees). New brackets had to be made, and several cables as well. Of course, we were half way into the bracket project when a message in this thread on the Bus Conversion bulletin board alerted me to a direct drop-in replacement for the batteries we just removed. And, at $230 apiece, they would also have been a bargain.
That being said, I am just as glad that we bit the bullet and did the modifications now. For one thing, the Trojans are likely a more robust product than the Xantrex/Toyo/Whatever batteries made by some indeterminate Asian company. For another, those batteries are a weird size with weirder terminal placement. The Trojans are a "standard" 8D with "standard" terminal placement (though I use the quotation marks because there isn't really a well-defined standard, and every brand has slightly different dimensions and terminals). Which means that replacements the next time around should be plug-and-play. Lastly, this arrangement gives us 10% more capacity.
In any case, after living for two days and nights with no house batteries installed at all, they finally got all the new batteries in, secured, and hooked up by Friday afternoon, and we powered all the house systems back up, including fully reprogramming the SW4024 inverter and Link-10 battery monitor from scratch. I also completed the transition of the PathMaker battery combiner from an active, intelligent (ha!) component, to a dumb mounting bracket for a bridging solenoid that is now operated by a three-position switch: manual-on, off, and automatic based strictly on main-engine alternator output. Monday they should finish up the dress panels, which will have to be remade due to the new batteries protruding another 2-3 inches into the tunnel.
One of the things that we discovered, as we delved into the one battery with the warped case, is that the battery temperature sensor had never actually been connected to the inverter/charger. So the charger did not have the opportunity to adjust the current accordingly. The sensor had very carefully been adhered to a battery on the driver side, and the cable routed and carefully secured in the cross-tunnel wiring bundle, and the excess coiled up behind the inverter -- but not plugged in. Oops. We've moved the sensor to the warmest position in the bank (closest to the inverter), which involved extricating the wiring from the cross-bay bundle, and we'll make sure it gets hooked up this time (another dress panel needs to come off to get at the connection on the inverter).
So far, the new batteries are performing as expected. We left Odyssey unplugged since pulling out of the shop yesterday until this evening around 9pm, running through a normal full day of usage. That brought them down by 225AH, enough for the Link-10 to consider it a "cycle" and for the SW4024 to want to do a full three-stage charge. I turned the shore power on and the charger has been running through its paces for the last three hours, which should equalize the bank a bit. I'll be carefully monitoring performance for the first several cycles, and next week's five consecutive nights of dry camping will be a good test. As always, I will report my findings here -- a number of readers have asked several questions about the batteries.
Speaking of readers, today we drove up (in the car graciously lent to us by Bob and Shirley) to Woodinville to have dinner with long-time regular readers (and Louise's distant cousin), Howard and J.
Tomorrow, we will visit with Kirkland friends Pat and Carol, and Monday should see the bulk of the maintenance work completed here at Infinity. With a little luck, we will have everything wrapped up by Tuesday afternoon, leaving Wednesday morning only for packing up the bikes and other sundry items.
Before closing tonight I should note that the Xantrex batteries we took out are free to a good home. I've listed them on the bus boards here and here -- please read the listing if you are interested in them.
After a lot of noodling and reworking my battery-bay drawings, we figured a way to cram the Trojans in (by rotating six of the eight batteries 90 degrees). New brackets had to be made, and several cables as well. Of course, we were half way into the bracket project when a message in this thread on the Bus Conversion bulletin board alerted me to a direct drop-in replacement for the batteries we just removed. And, at $230 apiece, they would also have been a bargain.
That being said, I am just as glad that we bit the bullet and did the modifications now. For one thing, the Trojans are likely a more robust product than the Xantrex/Toyo/Whatever batteries made by some indeterminate Asian company. For another, those batteries are a weird size with weirder terminal placement. The Trojans are a "standard" 8D with "standard" terminal placement (though I use the quotation marks because there isn't really a well-defined standard, and every brand has slightly different dimensions and terminals). Which means that replacements the next time around should be plug-and-play. Lastly, this arrangement gives us 10% more capacity.
In any case, after living for two days and nights with no house batteries installed at all, they finally got all the new batteries in, secured, and hooked up by Friday afternoon, and we powered all the house systems back up, including fully reprogramming the SW4024 inverter and Link-10 battery monitor from scratch. I also completed the transition of the PathMaker battery combiner from an active, intelligent (ha!) component, to a dumb mounting bracket for a bridging solenoid that is now operated by a three-position switch: manual-on, off, and automatic based strictly on main-engine alternator output. Monday they should finish up the dress panels, which will have to be remade due to the new batteries protruding another 2-3 inches into the tunnel.
One of the things that we discovered, as we delved into the one battery with the warped case, is that the battery temperature sensor had never actually been connected to the inverter/charger. So the charger did not have the opportunity to adjust the current accordingly. The sensor had very carefully been adhered to a battery on the driver side, and the cable routed and carefully secured in the cross-tunnel wiring bundle, and the excess coiled up behind the inverter -- but not plugged in. Oops. We've moved the sensor to the warmest position in the bank (closest to the inverter), which involved extricating the wiring from the cross-bay bundle, and we'll make sure it gets hooked up this time (another dress panel needs to come off to get at the connection on the inverter).
So far, the new batteries are performing as expected. We left Odyssey unplugged since pulling out of the shop yesterday until this evening around 9pm, running through a normal full day of usage. That brought them down by 225AH, enough for the Link-10 to consider it a "cycle" and for the SW4024 to want to do a full three-stage charge. I turned the shore power on and the charger has been running through its paces for the last three hours, which should equalize the bank a bit. I'll be carefully monitoring performance for the first several cycles, and next week's five consecutive nights of dry camping will be a good test. As always, I will report my findings here -- a number of readers have asked several questions about the batteries.
Speaking of readers, today we drove up (in the car graciously lent to us by Bob and Shirley) to Woodinville to have dinner with long-time regular readers (and Louise's distant cousin), Howard and J.
Tomorrow, we will visit with Kirkland friends Pat and Carol, and Monday should see the bulk of the maintenance work completed here at Infinity. With a little luck, we will have everything wrapped up by Tuesday afternoon, leaving Wednesday morning only for packing up the bikes and other sundry items.
Before closing tonight I should note that the Xantrex batteries we took out are free to a good home. I've listed them on the bus boards here and here -- please read the listing if you are interested in them.
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