At Home

 Well, we have been home for just over two weeks now. We have been fairly busy getting the Montana unloaded and in to the dealer, Bluenose RV, for a bunch of little things that can occur after 25000km of driving across the country. We told them not to hurry and do it right! The rig is still there and I have to go in tomorrow and add a couple more things to the list that have to be done.
We got the truck cleaned up, finally. It took a couple of days to get four months of bugs and tar removed. Quick washes throughout the trip got road grime and mud off, but the tar and bugs needed some special attention and a lot of elbow grease. I think I might have a bit of transmission problems with the truck. It seems to shudder a bit on downshifts. Noticed it in the last three days of our trip. Talked to another Ford owner, actually an oil pipeline contractor from Alberta, who has 27 Ford trucks. He says the transmission shudder is in all of them and Ford can’t find the solution. He also said that it does not seem to get any worse, just annoying! However, I don’t like annoying and am going to chase Ford on this one. The tranny fluid has a slight smell of burnt brown sugar but seems to be the proper pink color. I’ll go back to the dealer and if nothing comes out of that I’ll go to a commercial transmission shop and see what they say. Sure would like to get it solved before we head south this winter.
Our going south plans are progressing, but slowly. Too many options out there which seem to complicate planning. We are loosely setting a departure date for late in Dec. or early Jan. Broad plans will have us going directly south, down I81 to Cajun country and then west through Texas towards Arizona. The number and lengths of stops in between will vary. What we are doing is looking for that special spot that we can consider calling home for 5 months each winter. There is a lot down there to look at.
For those of you who might be interested in what it costs to make a trip like we did this summer, my dedicated navigator, accountant and money manager came up with the following numbers.
To keep these numbers in context, here are some of the factors. Our total combined weight (truck & trailer) was 21,750 lbs. Total mileage driven was 25,135 km and our fuel consumption averaged 24.4L/100km or 11.6mpg. My driving speed on good highways was between 90 and 100kph and probably averaged out at 95kph. It was much slower on secondary roads, rough roads (of which there were plenty), long mountain uphill grades etc.
We also cook almost all our own meals. In fact I think we only ate out three times during the whole trip.
We were gone for 124 days and stayed in 54 RV Parks. Two months and one week of this time was spent in Alberta, BC, the Yukon and the North West Territories.
Our costs have broken down like this.
Food (includes cleaning supplies & toiletries) $16.67/day
Campgrounds $27.71/day
Diesel Fuel $49.82/day
Misc. (Truck & Trailer Maintenance, eating out
Wine & spirits, museum admissions and anything
else that is not included in the above.) $34.25/day


We could have reduced our costs somewhat if we had spent at least one night a week at Wal-Mart or Truck Stop parking lots at no charge, as well as no services. We always planned to do this but never did.
This is all for now. We will post occasionally to keep you up to date on our winter travel plans.
Quote of the day: I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
  - E. B. White

P & N