Back in Phaeton Place!

We took Phaeton Place in to Holt CAT on the Monday after Thanksgiving and they had her till Friday afternoon. The mechanic came out and talked with us and showed us the parts he replaced. It seems the injector cups have seals on them and the seals were worn and crumbly on at least one of them. He replaced all six of them and then they had to backflush the radiator and filled it with new antifreeze. The seals being worn allowed diesel fuel to flow into the radiator. When the radiator got too full, it would shoot fluid, which was diesel fuel mixed with antifreeze, out the overflow, which is exactly what Terry said was happening. We knew the fluid was coming from there, but we didn't know what it was, since it didn't appear to be fuel nor antifreeze. And we didn't know why it was happening. In reality, it was a mixture of both. In addition to those repairs, Terry had them do an oil change since it had been 8,000 miles since our last one. Also, we still have been having some fuel leakage somewhere and Terry found the fuel inlet tubes to be the problem. Those had to be ordered from Freightliner and then were installed. We are certainly hoping our problems of late are behind us now. We actually have had several things that were causing us headaches, but they can all be traced back to the problems that have now been fixed or repaired. The CAT RV service center (Holt CAT in Edinburg, Texas), were very nice to work with, efficient, and worked with our extended warranty, which was great for us. The repairs were not as expensive as we had thought they would be.

We picked up Phaeton Place on Friday and drove north on 281 to give her a bit of a test. All went well and we turned around and headed home so we could get there before dark. We were towing the car in the event we had any trouble. We did fine and got backed in without any trouble. We didn't set her up because we intended to go for a longer drive on Saturday.

Saturday morning we pulled out once again, hitched up the truck and took off down the expressway. We drove all the way to Harlingen and stopped at the new Bass Pro store where we walked around and bought nothing. LOL Once back in the motorhome, we fired up the generator and microwaved our lunch before heading for home. By the time we got back, we had put about 130 miles on the coach since the repair. Everything seems to be working very well and we are pleased with the performance. If you are in the valley and need any service on your CAT engine, we can recommend Holt CAT in Edinburg.

We have spent several days moving back into the coach. We had so much stuff we had taken out and over to the Texas Room. Other stuff we stored temporarily in Mom and Dad's trailer because there was no room for it in the Texas Room since we were having to live there too. Now that we've gotten stuff moved out, I have started decorating for Christmas. I usually start with the trees and I got the outside one put up.  When I opened the indoor tree box, I could see that the white tree was now dark brown. Last year there was a limb or two that was discolored, but this year the entire tree was ugly brown. I thought at first I might put it up, but I decided that would not do. It just did not look very good. I got out the little motorhome tree and put it up in the corner on a stand. It looks quite nice there. We did go looking for another tree, but I haven't found one that I like. I will probably wait until after Christmas and find one on sale. I did find a little "table" tree at Target. I put some lights on it and some teeny tiny ornaments that really set it off. So we do have three trees up!

This morning our activities director, Sharon, had a workshop on making wreaths with that wide mesh. I had already bought a roll of it and all the accessories because I had planned on learning how to make one this year. So I was ready when the opportunity came! It didn't take long, but I took my time and I think it turned out really well.

This evening we went over to Pleasant Valley, the park next door, for their hamburger night. Terry had a hamburger and I had a chicken breast sandwich. It was good and for $5 you got a sandwich, chips, cole slaw, drink and dessert. We will probably go back.

We still are walking every morning and ride bikes every afternoon. Today it was really foggy. Walking down the street it was almost too foggy to see the doorsteps on the trailers! It started clearing up quickly, but still lingered for quite some time. We are having warm weather now. It starts out cool in the morning, then hot in the late afternoon, then cool again in the evenings.

Tomorrow I am planning on going over to Pleasant Valley in the afternoon. They have Spanish classes for those who want to learn the language. I hope it is worthwhile because I would like to learn.

Till next time. . .

Dale