And plans change, yet again

Welcome back, peeps!  Bet you can't guess what WE did on Sunday!  LOL, if you guessed not much, Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!  We pretty much batted around ideas and possible routing and best/worse case scenarios.  Other than that, Not.Much!  Oh, wait, we DID discover that if we ran 2 air conditioners, and the hot water heater, we would blow the 50 amp fuse as quick as you can say, blow a fuse.  If we only ran the 2 air conditioners and nothing else, it took a little bit longer. So, with temps hovering around 100*, with feel like temps around 103 to 105*, we ran with one A/C.  Around 3 pm, when we were both dripping sweat, we powered everything down and fired up the generator and then we cranked up all 3 A/Cs.  Wow, what a difference!!  That coach cooled right down and even got (to me) a wee bit chilly.

So, Monday morning, bright and early, at 7 am, Driver was in the office, getting us registered and in line for repair.  They immediately ordered a pump for us, knowing the one we had was most likely shot, and sent him back out to wait for Jose the techs to come in at 8:30 and get one assigned to us.  Along about 10 am, we got a knock on the door and there was our hero.  Or so we thought.  First thing he did was find a cracked reservoir and got us a new one for replacement.  Look how pretty that sucker is!

And here is our tech (I do not know his name) reinstalling our drive shaft.  Yes, it has to be removed for towing, else we will burn up our transmission.  Please don't ask any questions - that's all I know.

We had a really quiet weekend, but Monday is a workday, and boy, was there a lot of activity here!

Everywhere we looked, there were cabs, cabs, and more cabs.

There were also school buses and big trailers lining the perimeter of the concrete lot, some of whom were refrigerated units.  Do you have any idea how LOUD those suckers are?  Oh.My.Gawd.  And continuous!  What a roar!  Not to be outdone by the line of reefer trucks lined up on the road right beside us though...you see, kitty corner across the street is a place called United Freezer.  Yeah.  It has its own set of engines that run 24/7, and now there are about 20 reefers all lined up and running, waiting for Tuesday morning pickups.

So we spent all of Monday with our hoods gaping open, like baby birdies, just waiting for mama and papa to come home with a worm.  

It's not a good look, is it.  So sad.

Sooooooo, eventually, Laurie, our service writer, who also happens to be a former mechanic of 22 years' experience, and the current assistant service manager, tells us she has ordered us a new harness (?) and is having trouble finding the appropriate high pressure hose.  The didn't have one in the warehouse, despite having FOUR of these failures just last week, nor did they have one available from the factory, in Gaffney, SC.  Laurie got creative and asked if they could take one off a unit already on the assembly line.  Hmm....I'm pretty sure that isn't gonna happen.  I mean, why would it? While we were waiting for a callback from the factory, she showed us around the shop.

I didn't feel right taking pictures in the actual training room (besides which, I had left my phone in the camper, so I *couldn't*), but it was all outfitted with life-size sections of chassis.  There was a full-size transmission, a whole dash/ceiling/front of truck/back of truck assembly for wiring, brakes, and probably 12-15 computers for training.

Sooo, towards the end of the day, we checked in with Laurie once more, to see what kind of progress had been made.  We could have saved ourselves the trouble.  There was no progress, really.  There are no hoses available, and the backlog is 40 days wait.  40 days, you say?  Yup, FORTY DAYS BACKLOG.  So she put in a request to have a hose pulled off the assembly line, and it might or might not be approved.  If it IS approved, and they can get it packed up in time, the hose will be overnighted and we should see it around noon Tuesday.  If it's NOT approved, it just won't show up.  They don't seem to have a process by which anyone gets notified, so we don't really know what's going to happen or if anything is gong to appear on Tuesday or not.  IF it shows up, along with the pump and harness, they can begin working on it, and maybe we'll be done by Wednesday quitting time, and leave on Thursday morning.  So I got on the phone and reset all our reservations, yet again.  Remember, these campgrounds have been on notice to save me a spot first, in April, then September, then August, now the dates are changing yet again.  It has to be as frustrating for them as it is for me, for sure.

If no parts show up, well, genius that he is, Driver came up with another plan.  We could leave on Wednesday morning, and simply travel by car, spending nights in hotels, and taking our chances in restaurants along the way.  Definitely NOT ideal.  Not really even desirable in any way, shape or form.  But, it had potential to get the job done.  But what about all our stuff?  We travel with the car loaded with our patio chairs, a propane tank, the porches and our bicycles on a rack in the hitch receiver, precluding us from opening the hatchback.  Well, no surprise to any of us, the harness showed up, but the hose did NOT.  Yeah, Dick Luck, once again.  So we hit up Laurie with our new plan, and she understood the urgency of our journey and was kind enough to offer a corner of the shop to store our carload of possessions.  So, here's Callander's Corner at Premier Truck, in Dallas, TX.  What's that I hear you ask?  Why, YES, this DOES mean we'll have to travel BACK to Dallas to pick up the coach when all is said and done.

Once we got the car unloaded, we grabbed all our dirty clothes, and the towels we had been using and hightailed it to the closest decently reviewed laundromat we could find.  Talk about a Cultural Experience.  Oh my, oh my.  We are sooooo spoiled having our own clean, working, convenient and paid-for washer and dryer, right there at my fingertips.  Oh my, oh my.  We are accustomed to using the washers and dryers in campgrounds, sure, but it's been quite a while since we had been to one open to the public.  Talk about a Cultural Experience, it is definitely NOT one I wish to repeat.  I don't know who wrote that glowing review, but we had to work hard to find a washer that was in working order and not super expensive.  We only found ONE, yes, just ONE, but it was small, so we'd need TWO, and I didn't really have time to wash back to back in one, instead of simultaneously, in two.  So, we bit the bullet and used one of the large capacity, high dollar (as in FIVE dollar) washers.  We found an empty one that appeared to be in working order and loaded it up.  

Then we went outside to wait.  While there, we got to watch the locals doing their thing.  We were pretty sure we were going to witness a 2 or 3 car accident, but they managed to avoid the crash, but then we were almost involved our own selves.  And we were sitting still, minding our own business, in a legitimate parking spot!  We couldn't wait to get outta there!

What a relief it was when all our clothes were mostly dry (after 3 goes of free drying, I was done, whether the clothes were or not!), and we could move on with our chores.  We had decided that we would empty the refrigerator of all the fresh produce and milk we had purchased (cuz, ya know, there's a pandemic going on, and you don't want to be going to grocery stores all over the country...stick with one that you know and isn't overly populated, and stock up) and leave only the meat in the freezer, giving away all the rest.  We would also make a big garden salad and a bowl of seafood/pasta salad to take and eat along the way.  All that would require some refrigeration....so, off to Walmart to purchase (yet another) cooler.  Don't mind that we have two, back in storage, in Florida...we needed one HERE and NOW.  Thank goodness we'd had the foresight to pick up a suitcase at the park-wide garage sale while we were in Alamo Rose, that week in January.  When we got back to the camper, we packed up our clothes and started in on making dinner and dinners to come.  After all, the earlier we got on the road in the morning, the farther we could make it by afternoon.

Except for one thing.  We hadn't counted on a rain/thunderstorm.  Last time we saw rain like this was when we were back in Florida, 2 winters ago!  In the photo below, it's important to know that we KNEW there was a car ahead of us, in our lane.  No, we couldn't see him either.  That's how hard it was raining!

As we traveled, I called around to all the campgrounds holding reservations for us, and begged forgiveness as we cancelled them for good this time.  Eventually, we made it safely to Arkansas and kept going. We had to pass the sign for Hot Springs, and, boy, was it tempting!  Several years ago, we had taken baths at the National Park, in ages-old bathtubs, bathing in hot, hot mineral water, piped in directly from the springs.  Ooooohhhh, they were wonderful, and they'd feel soooo good....but, no time for that on this trip!  Drive on Jose, drive on.

We did find a couple of gents having a day like we've had a week...and this geyser was spotted at a very neat and clean rest stop.  What really caught our eye, though, was how lush and green everything was.  We haven't seen green grass like this since I cannot remember when.

Did you know there was a river running through the middle of Little Rock?  Yup, there is.  I believe this was the Arkansas River.

Shortly after crossing the river, these two vehicles passed us.  An informal poll was taken on Facebook, and the winning answer was that this was likely the septic tank for all the BS being flung about these days.  Except it probably isn't big enough to hold it all.  We really don't know what this object is, and if you have any ideas, we are all waiting to hear 'em.

And, finally, we got through Arkansas, and came to Memphis, TN.  What a lovely skyline.

Oooooh, crap....but there's another bridge!  This would be the Mighty Mississippi.  And, noooope, didn't get a picture of this one, sorry.

As we passed into Memphis, this lovely building came into view.  This would be the Headquarters for Ducks Unlimited.  Apparently, there is a decent restaurant with a magnificent view up there at the peak.  And, in case you were wondering, no, we did NOT stop.  No time, for one thing.  And, HECK NO, I'm not going up there, for another.  

Tonight, we are at a cigarette smokey Baymont by Wyndham, and we've eaten our seafood pasta salad.  Why it smells like cigarettes, I just don't know.  We were told that all the rooms are non-smoking.  I guess the rooms don't smoke, but I'm pretty sure that ate least SOME of the customers do. So that pretty much concludes our adventures since last Friday.  It's been a bumpy ride so far, and we know of several others that have experienced the same parts failure/no availability that we have.  True, that doesn't make it any better or easier to swallow, and we still have the scary prospect of hitting up a hotel every night for at least 3 or 4 weeks, then we will still have a few days of lodging to account for.  Right now, our plan is to go check out Barbara & Charles' "guest shed" down in Silver Springs, FL.  (Quotes, because it's outfitted nicer than most homes we've seen!)  We are hoping that we won't have to impose on them too awfully long, but we are really looking forward to seeing them.

Till next time, y'all be well and stay safe, and we'll try to do the same.