Beautiful Autumn Day and Jeep Repairs

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Today is just beautiful, so I went on a 6 mile bike ride down Constitution Trail.
  

I ordered a new battery for this old Gateway laptop I am using.  I am hoping the new battery will last three or four hours while I am boondocking this winter.  Last year, I could only go about a half hour before my battery went dead.  Couldn’t do much without being plugged into my in-house batteries.
 
I am also waiting on my jeep repairs.  About a month ago, the check engine light came on and it would only move in second gear.  Luckily, my son-in-law, Evan, used to be a Chrysler auto mechanic.  He used his investigative skills to determine that the transmission CPU had gone bad and needed to be replaced.  The bad part is that it is expensive.  He was able to find one on the internet for around $500.  Got it and put it in and the jeep ran fine but it showed a different engine error message.  Contacted the seller and they said to return the new one for another one, so Evan did, and we are waiting for it.  Hopefully, I get it in soon and have a couple of months to test the jeep before heading west.

Tonight’s sunset!
 

See you later.

Travel Expenses

Friday, September 26, 2014

Starting up the blog for the 2014-15 RV trek to the southwest.  Before getting into this year, I am going to post the expenses for last year’s trip.

We began our trip on December 30, 2013 and returned home on the 15th of March, 2014.  76 days on the road.  Our most western stop with the motorhome was Borrego Springs, California.  We drove 2183 miles going west and 2083 miles coming back for a total of 4266 miles.  I didn’t keep track of the mileage we put on the jeep.

Because this was our first trip west we spent a lot on gifts for the kids and grandkids.  Won’t do that this year.

We also had to replace the rear four tires near the end of our trip.  That was at a cost of $612 and we hope not to repeat this expense again.

2014 Gas - Motor home Maintenance - MH Gas - Jeep Maintenance - Jeep Camp fees Food - Dining out Food - Groceries Laundry Dump Propane Water Clothing Entertainment Gifts Misc-cash   Total

JAN $906 $152 $203 $0 $406 $88 $755 $0 $20 $9 $15 $273 $0 $257 $127   $3201

FEB $361 $17 $301 $6 $139 $71 $633 $10 $0 $41 $7 $48 $16 $243 $0   $1893

MAR $528 $612 $89 $0 $295 $9 $276 $0 $0 $0 $0 $20 $25 $161 $0   $2,015

Total Costs   $1,795   $676 4 tires, led lites $593   $6   $840   $168   $1,664   $10   $20   $50   $22   $341   $41   $663   $232 Tolls etc   $7,103

The next blog will be the beginning of plans for this year’s trip.  Same direction but things will be different so stay tuned.

See you later.