On July 5, we headed south to Acorn Acres RV Park & Villas in Branson West. It was a very hot day, like all of them seem to be, and we were sure glad when the set-up process was finished. Here’s what our home-away-from-home looks like.
On the drive down there, we noticed a noise in the front end of the coach. It seemed to go away at times, but it was a nagging issue. In the next couple of days, Julian did a number of things to try to diagnose it, and decided it must be a belt – something that had to be fixed prior to driving any further distances.
We scheduled a 9:00am appointment with a local repair shop. So that morning, we packed up the coach and were ready to head out by 8:40. The engine would not start – not even turn over. He tried the bypass switch to let the starter use the house batteries. Still nothing. After calling the insurance people, a tow truck came out to try to get it started. Again, nothing. That tow truck wasn’t big enough to pull us, so we waited another half hour or so till a heavy duty tow truck could come in. He got us hooked up and very skillfully pulled us out of the park, down to the repair shop.
After a morning of diagnosis, we were told that 1) the starter was bad and 2) the clutch on the dash air conditioner was out, the cause of the noise we heard. The starter was found locally (thankfully) and was installed the same day. The clutch had to be ordered and wouldn’t be available for several days!
We had hoped to get that installed on our way out of town, but the 3rd party warranty company wouldn’t leave the ticket open that long. So, again, we broke camp and headed to the repair shop. The job was expected to take 3 to 4 hours. We found things to do and then returned after lunch to learn that the old clutch was frozen to the compressor. They had ruined several tools in their efforts to get it off. Oh, no!
They cleared it with the warranty people and ordered a compressor to be installed when we are ready to leave this campground. So hopefully we’ll get it completely handled at our next appointment on August 10. Cross your fingers, please. It’s been a crazy summer for mechanical issues.
Aside from all that, the heat here (everywhere) has been unbelievable. It’s been about 3 weeks of triple digit temps, which makes it tough to find things to do. It’s just too hot!
We have done a little fishing and may be on to something, finally. We went to Table Rock Lake and looked at a couple places where we could get down to the water, outside of Kimberling City. We fished the first of those two and got a couple of bites. The problem was the large rocks everywhere, making it difficult to get around. The rocks extended into the lake and we lost more than one hook while there.
We went to the second location the same day. It was gravel, not rock and much easier to deal with. We even had a couple bites. When we ran out of worms, we had to leave. We returned a few days later and had a really good time. We didn’t bring anything home, but we caught 2 catfish, 2 sunfish, 1 bluegill and a small turtle (oops). All swam away, back into their home.
We also went to Lake Taneycomo, on the south side of Branson. We found a public access area and attempted to catch some trout. It didn’t work out, but we did find a great campground next door. We’ve decided to spend 4 nights there, right on the lake, before leaving the area. Fishing every day! Well, for one of us anyway.
Stay tuned. My next update will include some of the fun things we’ve done in addition to fishing and coach repairs. Honest, we have had some fun and had some great meals out, too.
Happy trails!
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