We were up at 7:30 yesterday morning, which makes two days in a row that we were up way too early. But we wanted to get on the road and out of Nevada. After checking e-mail and taking care of a couple of things online, and then a stop at the T/A truck stop in Sparks for fuel, we were on the road a little before 10.
It was eighteen miles to the California state line, and almost immediately after leaving Reno, Interstate 80 begins the long climb up the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We noticed that we still had the same vibration that we had spent all day Thursday trying to get diagnosed, though it didn’t seem quite as bad to us.
The road is rough as a cob and really bounced us around, and about 30 or 40 miles into the trip we hit a particularly bone jarring pothole. And suddenly the vibration was gone! For the rest of the climb up to Donner Pass, at over 7,000 feet, the motorhome purred right along, and then on the long 46 mile descent with the exhaust brake on, it was as smooth as anyone could ask for.
So where did the vibration go? We have no idea, but this reinforces what several people and three different mechanics told us, that it was caused by the exhaust pipe making contact with the RV’s frame and telegraphing it through the rig. I think that really hard jolt we took moved whatever was making that contact just enough to solve the problem. Hopefully we won’t hit another bump and knock it back to where it was causing the problem.
Somewhere between when I wrote Thursday’s blog and our departure yesterday morning we used our fulltime RVers’ prerogative to stir the Jello and changed our route. After passing Donner Summit and Donner Memorial State Park, where the unfortunate pioneers of the Donner Party are remembered, we continued west on Interstate 80 to Sacramento.
Traffic was a stop and go snarl of impatient drivers that continued bumper to bumper more or less all the way to Vallejo, where we took State Route 37 around the top of San Francisco Bay to U.S. Highway 101, and then north to Santa Rosa. For much of the way we crawled along at no more than 5 – 10 miles per hour, then would speed up to 55 for a couple of miles before traffic ground to a halt again.
About 3:30 we arrived at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds RV Park, which is basically a big gravel parking lot with full hookup 30/50 amp pull-through RV sites. Nothing is cheap in California, including RV camping. With our Passport America discount we paid $60 for two nights. That’s more than we usually pay for a campground, but there are a couple of things we want to see here to get stories for the Gypsy Journal, so it’s worth it.
After we were parked and hooked up we ran into town for dinner at a good pizza place called NY Pie. When we were leaving we saw this fellow and his furry friends. What do you think, professional dog walker or extreme pet owner?
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Thought For The Day – We all have our own path to follow.
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We had a SATV that would come and go depending on the speed bumps. Turned out to be the head would flop and it truly depended on that speed bump.
When we were last at Verde Valley TT we saw a man walking 9 small dogs. All his wife’s he said.
One more thought on your vibration. I had a similar one that would come and go, sometimes with long periods of all being smooth. I finally took it in to check the alignment, but the technician found a different problem. I had a steel cord in the tire that had shifted. You could see it when he spun the tire and the tread would waver back and forth. Something to check if the problem comes back.
It’s not a case where but when I would still look at the damper valve
And if you still thank its the exhaust,s pipe nows the time to look for that chafing spot
An to think that 1,ooo$$ you spent could have been a down payment on that fancy
Pontoon boat miss Terry likes here in sunny T-ville Fl,
Joy your day
Glad to see you made it to my neck of the woods. You like Pizza you may want to try Mary’s Pizza Sack. They are a local chain. I think they make good Pizza.
Jim M,
You just gave ever single reason we live in TX now not California.We spent a month there visiting relatives and could not wait to get the helll out, it was not for our son and grandson we would never set foot in that state again