The Sandcastle

Saturday afternoon Camping World called to say our parts were in so when would we like to come back? Dave said ASAP. So they scheduled us for 10 am Monday morning. That meant it wasn’t nearly as dark when we left our campsite today.

Once checked in we went back to their Internet Cafe to spend the day. Of course, we took breaks from that and I learned something new about handicaps.

The ladies’ room has one handicapped stall.

A BIG stall.

I use it when it is available as I can’t always get up easily from short toilets. I’ve been known to grab the lower edge of the wall to pull myself up and then I might bang my head on the door before I get upright.

So, I waited for that big stall to become available. The young woman who came out of the stall looked amazingly healthy. But, as we all know, looks can be deceiving. Her handicap? Claustrophobia. The size of that stall allows her to work at Camping World. I knew small spaces could be a problem because I have a friend who needs a window by his bed on a train but this is one aspect of claustrophobia I had not considered–the ability to take a job being dependent on the size of the restroom.

So, the day went by and, once again, people were leaving while we were still waiting. Finally, they came and said our RV was ready. So we paid for the LP we had them put in our tank and headed out. Me to the car and Dave to the RV. It was getting so late we knew we weren’t going to get back to camp and get set up before dark.

Which turned out to be more true than we realized. Because before Dave could drive away, he had to find out why our refrigerator was beeping. He was checking things out when I finally reparked the car and went to see what was happening. I suggested he go right back in and tell them we had a problem before our service tech went home.

It turns out the recall work we had done on our Norcold refrigerator has a reputation for randomly failing. Then the frig shuts down until you get the recall re-done! Now what?!

The tech checked out several other potential causes before concluding our recall fix had failed. Now, we live in this thing people; we need our frig. So the tech “borrowed” a black box from another RV on the lot and installed it in our RV. He will order a new one for the RV he borrowed it from.

We finally got home past supper time so we promptly turned right around and went to iHop for supper. We felt we deserved a treat.

When we got home from iHop it was cold in our RV and the furnace was not running. The fix Suburban sent didn’t fix our furnace! So, tomorrow morning we get to call Camping World and tell them that. At least it is supposed to warm up again later this week. Right now we are going through about 1.5 gallons of propane per day. With a furnace that still can’t be counted on to keep us warm.

Life sure has its ups and downs, doesn’t it?

TTYL,

Linda

When this passed us on I-10 today I went flying for my camera. I wish I could show you a side view but this is the best I could get.

No it’s not one truck cab tailgating another. It’s one truck cab towing another that’s towing another. The oddest double tow I’ve seen yet. They looked to be all brand new–triplets! Yes, you are welcome to play with the words “trip” and “lets” to see how much fun you can have with this t-t-truck.

TTYL,

Linda

My stepsister.

December 31, 1950 – December 2, 2010

If I had to descibe her in one sentence it would be: The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.

The youngest of us kids. How can it be right for her to be the first to go? How can it be right for  my stepmother to lose her child? For Nancy’s husband to lose his wife? For her children to lose their mother? For her friends and coworkers to lose her support?

Yes, it comes some time to all of us. But it never feels right.

TTYL,

Linda

It was still early morning when we pulled out of the campground.

Since it is only about 10 miles from Rainbow Plantation to the Camping World in Robertsdale, Alabama, I choose to just follow Dave rather than hook up the car.

We soon arrive there and Becky checked us in.

That took awhile as we had to figure out how to explain in as few words as possible each problem we are having. Then we all walked out to the RV so Becky could look for dents and scratches. We have one set of scratches from going down a too narrow driveway.

Once all that was done, we went to Waffle House for breakfast then came back to spend the day in Camping World’s customer lounge so as to be available to answer any questions that might arise.

We were twice lucky in the lounge. First, we were the only ones there so we could turn off the TV. Second, they provided this facility for us:

It is just a nook along side a major hallway but it had lots of outlets above the counter so we could plug in both computers and our router without crawling around furniture looking for places to do that. Being in the hallway, people stopped by off and on all day to ask computer related questions. One was a woman wanting to know how were were getting internet since all their computers were down. Later a guy stopped to tell us he shut down their whole system by downloading movies.

I’m sure glad we have our own connection! Plus, I’m glad Dave made our network invisible and secure so no one can use it to download movies. We’d be way over our data limit in no time if someone used our network to do that.

We also talked there with the mechanic working on our RV which was, after all, why we hanging out there. He appeared to have lots of knowledge and experience. He was frustrated that they just had someone from Suburban furnace teach a class on furnaces that did not include the new model we have; I guess it’s supposed to be too new to need repairs. But he made phone calls to several vendors about various problems we are having and came to us twice using a method of questions and answers to narrow down the possible solutions to our glitches. He also made notes on answers we gave which might help him solve other people’s problems in the future.

Parts are now being ordered and I have high hopes of a successful conclusion.

TTYL,

Linda

Now it’s time to do warranty work on the house part of our RV. We have two rather major problems.

The first is our furnace. When the thermostat calls for heat, our furnace makes up its own mind as to whether or not it will provide it. It will, however, provide heat if you turn it off then back on. So, during middle of the night bathroom trips I feel the floor by the heat duct to see if it is warm. If it’s not, I turn the furnace off then back on and we get heat. Until the next time it decides not to work.

The second is our toilet. It runs. If we had a house type toilet we would adjust the float until it stopped running. But we don’t have a float. So we don’t know how to make it stop running except to turn off the water pump so no water runs anywhere. So what happens is: I flush the toilet, turn off the water pump, then try to wash my hands. Irritating. Or Dave turns on the pump using one of the other switches, forgets to turn it off, then turns it off using the bathroom switch. Now that switch is upside down. So I look at the switch, think the water is on, get in the shower, and…!

So, Dave called Winnebago and they recommended Camping World in Robertsdale, Alabama, as the authorized service center nearest to where we are now. They are about 10 miles away–that’s pretty near!

So, Dave called Camping World and made an appointment for 8 am Thursday. I listened to that conversation and Dave never told them about the toilet. So, I asked him about that. It seems Camping World’s procedure is for you to come in at 8 am and fill out papers listing what you want done. The guys start work at 8:30. I’m not sure how they decide who will do what work. The one thing I’m sure of is that, by not determining what needs to be done before we arrive, if they need any parts they don’t have in stock, we’ll have to wait for those parts to be shipped. Which will not really be a problem as long as they can put back together anything they took apart to determine the problem. We live in this thing, you know.

We’ve never had work done at a Camping World facility. We have friends that like to have done work there. That way if they leave one before they discover there’s still a problem, the next one down the road can fix it. Is that a recommendation?

TTYL,

Linda