So this week's video is going to be very different from our normal videos and that is because we
are finding ourselves in a situation this week and boy do we have a story to tell
you so it all started yesterday when we were leaving South Dakota or rather we
thought we were going to be leaving South Dakota and uh we only got about 30 minutes outside of
the rapid city area before we started having problems with the rv so we just had a really
weird thing we just had a couple of warning lights come on that said engine protection
and check engine and we lost power and now all of a sudden we seem to be back in business so
keeping our fingers crossed that whatever happened is just a temporary glitch and that everything's
good to go but that's strange we'll keep it posted that was very very strange and then scary you know
it's just kind of scary because then your heart drops you're like oh no what do you do everything
else but we're leaving a city rapid city so we're not going to be near any service station so not
for a little while anyway so all right well we'll just keep praying then that was a temporary glitch
fingers crossed so fun times in the rv we are currently um in a safe spot...(interrupted by dog) it's the doggie
um we're currently in a safe spot i just ate like one of those adult lunchables and
i think he's smelling the meat and cheese on my breath so we are at a like a service area
but it's uh just more like a fuel station area and um the rv definitely there's something that
definitely was going on at this point um because of just how things are in the summer
all of the service centers that we called are completely booked and uh wouldn't even be able
to get us in until monday at the earliest today being a friday just you be patient
and so right now um kind of the plan is we think we're gonna try to drive back to rapid
city and see if we can make it back there and the engine oil was a little low we're going to try an
oil and filter change and see if that helps diesel engines do tend to be really sensitive
to aged oil so um we're gonna try that and then just kind of see if we feel like that helps or not
we're a little bit reluctant to leave this particular area until we know that we're 100
good to go because at least where we are here is a little bit larger area there's more resources
available as far as service centers things like that once that we start kind of driving across
the state and into wyoming it gets pretty remote and even where there's more it's more remote like
first cell service and things like that so wanting to make sure that we don't put ourselves in a bad
situation that way um we just want to make sure that everything is on the up and up before we
leave thankfully today was what we would have called a gap day where we don't have
any reservations at a campground for tonight the reservations that we have in wyoming start
tomorrow from where we are to where we need to go into wyoming is about an eight-hour drive
so it is still doable within a one-day time frame so if we change the oil today and feel
like that everything is good then we could still easily make it to our campground that
we have our reservations at tomorrow so we'll just have to see how this goes and
stay tuned because we're going to keep you posted as we go throughout the day today and
try to figure out what's going on with the rig so we decided what we would want to do really is we
didn't want to keep going obviously with problems and put ourselves in a bad situation so we wanted
to just kind of try to cover the bases that we can one thing that we've learned in rv life and just
a tip for you guys is try to cover the minimal basis first we've paid a lot of stupid tax over
the last four years of rving by calling a service center or going into a service center to find out
it was something very simple like a fuse or just a very minor thing that we really could have done
ourselves had we just checked those things first so we really just wanted to make sure that we
were doing you know what we could first on our own before that we kind of you know called in the pros
so we were able to limp it back to rapid city. Ben and his dad and a friend of his dads went and got
a new oil you know oil filter fuel filter oil we just wanted to cover the bases that we could cover
on our own so on the ongoing saga of rv mishaps today um we made it back into rapid city at least
um i have an appointment at the CAT dealer monday morning at six a.m just isn't in case right now
Ben and his dad are working on trying to change the oil and the fuel filter on the way back in it
ran fine just going down the highway but as soon as we come to a stoplight it was dying
and so um something obviously is not right it shouldn't be dying at a stop so we're going to
try that and then take it out and drive it around see if that doesn't take care of it
if not then we're gonna have to figure out where we're gonna stay um the hard thing is right now is
that there are literally no campgrounds to be had there is um like limited to no overnight parking
available in places in fact the parking lot that we pulled into um just kind of at the city run
civic center right now somebody already stopped by and told us there's no overnight parking which
we weren't planning on parking it overnight we're just trying to get a repair made on the fly
so it could be interesting if this doesn't fix it and we have to try to find a place to even just
have an overnight parking spot for the next couple of nights here in the rapid city area
i did a precursor check like everything here is so expensive right now with it being in the middle of
the summer and like the big tourism season and the other thing too is like with just tourism
coming back right now it is ridiculous what prices are doing for lodging for just anything
at all when it comes to travel so anyway fingers crossed that this takes care of this in that um
we can just get back on the road with just this you know kind of maintenance and kind of learned
a little bit of a lesson too that preventative maintenance is maybe something you should do
before you head out i mean we thought we were okay mileage wise and stuff we really were okay
as far as we technically weren't due for an oil change we technically weren't due for fuel filters
but things can happen while you're on the road you can end up getting some poor quality fuel just
lots of things that can happen so anyway starting there and we'll see where we go from here
and um yeah keep you guys posted so it is stressful like one thing i want to just talk
about it's like i cannot tell you that pit you get in the middle of your stomach when all of a sudden
there's like a warning light coming on the dash or whatever and then you know it's not knowing what
our repair is going to cost i mean you know we do have you know an emergency fund we try to plan
for emergencies in just a financial respect but that's never fun some are fun having to
spend money if that's what you end up having to do so anyway stressful but we'll make it through
um one thing that we've talked about too with rv life is that we really hope that we show our kids
how to handle adversity in a way that is gracious
in a way that is not breaking connection with those next to us as far as you know we're not
screaming we're not yelling we're not trying to blame anybody or anything we're just trying
to push through what we need to push through to get problems resolved to be able to move forward
and so if anything we really hope that that's one thing that situations like this at least become
a life lesson for our family and for our kids moving forward so we'll let you know what that
lesson ends up being at the end of all of this and we thought we had the problem fixed all right so
as of right now we think that we're okay um change the oil change the fuel filter
and uh ran it down the interstate in back drove it for probably a good hour um and then drove it
in town because that's where we were having probably the biggest problem was actually
like in town so it seems to be on the up and up so fingers crossed we are going to go just run and
buy ben's dad some dinner because he was so great to help us out and kind of rescue us a little bit
with extra tools and oil drain pans and all of that kind of stuff that we just don't have with
us when we're on the road so we're gonna go do that and then get back on the road
i don't know if we'll still make it to our intended boondocking spot tonight
where we may end up just finding a different place to boondock for the night that's
just within a little bit shorter distance but we'll still have a little bit of ways to cover
tomorrow into wyoming went and drove it down the road for a while seemed to be okay decided
we would just go have some dinner came back to the rig and had a really hard time starting it
so we spent the night in cabela's last night which was fine and it worked and thank god
Cabela still has overnight parking there's very few places that have overnight parking
yeah and all of the campgrounds here are booked solid right now i was trying to see if there was
a campground that we could stay at no option for that it is a weekend and so of course weekends in
the summer for campgrounds are a little bit harder to get in anyway so a good thing to remember
is you know when you're in a situation where it's just the emotions are high or the stress
levels high all of that is just high is it's a good idea sometimes to just sleep on something
and to just you know take a few minutes relax rest it's what we did slept
decided we'd make a decision this morning after we felt well rested
i had a chance to shower which is always a plus smell a lot better makes you feel better so
researching this morning i found that there is a service center that i didn't see yesterday
when i was searching and uh at least on the website it says they're open today
they had some good positive google reviews from actual other rvers
so we're just gonna go over there and kind of pleat our case
and hope that they can at least get us in we have a feeling it's probably something somewhat simple
like maybe the second fuel filter that we couldn't access ourselves very easily or get to so we're
just gonna go over there and um see if they can't help us out so good news is is we stopped at this
particular truck center and they can at least take a look at it this afternoon which at this point is
better than waiting until monday um just so that we don't lose more of our reservation to do the
tetons than um we would if we were waiting until monday since today is just a saturday
but right now i get the lovely task of emptying out this back closet because to access the top
part of the engine you have to go in through this closet floorboard which we're not sure if they
will or won't need to do that but on the in case it's just always a better idea to make sure that
they've got full access to everything that they could potentially need access to so um here we go
emptying the back closet out because this is what happens when you have a diesel pusher
so that's what i'm going to be doing now for the next however long to uh get this emptied onto the
bed and fingers crossed that this is a simple fix and we can get back on the road yet today
so we'll keep it posted we've no clue what we're doing at the moment looking for that secondary um
here's the engine right here i can literally crawl down inside the engine
bay i'm in the engine this is quite the ordeal taking apart the rig i mean fleetwood at least
makes it come apart somewhat easy it's not like that it's rocket science to take it apart but
you do have to take quite a bit apart and when you're full timing and you have
all your clothes and everything in the closet it's quite the hairy ordeal to disassemble your whole
life thankfully most of our life is minimal and right now it's all in the shower so at least if
it's there but we didn't want to let a week go by without at least bringing you a video
and some sort of update and so really I feel like the takeaways for this week are
before you leave on a long trip do all the services especially on a long trip because
you know we our home base is in Florida and we're in South Dakota right now so yeah thank
god that we're in an area where we have a family member ben's dad yeah that is here that at least
was being you know helpful to be able to call in that resource last night yeah but having things
checked before you leave on an extended trip like ben said by a professional is always a good idea
yeah so definitely would recommend that and then just you know if you run into a snag or whatever
and you need to make a decision that you feel like is maybe a little bit more of a major decision
being well rested and being in a place where you're just thinking clearer i think is always
a good idea and a good takeaway um from just this whole experience this week absolutely
all right stay tuned and uh we'll see what happens and see if we can get this thing
back on the road again we'll keep you posted on wednesday's video so if you haven't hit
that subscribe button and hit that bell for notifications make sure you do that right now
so that you'll get notified as soon as that video comes out on wednesday with an update for you all