Good news, bad news, and a shower?

Most of my news today is good.  The folks at Rush Trucking got the new water pump and new belt installed, gave the rig a good workout, and no more overheating!  Hoorah!  The price of all those hours of repair time about made me faint, but I’ve got rolling wheels again.  I knew the delivery of the belt wouldn’t happen until around noon, so I left the motel room shortly after nine and headed for Nampa, ID.  I had several errands to run, and I was familiar with Nampa from my week’s stay in Marsing in August.  I definitely wanted to visit the fresh fruit and vegetable stand again, and I did.  I purchased something I’ve never heard of before.  I bought two Pluots.  They are a fruit that is a cross between a plum and an apricot.  Sounded interesting, so I’ll try a couple.  I also got one of those English cucumbers that are usually a couple of bucks each for 50 cents, and added a tomato, and a purple plum for a total of $1.80!  I wish there was a way to have these fresh tasty items year round.

On the way back to Rush Trucking, I checked out the Camping World lot where I will have the hydraulic lifts fixed.  I’m not too crazy about Camping World doing the repairs, but this is the location that the manufacturer of the levelers recommended.  They do have overnight accommodations for customers on a first come first served basis, so I wanted to check out if there were any sites available and exactly where they were located.  By the time everything got finished and sorted out at Rush, it was 4:30 and right in the middle of rush hour before I could leave and head for Camping World.  Luckily, it was only a 15 mile drive through lots of construction.
I was able to get one of the two sites that had a picnic table.  I chose this site so I could put Emma outside tethered to the table.  Despite the 89* temperature, and the stop and go slow traffic,  the engine heat gauge stayed where it was supposed to.  What a relief that was!
 There are ten sites, and seven of them are filled tonight.  The quarters are tight, but it’s free.  I was sweating bullets by the time I finished unhooking the toad and getting set up.  There are no water hookups, but I do have 50 amps electric tonight so the AC is humming away!
 
So now for the bad news.  It turns out the cost of my night in the motel was not $99, but $134!  I guess I’ve been out of touch with motel rates.  Besides the $20 for Emma, I had to pay two bed use taxes…one for her and one for me!  I guess I should have let her sleep on the second bed!  There were several other taxes besides.  Personally, I think that’s a ridiculous amount of money for a night with a bed and a TV.

The second frustration of the day was dealing with my extended warranty people.  I could just wring their necks!  I did everything according to Hoyle, but they threw up every kind of roadblock you can think of.  I won’t go into the details, but suffice it to say I’m not looking forward to dealing with them tomorrow about the malfunctioning levelers.  :(

After three nerve wracking days, I took out my rocker and sat on the luscious green grass in back of the rig with Emma.  Because we were in back of the rig, it was shady there, and I was able to enjoy this relaxing time until…the automatic sprinklers came on!  OMG!  That water was cold and blasted me full in the face!  All I could do was shout out loud and start laughing uncontrollably!  What a Chinese Fire Drill as I tried to collapse the chair and get Emma and myself out of the multiple cold water jets.  I know I was in need of a shower, but really!  By the time we maneuvered to safety, Emma, I and the chair were dripping wet.  It was a great tension reliever!  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

From bad to worse!

It was a little nippy in the rig when I got up this morning at the truck stop, so I decided to turn the generator back on to run the furnace.  Guess what?  It wouldn’t start!  Another alarm went off when I hit the on switch.  :(  Okay, so I decided I’d use my house batteries to take the chill off.  They were fully charged last night.  Ha!  They were just about dead this morning.  Ugh!  So I put on a few more layers of clothes and took Emma out in the dark.  I just crossed over into the Mountain Time Zone yesterday, so it doesn’t get light until after seven.  I, of course, was awake at 6:00.  So, after her first outs, Emma and I sat in the dark for over an hour.  I didn’t want to use up the little power I had left in the batteries for lights.  I had the frig running on propane, but a light was blinking about low power that runs the little light inside and who knows what else, so I shut that down too.

When it was light enough to see my phone, I gave the road service company a call, and a short time later they said I would be getting a tow within 75 minutes.  I was going to be towed to  Rush Truck Repair in Boise, ID.
Country Repair was the towing company, and the truck had a big picture of Superman on it.  I got out of the rig to quiz them on what they were going to do.  I had read all the manuals last night on the requirements for having the rig towed.  :)  They told me that they had done this many many times, and that they would simply detach the drive thingamajig (not drive train, but drive something) so that it could be towed at highway speeds.  It was quite interesting to watch the whole operation, I just wish I was watching someone else’s rig.  They attached their own back lights in the hitch receptacle, and away we went.  It felt kind of odd to be trailing behind my own home!   

It was a good 50 or so miles to get to Rush Truck Repair.  They were able to get it into a work bay by about 1:00, and began the task of trying to figure out what was the matter.  Meanwhile, Emma and I sat outside by the car.  After an hour or so, the manager came out to give me an update, and to let me know that Emma and I could sit inside the rig while they worked.  He also let me plug into electricity so I could recharge the batteries, and turn the frig back on.

They found two problems.  Foremost was the water pump that didn’t work.  He explained to me that this was a very important part in keeping the engine cool.  I guess it also resulted in the radiator not pulling coolant from the reservoir.  Then, he showed me a belt that was pretty beat up on the outside.  It also could have been slipping.  I, of course, really didn’t know what he was talking about.  He said he would have the guys stay late to get a new water pump (that they had to go get) installed, but that he couldn’t get a new belt delivered until tomorrow.  He let it be my choice, but did state that he hated to see me get back on the road with that belt.  I told him that I wasn’t interested in having this experience again in the near future, so I would stay in a motel tonight.  I had asked him when I arrived if I could stay in the rig in the shop if things took more than a day, but that was not possible.  I was surprised he let me stay in the rig while they worked on it!

Anyway, he then went and made reservations for me at a Holiday Inn Express that allowed dogs!  So, I quickly gathered a few things and headed over to the motel.  There were only two rooms left, and I got one of them.  It’s been about three years since I’ve stayed in a motel (pre Emma days), and Emma has never stayed in a motel, or a sticks and bricks for that matter.  I was very proud of how well she behaved as we came in and she had her first elevator ride.  Just maybe she is finally growing up a bit.  :)  Tonight’s stay is costing me $99 ($20 of which is the pet fee).  Gone are the days of a $29 room in a fairly large city.  :(

Oh yea, I had to call the other repair facility and was eventually successful in delaying my appointment for a day.  So, tomorrow when I pick up the rig, I’ll backtrack about 20 miles and try to boon dock in the dealer’s lot.  This will all be worth it if I can get most everything taken care of.  At least that’s what I keep telling myself.  :)  Getting the Splendide washer/dryer fixed will once again have to wait, however.  No one seems qualified to work on that item.

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy