maiden voyage

[encantotom]

hi my newell friends,

after many months of just fixing and updating, darlene and i (and our oldest daughter and her two kids) left friday nite about 630pm for a 4k mile adventure. i took 3 weeks off of work and off we go.

i have spent so much time working on the newell that it was nice to head out. did 325 miles the first nite and 300 today. did many steep grades coming out of mesa going up north out of arizona.

ran the generator non stop for seemingly days. it was 111 in mesa yesterday and as i was putting the finishing touches on the trailer hitch to tow the car i had to make a new electric connection cable since the hi/lo hitch extension lengthened it by 14" i also had to lengthen the safety cables. i was building the last plug on the cable sitting on the concrete in front of my house and it was hot....

a few things happened that were small so far. got one engine code that reset itself and didnt show up again. i also had a fuse go on the new 12v air compressor. i might have to bump it up from a 15 to a 20 with the new compressor. the solenoid diverter valve that switches between city water and the pumps hung up and we were without water till i got it cleared.

the funniest thing was as we were leaving the house pulling our honda crv we only moved a few inches and our daughter runs up waving her hands. the air brake system on the coach isnt set up the way i thought it would be and it locked the brakes up all the time on the car. so i just disconnected the air hose and off we went. i will fix it when i get home.

loving it so far. learning alot about it.

still things to fix and update but making great progress. loved the new latex mattress we had made for the new bed.

tomorrow after we attend church where we are staying we will head off to start to miami ok. will have a few things done there on tuesday.

didnt know if we were going to make it as some last minute problems came up thursday but it all turned out.

many thanks to our newell friends and others who have helped us so much.

later

tom and darlene