The Bird is in the Wanderlodge Hospital (Wander Works)

It's been a few days since I last updated this blog.  We left the beautiful site on the lake for an equally beautiful spot in the foothills of the mountains.  We stayed a few days while the experts decided the best course of action to address various issues with our coach - electrical, a "clunking" noise in the front, and other things they found when doing a thorough examination.  The decision was made to put the coach in the hospital (otherwise known as the Wander Works lot) for a few days to get more thorough diagnosis and do the work needed.  When you're living in a coach full-time, this equates to us living on the Wander Works lot. 

Warning:  This next section is a bit technical, so bear with me.

The "clunking" noise in the front turned out to be the generator mounts.  All of the mounts had to be replaced.  While they were testing for that, they found that the 90 degree box (connects the steering column to the steering gear box) was bad and needed to be replaced.

The electrical issues required a new inverter/charger, an Automatic Transfer Switch and some additional grounding.  Anyone who has done electrical work on one of these coaches knows this was a very time-consuming project.

The final piece of this "rehab" was to possibly install a safety steer apparatus - an auto-centering device to easier control the coach in case of a tire "blow-out".  We are still waiting to see if this can be done.

As the Bird was in the hospital, we decided to go on a search for a new driver seat for Jim - the luxury seats we put in from Villa worked great for me, but Jim had a hard time while driving.  We ended up getting a semi air-ride seat for him - this should help to keep him comfortable while we are traveling.

Now for our latest unique challenge:

In order to drain our waste tank, Jim needed to put an adapter on the sewer drain fitting; as he was putting the new adapter on, the pipe above the main drain pipe broke at the black tank!  We had a full tank of sewage, leaking steadily and no way to drain it but one small container at a time.  The tank needs to be drained to fix it, so...beyond gross!  At the same time, we discovered that our car, which Jim had just replaced the axles on, needed new axles again (I do not recommend Amazon's top axle seller).  While we're trying to deal with the sewage issue, Jim takes the first axle off and finds out the new one from Napa was damaged.  Now we have no car, no bus and no way to get back to Napa to get a new one.  As it was Saturday, Napa said they could have a new one in on Tuesday.  Jim is dealing with the axle issue while I am camped out making sure the sewer container doesn't overfill.  Because of the cast on my hand, I cannot handle the sewage (not that I could with both hands - oh my, the smell!) so Jim is running back and forth between the car and the sewage project.

Fortunately,  Jeff from Wander Works recommended another auto parts store, found out they had an axle that would work, and  Jason from Wander Works allowed Jim to borrow his truck to go get it.  I kept thinking that this could have happened somewhere where we did not have such generous and caring people to help!

We got the tanks emptied, the parking lot cleaned, and Jim got the axles put on the car - God is good, and my husband is a saint!

Now we have another project - fixing the black tank.  Again, the Wander Works guys said we could use their restroom facilities until we have this issue fixed.

So, it looks like we are here for another few days - not so bad because this is a beautiful area and the people are extremely friendly everywhere we go!