Today we had an opportunity to engage in our favorite activity which is exploring. Peggy prepped a lunch, we filled up our driving cups with icy water and hopped into Charlotte and fired up our recently replaced motor. Before we could get her into gear, a very irritating little light behind an icon looking suspiciously like a car battery appeared on the dashboard display. We have had some strange lights appear on the dash before, like the airbag icon or a seat belt icon, and were able to make them go away by shutting off the truck, pulling out the stupid smart key and then sticking the key back into the lock and firing off the motor. The same technique did not work with the battery light.
Very close to our current RV spot here in Yreka is Jim Wilson Motors, a Ford dealership. We drove over and their service guys said we could bring it in at the end of two weeks and they would fix any problems they could diagnose. I explained to them that two weeks would not work out for us since we are travelers and have many reservations at RV parks ahead on our schedule.
They agreed to find us a space in the afternoon today to run a charging system check. We took a short drive in the truck and it seemed okay other than the annoying little illuminated battery icon leering out from the dashboard. We soon found our way back to the trailer for some NASCAR racing before returning to the Ford dealer for our diagnosis. The quick diagnosis took a couple hours during which we loafed around in their sucker’s lounge. We met and had long conversations with a few locals, which around here means living within 60 miles of the Ford dealer.
It turned out that our alternator has crapped out but this is a rural area, so the soonest we can get a new alternator delivered will be Tuesday and it won’t get installed until Wednesday at 10:00 AM. Fortunately, just like our recent engine replacement fiasco in Santa Fe, NM, we are in a nice park in a beautiful area. Santa Fe was gorgeous and the park was on a ridge overlooking a massive flat with snow-capped mountains on the horizon. Here in Yreka at the Waiiaka RV Park, we are set up in a big orchard of hardwood trees and the park has rocket-speed wifi, cable TV, full hookups and the park owners bring by warm, buttery popcorn each afternoon around 4:00 PM. The owners also were very reasonable about us extending our stay until next Thursday while we await truck repairs. They even gave us a discounted weekly rate instead of charging us for 7 nights which saves us about $35.
Realizing we were going to be staying in Yreka a bit longer than we planned, we decided to break out some of our outdoor gear, particularly the barbecue which we used to grill up a couple of New Yorks and Peggy whipped up a great salad. We spent the remainder of the afternoon unmaking our recently made reservations for the next few stops on our journey to accommodate the slight delay we have encountered here. We did not make much reservation headway so we broke out some porter and Jack Daniel’s and called it a day.
There’s a picture. Click here