Monday, 1-1-96

We left the Needles KOA at about 9:30 AM. The rest of the trip home was pretty routine, except for one startling incidence. I was impressed with the number of vehicles on I-5. On the flat straight-away sections, a solid stream of headlights and taillights were visible as far as the eye could see. There were so many vehicles that they weren’t able to bunch up in packs. There were just two lanes of vehicles with one lane of vehicles moving slightly faster than the other.

One thing that made the trip a lot easier was the use of the cruise control. Especially on that long stretch of I-5. We had been driving all day and were on I-5 about 25 miles south of the Highway 152 junction. I had been putting up with gusty wind conditions all day and the highway was bumpy. Some of the worst highways I encountered on this trip were in California. All of a sudden the motorhome engine started to cut out like it was running out of gas. The gauge showed that the gas tank was about half full. So I shut off the cruise control and slowed down while looking for a place to pull over. But the problem seemed to go away when I wasn’t using the cruise control. So I engaged the cruise control again and the engine seemed to run fine. A few minutes later the engine began to cut out again. Again I shut off the cruise control. Again the engine seemed to run fine. I think that the combination of the motorhome being buffeted by the wind and the rough road may have confused the cruise control system.

The drive up I-5 was the only place on our trip where we encountered gusting wind and rough road conditions simultaneously. I drove the remainder of the way home without the cruise control except for one test on Highway 85. When I turned the motorhome on to Highway 85, it really felt like we were home. I activated the cruise control one more time to see if it performed okay on a smooth roadway and it worked fine. We arrived in the driveway of our home at about 7:30PM. It felt good to be home. We now had a day to rest before going back to work.

An interesting thing happened on our way to Wichita, the squeaks in the motorhome springs went away. It became a nice quiet place to live for 2+ weeks. I’m guessing that the noisy suspension problem may have been caused by a build up of rust and/or dirt that resulted from not using the motorhome often enough. Sounds like a good reason to get out more often. We noticed the quietness when we were getting ready to leave the Needles KOA after our first day out. It was a pleasant surprise that made the whole trip more enjoyable.

So all in all, this trip was one of the best trips we’ve had in the motorhome. It served us well. Now we both are looking forward to more outings closer to home.

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