Moab Easter

Another place we have not been before is Moab.......this place seems to be the ultimate outdoorsman's paradise.  Sunday we were pulling up anchor to head north once again into new territory for us.  I was up early Sunday with the cold temperatures.....got down to 30 Saturday night.....but by the time I had finished the blog for Saturday TLE was up and we were beginning to finish putting things away so we could roll our wheels.

Around 9 am I started the big generator so I could run the block heater for the big Detroit.....it takes about 45 minutes of heating the block before I can start the engine when it has been this cold.  Right on schedule at 9:45 the DD rumbled to life and we were on our way north. 

Our total travel distance was only 68 miles, and we knew we would be descending over that distance a little over 3,000' in elevation, but as with most things in life it was not a straight line down......we would go down, then up, then down then up.  The scenery all along the route north is breath taking as you would expect.

We had avoided getting to Moab earlier than Sunday as all last week there was a large festival in progress with thousands of out of towners clogging up the parks, and downtown area.  Sunday was also Easter Sunday.

Arrived in Moab at Portal RV Resort (located on the north end of town) around 11:30, quickly checked in, got set up in our site (#29) and waited for our friends to arrive.  We didn't know they had arrived the night before and that their sites were right across from us.  They were away from the park on a day trip over to Dead Horse State Park.

I mentioned before that we have hooked up with David and Denise numerous times over the past 5 years, and just love spending time with them.  This time they were traveling with Denise's sister (Patty) and her husband (John) who also have a class B RV.

We drove the VW back into town to pick up some firewood for our anticipated evening fire, an just as we returned we saw our friends backing their spot right across from us.  The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent catching up, drinking a little vino, and eating a wonderful meal that everyone contributed something to.  It also happened to be Denise's birthday so we sang happy birthday to her as we wiled away the evening hours laughing and giggling.

  Our surroundings for the next two days

 David & Denise's Sprinter Class B on left

John and Patty's Dodge Class B on right

One of the things that comes along with living full time on the road is that things break, or wear out from time to time.  On our way north from Blanding we stopped in a Rest Area to go to the bathroom about 17 miles from Moab.  As I usually do I got out my infrared temperature "gun" and checked all the tires.  I discovered, much to my dismay, that the right rear inside tire on the Newell is starting to show cupping marks, and signs of tread separation.  This tire was running over 20 degrees warmer that the other three on the rear of the coach, and that was a sign to me that something is going wrong with that tire.  It is really important to catch these things before they get to the point where the tire explodes and causes damage to the other tire, or to the coach.   These tires are 5.5 years old and have about 40,000 miles on them.....as you can see, the tread is still very deep.  The other three tires appear to be normal at this point, but I will be watching them like a hawk over the next few weeks as we work our way to Lake Tahoe.  As a result I contacted Good Sam's ERS department and made arrangements to have someone from a local tire company come out with a replacement tire Monday morning.

You can see in the picture where I have circled one of the problem areas in the tread....it is hard to see by there are several spots like this.

This is one of those things you just stop and deal with, and that is what we shall do.  I'm always grateful that I find these things before they become a catastrophic failure and result in really big damage and dollar outlays.

Thanks for stopping by!