Calmness Sets In–Albuquerque

   

Called Duke City Automotive at 9:30 am, the motorhome is ready to pick up. We arrived around 10:30, and by noon we were fueled up and sitting in the Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post in west Albuquerque, up on top of the large hill heading out of town. 

Before we left Duke City, I managed to get a picture of “shy” Carlos (can’t show his face) holding the old fuel pump, and Aaron Messer, the head guy there, getting my keys off the board.

Although expensive, these fuel pumps, especially from the factory, are not cheap.  This pump ran $540, and they also put in a new fuel filter, and with labor and tax ($93), everything came to $1389.

All said, we could not be more pleased with the work done, their speedy service, and we are once again back on the road.  When these RVs are put together, many “after market” items, such as levelers, don’t take into account “what happens when a mechanic has to get into a gas tank.”  In our case, the back levelers had to be removed, and the mounting brackets, which is welded onto the frame of the motorhome, barely allowed for the removal of the gas tank.  Aaron said that they have had to cut off the brackets and weld on new ones once the job was finished.  And mechanic wages for working on motorhomes are more than a mechanic working on a car…so yes, it does get expensive.  That is part of the RV lifestyle.

We will be staying at the Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post for three nights.  This time of the year the park is about half empty.  In the above picture you can see the flag...it shows a light breeze, way down from the heavy winds we have had these past four to five days.  But if you thought the “wind” has been playing havoc on your driving in the Southwest these past few days, just look at what it has done to this RV park.

 

  

There are tumbleweeds all over the place.  Those are all loose tumbleweeds along the fence. They are under RVs, under tables, under trees, and many just laying around.  When the lady apologized for the tumbleweeds when I checked in, I told her that with these winds I totally understand.  Did not know that I would need to clear my pad of them just to pull in…but they are light and easy for me to move (Marcia's cane came in handy...turned it upside down and just scooted them out of the way), which is why the wind moves them along so easily.  I also had seen something on the news last night about the high number of tumbleweeds due to the high amount of rain New Mexico has received over this past year.

    

One of the lures of this park is the vintage trailers and old cars that they have on display.  In fact, the vintage trailers are available for nightly rentals, and if interested in the types and prices, visit this page.

After a eight days of more than 2000 miles of driving, visiting friends and relatives, and being towed for 65 miles…we are ready for a bit of a “rest” as we wait for our travel window to open again.  As explained in yesterday’s posting, our tow service requires a three day wait between tows…and although we don’t expect to need the tow service again, one never knows.  At least now we will arrive in Sacramento with only some dirty laundry instead of a bunch of dirty laundry…luckily the park has a nice laundry facility to we intend to use.

And look what we are having for dinner cousin Casey!!!  How did you know Marcia had precooked up some BBQ for our trip???   It sure taste great!

Fell on our Face, Got Right Back Up Fighting

You KNOW you are out in the middle of nowhere when the best place to eat breakfast is a brand new Denny’s.  So we get out of the RV before 8 am, and turn it over to Unique Automotive Service Center and off to Denny’s we go.  About done with breakfast and we get a call…

“Dave, we got good news and bad news...the part is in, but as we started looking at dropping the tank, well, we just don’t feel qualified to do it because it requires removing your leveling jacks, which are hooked up to hydraulics, ….”   I felt like loosing my breakfast, which, was a typical Denny’s breakfast.

By the time we get back to Unique Automotive Service Center, Gene has found a place down in Albuquerque which can do it all.  Since he was only 90% sure the part he had in hand was the right part, he suggested that we just have them get the part down there.  And boy oh boy, there is no charge….   WOW!!!!  Might just have to send a batch of donuts through overnight mail...

Our towing service is offered through Blue Sky.  Something I read once long ago was telling me that once towed, they won’t tow you again for 3 days.  I call, talking to three different people, and when I explain the situation I am finally told that perhaps customer service “might” have pity and make an exception…after all, the place it was towed to “should have” been able to fix it, but are now refusing due to the hydraulic situation.  Finally, after ten minutes with customer service, we are given a one time waiver, and they agree to tow it another 32 miles to Albuquerque.  Hallelujah!!!

Here is our “now favorite” tow truck driver from Tavenners Towing in Moriarty, NM, hooking us up to take us from Unique Automotive Service Center, to Duke City Automotive and R.V. Repair in Albuquerque .  By 12:30 we are there, and before we drive off to a motel…yes, we cannot stay in the motorhome at this place due to the locked fence around the place…they have already started working on it.  We forgot a few things, so I drove the nine miles back over to Duke City Automotive and R.V. Repair (Aaron of Duke City told me that getting a motel on the north side of town was highly suggested), and surprise surprise, they were already putting a new fuel pump in it!  "Ford had one in stock," said Aaron, "should be done by mid-morning finishing it up and testing it out."   We should be on our way tomorrow … or perhaps not.



We still have a problem with our towing service.  Do we dare drive another 1,100 miles without towing service?  I don’t think so, that could cost us hundreds and even a thousand dollars or more depending upon where we need a tow from.  So instead we are going to get an RV park in Albuquerque through the weekend, and while here, turn the engine on and off a number of times just to be sure it is working again…and test the levelers, and the generator…then we will head directly to Sacramento where we hope to be there for my dad’s 88th birthday.  I have not seen my dad on his birthday for a long, long time.  We have been lucky enough to make mom’s birthday three out of the last four birthdays…but dad, born 24 days earlier, was always out of luck.  This year will be the year we make it.  And anytime you travel by RV, you just have to realize that plans change, breakdowns occur, live goes on.

Marcia has told me over and over the following saying....



So we have one night in a La Quinta, right near a Cracker Barrel...the same Cracker Barrel we watched the Hot Air Balloons from a couple of years ago.  If all goes well, and we will know tomorrow morning, we will be back in our motor home, and sitting in a park in West Albuquerque for a few days.

Have an Itch,Then Itch it

Is this 28' 2005 Dynamax Isata 280 with 26,000 miles our traveling home for the future?  We should know next week after we make a quick (or not so quick) trip to Texas for a visit to PPL Motors, where we got out first motorhome back in 2011. 

  

Yesterday (Thursday) we went to Tampa to Lazydays to look at a BT Cruiser and a Phoenix Cruiser.  We liked the Phoenix Cruiser better than the BT Cruiser, but the Phoenix Cruiser has some serious paint issues on the drivers side….it looked like either it was too near a fire, or it was parked where the sun reflected off a “mirrored glass building” and melted some of the paint….yes, melted.  I was ashamed of Lazydays for having such a vehicle up on their website for $65,168  (yes, that price with the mark out) and then “Contact Lazydays for Even More Discounts and Benefits”.  Did they, at one point, really think someone would buy it for that “old price” in this type of condition???  Makes you wonder….and again, if you have a website, ADVERTISE your asking price.  This is not rocket science here.

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On our way home from Tampa we heard from Blue Sky’s insurance adjuster.  We sent our signed title to them today, and we should have a check issued next week, with one on it way for personal property loss already.  We are satisfied with the outcome.  Once home we called PPL, and found out someone had put an offer in for the Isata we have been looking at for the last week or so, just a few hours earlier that same morning.  What a let down.  So we planned a trip to Jacksonville to see another Phoenix Cruiser and a Forest River Lexington GTS for today….then I told Marcia that since we had to get the title in the mail, and my emotions were all twisted up after seeing that Isata slip through our fingers that I wanted to wait until after Church on Sunday to head to Jacksonville, stay the night and come back home on Monday.  

As believers we have relied upon prayer to help us through this entire endeavor.  It has brought us peace and comfort…and today we feel blessed when the previous prospective buyers of the Isata pulled out of the deal when the owner would not come down on the price.  Now I had done extensive research on this, and we both felt that the price being asked was a fair price.  So as I awaited one final communication from the Blue Sky adjuster I called PPL to check on the status of the Isata…and low and behold, they had pulled their offer because the owner would not come down any further.  (Remember, nearly all of the RV’s at PPL are on consignment).  So we got an email application for putting up earnest funds on our credit card, and after church on Sunday we are headed west.  Do we have to buy it, no.  Do we want to buy, we sure hope so.  Will it need a little work, yes, but not much, and put what possible work it needs together with the price and we will be a few thousand under what the insurance company is going to pay us just for the loss of the Jayco if we do go ahead with the sale.

Paperwork Headaches

Ok, just fill this out, and this out, and then this out, and you wonder if it will ever end. 

We “had” a four year, 50,000 mile  warranty with Wholesale Warranties.  Canceling that was fairly easy.  Email us a form, sign it and guess the miles on now melted odometer, scan it and send it back via email.  A few hours later I get an email with the amount of refund we should get in a few weeks.  Earlier, when I talked to the lady over the phone, she was so nice and sympathetic….as was the RV park we were going to use down by Fort Meyers later "this” week…did not get charged a cancelation fee, which was nice.

Of course the BIG one is the insurance claim.  We have Blue Sky RV insurance, and when I called on Wednesday, they had already heard from three other people.  The adjuster called me later that day, and took a short interview with me.  Then I got an email from him with two lengthy forms to fill out.  Not lengthy is the number of pages, lengthy in the amount of work, thought and investigative processes, especially when trying to figure out the personal property area.

Guess where the title was?  Yep, in the RV….now just one of the many ashes which use to be.  In Florida the DMV’s are integrated with each county.  You can go to any of the DMV offices, but since we live in Pasco, we went to one of their offices just north of where we live.  When I got there, they must have been around 80 or so people waiting.  You are greeted by the person at the entrance kiosk and given a number.  Now these numbers are not in order….they start with the letter A, B, C, D, E or I, and followed by three numbers.  I had B334.  There was no B333, B332 or B331, but there was a B330, along with some B350’s, B310’s, and many A’s, C’s and I’s, with just a few D’s and E’s.  Essentially, you never know when they are going to call your number.  After about 3-5 minutes of seeing this, I looked around the large room, and started watching who was sitting, who had been sitting, and getting a feel for the flow of the room.  I texted Marcia about 15 minutes into it letting her know it was a long line.  About 5-10 minutes later I was called.  They were moving people through the 24 or so windows real quick and efficient.  Was out of there, with a copy of a new title, and $87 more on our credit card, and it was over.  Wow, had I been in Pine Bluff I would still be there if there was that many people waiting.  I have waited there an hour with just a dozen people in line.  And from my days in California, it was even worse there…although I hear that it is better now.  But the people who helped me were so very nice…. couldn’t say more about how pleasant this normally unpleasant task really was.

In late January and again in February we went to Sam’s Club and bought some things for our upcoming trip, especially paper goods.  Yep, those were up in smoke too.  We have a “Sam’s Discover Card” which we use frequently, paying it off every month so that we could enjoy the cash back with our everyday purchases with no interest costs.    So I got online, found the two visits to Sams and printed them out.  This the total, the date, and the authorization number, the young man just need one more thing, just one item we bought.  “Scott toilet tissue,” I said.  Bingo, he was able to print out a complete list of what we bought that day.  Knowing we bought coffee both times, I told him Folger’s Coffee, and Bingo, there we are again.  In filling out the personal property, it is nice that a third of the list was purchased through Amazon.  There were many items we had got over the years from Walmart, Grocery Stores, Lowes or Home Depot, with many of these items easily finding on websites for an estimated price.  And of course, there were the few Camping World items, one of which was a 30 amp extension cord we bought just so we could reach the electrical outlet at the Storage Facility. 

All that we need to do now is get the paperwork notarized, put together the bundle of items which have been requested, and mail them off.  First, however, I am going to scan them into my computer, and after I mail them, I will also email them copies of everything.  Then it becomes a waiting game.  Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock…

In many regards we are lucky….no one hurt, no loss of any huge, sentimental items.  Had this happen in 2012 with the American Eagle, I would have lost my Great Grandfather’s Railroad Pocket watch, among other items which are now securely stored in the safe deposit box at the bank.  Yet there were some small, sentimental items….some special cards that we received from relatives of both sides of the family welcoming each of us into the family when we got married.  A “lemon” tote bag which my sisters got for Marcia that we used to tote our day trip lunches in, my BBQ kit and steak knives, both which were Christmas presents just a few months ago.   Yes, it could have been worse…but that does not mean that we are having fun yet either…..but we will once we get another motorhome and hit the road again.  We just hope that this happens real soon.