Let's see...where were we....

Let's see...where were we....oh yeah, I was leaving Tra-Tel and heading to Camping World to get my slow leaking air bag looked at. Been a few interesting moments since then....LOL!

Pulled out yesterday morning to head to Camping World....since the Brake Buddy 12 volt plug was broken and thus not set up, I watched my speed and braked carefully. Pulled out and got onto the frontage road and a huge OH NO crossed my mind. When I unhooked the Brake Buddy, I automatically turned the key off. Praying that I wasn't damaging the car, I slowed down more and more till I could find a turn off (one where I could get in and back out easily). Found a spot, jumped out, started the car, then turned it off to ACC as it was supposed to be. Some of this stuff is just counter intuitive for me....got to get my check list finalized with all this new stuff and print it out. Phew!

Arrived fifteen minutes early, found the locking pins I needed for the car side of the tow bar as well as a couple of spare linch pins (round snap pins that someone could maliciously remove while parked...figured I should have some spare ones). I may still need some padlocks, just been too busy to look into it further...added to the TO DO list. LOL!

So, the tech watches me unhook the car from the RV and put up the tow bar and cover it. Success! Unhitching seems easier than hitching....maybe because I'm so paranoid that I'll forget something. They headed off in the motorhome and I headed into the campground behind the repair facility, Beaudry RV Resort, to book one night there. Not knowing how long they would need for work, I wanted a place set for the night and possibly longer if needed. It's a VERY nice park but a bit pricey for my normal stays. (They have free Wi-Fi so I used that to download the 120MB Open Office, rather than eat up my Verizon bandwidth....heh, heh....)

After finding my alloted site, I headed back to the customer lounge to wait for word on my rig. Decided to give my youngest daughter a call, the time zone difference and her busy schedule with three little ones have made it hard to chat much. Managed to catch her....and got her bad news. On Sunday she and her hubby were doing some much needed yard work. She managed to mangle two fingers with the electric hedge trimmer. Over two hours were spent to put in 10 stitches due to the uneven cut pattern. She was really hurting and since hubby was heading out of town on business today, she couldn't take her Percocet. OUCH!! Anyway, we chatted for a bit and got caught up to date.

Just before lunch the tech came to find me....the couldn't find a leak on the air bag. They had filled it and sprayed it. There were some bubbles around the top where an L fitting screws in but other than the initial bubbles, there was no movement. Nothing showed anywhere else....plus, it was holding the air they put in. We decided to wait till after lunch to see if it lost any air. During this time I got on the computer in the customer lounge and contacted a local Brake Buddy dealer as well as the manufacturer. The local dealer wouldn't do anything since I didn't BUY it from him...but he would install the direct to battery connection. He told me to send the Brake Buddy back to the folks in TX where I bought it. Yeah, right....

So I sent in a request to Brake Buddy to find out how to get it serviced....after all, I had just bought it and only used it once. I explained all that had happened and the local dealer's response to me (without mentioning who it was). Lunch over, the tech found me again and said it was still holding air so he wasn't going to charge me anything (thank you!!!!) since they really didn't do anything. (NOTE: wondering now if it's because it was up in the air on a lift without the weight on the motorhome on the suspension - time will tell.) I drove the car up to my site, walked back and got the motorhome and headed to the site. Backed in, hooked up the power and not much else done when my cell phone rang.

It was Casey from Brake Buddy....after going through the whole scenario of what had happened, he opted to OVERNIGHT me a new unit (shipping out Tuesday) with a return label for the old one. Now that is service! Since I knew Tra-Tel accepted mail/packages, I gave him their address and called to let them know I would be back Wednesday for one night.

Had a nice peaceful evening....MUCH less dust here...very little, in fact....no trains going through all night long either. Of course I did hear a plane or two since I'm much closer to the airport here. Set the alarm to get up early to take the car to the aforementioned Brake Buddy dealer to see if I needed the battery direct connect done. They were really nice (maybe they felt guilty about their attitude yesterday...LOL!), tested my outlet and said it was just fine. So all my problems appear to be related to the actual Brake Buddy unit....Phew!

So, I head to breakfast and the proceed to Wally World for a few needed grocery items. Also found the perfect folding aluminum side table and a set of inexpensive hiking poles (yes, I AM going to do more walking and hope the poles will help me do more without aggravating my arthritis too much). Good prices, found all the food on my list, didn't get lost, didn't have to pay for the battery connect.....nice start to the day. I should have known....

Got back to the RV and the deadbolt lock won't unlock. I bang, I pull, I push, I berate it...nothing budges it. Wouldn't have been so bad except that I have yet to organize my keys since getting the car and selling the bike/trailer. I have the RV ignition key ring which also has the padlock & hitch/coupler lock keys on it. I have the key ring that I normally took everywhere with me...it has the deadbolt, the other door lock, the storage bin key, my Fire-Safe key and a couple of keys that I'm no longer sure what they are...oh and a recently added car key. They there is the car key ring that has only the car key and the deadbolt key. Toss in a key ring with only the car key on it, that's the one that will be in the ignition when towing. Then there is the SPARE key ring...it has all the duplicates. That used to travel in my purse since I really only had the motorhome.

Soooooo, yes, I need to go through these and have a set of everything on two rings, one for the car and one for the motorhome. But right now it didn't matter....the key(s) to the motorhome truck door were all INSIDE the locked motorhome. Okay, I have road service....I just switched from RV Roadhelp to Coach-Net and although I haven't gotten my cards yet, I had written down all the pertinent information (never knowing how important that would be).

I walk over to the campground office and get their street address, knowing that would be needed. I settle down in a corner of their patio and call Coach-Net and get a nice lady named Joyce. I explain my situation and the first thing she asks me is if I am safe. Finding out that I am, she gets all the pertinent information and tells me that I should see someone in 45-60 minutes. If I haven't heard from someone in a hour, then I should call back so they can check on it. We hang up and I go back to reading. About 10 minutes later my phone rings, it's Joyce again. She wants to clarify that if they open the drivers door so I can get it, will that be sufficient. I hadn't even really thought about it that way (thank you Joyce), but yes, it would be. I had anticipated paying labor & materials to get the lock out and fix out.

About 30 minutes after we hang up for the second time I get a call from the lock service, they are coming in the gate of the campground and wanted to find me. I go outside and they follow me to the RV (maybe 1/2 block away). He quickly unlocks the passenger door (for some reason it's easier on that side) and used the power lock to unlock the driver side (the passenger seat is full...). Then he took down all the information he needed - VIN, tag, driver license - I signed his ticket and we were good to go. Coach-Net just paid for itself!

So now I'm waiting for the mobile tech that adjusted my door to arrive late this afternoon to see what we can do. Yes, I can get in and out the driver door but that is just not convenient. It also means I lose the breeze coming in the side door. Sigh...never a dull moment!

Since I will now be here through Thursday, I am revisiting my travel plans. I have to be in Williams, AZ on May 7th. I've decided it makes no sense to RUSH up to northern AZ/southern UT when I would have to limit my time sightseeing. Instead, I will go a little further south and visit Sierra Vista, Bisbee and Tombstone before heading northerly to end up in Williams on time. I'll be doing a lot of boondocking and don't know when I will/won't have Internet so don't be surprised if I'm not blogging.

I will spend a couple of weeks in northern AZ/southern UT after May 18th...I'll already be in Williams and it makes more sense to do it that way. I will miss meeting up with friends who are camphosting at Arches but know we'll meet up eventually. I will also miss meeting up with other friends who are boondocking in various places in southern AZ, but again, I know we'll meet up eventually. These plans make sense for me....for now....isn't full-timing flexibility a WONDERFUL thing? ;-)

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna