TrackTown, USA: You know, Dear Reader, how bad things are reputed to happen in threes? This situation is true for us on this trip. Another problem. Let's start at the beginning.
We left Mt. Hood Monday morning and drove straight to Eugene (Premier RV Resort, again) in preparation for our appointment at Cummins, where they were going to re-plumb the coolant hoses the roadside tech rigged us for July 8th so we could get to Eugene for the World Championships. Nice quiet evening. Eight o'clock this morning, our bus was deposited to Cummins and we had hours to fill until the job was complete. Breakfast?
For the first time we tried Studio One Cafe, just a block or so from Historic Hayward Field. It's a cute little place, with movie posters covering the walls. They made the usually-three-egg chilaquiles for me with only one egg. Made no difference. I couldn't eat a quarter of this platter - and I was hungry. No way to take home leftovers, as our home was up on jacks.
After breakfast, our day went seriously south: Cummins called Dave and asked us to come take a look at something. This is never good. In the above photo, the tech is raising our bus on jacks. Dave went under the bus, so the mechanics could show him this:
Prior to today, neither of us had ever heard the word panhard, (and we both do The New York Times crossword puzzle) or knew that we had one on our rear axle. (It keeps the axle from going side-to-side while driving. Ours had ripped completely from the chassis of our bus.) The mechanics said there was rust, so it wasn't a new problem, but the shearing was new. It was a fresh wound.
The rest of our day was spent on the phone with our local RV tech, Brian Van De Walker, and visiting shop after shop after shop after shop that could possibly make the panhard repair. I wish I could explain the stress level of our search, as we were turned down time and time again... or told the job could be done in October. However, several shops had suggested one particular brake shop - the same shop that installed new brakes on our bus last fall. After driving to the brake shop, and showing the above photo to their staff, they knew they could do the job. They have the steel plate in stock. Can they do it right away? We will find out Thursday morning when our bus will limp into their repair bay. Think good thoughts.
The coolant hoses were re-routed and we were set free from Cummins at 6p. I grabbed a pizza from Coburg Pizza Company, whipped-up a Caesar salad, and we enjoyed our meal (we had not eaten since 9a) on the picnic table outside our coach.
This has been a very stressful and expensive trip:
1. The coolant issue.
2. The COVID issue.
3. The panhard issue.
Until my next update, I remain, your "I hope bad things only happen in 3's" correspondent.