Sunday, September 21, 2014

Leaving Portland, But a Very Short Trip

We had a great final morning with Chris and Anara. Chris made tender, fluffy scrambled eggs for breakfast. Afterward we took a final walk through Laurelhurst Park, a lovely place to walk. Then back at the house we loaded up everything and headed to  J & S RV Repair to pick up our Majestic. It took a while to transfer everything into the RV and get hooked up, so it was well after 1:00 p.m. when we got on the road.

We drove an hour, so it was time to switch drivers. We pulled off I-84 at the first Hood River exit and turned into a large dirt/gravel lot. When I walked around the rig to check on things, I saw a long arc of something wet on the ground trailing back from the front passenger side wheel, clearly a lot of brake fluid. The brake actuator reservoir reported that it was empty. A Walmart was .4 miles ahead, so we drove there and parked for the night. We didn't think it would be safe to drive farther.



Once it cooled off a bit, I used our new mechanic's creeper to get under the rig and look at the wheel. I couldn't see where the brake fluid was coming from, but the whole inside of the wheel and tire was wet with brake fluid, and there was a puddle on the ground. Tomorrow morning we'll call J & S and see what they say.

We don't know enough about how brakes work to know what happened, but likely it wasn't put back together right and a seal leaked or some fitting wasn't tight enough, who knows??? As you can imagine, extremely frustrating!!! But we are okay. No one got hurt, and we are sure we'll get it fixed one way or another. We are 53 miles from J & S. The Dalles is about 20 miles further east, but may be too small to have anybody that could work on something like our rig. We do have Coach-Net emergency road service, which will tow us to the nearest repair place equipped to do the work, but no telling where they might think that would be.

This is especially frustrating because J & S had the rig since August 18. Oh well.

On a more positive note, for supper we ordered pizza from Pizzicato Pizza, just a few hundred feet from home. It was delicious.

2 comments:

Tom and Donna Clapham said...

And I thought we were the only ones with stuff happening like this. I can relate, but I usually fix it myself. I feel for you guys. Keep us posted and we'll send positive vibs your way!

Tom and Donna Clapham said...

So glad it was so minor. Again, additional good luck as your gonna need it!!! Hugs, Rockin' and Donna