Hunkered down in Tonopah.

We are currently HUNKERED down in Tonopah NV due to weather. Yesterday there were winds up to 50 mph, and last night it went down to -7 C (19.4F). So time to repair, reflect, and do laundry.

We did do a bit of wandering, but it was VERY cold and as you can see a sand storm in the distance.

We bought this motorhome 2.5 years ago, a 1995 Sahara Safari, essentially for the price of the new diesel Cummings engine, (which had been installed 600 miles prior). Essentially we got the rest of the motor home for free, ……..retrospectively, it would seem .. what it was worth 🙂

A few years ago, the roof was destroyed in a storm and cost 8000$ to replace. We were fortunate that it happened in a storm in that insurance paid for it. Shortly after that, a major part went in the transmission that was going to cost about 6000 dollars, and so the guy at the place basically said that we might want to get rid of the motorhome. Our thoughts were “how could we get rid of it , it has a new roof?” (of course you KNOW what a slippery slope this kind of story can be…. )……. At which time Ken FINALLY remembered his password to get onto the Safari online forum, a group we endearingly call the “OLD FARTS FORUM”. We were told about a guy who remakes these parts, so we got one sent up from Texas for 600 bucks, and we were on our way again.

I shall not bore you with all of the things we (KEN) has repaired, but suffice it to say that it is a LOT. Point to be made here is :DO NOT BUY AN OLD MOTORHOME unless you have a “KEN” to keep it running. The past 2.5 years has been an apprenticeship of sorts for Ken, and I feel confident that he could, at this point, open up his own Safari repair shop. He is continually in contact with the old Farts learning how everything is supposed to work. The previous owners of our motorhome had made an incredible mess of all of the wiring, and “jimmie rigged a lot. But then the weather is pretty hard on it too. Yesterday Ken had to take all the panelling off the door after the STRONG winds caught hold of it and tore some of the wiring.

OH and Tucker is still remembering how much fun he had while we were in Eugene, waiting to get the brakes fixed.

Despite all of this we have LOTS of fun traveling in the motorhome, most days we can just open the door and head off into whatever desert we are exploring.