A little bit of Mexico in Forks, Washington

When we arrived here in Forks, Washington Sherman was sputtering. There was a definite misfiring in the engine. We were still mobile... but you could tell something was not right.

We had to find somewhere to park for a day or two so we could get this problem sorted out.

Temporarily, we had parked on the street across from the high school, and very near the downtown. I had walked over to the police station to ask if we would be okay simply parking on the street, but the officer was pretty vague about that. Instead, he suggested going to the transit station parking lot. He said nobody would bother us there as many vehicles are left overnight.

So I walked over there to check it out first, and found a big sign at the entrance to the lot saying "No Camping".

We probably would have been okay there at this time of year, but I didn't want to blatantly break the rules even though the cop had suggested it.

So I saw a gravel parking area behind a motel and went in to explain our situation to them. He said they would prefer we park on the gravel lot at their sister motel, the Dew Drop Inn.

Really friendly people working here at the Dew Drop Inn. They even gave us their wifi pass code!

We're a little close to the main highway,  but it will certainly do until we're under way again.

The weather has not been great. It began raining Wednesday night, and yesterday morning it was pretty steady. Not that cold though, with temperatures steady around 60F (15C). But it sure makes things damp inside Sherman!

But fortunately, I can access the engine compartment through the doghouse so can work in relatively good conditions!

I fired him up, and had a water spray bottle to check for arcing from the plug wires, but didn't see anything obvious. In fact, he was running pretty good.

Then, I removed the plug wires from the distributor cap and removed the cap itself. Sometimes hairline cracks can result in a problem, but I couldn't see any. I had changed the cap about 20,000 miles (32,000 kms) ago, and the inside pins were looking pretty worn, and a bit corroded. The rotor didn't look very good either. I would have thought they would have lasted longer than that, but decided to change them and see how things were after that.

If that didn't fix the problem, I would change the plug wires themselves. Again, they were changed at the same time as the cap and rotor, and should last longer than that. But, there are all kinds of reports online about the P30 chassis being hard on plug wires.

We walked in the rain over to the NAPA store where we bought a new cap and rotor for $49 USD ($65 CAD). I also checked into plug wires, and for their top quality heavy duty ones they wanted $184 USD ($234 CAD) and could have them next day if I ordered them before 5pm.

On the way back, I saw a sign above the sidewalk advertising "Mexican Store". We had noticed there seemed to be a lot of Spanish in this town. So we stopped in to see what there was to see.

And it was the best thing we did yesterday!

It was almost as if we had walked into a store in Mexico. Lots of different Mexican products that you normally only see in Mexico. We said hello to the girl behind the cash and began speaking to her in Spanish.

Ruth and Gabriela.

We enjoyed speaking with Gabriela, and she was impressed with our Spanish. It's nice to be able to practice! We're looking forward to learning more this coming winter. Gabriela hasn't been back to Mexico for 20 years! She is from an area south of Mexico City in between Toluca and Cuernavaca.

It was nice to find a little bit of Mexico in Forks, Washington.

Walking back to Sherman, we passed this huge piece of tree...

Forks bills itself as the "Logging Capitol of the World".

Back at the motorhome, I installed the new distributor cap and rotor.

Then, I began checking individual plug wires.

The very first one I pulled looked like this where it attaches to the spark plug...

Yikes... that's no good!

The spark was obviously jumping through the boot at this point, causing the misfire. The other wires all look fine.

So, now to get some wires.

But, I didn't want to get the expensive NAPA brand wires. I wanted Taylor Extreme Service RV Plug Wires. Also expensive, but they seem better than the NAPA ones. And a little cheaper, at $145 USD.

But, I needed them quickly. I found them at Summit Racing online, and if I paid the extra $24 USD for overnight delivery they would show up today (Friday). So that's what I did. With shipping and taxes it came to $184 USD ($234 CAD), the same as what the NAPA ones would have cost.

The parts left Reno, Nevada by Fedex late yesterday afternoon, and are already in Port Angeles, Washington this morning. Scheduled for delivery here after lunch. Amazing!

The rain has stopped, and it's supposed to be decent until Saturday late afternoon. We're even supposed to see the sun for a while tomorrow morning. Then, it is supposed to rain again for several days after that.

Hopefully we will get the wires right after lunch and we can get some more driving done today.

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