Finally, Our First Day On the Road, A Great Start...

A lovely morning, it was, no alarm clock to wake us, we slept in a bit and got out of bed around 8 am.  Corey and Amanda had already left for work, (the poor things), but we were still "Moochdocking" in their driveway.

Before we started to close up the Journey and get ready for the road, we hopped in the Element and zipped out to pick up two very important items, Dunkin Doughnuts coffee for Marti, and the famous New Jersey delicacy, buttered hard rolls. 

Back at the Journey, we pulled in the slides, backed out of the driveway, hooked up the car and off we went, free as birds.  To make it even better, we were able to top off the fuel tank with diesel at $3.68/gallon, a price we haven't seen in a long time.  New Jersey is close to the oil refineries so I guess the transportation costs are less and are reflected in the price.  No complaints here.

We drove North and were aiming to catch I-80 West, until I noticed a small detail:

The Voltmeter gauge on the dash showed the Cat diesel's alternator was not charging!  Seemed that Murphy hitched a ride with us after he got finished with Judy.

I pulled into a nearby rest area and double checked the battery voltage on the Journey's Electrical Management panel.  Yep, not charging.

I immediately lit off the generator, on Winnebagos, there is a small trickle charger that feeds a little voltage from the house battery circuit to the chassis batteries, not enough to charge them but at least give a little voltage.  Diesels usually don't need to have a battery once you get them started, (unlike a gas engine) but I wasn't sure if there needed to be some voltage for the engine's computer.  So I took no chances, and I didn't shut off the engine.

We went on line and called around.  We were about 10 miles down the road from a Cat dealer, we called and  they said they were so busy they could not look at us until Friday.  Umm, no thank you.

A few more calls and we found a Freightliner dealer in Harrisburg, PA that could look at us first thing Tuesday morning, so we drove the 100 plus miles to get there.

We're tucked alongside the building, snug as bugs in a rug, for the night. 

 The good news is we are staying here for free, the better news is the repair is covered under the Cat warranty.  The bad news is we have to be ready to bring the Journey into the service bay at 6 am!  And we thought we were done with alarm clocks! ;c)

The generator is running, we are all safe and secure for the night, so we're "enjoying" our first night on the road.  A Super Walmart is just down the street, so we got some food shopping done.

 We always knew as fulltimers we'd have all kinds of adventures!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.