Wednesday October 11th 2017

Today wasn’t one of my better travel days. It was full of little mishaps and annoyances. The drama started when I closed the door to get underway. The steps wouldn’t retract. Driving with the steps deployed is asking for a disaster.

The steps have an electric motor to retract and deploy the steps when the door is opened and the vehicle motor is running. I’ve known the steps had issues. Over the last month it has been making a disturbing noise every time it was operated. I lubricated it when it started, but suspect the problem was with internal gears breaking. It didn’t make any noise today. It just didn’t work.

Site 135 at the Williams Circle Pines KOA.

I got a mat and some tools and crawled under the motorhome to diagnose the problem. I confirmed it was getting power to the motor which probably means the motor is burnt out or the gears are broken. To get underway I needed to retract the steps manually and tie them up somehow. I pulled the pin connecting the steps to the motor and closed the steps. To keep them in the closed position I wrapped some wire around the steps then added two additional wraps of duct tape for good measure.

Once underway my day of annoyances continued. The gas station I had scoped out to fill the tank didn’t work out. When I arrived a fuel delivery truck was parked right in the middle of the area I needed to negotiate. I looped around the station and head up the road. The backup plan was to stop for gas at the station where I planned to but propane. The draw back was I would be under a quarter tank when I got there. I try to buy gas before I get that low. The black cloud continued. The exit for the backup gas station was closed for construction. I arrived at my destination without seeing another gas station. The gauge hasn’t reached the red zone yet but I better find a gas station before I head for the Grand Canyon on Friday.

My wired and duck taped steps along with my make shift pile of wood step. I’m still debating how to proceed.

The last of the days annoyances is a by product of the step issue. I’m parked on a down slop. To get close to level the front end of the RV is raised up a few inches. Even with the step working, the last step would be a big one. Without working steps, I’ve made a stable pile of wood, but it is nowhere near high enough as a step. I’ve added an obstacle to the inside stairs to remind me to slow down. The last thing I need to do is step out without remembering the drop off.

It is much cooler here than it was near Phoenix. It was over ninety when I left this morning and around seventy when I got here. I’m over 5,000 feet higher. I hope the cool temperature will allow for a good nights sleep. After bad nights earlier in the week and today’s mishaps I really need one.