Leaving Wittmann........

7:23 am - Thursday - March 14th - Mesa, AZ - 39º F, 67% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east by northeast......clear blue skies today with a forecast high in Mesa, AZ of 63º F, but we will not be here for that high.....we will be on our way to SoCal!  Roll our wheels in 3 hours!

I was up at 4:30 am Wednesday in advance of our desired 6 am departure time.....this is why I wanted to leave for All Aboard America on Tuesday so I would not have to get up at 4:30 am.  The wind blew all night, and the rain came and went right up until I turned the 6v92 over at 6 am.  We were moving within 10 minutes.  The one mile of dirt road was a muddy mess, but we made it to the pavement without getting stuck.  The key is DO NOT stop once you start moving.

Traffic for a weekday morning was relatively light and we arrived at All Aboard America just after 8 am......perfect.  Leo wanted us to be ready to move into the bus bay by 8:30 am so they could get an early start on the brakes.  We actually removed the VW from the trailer, dropped the trailer and had the Newell ensconced inside the bus bay by 8:25 am.....again, perfect!  

We had not eaten breakfast yet so TLE found a Starbucks a few blocks away where we each got a coffee and a pastry.  We spent the next 2.5 hours sitting outside (me in the shade) reading our books, and passing the time.  We knew at a very minimum they would need the entire day to get the scheduled work finished: reline the brakes shoes, either turn the existing drums, or replace them, plus install new bushings on the torque rod above the rear axle.    At worst the work might not be finished until Thursday, but we were hoping to be finished Wednesday.

Around noon we drove across town to meet our good friends Charles and Bobbie for lunch.  We haven't seen them since Acadia National Park back in September.  Originally we met at a local Thai restaurant, but they were, inexplicably, not open, so we drove a few blocks to their favorite Chinese restaurant arriving there by 1 pm.  We had a lovely lunch, and great conversation getting caught up on each others lives before bidding them adieu around 2:15 pm, and heading back across town to All Aboard America hoping for good news on the Newell.

We arrived there just before 3 pm to find they had installed new rear brake drums......

We have new rear brake drums!

.....the original drums had over 165,000 miles on them, and there was not enough left to "turn" them.  Additionally, one of the brake shoes was down to the rivets, and had scored the brake drum pretty badly. We were prepared for this eventuality, and we are really happy to have brand new rear drums, and brake shoes.  As it turned out the problem with the torque rod was not bad bushings.....the bolts affixing it to the frame were just loose, so Leo tightened them up and we were good to go!  The left axle seal was also replaced.  They had the dualies reinstalled by 4:15 pm, and we were able to move the coach out of the bus bay a little before 5 pm.  Since it was now in the middle of Phoenix rush hour we asked Leo if we could spend the night in their parking lot to which he immediately agreed.  In fact, he provided a 50 am hookup for us just outside the bus bay.....

She's a little muddy, but she'll clean up just fine

......after a long day it was time to close the curtains and relax for the evening.  We watched a couple of recorded programs, and then watched the current episode of 'Survivor'.  We were in bed by 10 pm looking forward to getting up with the sun once again!

Thanks for stopping by!

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