Saturday, August 22, 2009

Colorado: August 17-19, 2009. Engine Check Light Fixed & Colorado National Monument

We arrived at Cummins Rock Mountain at 10am and they took the Bug in almost immediately and started working on it. We had hoped we could leave the ‘babies’ (LiLi & Misty)

in the Bug, but the technicians need to work from the inside as well as the outside. In the motorhomes, with the diesel engine in the rear, the only way to access the top of the engine is to open a removable panel near the bed.

So we put the babies in their carriers and took them into the customer lounge with us. They protested for a while and then went to sleep.

The techs found an electric noise suppressor module was defective and needed to be replaced. They also found that the fuel pump was leaking and needed to be replaced. They didn’t have either part in stock. They ordered them from Denver and they should arrive by 10:30am tomorrow.

This Cummins Dealer, like most repair facilities which working large trucks and motorhomes, has electric hookups in their parking lot so customer can stay overnight, free of charge. I would say ‘free’ is a matter of interpretation! The cost of the repairs is far more than the cost of any RV Park!

This is our camp for the night.


Our camp for the night turned out to be comfortable and quiet. Cummins is in nice, fairly new industrial area, instead of an older rundown part of town.

At 8am they came to take the Bug in and start the repairs. We weren’t expecting them quite so early. We quickly closed up the Bug and went sightseeing. We decided last night that after sitting in the customer lounge from 10:30 to 3:30 yesterday we weren’t going to sit in the lounge all day again. We put the babies in the Blazer & went for a drive through Colorado National Monument (CNM).

Grand Junction is bordered on the SW by a series of sandstone cliffs. These cliffs are protected by the CNM. In the 1930’s the CCC built a road which follows the edge of the cliffs. Lots of beautiful scenic views along the road.

First an arial view of the CNM. This is a photograph I took of a poster on wall of the visitor center. It is an excellent view of CNM

Notice the road running along the cliff at the bottom. The road follows the edge of the cliffs for about 20 miles.

The following are photo taken from within a few steps of the road.


This monolith is called Independence Monument, because it stands independently from the rest of the narrow ridge of rock


There is a lot more to see in CNM than we could see on our quick tour. We would stay here longer, but with the temperatures in low to mid 90's, we want to get into the high country and cooler weather.

Back to Cummins about 1pm. Still not finished. Back into the customer lounge. About 3:30 they finished and moved the Bug back to our parking spot. It was far too late for us to think about driving to an RV Park. We had already planned to spend the night here anyway. Besides, the paper work wasn’t finished up yet. Cummins was waiting for payment from our extended warranty company, Good Sam Club, Continuing Service Plan (CSP). Cummins has worked with CSP before and knew they don’t pay invoices after 3pm, but do generally pay them by 9am if CSP has the invoice. CSP is paying $800 of the $1300 bill, which left us with our $500 deductable. Diesel repairs are not cheap!!

This morning, Wednesday, at 7:15 I was off to Wal*Mart for supplies for our next week of boondocking. I was back before the Cummins Service Manager came over at 8:30 with the completed invoice. I went in and paid our balance of $490.83. Didn’t ask why we didn’t have to pay the entire $500 deductible!

As soon as we got packed up we were on our way to Silverton.

Until later,

Al & Sharon

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