If you have never been to this site then you need to go there at least once. We spend a lot of shopping time in Walmart because they are kind enough to encourage RVers to park for free overnight in their parking lots. Some communities frown on this practice, sometimes for aesthetic reasons and sometimes because the mayor’s brother owns a campground. But enough Walmarts throw down the welcome mat that we make a point of doing as much of our shopping at Walmart as possible.
Tonight we’re just east of Olympia, Washington on a Wallyworld parking lot.
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We haven’t run the generator for a long time so I was expecting a battle and as usual it didn’t disappoint. It has been a piece of shit from the day we bought the bus. I remember Clarence describing it as a “cold blooded son of a bitch” when he was showing me how to start it and that was a generous assessment. Despite a complete engine overhaul by Superuke and a new charging head this winter it is still a piece of shit. It is always hard to start – you have to preheat the glowplugs for a full minute in order to have any hope of it firing off. When it hasn’t been run for a while it manages to get air in the line and it absolutely will not clear that on its own. It has an external fuel pump that should push the air through the engine pump while its cranking but it never does. The only cure is to loosen the fitting that feeds the injector pump to bleed the air and of course that pukes fuel all over the compartment and eventually onto the ground.
If we’re using it maybe every other week then it isn’t a problem but I knew it would be a problem tonight and like I said, it failed to disappoint.
Other than the frustrating end to the day we had a mostly great drive up the coast today. Mostly great because I got pinched for speeding through some little no-name town along the coast in an obvious revenue trap. For the amount of time we spend off the interstates its a wonder that hasn’t happened more often – today was the first time in all our travels.
We ended up having to unhook when we got into town here because, as usual, it was impossible to find diesel fuel in an easily accessible pump. I drove by several stations along the coast that I clearly should have pulled into but when we got here there wasn’t a diesel pump to be seen. When we did find one there was no way we could make the corner into the station so we ended up unhooking only to discover that the station was out of diesel fuel. They sent me up the road to another Shell station with an equally inaccessible pump but I managed to wiggle into it and get filled. Then I beat my way through multiple parking lots to finally get to the Walmart lot.
2 comments:
Hey Bob, The SOB's got me in OR last year. They seem to know just how much cash you have on hand then pull you over for 4 miles over the limit. They know you won't fight it. I can't stand those Rat Bastards!!! Other then that I'm fine, How are you? M&C
Sounds like Lincoln City. Sat eating ice cream watching them do their thing at the flashing red traffic lights on the highway in town. Kept them busy for hours.
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