SUNSEEKING WINTER 2005
THE WAY SOUTH IN JANUARY 2005
For those of you who have followed the "Harvey Saga" over the last 18
months, you will know that we have had our share of problems with
him. We finally got things squared away in late November '04, so we
decided that it was too late to head south before Christmas. This
year is Elisie's choice of where to spend Christmas so she decided that we were to be at
home in Vancouver. We spent a great Christmas Eve at Frank and
Nan's home (Elsie's big brother and sister-in-law) and most of the
Koldewijn extended family. It is nice to spend such an important
night with Family!!! (even though Alicia stole "my" hip
flask!!!!) Christmas Day dinner we spent at home with Tim
Bannister, our good friend and house sitter, and a twenty pound
turkey. The turkey was superb, and we were really surprised at
just how much damage three hungry people could do to the "bird".
We finally "waddled" to bed after one of our best Christmas's ever!!
December 28th, we pulled the pin from Vancouver and headed down to
DogPatch to load Harvey for the journey south. The weather was
rainy, "quelle surprise" and Harvey looked anxious to get moving.
After hitting Haggen's meat department, we thought that maybe we should
wait until January 1st to pull out. That way we could have a
really great dinner on New Year's Eve, and make sure that we had
equipped Harvey completely for his 3-4 month voyage. The only
definite dates we had made were at the National Factory in Perris CA
on Jan 10th, and a week visit with Harold and Kathy North in Hemet
Ca. I have known Harold for years through rugby and Kathy is our
Guru for all things RV. After a week at the factory, it will be
good to see friends again.
Our run through the Siskiyous was really easy. The sun was
shining and the wind was non existent. We figured the RV Gods
must have been asleep that day!!! But hang on ... they got even.
We got as far as Eugene Oregon and got a site for one night. The
next morning, I could hardly speak ... not that Elsie would complain
about that sort of condition! But, instead of hitting the road
early, we stayed for an extra night, and I spent the entire day in
bed!!! I guess it was a going away gift from the weather gods of
Vancouver. The next morning, feeling a little woozy but much,
much better, we headed for the necessary gas stop. This was when
the gods "woke up" and realized that Elsie and I were fleeing. We
have gassing up down to a science, we thought. I take off the
difficult gas cap, and Elsie fills the tank while I wash the
windows. This time, however, we could not find a small
nozzle with diesel, so I had to use the larger truck-style one. We have done this
before, but I blame the dopiness of the sore throat because I was not
paying perfect attention and just started to fill the tank. The
big nozzle fills in 1/2 the time, but this causes the filler pipe to
"burp". 
Out came a splash of fuel that
soaked my pants, sweater
and running shoes. If you ever have had diesel on your clothes,
you know how long it takes to get rid of the odour. Usually, it is
several weeks and several washings before the incident is
forgotten. The drill is, when complete, Elsie usually goes in to
pay if we can not do it at the pump, and I check Harvey over to make
sure all is in order before we actually get on the road. I
go in to change my clothes and forget to do the check. Oops!!!!
Off we go towards the sun .... and the weather is not bad at all.
We were on the road by 8:00, and we stopped 25 miles south of Stockton
at a rest stop for lunch. We have been starting the generator as
we enter the rest stop so that we can use the microwave to heat some
soup for lunch. With this cold weather, the warm soup and
sandwich really goes down well. As Elsie does that, I go out and
check the tires etc. to make sure that all is well. Well as I got
out, the Gods were rolling on the floor laughing ... as the first thing
I see is that there is a huge dirty mess down the side of Harvey.
The second glance shows why ... there is no gas cap, and we have spent
the last 250 miles spilling diesel down the side of the coach. OH
DAMN!!!!
What to do? We called back to the station and sure enough they
found the cap exactly where we had left it ... on top of the pump.
We called all the National dealers in this area and none of them
stocked spare gas caps. Now, do we unhitch here in the rest stop,
and I drive back the 250 miles to retrieve our errant cap while Elsie
stays and protects Harvey? Or does Elsie drive back, or do we simply
sit here and cry. Out comes the Trailer Life book of
campsites. Lo and behold there was a campsite back in Stockton
that was in a marina. We called and got a spot there for the
night.
Why was a Marina important, you ask? Well, when they made Harvey,
they used a lot of parts from the boating industry. The gas cap
is exactly the same as one used on a yacht, and we figured that where there
was a marina there would be boat parts. We pulled into the Campgrounds
and our spot was overlooking the river. It was quite nice, and the
people there were really friendly. They suggested a
boat parts store nearby, and off we go after measuring the
size of the filler pipe. Would you believe it .... only $40.00
and we were away. We called the gas station again and asked them
to keep it until we head back there in April. They said that this
was Ok with them. So, once again we prove that with the
application of dollars, we can "fix' most problems.
The next morning the weather forecast was for rain, sometimes heavy, and
the road report said that the I5 into LA was closed at the Grapevine
due to heavy snow. Time to hit the coast and good old highway
101. Off we head to Paso Robles, and the "center state" wine
area. This was on Wednesday Jan 5.
The site was quite nice, the weather broke for us ...Thursday was
almost sunny. Hey, life is good! We don't have to be in
Perris until Monday, so we thought that a day wandering here would not
be a bad idea. We stoked up the Honda and hit a few
wineries. On the way back to Harvey, we drove through Peachy
Canyon which was mostly farming land. The road was very narrow
and winding, but the landscape was beautiful. We just rounded a
very tight bend and right in front of us dashed a full grown
lynx. It ran up the the side of the narrow road and stopped about
10 feet away right at eye level. The last time we saw one
of these was in Alaska. It added a real bonus to the enjoyment of
the day.
We were ready to head out Friday morning for Perris, but the Gods must
have remembered us. That morning, the wind was blowing so
strongly that it was impossible to stand up! That, along with the
rain made traveling impossible! By 11:00 the campsite was
crowded with others who fled the highways for protection. Well,
no matter, we can leave on Saturday or Sunday and still be on time for
our factory visit. Saturday morning was heavy rain but little
wind. We thought that we had better get going now ....
The way south on the 101 was just wet!!! Constant heavy rain and
as we got closer to LA the traffic increased drastically. Elsie
did her usual excellent job of navigating, and we arrived in Perris dead
tired but with no bruises on Harvey. Just as we pulled in to the
factory the rain even stopped for us to hook up the power and water
services. Not bad we thought ... this bodes well!!!!
About 3:00 AM we were awoken with the sounds of very heavy rainfall
smacking at Harvey. We have not heard rain like that since
Bangkok. The rest of the night was spent at best fitfully.
Harvey has a fiberglass roof that magnifies the noise of the rain drops,
and this deluge continued on into the morning and afternoon. Hops
sure was unhappy having to go outside after her meals. Come to
think about it neither was Elsie very happy ....
The weather guy that Sunday night reported that 12 inches of rain had
fallen in our locale, and it was now 450% of normal winter rain. 
In fact Highway 101 was closed just where we had been on Saturday due
to the La Conchita land slide where 10 people had been killed. The only
good parts of this deluge was that we found several leaks we did not
know we had and the diesel covered side of Harvey was now a little
cleaner.
Monday 6:00 AM we were up to get ready for the technicians to pick up
Harvey at 7:00 and the fun began .....
By the time we got to the factory, our "fix it" list had swollen.
Being "good" parents of Harvey, we took Sunday to scrub and
clean. Elsie went to pull out the vacuum cleaner, a deed that is
not done too often, and she found that there was sufficient mould in
the
back closet to develop a number of antibiotics. This obvious
result of a leak somewhere was new to us!!! As you can imagine,
by this time I am steaming!!! Right on time, 7:00 AM the
technician showed
up to take possession of Harvey, and I went in search of Mr. Mink,
National's Dealer Service Manager who had been assigned our file after
I had first communicated with Brad Albrechtsen, the CEO of
National. Fortunately, I guess, I didn't find him right
away.........
Not to draw this out too long, our 2 day appointment became 5 days, and
Mr. Mink kindly decided that National would cover the cost of all this
work even though our warranty was over. It turned out that the
main slide was completely assembled wrongly by the technician at
Fraserway, our dealer in Abbotsford. When I mentioned that
National Technicians had worked on it 4 times in the past, he had no
comment. Mr. Mink assigned his "best" man to arrive, once and for
all, at a solution. This "slayer of slide problems" or "Guru to
slide technicians" stated that the main slide is now fixed "correctly",
but he found that the bedroom slide, with which we had no previous
problems" was also installed incorrectly at the factory. So ...
out came it and new moldings were installed, and back it went this time
correctly. Getting to that solution, they totally re-caulked the
rear cap, and the entire driver's side of the roof. They
literally re-caulked anything that they thought might be leaking.
By Friday lunch, Kevin, the slide sorcerer, declared the unit "fixed to
his satisfaction". We could go ... He didn't even crack a
smile when I told him that this made an even dozen times we had been
told this. My final meeting with Mr. Mink was not much of a kiss
and make up session, but at least neither of us were in jail, so I guess
that was a "good thing"!!!!
As we sat the interminable number of hours in the waiting room, Elsie
was picking the next campsite. We were meeting on Monday, as I
mentioned above, Harold and Kathy North in Hemet just south of us so we
needed a spot to spend the weekend. For some reason, Elsie chose
Temecula. I suggested several other options, but is was a non
starter for her. Temecula it must be. I did ask a general
"why", but there was no real response. When we pulled up to the
campsite, Elsie's reason became very clear .... it was a Casino with a
campsite attached. I barely got Harvey stopped before Elsie was
out the door looking for the free shuttle to take her to the one armed
bandits. 
The result was as to be expected
....sigh ... 
But, at least the sun came out finally ..... 
This park did turn out to be very nice after all. The Casino had
a Seafood Buffet on Friday that was incredible. For $18.95 there
was all the fresh crab, prawns, shrimp, clams, oysters, scallops you
could stuff down your throat. And you know us .... we got our
money's worth that night. It was a good thing that there was a
free shuttle back to our site ... we could not have walked that far on
a bet. Stuffed was not a word ... it had become a condition!!!!
The park was full of dogs. One couple had two Boston Terriers
with one of them even bigger than Barley was. Another had three
"rescued" greyhounds, and yet another had two Old English Sheep dogs,
two adults and two kids in a Motor home that was less than 24
feet. There were all sorts of mixed breeds (dogs not kids) but the one that
stopped the show for us was a beautiful English Bull 
. Never
a dull moment.
Also in the park were 4 other Tropi-cals. We met the owners and
tried very hard not to rain too heavily on their parade. We did
offer a few choice warnings and suggestions though ....
On Sunday, we returned to the Buffet in the Casino for Brunch. If
we did nothing else here, we drastically increased our caloric intake
and caught up on our sleep. Monday Jan 17 took us to Hemet.
Both these drives, albeit very short ones, showed that up to this
point, Harvey wished to behave. Harvey was driving well, the
squeak was gone from the front cabinets and the slides were functioning
as they were supposed to do. Just how long this will continue
..... who knows but PLEASE cross your fingers for us!!!
Just as we were registering here in Hemet, Kathy North burst into the
office in quite a panic. They had had problems getting their rig
into these tiny spots and required help. This is an older park
with sites that are not conducive to large motor homes or super slides
on 5th wheels. After some work, Harold had extricated the back
tailgate from their truck from the front hatch of their 5th wheel with
not too much damage after all. A few quickly poured libations and
we were all laughing again. This will be a fun week!!!!
Where to next ... who knows ... but rest assured ......I will be aware
of just what Temecula is 
... Stay tuned