THE KOMBI KONNECTION

Roadcow · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:26 am Post subject: Roaccow trip continued #2

To Continue,
The morning came about 8:00 am ( I usually awake at 6:00 am) with the birds singing and the rain had stopped. It was my turn to make breakfast so I choose my favorite Razz

, Potato Pie, I make it with chopped up and fried Potatos, bacon, cheese, and eggs all mixed in together. I find it's a " stick to your ribs " kind of breakfast. Cool

We ate and broke camp and after Roadcow was loaded we both ploiced the area and picked up any trash we found, with the intent of leaving the spot in better shape than we arrived. We drove down the dirt road and now I knew how deep the puddles were I have to admit to hitting them a little faster than nesscessary. Rolling Eyes

Chris was not amused when the water came up through the floorboards ( can you say Rusty Roadcow) after we passed through.
After we went through the town we continued east on hwy 12 for another 75 miles and then hit Hwy 84 North towards Yakima, Wa. On the way the scenery changed from a rain forrest type to rolling hills with Wheat fields as far as you could see. I took tons of pictures as we drove along and was impressed that Chris also saw the different type of beauty here.

This is one with a farm out in the middle of nowhere.

Then we got to Yakima. "Why Yakima?" do you ask, well it was the first day of the Harry Potter Book and my wife wanted one! Yakima had a bookstore and we bought the book. We also saw one of the few Bay Westys on the trip. We were sitting at a stop light when a 70 HiTop camper came across from left to right honking their horn and waving furriously. We returned the smiles and waves and Chris saw part of the bus comradarie which makes owning and driving a bus so much fun. No I have to let you know that driving Roadcow is amn experience in itself. People always smile as they pass, I've even had people stumble as they turn to look, we get people taking pictures, honking and many thumbs up from drivers of all walks of life. This time we had a lady in a Jaguar XJ 6 come up and honk and wave and she just kept grinning as she passed. It cought me a bit off guard as we were on a bridge at the time and I was paying attention to the road. Another time Chris was on the phone home to Ireland talking to her son when I passed this big Peterbuilt and he lets loos with the Air Horns and I swear it sounded like a train horn. It startled Chris and she had to explain the noise to her son over the phone. Laughing

We drove on to Spokane and I called my Dad and told him I had a guy driving a VW Camper by for him to look at for me. Dad lives in Spokane and has driven a bus back to calif. with me last year so he was open to the idea of looking at another one fro me to buy. I said the guy would be by in 1/2 hour and he'd just drive to dad's house. I told him the bus was Black and White so he could keep a look out for it. He said he'd take pictures for me. Well we got on his street and he has a tall hedge in his front yard so I parked behind the hedge next door out of sight. I called Dad and said' The guy said he knocked on your door and you didn't answer" He replied that he was therer. I said " well he's still there see if you can look out and see him" He said, let me put the phone down and go look. Wewll he comes outside and sees us and waves us up to his house and still dosen't put 2+2 together and see that its us! Laughing

As soon as we got out of the bus it was a joyous reunion and dad was very happy to see us. We had a great dinner with He and his wife at a restraunt which has a river flowing under it. Big picture windows looking over the falls, very nice.
We said goodby at about 10:00pm and headed out for Montana.
it was a cool night and we called Bryant of the Buskatiers who is from Kansas and he and 2 other buskatier busses were heading West to meet us in Wyoming. We made plans to meet in Cokeville, Wy 2 dahys later to do some extreme camping.
It was about 130 miles from Spokane about midnight, climbing a steep hill, with Chris sleeping in the back I heard a "whump!, bang bang bang!" I'd thrown a tread on the drivers side rear wheel! Drat, I'd just passed an onramp so I turned around and drove the wrong way down this very remote and dark onramp on 3 tires and 1 rim almost, with the blown tire makeing all sorts of noise. I was very lucky to find a dirt access road amongst the trees where I could park Roadcow in a level spot and we slept there for the night.
this is where my poor pre check let me down. I'd felt the tires but didn't inspect them. I used to have excellent tires ( 8 or 10 ply) on Roadcow but have been stealing 1m or 2 at a time to put on Busses I've shipped to Ireland. ( I remember that now Crying or Very sad

)
We slept well and I got up in the morning to assess the damage in the daylight. Yup, tire is shredded!

I'd taken the floor jack out of Roadcow to save space, knowing that I had a stock jack in a bag under the R&R bed. So I dive under there and find mistake #2! I had an Audi Jack! Crying or Very sad

The difference is Audi uses a round ped and try as I might I couldn't get the Round Ped in the Square Hole! Well being resoursefull I figured if I put my 1/2 " extention into the Jack round hole on 1 end and the other 1/2 into the Jack square peg I might be able to make it work. Well it did kinda, I jacked the bus up 7" and just as the jack was starting to bear most of the weight of the bus the bottom of the jacking piont tore out! Evil or Very Mad

Now I needed a longer device to span the hole but all I had was my long 3/8" extention. I tried this but it bent very easilly. So now I had to dig out under the bad tire with a screw driver with a rock under the engine cradle. Man what a pain! I was sort of on the side of a packed, and very rocky dirt road. After 15 minutes of digging I'd made barely a dent!
I had to really think here, where could I shove that darned round Peg and lift the bus? Ah Ha! I looked at the reciever htich on the back bumper and had a flash of genious! Put the jack in there! I did and just as I had the bus almost up high enough it popped out with a bang and dropped the bus, really scaring chris who was inside reading Harry Potter.
I had to figure out how to keep the jack in the hole which was 4 times too big. I thought about stuffing branches in the extra space but did'nt think that would work. I looked in my stash of spare parts and spotted the answer. I had about 4' of high strength cord, so I tied the jack to the reciever hitch.

It worked to get the bus almost high enough but I still had to turn the bus around ( so the bad tire was in the soft unpacked dirt Duh!) and dig out under the tire to get it off.

I took the sorry spare off of the nose of roadcow noticing a bit mof side well flex as I bou8nced it on the ground. Not a good sign., to have a low tire about 30 miles fromn civilization! Got the tire installed and cleaned up the mess and looked back to where i'd filled in the ditch under the tire so i wouldn't have to drive out of the ditch to see a very low tire. I know it will never make Missoula, Montana the nearest town, but I say nothing to chris.
We drive un der the freeway to a frontage road which I can travel slower on to try to save the low tire from heating up and seperating also. I'd only gone about 200 yards when i saw a farm house with this typical Montana Cowboy working in the front yard. It was about 9:30 am so i pulled in and asked if he had an air compressor? He said yes! I couldn't believe our luck. I gtold him of speding the night across the street and putting the spare on to find out it was low on air. His reply was " not too good planning, to leave on a long trip with a low spare" Laughing

I was duely embarrassed and he was a nice old guy. He told me to go around to the side gate and drive through his pasture and pull up next to his barn where he'd plug in his ancient air compressor.

I filled the tire, asked if I could compensate him for his time and saving my bacon and he refused. I asked if he'd let me take a picture and he agreed.

NEXT MORE TROUBLES OR WILL BRITT MAKE THE MEETING PLACE IN TIME?