Houston … We’ve Had A Problem Here

Friday, 23 May
Advanced RV Resort — Houston, Texas
Temps: LO 69F (21C) / Hi 86F (30C) … only 48% Humidity

You might think the title is a mis-quote since most people remember it as “Houston, we have a problem” … from the movie, Apollo 13.  Actually, Jack Swigert, who was part of the ‘real’ crew aboard the ‘real’ Apollo 13 said the words as I have them here.  Here’s the story, if you’re interested … straight from Jim Lovell, who was the commander of the mission — he ought to know.

Apollo 13 lifted off on 11 April 1970 … my birth day, but not the year ;-)  Two days later, the crew reported the problem that cancelled the planned moon landing.

Top Right:  The moon from the lunar module; deactivated command module on the right. 
Bottom right: Crew of Apollo 13 — (L-to-r) Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Ken Mattingly.        

In any event, since the Phaeton’s problem is already fixed, the words as they were first uttered are more accurate to our situation.  Knock on wood … no other issues!  More on this a bit later.  Let’s get on the road first and travel from Port Aransas to Houston.

209 miles (334 km) from Port Aransas to Advanced RV Resort in Houston (marker 1 to
marker 5); Roundtrip 47 miles (75 km) the next day from ARVR to Cummins Coach Care and back
(marker 5 to marker 8).  Marker 7 is where we topped off the diesel at Pilot; all other markers
are waypoints to get Microsoft Streets & Trips to follow the route we wanted to travel.
(Top inset — our travels to date in year 2 of our fulltiming lifestyle.)

Tuesday — May 21 …

Our day started with the Phaeton’s second ferry ride — from Port Aransas … to get us across the Corpus Christi Channel.  Since we’d packed up on Monday — quite a bit to do after our 152-day stay at Gulf Waters RV Resort — getting on the road at 8:00a as planned wasn’t a problem.  Half an hour later, we were disembarking the ferry in Aransas Pass.  Even though the ferry was a smaller one this time, there was no problem loading the Phaeton with the toad hooked up — we were given the entire one side of the ferry, and the smaller vehicles were loaded on the other side.

A great blue heron bids us adios …

… as the ferry pulls away from the Port Aransas landing, crosses the Corpus Christi Channel …

… and brings us to the Aransas Pass Ferry Landing.

When we drove to Port Aransas in December 2013, we took State Highway (SH) 35 down from Houston.  It was a good, straight forward shot; a little slow going through the towns.  On this trip, Mui wanted to have time in Houston to check out the Cummins facility where we had an appointment on Wednesday, so we took the SH 35/US 59 route.  Good, but since we’ve been repeatedly warned off the Sam Houston Tollway, we had to put in a few jiggles to cut over to SH 288 by way of a couple of FM [farm to market] roads.  No problem; a bit of traffic, but wasn’t bad at all.  Of course, being from the east coast, we’re used to driving in congested traffic through towns … the short cut might prove nerve-racking to others.  In the future, however, SH 35 between Houston and Port A will be our route-of-choice.

Anyway, we were in site 706 at Advanced RV Resort by 12:30p.  Getting settled was easy — we didn’t.  With a service appointment the next morning, we just hooked up the electricity, and opened the passenger side slide up front, and the two bedroom slides.  And we were done.  A quick lunch, and Mui was on his way to check out the Cummins facility and do a recon on how to get to the Pilot Truck Plaza to top off our diesel on the way back to the campground.

We don’t have the space we’ve gotten used to at GWRVR, but the lots at
Advanced have reasonable spacing for a city campground.

Mui returned from his recon trip saying that the route I had planned with S&T was A-OK.  Time to relax before an early wake-up call the next morning.

Wednesday — 21 May

Even though we didn’t get the annual service done as scheduled, Cummins Coach Care gets two thumbs up from Two to Travel.  Why?  Because they took good care of us.  Let me explain.

We were about an hour out of Houston on Tuesday when the check-engine light came on — again.  It was the same amber light with the exclamation point.  It kept going on and off as the coach jiggled and wiggled its way on the highway, so we figured it was another sensor issue.  Freightliner had previously told us that as long as the light was amber and we weren’t losing power, we were good to drive.  So that’s what we did.

Arriving at 6:35a, we pull into the Customer Entrance.

Arriving at the campground, the first thing we did was to look up the active fault code on the LBCU (Light Bar Control Unit) — SPN 157 FMI 4 OC38.  Hmmm … not the water in fuel code, which we’ve had before.  Next we called THE NUMBER … yes, the one that all Freightliner chassis owners know by heart — 1-800-FTL-HELP.  The tech did some research and mumbled something about the fuel rail pressure sensor measuring out of spec.  Actually, he didn’t mumble, but it all sounded like gibberish to me!  Bottom-line, not something we can fix; got to go to a service center.  Good thing that’s what was on our agenda for the next day!

Phaeton gets serviced … but not the service we were planning.

Mui had already spoken to the service writer when he came up to check out the facility, so they already knew about the additional work.  The problem … the techs trained to do the work were already booked up, but the service manager promised to squeeze us in to at least run the diagnostic to determine the scope of the resolution.  An hour or so later, we got the news that the diagnostic/repair and the rest of the work on Mui’s maintenance list might take longer than eight hours.  “You’re welcome to stay on our lot tonight if we don’t finish everything today,” said Chris.  Doable, but we have a tight schedule to get ready for our overseas trip.  So, we made the decision to reschedule the routine maintenance for when we return to Houston in July, and told them to go ahead with the diagnostic/repair.

Mui turning in the Freightliner annual maintenance checklist …
before we canceled to give priority to the “check engine” problem.

All in all, we were at Coach Care for about 5 hours.  Of course, no visiting the service bays here, so Mui joined me in the comfortable lounge — no wi-fi, but we came prepared with our Millenicom mi-fi device, which worked like a charm.  When all was said and done, we walked drove away with the bad sensor replaced, and an appointment for July 18 to get the annual maintenance done.  The good news: our engine is still under warranty — barely … ends in September 2014 — so we were out of pocket only $100.  Mui was so relieved that the problem was resolved so quickly that he neglected to ask how much the cost would have been out of warranty — perhaps it’s better that we don’t know ;-)

Comfy in the recliner … the mi-fi providing internet connectivity …
I’m a happy camper in the lounge at the Coach Care facility.

Fueling up at Pilot took longer than usual, but by 1:30p, we were back at the campground.  A quick lunch and a relaxing afternoon … resting up before we have to start packing for our trip — a chore I dread. 

Thursday — 22 May …

This was a day of errands for Mui — he doesn’t mind running around town; so he was up to the task.  By the time he was back at the campground, he had checked out the storage facility where the Phaeton will rest while we’re overseas; had the toad’s tires rotated at Costco; returned a few things at REI and Walmart.

Each sensor for our tire pressure monitoring system is pre-programmed for a
specific tire.  Using a pillbox, Mui came up with a way to keep the sensors organized when
he has to remove them.  He borrowed the pillbox, which is labeled for the coach, to
store the toad’s sensors when he took the car in to have the tires rotated.

I wasn’t twirling my thumbs at home while Mui was out and about.  I went through all the paperwork for our upcoming trip, printing what we wanted to carry with us; pdf’ing the rest and copying the files to the laptop for easy reference.  Now, all we have to do is pack.  Did I already mention how much I dread the chore?

Back to today …

Mui was up bright and early this morning.  He wanted to get the roof washed and put a UV-protectant wax on before it got too hot.  He also washed the coach to rid it of any salt deposited since last washing it in Port Aransas.  He used a product called OrPine Wash & Wax.  It’s a marine grade product recommended by our GWRVR friend, Steve.  After using it three times, Mui gives it three-thumbs up ;-)

Color from around Advanced RV Resort.

For me, today was laundry day … and I did some accounting.  All in preparation for our upcoming trip.  Now, all I have to do is pack.  Did I already mention how much I dread the chore?  Oh well, I have three more days to get the job done!