Hi all,

Saturday, Nov. 1
Wow! November already!

This morning Fred was replacing some flood light bulbs, so I gave him a little help.  Then I pulled the air cleaner from the motorhome.  It has been lacking some of the pep it used to have climbing hills and I have never replaced the filter.  Supposedly it is good until the filter minder says it is restricted and mine still is well in the green.  The filter was filthy!  I don't see how any air passed through it at all.  I called several Napa parts houses and found none locally, but several in the Little Rock area that have them in stock.  We will be there Monday and can pick it up then.  Then I can see if the filter minder is as far off as I think it is.

Fred's first wife Janet passed away Thursday morning, and Fred is going to California to help his kids and attend the Memorial service.  We will be driving him to the Little Rock airport Monday morning.

Today was the annual Chili Challenge sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce.  Judy was one of the entrants and was sponsored by the care center where she works.  We went over around noon and helped her set up and decorate her table.  We then went back before 4:00 to take the chili in time for the judging.   There were about 10 entrants each with their batch of chili and various accompanying items like cheese, onions, crackers, cornbread, candy, etc.  Our admission fee included all the chili and extras we could eat, soft drinks, hot dogs, entertainment, and door prizes.  There were a number of desserts at an extra fee.  After the many, many doorprize drawings, they auctioned off the remaining desserts.  It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, Nov. 2
We met Fred and Judy at their church and attended the service with them.  We did not go the the Sunday School class beforehand.  There was a somewhat amusing tone as the service started with a (total immersion) baptism, and the pastor's boots leaked, soaking his clothes.  In spite of his determination to never preach in a liturgical robe, he preached wearing a choir robe.  It was a very interesting experience, as we had never attended a Baptist service before.

After church, we all drove down to North Little Rock and had lunch at Red Lobster, Judy's favorite restaurant.  After a 3 hour round trip and about a 1 1/2 hour dinner, the day was pretty well gone.

Monday, Nov 3
We got up early this morning and around 6:45 headed for the Little Rock airport to take Fred to catch his flight.  As we neared the airport I saw a truck supply house and noted its location.  We dropped Fred at the airport curb over two hours ahead of his flight time.

On our way back we stopped at the truck supply place.  It was for the heavy equipment - axles, differentials, transmissions, etc., but almost across the street was "The Truck Place".  I went in there and bought the same brand filter that Foretravel uses for almost $30 less than the Napa filters.  Not too bad!

We then went to the Saturn agency where Chris took me back to see my transmission.  It was on the bench.  On the end of it, inside the bell housing, was a very round hole, about 1 1/4 inches in diameter.  He also had a very neat round plug that came out of the hole.  My first thought was that it was a freeze plug that came out.  In reality, it was a solid wall of the case, about 1/8 inch thick that had been worn through with a circular grove about 3/16 inch wide, caused by a ball bearing race that was spinning against the housing (It is not supposed to!).  Chris is still saying late tomorrow for expected completion.  We'll see!

While in the North Little Rock area we did some shopping at Petsmart, Sam's Club, and Walmart.  We also located and checked out a beautiful nearby park which includes an RV park.  We plan to stay a day after getting the Saturn to give it at least a preliminary checkout before towing it home.

The air filter went in in under 10 minutes, then I did some needed routine tasks around the motorhome.  When Judy returned from work, we all went out to dinner.  During dinner Fred called to let Judy know he had arrived at his son, David's place in Acton, California.

Tuesday, Nov. 4
Today was a "kick back" day.  We slept late and did a number of small, needed tasks around the motorhome.  After re-arranging the contents in a couple of cupboards, raising the adjustment of my headlights a little, tightening the front door latch a little, and washing the front of the bug-covered motorhome, I pulled out a camp chair and enjoyed the late afternoon weather under the trees.

The car report for the day was that he was still hoping to finish this afternoon, but might slip to tomorrow morning.  We are planning to leave in the morning, but will call first.  We will then pick up the Saturn, tow it to Burn's Park, less than 5 miles away, and spend the night.  We plan to do as much driving during the afternoon as we need to feel comfortable with the car.  Thursday morning we will head for home for "real".

Shortly after Judy got home from work, the three of us went out to dinner at the barbecue place that was closed last night.

Wednesday, Nov. 5
We woke up early this morning to light rain.  I immediately pulled Betty's wheelchair into the motorhome from just outside.  I let her scooter get wet.  It stopped raining quickly.  After really getting up and dressed, I went out and dried off her scooter (it really wasn't very wet) and stowed it in its compartment.  A little later it started raining fairly heavily. 

About 9:30 I called Chris who told me the mechanic was out test driving the car as we spoke.  We headed down to North Little Rock.  

When we got there, I looked at the old parts.  The bearing that caused the problem was a cylindrical roller bearing.  The inner race was pressed on the end of one of the axle driving shafts.  It was about 1/8 inch from being fully seated.  This overhang (like a smooth hole saw) is what carved the circular groove that eventually cut completely through the case wall.  No one really knows why it was displaced.  It was not disassembled during the previous rebuild.  The mechanic said he has seen that where there is a crack in the race that loosens it, but mine was not cracked.  They replaced the entire shaft, not just the bearing.

We went to the Burns city park, about 7 miles from the Saturn agency.  After getting settled, we took the Saturn on a 50 or 60 mile test drive.  It all seems OK.

Upon returning to the park, we took a drive around it.  Wow!  This park is massive!  There is a large portion of the park devoted to sports.  They have several baseball fields, tennis courts (including judges stands on some), bocci ball courts, at least 20 soccer fields, women's softball fields, a batting cage with booths for fast and slow hardballs and softballs, a children's fun zone with various carnival rides, and a lot more that I cannot remember.  It is a huge park!  The RV park is quite large by itself.

Tomorrow we will head out on I-40 westbound for home.  We expect to arrive home on Sunday, Saturday if we push it.. 

Thursday, Nov. 6
It rained quite a bit last night, but was tapering off as we got up.  We left the park this morning at 7:30 and headed west.  Around noon, we stopped for fuel at Chicota, OK.  I put in exactly 100 gallons!  The good part is the price was $1.229 / gallon (less our Flying J discount).  This is the lowest fuel price we have found this trip.  As I was about to go out and pump the fuel, I noticed the outdoor temperature:  it was 42 degrees!  We are used to the 70's and 80's this trip.

We are now set for the night at Sayre, OK in the same Flying J where we spent our 2nd night on our way east.  It was from here we first went to a transmission shop to try to find the Saturn problem.  By the way, the Saturn seems to be working just fine.

Our travel distance today was a whopping 469 miles.  This is the most of this trip, and is more than will be needed the rest of the way home.  

Up till now, I have had Internet access using my cell phone every single night of this trip except one!  That one was in Sayre on our way east.  Well, we are in Sayre again - and again, no access. 

Friday, Nov 7
We left Sayre around 9:00 headed for Albuquerque.  It was a smooth trip under cloudy skies, getting us the 421 miles to Albuquerque by around 4:00 - actually 3:00, as we got another hour back crossing into New Mexico.  We filled up and parked in the RV section of Flying J.  Last time we were here was during the balloon festival and we were lucky to get a spot in the truck section.  I really like the RV section better.

Saturday, Nov 8 - WE ARE HOME!

We got away this morning a few minutes before 6:00.  We really made good time and arrived home by 1:00 after a smooth 413 mile trip.

Some highway observations:  The first time we went to Arkansas around 1995, I-40 was terrible.  It had potholes and miles of thump, thump as you drove across the seams.  This time, the roads there were much, much better, with further improvement imminent from massive construction projects.  There are 5 construction zones between the Oklahoma border and Little Rock.

This year, Oklahoma had by far the worst roads we drove.  Texas roads were good, and New Mexico and Arizona were mixed.

After driving quite a bit on the narrow, no-shoulder, hilly Ozark roads, any of the interstate roads were a relief to drive. 

Some trip statistics:  
We were gone just a day over a month, from October 8 through November 8.  This was 32 days and 31 nights.

We drove 3753 miles in the motorhome and around 900 in the Saturn, plus a number in Fred's cars.

We drove in 6 states:  Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri.

We spent 5 nights in Flying J truck stops, one in a Walmart parking lot, 12 in Fred and Judy's driveway, and 13 in campgrounds.

We filled our tank with diesel fuel 7 times (all at Flying J's) for a total of 466.1 gallons.  We paid from $1.229 to 1.419 per gallon before our .01/gal. Flying J discount.  Our mileage was 8.1 after allowing 1/2 gallon per hour for each of the 8.3 hours of generator run time.

Of 32 days on our trip we enjoyed all or part of 32 of them.  Yes, even when hassling with the Saturn problems, there were enjoyable times! .

Thank you all for accompanying us during our travels.  We appreciate your concerns during our car problems and were happy to share our enjoyment of the majority of our trip.  Thank you for your emails during our trip.

I have posted all my trip logs for this trip and some photos at:
http://myweb.cableone.net/rsmason/arkansas03.htm

Till our next trip, with love,

Dick and Betty