Where Have All the Hours Gone? - Wed., July 17

Wednesday morning Bob headed to work from Camping World. I got up and started writing my blog for the past couple of days.

I had no idea when they intended to start the kitchen faucet repairs. As I was writing, someone opened the door of the 5er without knocking. It was one of the service writers looking for the repairman. I jumped up from the table and said, "Hello!" She was taken aback that someone was in here. The cats, of course, had to see who it was. I had to make sure they didn't escape.

She apologized for just walking in. No problem, just don't let the cats out.

At that point, I gathered up the cats and we went in the car. I also had the temporary kitty litter box which was still in from yesterday. That was 10:30 a.m. Make note of that, it's important.

Yesterday afternoon the refrigerator repairman reset the motherboard. They put a digital thermometer in the refrigerator to see if it was cooling. By this morning, the thermometer was down to 37 degrees. Yay!

The remaining repair was to replace the leaking kitchen faucet. It was so bad they told us we needed a new one.

The cats and I went to Naegelin's bakery where I purchased awesome pastries for Bob and I. The cats were in their carriers, but were protesting. We headed back to Camping World's parking lot where I let them out of their carriers to roam the car. Both of them wanted to be in my lap ... at the same time. Sunnie parked himself on my shoulder and Bowie curled up in my lap. We waited.

The first entertainment of the day was to watch the United Rentals guy put a scissor lift on the semi flat bed trailer.

He took it this far.

Then he used a lift already on his trailer to pull up the little one.

Bowie finally settling down.

At 1:00 p.m. I wanted to see how the repairs were progressing so we drove to where the 5er was parked. No one was working in our rig, but the kitchen faucet had been removed. So, no good to go back in the 5er yet.

The kitty crew and I headed down the road to Whataburger (it's really close) where I bought a hamburger for lunch. Then we went back to the Camping World parking lot. We waited. (You see how my day is going?)

Weather-wise we had massive thunderheads and black sky to the east. I could sit in the parking lot and watch the storms roll in. Three or four times today we sat in the car and watched downpours outside. That was more of our entertainment for the day.

One of the thunderstorms (taken through the wet windshield).

All the black clouds and rain meant the day was not hot. Between storms I could crack the car windows and let the kitties sniff. When the sun did come out for a little bit, the A/C cooled us down quickly.

[Something we learned yesterday: The Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas, has the busiest RV service department in the United States. We can sure believe it. This place is a buzzing beehive of activity. Wow!]

At 2:00 p.m., I started calling the service center for updates. The repair would be covered by our Good Sam Extended Service Plan; however, the kitchen faucet for our unit was obsolete. That meant they had to find something similar. The first faucet they put in was too tall and hit our spice rack. Nope, that wouldn't work.

At 3:00, I drove back over to the 5er to see what progress was being made. I just happened to wander up when the repairman was telling a go-fer that he needed to find a faucet that swiveled and had a sprayer on it. They told me they should be able to find one.

"Could we return to the 5er and wait?" I asked. He said we could but the water to the rig was turned off so they could work on the faucet. The kitties hadn't had any water or food all day. I grabbed a bowl and we headed back to the customer parking lot. I left the windows cracked and went in to get water from the drinking fountain for the kitties. Back in the car, we waited. The rain pounded on the roof of the car and I finally took a nap, as did the cats. I slept about 45 minutes.

At 4:00 p.m., I called the Service Desk to talk to our agent about when we could go back in the 5er. The cats and I were bored and stir crazy. We had been in the car for 5½ hours at that point. I was told they found the part, but had to drive to San Antonio to get it. They were installing it as we spoke and the 5er should be ready in (at most) ½ hour. The Service Desk closed, technically, at 5:00 p.m.  Bob called at 4:15 p.m. to say he was on his way from work to provide moral support and to hook up the 5th wheel when it was finished.

At 4:30 p.m. I was back at the 5er and saw the technician. He told me the faucet was installed and he was checking for leaks. The cats and I waited in the car.

At 4:50 p.m., I went to the Service Desk to pay. Thankfully, our Extended Service Plan covered the faucet and install. Because we had the work done at Camping World, our deductible was $50. There was no charge for resetting the motherboard. So our total cost for parts and labor was $50 (plus our drive time, gas, and my time sitting around waiting). We were at Camping World from 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to 5:15 p.m. Wednesday. Today, the cats and I spent 6½ hours in the car. Ugh! I don't want to do that again.

As soon as the paperwork was taken care of, Bob hooked up the 5er and we made our way back to Traveler's World in San Antonio.

Tonight, we went to dinner at Zio's Italian Kitchen, I wrote my blogs, and next I am going to get some sleep. All that waiting and time in the car with the cats wore me out! P.S. The cats are worn out too. They didn't wake us up at all last night and ever since we've been home tonight they're zonked out. I doubt they'll wake us up tonight either.

Travel Bug saying, "Nighty night."

Repairs and Shopping at Camping World - July 15-16

Let's back up to Monday night. With the looming trip to Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas (45 minutes away), Bob and I started getting the 5th wheel ready to move. We re-stowed books, loose items, outside folding chairs, and door mat.

Tuesday morning while Bob was at work, I finished putting wall hangings like photos and barometer where they wouldn't get damaged in transit...on our bed. The laptops and air card, loose magazines, pens, and notepads all get put in one of the Costco cardboard boxes. The box is secured where it can't move. The dining room chairs were strapped down, loose items in the shower were stowed either in cupboards or on the floor of the shower...you get the picture. We have two Velcro straps which I use to close up cupboards so items won't break free during transit. [Note to self: Buy more Velcro straps for the other cupboards!]

Before closing the slides this morning, I took a broom and cleared all the spiders/spiderwebs off the outside of the rig. Thankfully, the spiders were all benign; mostly daddy long legs and a little white garden-variety-type spider.

Our appointment at Camping World was at 2:30 p.m. When Bob came home at noon, he did the outside chores--emptied the black tank, put the bicycle on the bike rack on our ladder, closed the awning, partially filled the fresh water tank, hooked up the 5er to the truck, latched and locked the exterior compartments, and removed the chocks. We put up the stairs, folded in the handle and locked the door.

Because the rig had been sitting so long, our first stop was two miles away at Treds (yes, it's spelled like that) where we had the ladies fill our tires to the recommended level. (Side note: It's all women who work at Treds. They replace tires, do wheels, make "house" calls to RV parks to assist RVers with their dilemmas, i.e., come with a large jack to lift someone's car off the end of the tow dolly, etc. See another article and video here.)

Then we were off on a (short) road trip to Camping World to have our refrigerator and badly leaking kitchen faucet looked at.

When your 5th wheel is your home everything travels with you. So when it came time for Camping World to take over possession of our 5th wheel, we had to take the cats with us. I popped them into their carriers with Sunnie sliding right in - no muss, no fuss, and Bowie with his paws extended, claws out and "I'm-not-going-in-there" fuss. Cat, resistance is futile. You're going in. And he did, but unhappily.

We took the two cat carriers and a small, disposable kitty litter box out to my Escape pod. Remember this is around 2:30 p.m. The day was dark and foreboding; it had rained on us during our drive north. While we moved the kitties, no rain. I put both carriers in the back seat and the kitty litter box in the back cargo section of the Escape.

Bob headed back to work. I sat in the car with the kitties. However it was lunch time so we drove off to find food. As soon as I started the car, the skies opened up and the downpour began. I followed Bob out of the Camping World lot. We could barely see the road it was raining so hard. The freeway access road was like a river...luckily there was good drainage. The freeway was crawling along at about 30-35 mph, the same speed as the access road. I'm guessing a couple of inches of rain fell in about 15 minutes' time. 

I drove toward New Braunfels looking for a fast food restaurant where I could drive through with the kitties in tow. The downpour was crazy. When I got to an intersection where I could go under the freeway, I went for it. That's where the most water was, but it wasn't very deep so I followed the guy in front of me through. (No problem.) Finally found a Whataburger and bought my lunch. I let the cats out of their carriers to explore the car. They went everywhere, including all over me to get to every inch of the inside. They were much happier after exploring and checking out everything through the windows.

In the past, kitties didn't get to go free in the car, but since they were out of the carriers, I let them be while I drove back to Camping World. As soon as the car starting moving faster, both of them disappeared. When we parked, I saw them both come out of one cat carrier. It's only a medium-sized carrier so they must have been pretty cozy in there. (Sunnie is 16 lb. and Bowie is 10 lb.)

No sooner was I parked than Bob drove back to the Camping World parking lot. What? He had headed off to work. He came over to wait in the car with the cats and me. Said the freeway was crazy, the rain was insane, and it wasn't worth driving back to San Antonio in the downpour. So he is going to work this evening.

Here we are in the car, waiting...

Sunnie loving Bob's attention.

Bowie looking skeptical.

Sunnie: all settled down.

Sunnie says, "Bowie, can't you just relax? Ommm."

With Bob in the car to keep an eye on the kitties, I was able to shop in Camping World. The Camping World flyer that came in the mail showed a vacuum on sale that had what I was looking for. The Dirt Devil® Scorpion™ is what I would call a cross-over vacuum. It's hand-held and small in size with attachments: an upholstery brush, a "Turbo" tool, and a crevice tool. When you have two cats in a 5th wheel, those attachments are much needed to get cat hair off the furniture, valances, window shades, and kitty litter out of edges. I used it last night and LOVE it!

Pros:

• It plugs directly into the wall, no charging stand, so running out of battery power is not an issue
• "Turbo" tool
• Upholstery brush
• Hose with crevice tool
• Shoulder strap to use when you want to reach up high or just an easy way to carry it around while you vacuum

 Cons:

• The on/off switch is hard to use
• The attachments are difficult to attach
• It gets hot pretty quickly

The pros outweigh the cons and I am happy with the purchase. Original price was $47.99. Sale price was about $33, but with the Good Sam discount at Camping World, the price was close to $30.

My other purchase was a nice pillow, normally $24.99 which I got for $17.99. Bob liked the pillow so much he asked me to buy one for him Wednesday.

The repairs could not be finished on Tuesday, so we needed to spend the night at Camping World. They put us next to the repair building where there was a plug-in with 50 amp power. Electricity is important for light, A/C, charging our computers and phones, and for me to try out the new vacuum! You can see how wet everything is.

There's Rigamarole on the left before we hooked up shore power.

Today's post is long, so I will end here. Wednesday is another story altogether. Stay tuned for "the rest of the story."

The end.

Travel Bug out.