Yesterday was quite the day! We took delivery of what used to be a motorhome and it’s unique key – a pair of pliers.
Since we couldn’t legally drive it in its current condition from the west end of Yucca Valley to our homestead in north Joshua Tree, we decided to have it towed to the corner of Winters Rd and Border. From there we planned to drive it the rest of the way to the homestead (saving us a few dollars in towing charges.) I also had this epic vision of filming my husband driving this motorhome with our son sitting in the passenger seat down the rough dirt road to the homestead. But more on that later.
We knew it was driveable because the owner we had just purchased it from drove it out of his yard so the tow truck driver could hook up to it. Did I mention that the key was a pair of pliers? Yeah, this motorhome was mickey moused in so many ways. But once we got it to the corner, used the pliers to start ‘er up and pulled the throttle and nothing. We could not get the engine to stay running. We tried numerous times without success. And it was going to be dark soon. So frustrating!
So then I drove our truck down the road to where I could get a cell phone signal and called the previous owner. My hope was that he would take pity on us and help us get this thing moving. Fortunately, he was still home and came out to help us. Turned out the fuel line on this motorhome was so dry and cracked that it was leaking fuel before it could even get to the engine. So we pulled the fuel tank from below the floorboards and strapped it the top of the floor and cut out the bad part of the fuel line and mickey moused it again.
It was getting so late and dark that the other guy ended up driving the motorhome to our property while we lead in our truck. So much for my epic video of my husband and son crusing down the dirt road in what was to be our tiny home.