Days 11 & 12

Difficult to sleep on parked on the side street, I woke several times throughout the night. Sometimes the RV shuddered with the wind from big trucks headed into the industrial court; other times I shuddered from the sudden blare of a horn or the thud-thud-thud of a passing vehicle's stereo.

Gathering what strength I could after five on-and-off hours of sleep, I marched into the morning. Something had to be done. Tough choices stood like soldiers blocking me from getting home.

And, if I was honest with myself, I'd had it with the RV. I just wanted to get home to Escalante, so this broken down RV became the obstacle between me and my goal.

At the same time, I looked on the bright side. I'd broken down in Grand Junction. Not only were autoparts and mechanics in this town, but my boss's family lived here. It could have been worse, I could have broken down at Rabbit Valley or Dutch Flats along Interstate 70. Or I could have broken down going over Hog Back Ridge on Highway 12. The thought of losing power steering or braking in a place like that gave me the heebie-jeebies.

After walking Buena, I took my keys off the rack and claimed into the driver's seat. "Here goes," I said to Buena. "Let's see if it starts."

I turned the key, and the engine sputtered and caught. Giving it a little more gas, I smiled as the engine roared.

I drove the Godspeed off the street and around the empty parking lot. It didn't stall.

Next, I rolled it down Scarlet and turned left onto Sanford.

It kept going.

I took it under the Interstate bridge and thought about rolling west to Fruita, but I changed my mind at the Pilot truck stop. Maybe I should wait there and let it run for a bit...just to be certain before that long haul without services for 80ish miles.

Just as I started to make the turn into Pilot, the RV stalled. Quickly, I turned the key, and it roared to life...only to stall out again by the fuel pumps. I couldn't get it started.

This was not good.

I sat for a moment, watching a garbage truck lift a dumpster up and over the back, emptying trash into the truck. Once it finished, I tried starting the engine. It roared to life as if nothing was wrong, so I drove it out by the trucks and found a good space on the edge of the lot in case I'd be stuck here for a few days.

Just as I backed into my space, the engine stalled. It would not come to life.

My boss's family texted to see how I was doing, and I informed them I was at the Pilot and that I'd need to figure out what to do. In the end, it was decided that I would have the RV towed to George's place where he would work on it. A simple older engine like that on the Godspeed wouldn't be too difficult for George because he'd worked on aircraft engines for FedEx and has rebuilt various car engines. In short, George knows what he's doing.

Thinking the problem to be electrical, we determined to change sparkplugs, the ignition control module, and the cap and rotor.. while removing the plugs, he found several of them were shot. He also found one wire that looked like it might be fried.

In addition, he offered to drive me back to Escalante. So, after spending a night in the Godspeed in George's driveway, I packed up the next morning while he took a bike ride.

By Thursay night, I was home...sans the Godspeed, but home.

The future of the motorhome sits in the balance right now. George will return to Junction and try to get it operable.

To be continued...