Back Home!

Sure was nice to get back home after 23 days away - visiting in the Okanagan, dealing with RV repairs and a funeral.

Driving away from Edmonton for Hinton, Alberta, on Wednesday morning, we arrived at Cars RV near noon.  Our fiver was ready.  We inspected all of the work, spoke with the astute RV tech and, after paying for the repairs, we hitched up.

Westbound on the Yellowhead Highway 16 for Hinton, Alberta.

Pulling into Hinton.

The 5th wheel sits...waiting to be hitched up.

Theran, the girl Friday at Cars RV and Marine, was a pleasure to meet.  We had had so many telephone discussions, over several days, to diagnose, order parts and get the undercarriage repairs completed.  She is clearly a valuable asset to the business. For a twenty something woman, she had the organizational and people skills of a much more seasoned employee.  Her customer service skills are second to none. 

We hooked up and drove to the Kal Tire store.  Two damaged tires needed replacement.

We were fortunate that the tire shop had two identical brand tires.

The photo below shows the new new springs, shackles, counter balancers and shocks that were replaced, on both sides.  The initial shackle break was worrisome and we felt it necessary to replace them all.  Good thing too!  All shackles were showing serious wear.  That is not customary and the RV dealer felt the metal fatigue and wear was not normal.

Severe tire damage  necessitated replacement.

Because these tires had heated up from heavy friction, we replaced both on the passenger side.

These were new tires some 5,000 miles back.

All set and ready to roll.

We left Hinton at about 2:00 pm and continued westbound toward our overnight stay in Valemount, BC.

Jasper National Park.  Wildlife are often seen on the road.

We had to make several stops for wildlife blocking the highway, road construction and one major semi trailer rollover.

A brief stop just west of Jasper to do a complete walk around.  I had to make sure that the undercarriage on the fiver was operating well.  It was!  Everything looked fine.

We continued west on Highway 16 into British Columbia. The photo below is where we had to leave the 5th wheel, two weeks earlier, when our troubles began.

Two weeks after leaving the 5th wheel on the side of the highway....with a broken shackle.

Two weeks earlier....

We arrived in Valemount, BC,  near 4:00 pm.  Although we could have continued south, we chose to pack it in.  We found a really nice RV park, with long pull throughs, in the heavy pines.   A great spot!

This is a large RV park and only two RV's were there overnight.  The other RV was a smaller Class 'C' with a couple traveling from Holland.  We met them briefly and after exchanging some thoughts and ideas on their RVing plans, we continued our set up.

I was looking forward to getting set up and, after opening the slides, undertaking a complete systems check.  I guess I needed some reassurance that all systems were functioning well.  They were.  It was time to relax, light a fire and enjoy the late afternoon sun.

Thursday morning - southbound on Highway 5 towards Blue River, BC.

The scenery on Highway 5 is great.  We never tire of this drive.  Of interest were the recent high temperatures and heavy rains that were increasing the snow melt and swelling the creeks that feed into the Thompson River. The river was running very fast.

Thompson River to the left.  A typical BC scene with trucks hauling logs to local mills.

The tire technician in Hinton suggested we stop at the Kal Tire dealer in Clearwater, BC, to have the wheels re-torqued.  We did just that.  

Good to continue our journey for home.

The need for diesel and lunch had us stop in Little Fort before continuing south through  Kamloops, the Coquihalla Highway and home on the coast.  We were in front of our driveway by 4:45 pm. 

Backing into the driveway.

Once backed in the driveway, and unhitched, Jeanette and I unloaded the necessary things before calling it a day.

I will wash the fiver today, we'll clean and vacuum the inside, then we'll leave it where it is while we stain the fence (between expected rains) in the days ahead.  After that, the 5th wheel will be pushed back into its locked compound to wait for its next adventure.

Thanks for dropping by.