Month: April 2024

I strongly dislike cleaning: Bailey is the exception cause it brings a trip a little closer.  We have to get her restocked 🙂

Bins, more in Bob                                              Slides open for easy access

Our happy place!  Allan’s getting the “bus” portion spiffied up Our view of a coulee from Bailey’s storage

We’re very excited!!

Flowers from a lovely lady! 

We pick up Bailey up from storage and taking her back to Diesel Tech. But first, we wait for the train to pass, 16 minutes.  There are really long trains here!

Here we are, again, hoping for the best (ie cheapest) fix.

Back home we await, Kyle & Megan’s visit!! 

We will welcome them with the Tequila we brought back from Mexico.

What followed were fun days filled with food, drink, hot tubbing and games!  We love their visits.

Allan recently took a PitMaster course, he put those newly acquired skills to use.

First up, 2 Tri-Tips

Game time waiting for the tri-tips to be done….

So delicious!  Look at that meat!

Next day we’re having pulled pork.  Allan put it on the grill about 11pm leaving it to cook all night.  It was quite the process of slow cooking over night, foil wrapping, raising the temp for a few hours, taking it off the grill, letting it rest, then finally eating!!

Incredibly delicious!!  Allan for the WIN!   

We get the call that Bailey is ready.  Off we all go to get her.  Turns out the DEF pump had to be replaced, definitely not a cheap fix but as least it’s done.  Kyle & Megan get their first ride in Bailey 🙂

Yep another train on our way back but at least the wait wasn’t long.Bailey is back in storage

Just like that their visit, is sadly, over.  Will focus on how much fun we had!

After K&M left Allan decided to try to make Batman fly!.  We bought him from a beach vendor in PV. We thought it would fly while attached to the pergolas.  Not so much, just tangled.  Allan untangled and even though it was windy it just wouldn’t fly.

Find Batman!! I gave a hint.

Not as smooth as the first phase 🙁

We have to replace all our batteries, the chassis batteries went well; our 6 expensive house AGM Deep Cycle batteries not so much!

We enquired before heading to Mexico and our battery store said no need to buy the batteries then as they are “always” in stock.  No need to guess what isn’t in stock!  They may have them again in 2 weeks.  He did not sound confident.

Call battery store number 2; yes they have them in stock but they are about $60 more for each,  Hard pill to swallow but…  We need them!We drive there, he comes out to see our batteries.  Nope he doesn’t have these we need both an automotive top post and a threaded stud post.

Original batteries in Bailey were NAPA brand; Allan called them.  They are a bit more than battery store #2, but now we have no more options.

Off to NAPA we go.  The lady Allan spoke to was gone for the day.   The guy we now have can not find the battery in their system. He eventually calls the manufacturer and gets the correct part number and determines they have them in Calgary, of course the first quote was incorrect and the new one is not in our favour.  Bailey is scheduled for the RV part of service including installation of said batteries, on Thursday, NAPA says the batteries will in be Thursday morning.  The guy we were dealing with says to think about it and if we decide to go ahead call in with our credit card for a deposit.

We call back to order them, dude one is gone dude 2 says he wants us to come in again to confirm what they are ordering is the correct part cause batteries are not returnable.  Back we go..  Order placed, batteries paid, fingers crossed!  There is stuff I dislike paying for, garbage bags come to mind and now batteries!  $3400 and I can’t even admire them.

Thursday… we drop Bailey at   

NAPA says they’ll call us when the batteries arrive, no call.  We go there expecting the worst. Yahoo they come through

We are relieved we have the batteries to take to Back Country. Next issue! When following Bailey back from Diesel Tech, the last service place, I noticed smoke bellowing from the exhaust.  It cleared up, I did mention it to Allan.  At the time all gauges were good. Brought Bailey back to storage, now in taking her to Back Country Allan sees a “Check Engine Light”  never a good sign.  On the way back from Back Country the light doesn’t go off.  Allan has a way to read the error message, turns out it is a DEF issue.  One of the things that can happen is “Limp Mode” where the speed gets reduced to 5 miles an hour.  Imagine that on a highway!!

Have a Monday appointment at Diesel Tech, please keep fingers crossed it’s not a major issue.

 

Mar 31th:  We visit Bailey and are so happy she started right away! Tomorrow is her first get ready for the road “checkup” day.

April 1st: Oh boy April 1st!!  Is this a good day to bring Bailey to Diesel Tech.  Are we going to need a tow?  Front driver’s side looks a little, stuck!

Bailey makes it out!  Went better than we thought, we’re off to a good start

Here for Bailey’s annual filter changes, engine & generator serviceApril 02nd:  The lovely weather change, ugh…the today on the temp chart is April 02

April 2nd snow almost gone                             April 4th snow is back

We have no interest in driving Bailey in the snow, fortunately, they are waiting for a filter so no pick up today.

April 04th: OTD 5 years ago, love FB memories!! April 05th:  Bailey is ready!  Snow on the road means not picking up today.

April 06th: Dreary but no snow on the roads.  Pick up Bailey, charges were better than we hoped.

Whoops we can’t make it back into our normal spot.  Mud, Bailey’s wheels spin & spin.  Ruts, some we made.  Centerline assigned us a temporary spot till the regular one dries upBob is covered in mud, zoom in to his front tire.  Know it’s a Jeep, we’d rather he be clean    

                     IS DONE!!