We had a delightful and recharging stay at Spring Creek Campground (our review) just outside Big Timber, MT. We don’t know how much of our experience there was just juxtaposition to our stay of 6 weeks in a parking lot, or if the campground really was that awesome – but it was just what we needed.
We’ll go with awesome though! The sites were well spaced and we were waterfront to a babbling river, and their free WiFi was actually usable and reliable.
Our stay there wasn’t all slumbering by a river – we had a visit from our nomadic friends Forrest & Mary, who unfortunately also overheated their engine and were having an inframe rebuild in the Bozeman area. We had a great time hanging out, and it gave me a perfect opportunity to make up a batch of my vegetarian organic massaman curry – their first experience with such cuisine. It seemed to be a hit!
Thankfully, they were back on the road in fairly short time – and we’re delighted that the upside of our respective summer engine mishaps was an opportunity to deepen our friendships.
We also had a surprise visit from part-time RVers and followers, Ron & Suzie – who already had their eye on Spring Creek Campground during their repositioning to Oregon. It was fun to enjoy riverside happy hours with them for a couple nights.
Aside from all the social time – we got caught up on several loads of laundry, and some house cleaning and organizing of the bays (exciting, huh?). Our lives had been in so much chaos for weeks that it felt darn good to get our surroundings back in order.
We started the 85 miles drive back to Billings last Thursday to figure out why the engine was running steady at 193 instead of the 185 range that we used to see, or the 160-180 temperature recommend by GM for a 8V71. The drive back to Interstate was uneventful (thankfully!), and our mechanic was waiting for us at the bay to get started when we arrived.
Our service manager, Scot, also greeted us with official Interstate PowerSystems hats and shirts – and welcomed us back as honorary members of the crew. We are so very touched – as I’m sure other shops would have been ready to strangle a customer hanging around this long. But this really has been a team effort, and we’re thrilled with how involved Interstate has welcomed us being.
After fiddling around with the vernotherm (there’s a new word for your vocabulary) for controlling the fan speed, on Friday we switched our attention to the two engine thermostats.
We spent the morning boiling different thermostats to ascertain their operating characteristics, and discovered that the newly installed 180-degree thermostats were opening hotter than was expected of them. After testing, a new pair of 170’s seemed to better match what our engine called for, so we performed the swap.
Once we buttoned everything up – a test drive confirmed the engine now holds solid at 178-182, and Zephyr’s engine rebuild was officially proclaimed done!
Which meant.. time to pay the final invoice.
We are super impressed that Interstate stuck to their original rebuild estimate despite all the labor overruns, and the charges for all the extras we tossed in were quite reasonable.
Fantastic over the top service, an incredible hands-on learning experience AND staying within the estimate? You just can’t beat that.
And they delivered the invoice with two VIP bands to join the Intersatate crew at their private table for that evening’s Magic City Bluesfest!
We had a rocking time dancing to Sons of Fathers, Vintage Trouble (umm… anyone else notice the irony?), and BLUES TRAVELER!!!!!
On Saturday, we rested up after our epic night on the town, said our good-byes to Billings, and ran some errands… and on Sunday morning we made our final departure with no particular destination in mind for the night.
I have to admit, it was kinda hard to pull out of that parking lot that has been home for so long – it kinda grows on you. The memories and friendships made will stay with us forever.
Thank you Interstate PowerSystems – serendipity was working overtime to have brought us to your doorstep.
What’s Next?
It actually feels a bit surreal to be able to contemplate what’s next. We’ve been on the verge of ‘soon’ being back on the road for so many weeks, that we had put aside making plans.
And now here we are – sprung free and out on the open roads!
We had scored a pair of Burning Man tickets back in early July – but after spending 6 weeks in a hot, arid, dirty, loud environment living with limited resources – we’re just not feeling called to another week of that. Not to mention all the logistics that would have to come together for provisioning, finding a cat sitter, preparing an RV for the playa, and cleaning it afterwards. Oh, and let’s not forget – our engine needs to break in, and a harsh dusty environment just doesn’t seem like a wise first destination.
So, we sold our tickets – it just doesn’t feel like our year to attend.
But, as they always do – when one door closes, another opens. If you recall, the break down caused us to cancel our July plans of volunteering to host a lighthouse in Oregon.
We were thrilled then that when we contacted Cape Blanco last week to let them know that we were mobile again, they let us know they were in need of a pair of volunteer hosts for September. Perfect!
We’ll be giving tours of the lighthouse for about 20 hrs a week, and in exchange will get a beautiful full hook-up site for the month. It’s of course not about saving money, but for the experience! We love volunteering and unique experiences, and are very excited!
So, we’re on our way to the southern coast of Oregon to arrive in time for our orientation. And as a super dooper bonus, this is the same month that the folks over at WheelingIt are again hosting the very same lighthouse!
If you’re in the area, stop on by – the state park is a first come first serve campground in an absolutely beautiful location.
We have about 2.5 weeks to get there, so we’ll be coming up with a route and pace that gives us opportunity to catch up on so much (like all the blog posts about the details of the engine rebuild), see people & places, and not exhaust ourselves.
Portland is looking like a certain pass through point, and the rest as they say.. is set in jello.
Bonus: To celebrate Zephyr being back on the road, we’ve set the price of our The Mobile Internet Handbook to just $7.99 for the eVersions. And as a special bonus, this week only, use discount code ‘Zephyr’ to save an extra buck on the PDF or ePub versions. Buy Now!
Just finished reading the story of the engine rebuild in Montana. AMAZING. Loved the pics of the art of the diesel. Beautiful. What an experience!
Has the thought of selling it crossed your minds? Would be a good time with a fresh rebuild. I think I remember you saying you might be looking for another rig, or I am thinking of someone else.
Oh gosh … Hahahaha. You definitely are thinking of someone else. We love Zephyr, and after 2 years of reconversion effort – couldn’t imagine a better set up for us. We put the effort into the rebuild (both money and our time) so that we have something that will hopefully serve us well for many more miles to come.
But as with everything – if someone offered to buy at a price we couldn’t ignore, ya never know.
RATS all most forgot if the shop did not change the filters u might look in to it after 1500 miles change only the oil filters for new,, but not the oil. u be good to go 10000
well seeings how u missed BURNING-MAN 2013 would u like to try for the 2014 AFRIKABURN 28 April- 4 May in Tankwa so, Africa,,, and one wont haft to deal with BLM or park rangers but the rules are much the same and if u take the cat on a string u can leave the zephyr in my yard as long as u leave that apple desktop,, apple makes niceeee toys
note hows the filter doing????
I’m a long time follower of your travels and am in the middle of a 2 year plan to hit the road. My wife and I just aquired a beautiful 1974 4905 and are in the process of outfitting it to be solar/wind powered and extremely self “efficient”. Your thermostat woes were well timed as I am having similar issues. Thank you so much for the updates and just know that my wife and I will be parking next to you some day soon and you will say “hey, aren’t you that 4905 guy with the 2 year plan?”
I love massaman curry too. It comes from the Mohammedans in India who liked to cook over wood fires hense the smoky flavor. When you are in Portland check out the inexpensive river cruses up the Colombia Gorge.
GEEZ! I usta work on 6V71N Detroits (in another life) and had a few stats that would hang until a slightly higher temp, like yours did. Good catch by your crew.
Enjoy your newly regained freedom guys. That lighthouse deal sounds like fun. We’re following Wheelingit now and I think we might put that on our list of things to do some year or other.
We’re very happy our crew was able to track down the temp cause. Zehpyr’s been purring along barely cracking the lower 180s even at long grades. Sweet!
DH and I have begun process of decluttering and getting things ready to become full timers. I have been after him to do his “bucket list” of places he wants to go and Oregon/Washington is #1 on his list. I will be looking forward to your postings for places to go and see and things to do. I am so happy for you to be back on the road again.
Hope your preparations for full timing around coming along… it can be overwhelming at times, just take a deep breathe every so often 😉
enjoying your blog and glad your back on the road. Interstate powersystem sounds like the kind of company we all dream about when we need repairs. Very fortunate to have broken down and had this awesome company and crew do work for you. Now that your back on the road and going to be doing some volunteer work at the lighthouse perhaps you can answer a question for me or redirect me to somewhere. I’m a canadian,and I’m wondering: would we, as a canadian citizen, be able to volunteer for such type work in the states?? Since this is volunteer work (unpaid) would we need a green card. Thanks for your help and look forward to more posts. Regards…Gary
Hey Gary… thanks for stopping in. As we’re US Citizens.. we have no clue, that’s not something we’ve ever had to deal with.
Who hoo..doing the happy dance! So ridiculously excited you guys are coming and hosting at the same time as us. I feel like a little kid at my first Star Wars conference 🙂
Nina
Or maybe even a convention teehee
Oooo… Star Wars Convention. Can we wear costumes?? We’re gonna have so much fun!!
Well it’s good to sea u boiled and not fried Tham suckers
Now I can pat myself on the back old gray head told u so u young whipper snappers guppy geeks
Now don’t wear out my light house we were thinking of volunteer (thanks to Wheelingit)there next spring to get out of the heat here(take a lot of photos please)
Safe&joy your trip
Hmm… didn’t think about frying the t-stats. A little dipping sauce, and that could have been, um.. interesting.
Thanks for all your help, Mister Ed! We are so very blessed to have you in our and Zephyr’s life!
We’re staying on the OR coast until the end of September. Would love to arrange to “bump” into you guys.
Chuck
Well.. you know where we’ll be. Come on by and bump into us 🙂 (Just be gentle on Zephyr, we just got her all fixed up.)
We are in Oregon now ourselves and we are going to meet Paul and Nina next week at Bullards Beach! We may just have to put Cape Blanco on the itinerary for September as well. Happy to hear all is good with the engine and that you had such a good experience at Insterstate.
It would be fantastic if your plans had you stopping in Cape Blanco as well. Hope you enjoy your meetup with Nina & Paul!
Depending upon your dates at the lighthouse in September I may come down and visit my parents who will be vacationing down there as well.
Glad the temperatures are back in line! Sorry we won’t see you at Burning Man but I definitely understand the scenario. Don’t be strangers when you get North to PDX.
Cheers,
We should be at Cape Blanco the entire month – let us know if you come on down, would be awesome to meet up. Looks like we’ll probably miss you in PDX, as its looking like we’ll be there around the week of the burn.
Wow does that spot look un-level! Or is it the angle of the photo?
It’s good to see you guys on the move again.
Oh.. definitely the angle of the photo… had to hold the camera rather odd over a ledge out onto the water to get the shot. The spots were *very* level.