Another Day, Another Repair Shop

Yes, tomorrow does come, sometimes you’re not sure you want it to but here we are.  Monday morning, Wal-Mart car park, snow, 18F, and an alarm that goes off every time we start the engine. Who says RVing isn’t fun?

We call around and find is a truck repair shop called Payson Diesel just 2 miles away and they can get us in now. We drive over there with just a little more than trepidation.  Visions of having the engine replaced are dancing in our heads and it’s not a pretty picture.  We figure we already have a new engine so at least we shouldn’t have to go through that again but at this stage of the game I’m not ruling out anything.

All I know is I am sick with worry that this is going to cost and arm and a leg again and cause us to sit beside the repair shop for weeks on end or have to go back to the house again.

I have to say they were very good and it took a while to find out what was making the alarm go off.  They had to take apart the dashboard but they finally found the problem, a pressure switch had melted!

A pressure switch had melted.

This being a heavy truck repair shop and us being an RV they didn’t have the part, naturally, so they had to order it.  It would arrive on Wednesday apparently. Nothing for us to do except sit beside the shop and wait for the part to arrive.

The Offending Part

Now you have to keep in mind, it’s January in Utah, it’s 18 to 20 degrees out there. There is snow on the ground mixed with truck oil and other detritus. We have no shower as the rig has been winterized so that none of the pipes will freeze. All the water we have is in 2 gallon containers. And we have to live this way for three days till the part arrives and gets fixed.

This is the fun part of RVing!

I wish I could say the same!

We Still Have To Work

Life goes on and we are trying to run our business from the bus, one of the reasons we started down this road was so that we could drive around the country visiting our clients, strengthening the relationship with them, videoing them and create great content to rank them on the internet.

As long as we have an internet connection we can work from anywhere. We have AT&T and Verizon plans so while we wait we hunker down and get some work done.

Trouble is I am soooooo cold, even with the furnace on and an electric heater I am still really, really cold.  Its so easy to get cole when you are just sitting working at a desk and I have the ability to get colder than just about anyone else.

Here I am in my long sleeved sweater, down vest and coat with a hat and scarf.  I’m smiling but only because that’s frozen on my face. If I could get that blue fleece on under my coat and still do my coat up I would.

So are we Jinxed?

Seriously. I really am beginning to wonder. Wednesday comes along and they finally come to us about 4 pm and say that the part had arrived but apparently, it has been shipped up to their other shop in Ogden almost 2 hours away.  It’s too late for them to drive up there now so someone will go up in the morning and pick it up. I swear it could only happen to us.

Another cold night and they arrive at the rig midday to put in the new part. Finally, it means we can get back on the road.  A few days later than planned but so be it. But wait… there’s more!

Now I’m Convinced We’re Jinxed!

After the part has been replaced and the dash is all back together we ask the mechanic if he could give Tim a hand to tighten the bolts on one of the wing mirrors.  Remember this is a big bus and those are big heavy wing mirrors.  No problem he says, as they start to work on it the bloody thing falls off.  I kid you not. At this point the air turns a bit blue after I cuss, swear and kick the bus and feel ready to shoot the bloody thing.

The Offending Mirror Before it Fell Off!

Of course, they don’t have bolts that fit, the threads are stripped, the dash doesn’t seem to come apart at just the right area to get to the back of the wing mirror. You name it, it doesn’t work.  The mechanic finally says it’s 5 pm, he says “I have to go home and by the way I’m beginning to hate your bus”. Huh! HE’S beginning?  He has no idea.

So another freezing night beside the shop but kudos to them they manage to get it all working the next day and we finally head for Las Vegas on the Friday afternoon.

At this point I am just about ready to give up and go back, sell the bus and give up the whole thing as a really bad idea. Trouble is I am just so stubborn and after everything I’ve read I can’t believe that this is the way it is supposed to be.  I’ve read blogs that talk about the problems they have had, I know it’s not all roses but really? Is everyone out the lying every time they write a blog post or are we just spectacularly unlucky?

All I know is I have to get somewhere warm, I’m completely demoralized, cold, fed up, pissed off, ready to cry and feeling really bad for Tim who is also fed up but has not said a word to me about this all being my fault because this was something I talked him into.  In fact, if anything he is trying to cheer me up.

Let’s see what Las Vegas holds.