Just about every spare moment since February has been spent renovating a new house we bought with our son, so there has been little time devoted to planning this Alaska trip. Doing things impulsively and flying by the seat of your pants as they say is more fun anyways. In fact the only reservations we had were for the Alaskan Marine Hwy and we cancelled those to save money and instead travel the Alaskan Hwy back.
But I have been taking time maintaining the Fiver to be in top condition to travel. It now has a new set of top quality wheel bearings and grease and I've been going through all the systems to update what needs attention. Although that was going well, just before we went camping last week to test modifications several problems were discovered. First, a water connection that I changed out started leaking like crazy. This in turn got the carpet inside wet which somehow caused our slideout to malfunction. It would not go all the way back in and a plastic piece that is part of the sliding mechanism came unattached. Talk about a panic situation.
The slideout is a number one worry because it can cause big headaches if it fails. Fortunately we have some top notch RV mechanics (RV's R Us, Pinellas Park, Fl) in our area and what I thought was a major issue turned out to be a quick fix to these guys. Plus they noticed the other end of the slideout had the same issue so they fixed both of them. Apparently the pieces never did get screwed down at the factory ... the screws were just laying next to both pieces under the slide room. Somehow the slide still worked just fine without the screws since 2006. And it's good that it failed now instead of in some remote area of the Yukon.
One of our good friends who also has a fifth wheel and helped us plan this trip to Alaska passed away unexpectedly this week. I got a lot of good advice from him and it highlights the fact that we need to savor and enjoy life while we can because you never know when your time here will end. Bob loved driving on the Alaskan Hwy so I'm sure he will join us in spirit on this trip.
Only a couple weeks left to departure so we're finally starting to pack and get ready.
Hi Jim and Yvonne! Great blogs so far. I feel like I am travelling along with you. Thank you for your tribute to Bob. He wanted to travel to Alaska again, so I am sure he is there along with you in spirit. I nicknamed him RoboDriver as he could keep driving for hours and loved it. Continue to have safe travels. Debbie
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