Our first coast to coast

[David and Teresa]

Well, we've just returned in our first 5000+ mile trip in our Newell. It was a great trip with only a couple of mishaps.

We left Orlando and drove as quickly as we could to Houston. We didn't want to see what we've seen many times before. After visiting San Antonio, we took secondary roads south and up to El Paso. Then through New Mexico (White Sands, wow!), into Arizona, over to California and up CA 95 into Las Vegas. Then we went to Williams, AZ and took the train up to the Grand Canyon. Then I-40 over to Memphis. Made the mandatory Graceland tour which everybody should do once (like Vegas). Then, drove home on secondary roads through Mississippi, Alabama, etc. Except for Vegas and Williams, we didn't have reservations and stopped and stayed where ever we saw something that interested us.

About 30 miles outside Vegas, we lost the air regulator and air pressure to everything but the brakes. We limped into the Vegas KOA and had a local mobile mechanic come out. He had us up in an hour or so. He did such a good job I had him make a replacement part for the Howard steering assist. The plastic tube showing fluid level was cracked and leaked. He made a brass replacement and a custom dip-stick for checking levels. Then, outside Williams, the cab AC compressor froze and threw the belts. With a compressor hard to find in the desert, we had a shorter belt put on just to run the alternator to get us home. Other than that, the coach was a breeze to drive, the engine and transmission were consistent. We averaged 8.25 MPG for the whole trip, which I thought was pretty good. I consider myself an excellent driver now.

David & Teresa