We are finally on the road again. We are in a campground in the foothills close to Yosemite. We were supposed to have been here 2 weeks ago, but someone took us seriously when we said, we’re just retired with no real schedule. NOT! But we are finally moving on.

Following is our tale of the past 2-plus weeks. It will probably get long, and so you have my permission to skim it or skip it. But this is dedicated to all those hundreds of readers who have complained that I don’t seem to write a blog much anymore. Well, read on and get your fill.

We arrived in Visalia, CA in a cloud of gas fumes on the 7^th of April. Our original plan was to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon and then move on to Yosemite. A stay in Visalia would only last 4 days at the most. In reality it lasted 16 days. We kept saying there are worse places to be stuck as we thought back on all the places we have paused at and traveled through. Visalia was a nice city. It had everything we wanted: it was clean, had a grid of streets that we figured out very early, and was exquisitely landscaped with the rose bloom at its peak. But honestly, we really did not want to stay in Visalia anywhere near 7 days or 10 days or even 16 days. But that cloud of gas fumes that enveloped us and surrounded us as we roared into town said otherwise.

It was early enough on the day we arrived in Visalia that we set out to see if our motor home could be looked at. Since the basis for the motor home is a Ford chassis, we went first to the Ford dealer. They did not work on trucks but referred us to an independent garage not too far away that did work on RV’s. We made contact with the service manager there, and he was very helpful. He suggested we take it first to a muffler shop to see if a visual inspection of the exhaust system would reveal any clues to the gas odor. He called the muffler shop, and it was agreed we would take it in the next day.

At the muffler shop, Shannon drove the motor home above the pit where mechanics can stand under the vehicle and inspect the exhaust system. Even before she came to a stop, a mechanic was under the motor home with an acetylene torch inspecting the underside. The boss then got under it and inspected it. He called me over, and had me inspect it with him with the information that the exhaust system was intact, in good shape, and no leaks were coming from it. We celebrated by going back to the campground and then visiting Sequoia NP.

That was a Friday. On Monday we called the garage that works on RV’s to see if they could find the source of our gas smell. We couldn’t get in until Wednesday. Wednesday came, and in the inspection they found a gas leak along the fuel line that was dripping every 3 seconds. The big question was why we hadn’t caught fire and blown up. They found that when the fuel line was put in, there was a piece added, and it simply did not fit securely. And in a motor home as one bounces down the road at 60 mph, things that don’t fit properly and, come to think of it, most everything else eventually comes apart or stops working. Hence the leaking fuel line. A new piece of fuel line was ordered through the local Ford dealer, and we were promised it would come overnight from Detroit. And it did. However, it too fit improperly just like the original piece, and the garage did not want to be responsible for doing an improper repair. So, the decision was made to order an entirely new gas line. Again it was ordered by the Ford dealer, and it was shipped from Detroit to arrive the next day.

The next day it did not come and FedEx could not find any record of it. That was Friday. The garage is not open on weekends and FedEx does not ship on weekends. So, we were stuck. Oh, we could not move the motor home or stay in it. Every night we had to stay in a motel.

Surely Monday it would arrive. Nope. Ford and FedEx records showed it was shipped. No one could find it. So, there was hope for Tuesday. Nada. Wednesday for sure would be the day. Not a chance. We finally said that if it didn’t come on Thursday to put the old line back in, and we would take our chances.

On Thursday there was no indication that anyone knew where the fuel line was. The decision was made to put back in the original line and order a piece locally to fill the missing gap that was the source of the leak. It was delivered, it fit, and the problem was solved. (The reasons this was not done earlier: it was deemed the best fix was an entire new fuel line, it was ordered and expected, and the insurance company backing my extended warranty would only approve an entire new line. However, the insurance company did agree under the circumstances that adding a piece if it fit properly would suffice under the circumstances. They paid about 70% of the cost.)

When we were finally getting ready to leave the garage late Thursday afternoon, we learned that the fuel line from Ford that came from Detroit had arrived on a truck not associated with FedEx. The shipper in Detroit knew the box was too large for FedEx, and he put it on a common carrier to make its way to Visalia by truck. At the same time someone else had cut the paper work to send it via FedEx. No one talked to anyone else, all were expecting a delivery by FedEx, and we were stuck in Visalia much longer than we needed to be.

And so here we are poised to visit Yosemite NP. Right after we arrived at the campground it started raining and rained hard at times with occasional hail. During the last ten days the weather has been clear with above average temperatures. Now it is heavy overcast, below average temps, and up to 5 inches of new snow in the mountains. Still beats 8 days in a Motel 6. So life has to be taken in stride and be thankful for waking up the next morning even though we can’t always remember where we are. Visalia, we won’t forget.