The Cruising Adventures of Wild Blue and crew...

toyman":31z7w0tn said:
You're sure you weren't in EAST Texas ??
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Well, I have been in East Texas, but today I am "the meanest hombre west of the Pecos." That's a quote from the wise philosopher Yosemite Sam. :mrgreen: We turned off the Interstate at Fort Stockton, looking for some different scenery on our way to the Balloon Fiesta. This isn't it. :roll: Flat desert. The wind was blowing, but apparently not as bad as the "Blowing Dirt Festival" held annually in Van Horn (Jan. 1st through Dec. 31st). :wink: 8) :mrgreen: :twisted:

Thank goodness for satellite radio.

Fuel prices as high as New York state in this part of the Lone Star State. Looking for something nice to say... friendly people in the campground we are in, and reasonably level sites (that shouldn't be difficult around here :twisted: ) A 50 amp hookup, the a/c is keeping the outside temps (99º on the truck thermometer when we pulled in) at bay. Thunderstorms and hail north and east of us right now.

Joan is making supper, it's after 5:00 and we won't see a sunset, but I'll still raise a glass to toast another fine day. Little Izzy continues to be a great travel companion, and I have a good wireless broadband connection... it's all good. :cocktail

Best wishes,
Jim
 
After a couple days in and around Ruidoso, we left this morning, heading for Albuquerque. It was raining when we left (48 degrees), and the road was narrow and bumpy for the first 50 miles or so. Hardly any traffic, though. As we got further east, the road smoothed out, the sky cleared, and we began to see more motorcycles heading towards Ruidoso. Their Aspen Festival is this weekend, with a parade, car show, and other activities. If we didn't already have a reservation in Albuquerque (hard to come by during the Balloon Fiesta), we would have stayed another day or two.

The closer we got to Albuquerque, the lower the price for diesel. We stopped south of town for a sandwich and fuel and paid $2.41, 33 cents per gallon less than in Ruidoso.

The park we are in in Albuquerque is a mobile home park with some RVs. The spaces are snug, but we have an easy one to back into. It is apparent that most of the RVs that are in here are here for a while... we were fortunate to find any kind of an RV space with elec/water/sewer on such short notice, having booked this just last week.

ABQrvParkE.jpg

This evening we will head to the Balloon Fiesta grounds to watch the gas balloons launch, a "Balloon Glow" with the hot air balloons, and fireworks. And the weather weasels are predicting a NICE evening!

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
It's now 11:45. At 11:00, Joan was outside... I heard her yell, "We're gonna get hit!" followed by that sickening crash noise. As I ran to the door, I hollered, "Are you OK?"

"I am, but our truck isn't!"

When I got outside, I saw a Jeep had run into the side of our beautiful Big Red. A guy with a Bounder Diesel unhooked his Jeep uphill from us, and didn't put the transfer case in gear... it rolled down the hill and smacked into the side of our truck. He was on the front of the Jeep, trying to hold it back... yeah, that trick didn't work.

The truck is drivable, but damn ugly. We've filled out insurance and police reports.

As you might imagine, this puts a crimp in our travel plans while we wait to see what's next.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. The bike rack on the back of his Jeep did a number on our truck; the rear door, cab, and bed on our truck has damage. His Jeep had damage on the rear gate.

He admitted to us and the police officer that he did not have the Jeep in gear. Excrement occurs. We've driven RVs over 300,000 miles and have come off relatively unscathed. This is an inconvenience, but it could have been a lot worse... it didn't hit the HitchHiker and the truck (while nasty looking) is still drivable. No one got hurt.

Here's an example of someone who shouldn't be driving a big coach... he has it for sale... too bad it didn't sell.

This will have an effect on our travel plans for a while.

Best wishes,
Jim B.

On edit - here's the truck:

Crash2e.jpg
 
Jim and Joan-

Sorry to hear about your plight with Big Red! I know the sickening feeling!

Sometimes you number finally gets drawn in the lottery, and sometimes it isn't the Mega-Millions deal, I guess.

You're still in New Mexico, I presume?

Can the work be done there while you explore somewhere worthwhile with a rental car?

Best of Luck!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Jim and Joan

Sure sorry to hear about Big Red and the crimps its putting on your traveling. That sort of deal or worse has always been the big dread on our traveling adventures. Good things. No one hurt and no job to have to deal with return to.

Wishing you back to better luck,

Jay
 
Thanks for the well-wishes Joe and Jay. Sure coulda been worse. Three years ago this month, a friend of ours was killed when a "runaway" car ran her down as she came out of a store. :cry: Joan had been in the truck just a few moments earlier; she was on her way back to the RV when this occurred.

We are in Texas, at Lake Georgetown (about 400 miles north of the Tropical Tip). Big Red is driveable. Not sure at this point what the plan is; the insurance adjuster is supposed to be here tomorrow to give us an idea of how much and how long for repairs.

I like this truck so much I could probably write a country song about it. :note "You done broke my heart when you broke my truck..." :roll:

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Ouch (the truck, not the song, but that is kind of an "ouch" too. ) Like the country song in reverse - you get out of prison, your dog comes home alive, your girl comes back and you get your job back - and your truck is as good as new. Hope everything works out sort of like that!


JamesTXSD":1wzc2z5s said:
I like this truck so much I could probably write a country song about it. :note "You done broke my heart when you broke my truck..." :roll:

Best wishes,
Jim
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Jim and Joan,

We have been following your travels as usual both here and on the Captain Jim blog. Hope your setback is shortlived. Perhaps you will discover something you otherwise would have missed during the delay.

Best wishes,

Pat and Harper
 
What a sad way to begin your day! (Certainly not the best way to meet your neighbors!) I've seen the aftermath of more driverless vehicles than I can remember. (Two of the incidents had a "mechanic?" underneath them when they made an unexpected trip down a hill, fortunately they were on creepers and managed to "enjoy?" the ride without injury.

I certainly hope the final outcome of this incident is to your favor!
 
Thanks again, folks. After discussing (and a bit stronger than that) with both insurance companies, I think we have this worked out. We're not going to repair the truck in this area, but will get it done at our convenience. Unfortunately, both insurance companies had people down the "chain" who gave us less than accurate info that had to be RE-discussed further up the chain. They wasted hours of my time... and I have to say that I'm generally a pretty easy-going guy... to a point. I had to say to one rep, "My time was expensive when I was working... it is PRICELESS now that I'm retired. You don't want to waste any more of my time or I will make it my life's work to make your job a living hell. Shall we all get on the same page now?" :amgry

It shouldn't be necessary to bring in "supervisors" on each side to get a relatively minor incident taken care of. The guy who caused the accident admitted that it was his wrong-doing... that took care of much of the problem. Now, we just need to all come together that the truck needs to be brought back to what it was before the accident. I think we're on the road to that.

We appreciate the well-wishes.
Jim & Joan
 
Jim, just an alternative to think about - from an old GM truck builder and an old auto body shop owner...

Take the insurance settlement as a check and swap off BR as is, for a new or newer one...
A dealer with half a brain will see the damage is cosmetic and he can repair and roll over easily while it is still a late model...
The issue will be that BR now has a damage history that kills its resale value when you go to sell it in the future... Do it the roll over now while you have cash flow from the ins. co. in hand...
The 4th generation LMM motors are basically the best of this engine series... They have all the weak points of the early engines corrected

At this point I would pass on the 5th generation LML engines as they have hung more mileage killing crap on them - and the Obama tax is going to be roughly $4500 on these trucks when they restart production lines (about now)...
2012 is going to be a real pain if the rumors of having urea injection into the exhaust is true......

Read the tea leaves at:
http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/index.php

My next option would be to have BR repaired and immediately trade it off... Likely, this will cost you a few more bucks than my first option - though it is hard to predict... The machinations of the government have messed up what used to be routine calculations of present and future value of a vehicle...
 
Hi Denny-o,

Lots to consider here. Big Red is one of the few vehicles we've owned that I'd like to keep for the long haul. I will be discussing diminished value with the insurance company before we settle, since it is certainly a factor. This truck is strong, dependable, comfortable, and does all we need. I don't really want to put money into a new(er) vehicle. I will do some research to see how much value is lost to the damage history which will follow the vehicle.

I appreciate the advice, and it is all something to be considered as we wade through this. I now have a refreshed lower opinion of insurance companies. Generally, we pay our premiums and they don't hear from us. Last year we had to deal with insurance with some hurricane damage on the house... and it wasn't a bad experience, considering all they had to deal with. This situation has been an exercise in frustration until it got stupid (on their part) and I had to raise my voice louder than theirs.

Best wishes,
Jim B
 
If the Carfax report is not a concern (i.e., you plan to keep the vehicle a long time), then repair seems like the way to go, if it is only sheet metal and not frame damage, which it sounds like it is. A good shop can repair that so that nobody can tell it was ever damaged. No insurance company I know of will compensate for "diminished resale value," good luck on that one. They will pay the cost of repair on a damaged vehicle, or the "fair market value" (and you won't be happy with it) on a totalled vehicle...
 
Hi Pat,

Texas is one of those states that has not had a successful diminished value case that I could find. Doesn't seem right when my research shows that a damage report on CarFax generally results in a lower price.

Yes, at this point I can see keeping Big Red for a good long time. The latest chapter of this situation shows the other guy's insurance company (Farmers) more cooperative than ours (Progressive).

The cab is crushed pretty good in the aft corner, and the adjuster suspects more damage that can't be seen... until it all comes apart. I guess I'll wait to see the results of the repair. Big Red was immaculate, especially considering all the places she has taken us (and more to go).

We rolled back into the Tropical Tip today... Big Red didn't miss a beat or make a fuss.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
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