One Helluva Six Months

Well it's been nearly 6 months since I last posted. Been a long time but then again it sure has passed very fast.  In case you don't know, we moved my mom next door to us last December. She has had a helluva year. She had to get adjusted after the move, but she kept feeling pretty bad and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Come to find out she was having blood pressure issues along with gall stones. After getting the blood pressure issues under control sort of, we made a trip to Memphis, Tennessee to visit mom's older sister. She made the trip fine but when we got back she got sick again.

She ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis shortly after we got back from Tennessee and then had to have her gall bladder removed in July. She was doing pretty good and we were getting ready for a trip to the Grand Canyon in September.

We took off for the Grand Canyon on September 10. Very interesting trip. We got a lot of rain a couple days before we left. It flooded the Pecos River the day before in Roswell, NM. I have never seen this much water anywhere near the Pecos River. As you can see it is way out of its banks. It was over the highway the day before we left.

Fuel filters on the bus began plugging up in the mountains near Capitan, NM. Limped it on into Socorro, NM where we visited with our nephew, Kiichi Harada, who is attending New Mexico Tech U. I changed the filters out before we took off the next morning.

Long straight highway in NM on the way to Pie Town.

Pie Festival in Pie Town, NM

 Pie-O-Neer one of the best places to get pie.

 Camped in Payson, Az

 Patsi at the Grand Canyon

 Was a spectacular day.

Mom's 83rd BD

Camped in Williams, Az

Right before we arrived in Williams we were traveling down I40 and all of a sudden I hear a clanging noise. I was sure we'd had a blowout. Stopped the coach and checked everything out but no flat tire and couldn't see anything wrong. We take off and get up to speed and the noise starts up again. I slow down and it quits, but I notice that my alternator isn't charging. I drive on into Williams and start checking things out. Alternator is shot and I just installed it in February. Luckily the Checker Auto Parts had an alternator so I replaced the alternator and bought 2 new batteries also. We did finally figure out the banging noise. After we got set up in the campground, we'd still hear the banging noise every once in a while. We finally figured it out about the time the chrome horn cover blew off due to the wind. One of the steel clips that hold it secure had broke off, letting it bang and clang when the wind caught it just right. Other than all the hiccups on the trip, we had a great time.

Mom at Meteor Crater just off I40

Mom & Patsi walking back to the coach.

Camped here for the night before we got to Albuquerque.

We spent the weekend in Albuquerque visiting with Patsi's brother and family. When we got ready to leave Sunday morning I was checking the tires and we had a flat on the inside rear on the passenger side. So, we had to wait on the tire guy to come out and fix the flat. Luckily we just had a slow leak and didn't have to buy a new tire. We got home before dark.

Well, our luck didn't improve after we got home because mom fell in the yard Monday. She broke the femur on her right leg just below the hip ball. So she ended up having surgery in Lubbock, Tx on Wednesday. 

She was released out of the hospital and we went to Crowne Point rehab center in Lubbock. That didn't work out too well so we ended up moving her to Good Samaritan in Lovington. She did really well there with rehab for the first month but went down hill after that. She got depressed and wasn't eating well. Karen & I decided we needed to move her so we started looking for a place that would be better for her.

We moved her to The Isle at Raider Ranch which is an assisted living place. She is still doing rehab and seems to be doing much better. She is eating better and getting around better. 

Since all this has happened I've also been able to remove the radiator out of the BMC and get it cleaned out. Before I put it all back together I refabricated the air box and filter so the engine would breath easier. It took me a while in between all the trips to the rehab home, but I finally got 'er done.

Radiator removed

Looks kind of dirty

Air Filter before

Air Filter After

Another shot of After

I fabbed these out of an old piece of running board to put on the mud flap on the rear of the BMC. So, I haven't been sitting around, I just haven't had time to write anything.

We're nearly ready for another adventure.