Maintenance Ends and we Arrive in Bend

Oy!  It has been a DAY!  A day-and-a-half kind of day.  We got up at 8:00, expecting the 3M guy to arrive at 8:30.  By 9:00 there was no sign of him.  We were incensed, nay aggrieved.  We called the paint guy to ask WTH, he called the 3M guy who said he'd come and gone at 7:30.  OK, we're idiots.  Erik wanted the bus back over at the shop so he could remove the surviving slide roller to serve as an example when taking it around to the parts shops for a replacement.  While we were getting ready to go, they called Monaco about the roller and they laughed.  Laughed!!  As in this part is totally unavailable.  This is Erik, lifting the slide with a jack so weight on the roller can be unloaded.

Mark had the excellent idea to take the roller down to Williams Machine shop and have new ones made out of steel.

 

So, that is what we did.  We took the roller to them and they were kind enough to stop doing what they were doing and fabricate four of them for us.  We figured if we had spares that would prevent the other two from falling off.  This is a chunk of America that's going by the wayside.  They're a small fabricating plant, they make metal stuff in small batches.  They use both CNC machines and highly skilled machinists.  The man who owns it was just a hoot.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of his office, but it would have been rude to ask.

While Williams was machining, we went here for bolts.  When you own an RV, you get to go to the fun places.

It took about an hour to fabricate four new rollers.  Here is Erik's hand installing the new one.  It makes me somewhat queasy to have people under the bus.

 

Now there are two.  When the slide moves in and out, this beam, and one on the other end of the slide, are each supported by two rolling doughnuts.

 

Progress on the gut remodel they're doing continues.  They owners selected cabinetry in white Ash.  It's going to be lovely when they are done.

 

After we were done at Elite we headed up to Halsy for diesel and then east on 20 towards Bend.  Today's key learning is that when one drives on a road with length restrictions and signs telling trucks to return to I5 and not to continue, that drive will be unpleasant.  The Magellan RV-specific GPS kept telling us to return to I5 but we did not listen.  We should have.

 

Between Sweet Home and the intersection of 20 and 22, there is a long up, then a long down, with many twisty turns.  When the sign says "slow" they mean it.  It took 3.5 hours to complete 125 miles.  It was tiring, it's really hard to drive from the right seat.

 

This is Santiam Pass.  The trees are dead from the B and B fires in 2003.  The devastation is just massive.  It will take decades for the area to recover.

 

So we're here in Bend, and happy we are to be here.  Unlike past years, the park is full.