Aurora, UtahJul 16, 2006
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Ken would fix it if he could
We left our house to call a tow service
On the road again?
7/16 - 7/20
On the 16th we made it all the way to Ely, about 79 miles from Eureka. We stayed at the Prospector Hotel and Casino (and RV park). Had plenty of time to relax and use their pool. The next day we were expecting to make it to Delta, Utah - but we did not get that far. Only about 12 miles after we stopped for lunch the house engine started overheating. We pulled over on the side of the road. Unfortunately there was no phone service at this location so we decided to spend the night where we were and try to get help the next day.
The following day we drove the Jeep about 48 miles to Delta and phone service. We called up our road service people (Coach Net) and, after they talked to the engineers at Alpine Coach, suggested a repair (disconnecting the controller for the radiator fan) I could make to get us rolling again. So. . . . . we drove back to our house and disconnected the controller. About 12 miles later the engine overheated again, the temporary repair did not work. So . . . . . . the drive in the Jeep was shorter this time, only 36 miles until we could call back Coach Net. They arranged to get our coach repaired in a town called Aurora and arrange to have a tow truck dispatched to tow our house. There is a good part to this story - before returning to the house to wait for the tow truck we had a delicious 4-star lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Mi Rancherito (Hwy 6 and Topaz Blvd., Delta, Utah, 435-864-4245).
The tow truck came on time (2.5 hours from Provo, Utah). It took the driver about one-half hour to hook the house up and take off the drive shaft (the motorhome cannot be towed with the drive shaft connected). It was another two hours to tow the house 106 miles to Mason Diesel in Aurora. We saw the bill that the towing company was sending to Coach Net - $1014. Sure glad we did not have to pay it.
Mason Diesel started working on the coach the next day. The problem was very difficult to troubleshoot because everything appeared to be working correctly. After a day of working on the coach it was finally decided that the radiator fan was not turning fast enough. Our house has a side mounted radiator so all the cooling air comes from air produced by the radiator fan. The fan motor is controlled and powered by hydraulic fluid. Another day of waiting for a new fan motor to arrive from our coach manufacture and then a couple of hours to install the fan and we were fixed and on the road again.
While we were stuck in Aurora we did get a day off to do tourist type stuff. We drove about 50 miles down I-70 to Cove Fort Historical Site. Cove Fort was a way-station built by Ira Hinckley in 1867 at the request of Brigham Young, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The church built way-stations all along the "Mormon Corridor" stretching from Idaho to Nevada that were connected by a network of roads, telegraph lines and postal routes. The fort is made of black volcanic rock and dark limestone. The walls are 100 feet long, 18 feet high, and about six feet wide at the base. The Mormons used the fort until 1890 when they leased the land and later sold it. In 1988 the land was repurchased by the Hinckley family and donated back to the church to restore and use as an historic site. Inside the fort there are rooms for a post office, kitchen and dining, three guest rooms and about four rooms for the Hinckley family. Also on the grounds are some restored or rebuilt outbuildings including a large barn, blacksmith shop with the original bellow and a small cabin for cowboys who worked at the fort. We got an excellent tour of the fort by a couple of tour guides. On the way back to Aurora we stopped at the Fremont Indian State Park and Museum. When I-70 was being built an old Indian village was discovered. The Fremont Indians had inhabited this village over 1000 years ago. The artifacts that were collected were later put on display in a museum that was built in the same general area. After visiting the museum we took a short trail that brought us by some of the Fremont Indian petroglyphs (stone carvings).
