Tucson, AZ

     Time for a change. It only took a few days to decide, then load up and roll. Well, loading up was a process, and rolling turned out to be another. On Tuesday, I arranged with a worker at the RV Park in Pinos Altos, NM to drive behind me and the bus, (with the motorcycle on the back), to Tucson, AZ. Tucson folks have been good to me and I have a few friends there, (here), and that's why I gave up the Gila Wilderness for the big city.  It has turned out that Wayne didn't follow me and now the Toyota is still in Pinos Altos. I'm still making arrangements to get it here.

     The drive in the bus with the bike on the back turned into an adventure fairly quickly. All systems were working well...the cooling system, the fuel system, the drivetrain, and the brakes all seemed in order. What I hadn't checked, (and who does?), was the transmission shift cable.  The bus has an automatic transmission and in order to shift from Park to Reverse to Neutral, Drive, and Low, you change position of the lever on the dashboard. This lever pushes on a cable connected to a lever on the transmission...underneath the bus.  I've become very familiar with it's operation.

The cable seized, then kinked as I tried to force it into the Park position after driving about 50 miles from Silver City to Lordsburg, NM. I'd left at about 6 PM, and arrived at the truck stop for fuel at about 7. I didn't leave that truck stop until about 3 AM.  During that time, myself and Will, a very helpful trucker parked there for the evening, tore into the shift lever mechanism on the dash, and eventually got the transmission into Neutral. That allowed me to start the motor. While Will held the brake, I shifted to Drive, (using a hammer and screwdriver as I lay beneath the truck!), and then drove the truck to a parking area for the evening. Amazing how we trust fellow mechanically minded strangers with our very lives.  So after trying to sleep for about an hour, I finally decided to fix the cable to a functional level, hopefully to a level that would allow me to operate it by myself. I remounted the lever to the dashboard and lubricated the cable. I actually thought that the transmission was the problem, and that after it cooled off, it would shift more easily. I was able to get from Neutral to Drive, and off I went to Tucson. It was after 3 AM.

Arriving in Tucson around 5 AM, with a one hour time-zone change, and one more stop, I managed to get the bus half-way into a RV spot at the campground I had scoped out on a previous visit. I still couldn't park it properly without Reverse gear. I got a little more sleep while parked precariously, and when the campground came to life I elicited some supervision from some fellow RVers and was able to remove the cable entirely. This when I found that the cable itself was damaged and very stiff. The little lever on the transmission operated just fine. So, with the help of one man to guide us in, and the other man to steer, brake, and accelerate, I reached through the engine compartment to the transmission and operated the little shift lever from Neutral to Reverse and finally to Park. I had arrived! If only I had a video of that scene.

Today, I had a great night's sleep and have begun the process of creating a domicile out of a driving machine once again. Generally, that means getting sewer, water, and electrical connections right. Getting the propane tank open and lighting the hot water heater pilot. Then, if you've been, "baching it," as I have, you start cleaning. Clean the bath, the shower, the kitchen, the floor, and then you bring all the stuff that generally lives outdoors, outdoors. That's the bicycle, the folding table, the box of spares, the compressor, the floor jack, the saddlebags, etc. And then you start looking for the local necessities. The library, (for computer access), the laundry, although there are facilities on site, the grocery store and the local fast-food places. That's RVing. And after being in Silver City for almost a year now, it's really been a lot of fun. A newer RV might be more convenient, but every time I scout them out, I find they are geared for being in salesroom and less for functionality. Sure, some people want flat-screens in both the bedroom and living room. And maybe some folks need a central vacuum system, or accommodations for sleeping 6. I just don't. I need floor space. Flexible floor space. If a folding chair in the living room with a ThermaRest pad, is comfortable for me, and folds up when I need space for tools or just stretching, I fold up the chair. And if I didn't have mechanical problems with the bus, I'd have never met Will the trucker, or learned about shift cables. Waking the day after crawling out from under a truck for the 20th time in 24 hours, my back complains heartily, but this is RVing. This is living...and by no means a sedentary retirement. 

More to follow as my Tucson adventure continues.