Quartzsite, January Week 4, Repairs and "The Grunge"

Monday, January 20th

Here's hoping that my stove arrives today for the install appointment tomorrow.

Good morning Quartzsite.

Jim and Barb sent me the drone shots he took last week of our site. You sure can see the "Gecko". We have a great spot this year.

Had an email late last night from our neighbour. Our heat pump is screeching! We had a "snow lid" installed last summer to prevent it from icing up like last year. Not sure why it did not work. Their bedroom is on that side of the house. :( Apparently it snowed over 2 feet this week, according to my neighbour, Roy. So at 1:30 am I was emailing him back that I had turned off the alarm remotely and to go into the house and switch the system to AUX Heat so only the electric furnace will run until we can get the repair dudes to come and look at it. Jason is also on his way to the lake this morning to check the house.

Jason called me once he arrived at the house and said he turned the furnace to electric heat and everything else seems fine. The Heat Pump is one huge block of ice so Exchange Energy would not be able to service it anyways, Jason figures.

I was unable to get ahold of Exchange Energy anyways. Ray couldn't even call me in Parker! No phone calls going outside Quartzsite, I'm guessing due to so many people here.

Dianne and I left at 8am for Parker to do a major shop before it gets too busy. It's nuts around here with the RV Show and last week the big Escapers get together in Lake Havasu. The shelves in the Safeway and Walmart for booze were quite empty. lol  Everyone shops in Parker from Lake Havasu as well. Dianne treated me to lunch at Crossroads Cafe and we were back home by 1:30.

Received a call from the Locksmith that the door lock has been ordered and would arrive in 2 to 3 days. We now open the door with vise grips when outside the coach! The handle has completely snapped into two pieces and only the very small piece at the bottom unlatches the door.

While I was gone, Ray called Tough Top Awnings and the guy came right over and replaced our two rear slide awnings. All done in just over an hour. Wow. Great service, thanks Steve Colibaba for the contact.


17311 NE 182nd Ave, Brush Prairie, WA 98606
360.953.3299
christie@toughtopawnings.com

I seem to come down with "the grunge" coughing, and feeling crappy. Off to bed with me for a 90 minute snooze. I just woke up when Ray came in to tell me that Dometic wants us down at the show. My new range did arrive but is damaged!!!! So off we went. A lot less people at the show around 4pm ... Anyway, we decided it was too damaged for us so now they are ordering another one with a different shipper express. Apparently this one was ordered late and therefore was sent by UPS and they scrunched the stove top bending it at the corners. This stove should have been ordered 6 weeks ago! not 3 days ago. Anyways I do like it's design with the sealed burners even though the oven is not as big as I would like but at least it will run on propane.



The new plan is to reorder it form Texas, ship it with their reliable freight company that they had switched too as UPS was causing a lot of damage to their units and hence their bad reviews regarding shipping damage. It's no wonder. The stove comes on a pallet with a cardboard box surrounding it. No extra packaging. Apparently they are meant to be lifted using a forklift only which UPS does not do.

So, Dometic is getting me a new one shipped today to the RV Mobile Repair guy that is doing their installs at the show, who happens to live near Quartzsite. Now the install won't be until next week which means we will have to pay for 2 more weeks here as of Thursday.

Tuesday, January 21st,

Woke up at 6:15am to the sound of rain on the roof. Managed to sleep not too badly after taking Nyquil. Did have the chills for a while last night though and feel real groggy this morning. Ray's throat is a little "itchy" too, so hopefully he does not get it. Certainly glad I'm not having to pack up the coach to dump and go into the show for install today anyways, small blessings. It will be a quiet stay in bed day for me, I think.

I emailed Roy at home, yes all is quiet now with the heat pump. Yeah. Something to deal with when we get back home. With the house set at 15C/59F the furnace should not have to work too hard hopefully.

It was cloudy and cool all day. I spent the day in and out of bed but did manage to make my barbecued ribs on the grill for Ray for dinner. I was feeling considerably better by dinnertime. Ray on the other hand is feeling tough now too, coughing up a lung. What a pair. Another quiet evening and lights out by 8:30pm.

Wednesday, January 22nd,

Looks like it will be a sunny day. The new stove is in so we went into town to "inspect it" and it is good. So, I pressed them to reschedule an appointment for me first thing and managed to snag Saturday morning at 7:30am rather than wait until next week. Don't trust this process once Dometic goes back "home" and we are left with only the service tech. We also dropped off our tow hitch at RoadMaster for the free servicing they offer. Ray has been finding the rams quite sticky.

Since we were there, we strolled the big tent again to see what we missed, it was busy but not as bad as the first day. Ray and I were supposed to meet up with our friends Bill and Pam again, which we did briefly but they still had a lot of "show to see".  It was so busy that we just had lunch by ourselves at Beer Bellies and caught up with them later. It sure is a whole lot busier here since the show opened. I lucked out and got one of the last tables.

Pam and bunch stopped by on their way back to Yuma. Managed to get a picture this time. lol

L to R Pam, their friends, Bill and Rosemarie

Rosemarie and Bill, Freckleton 

Ray and Pam Freckleton

After they left, our neighbours, Warren and Gloria came over ... he kept hearing us coughing so brought over an old remedy ... Jack Daniels sipping whiskey and had Ray sipping it to clear his throat and of course Warren kept him company.  Told us it would cure him ... well it did for awhile but Ray had a horrible night with his cold and also due to possibly too much Jack Daniels??? Very thoughtful of him though. This is the first time apparently Warren has had a drink since he got here in October with Gloria ... wonder how he will feel tomorrow? He left us the bottle so he can come over and sip some more another time.

Warren and Gloria

Once we got inside for the night about 6pm Ray went straight to bed and I followed him an hour later. Both of us feeling pretty tough. We did not have a great night's sleep.

Thursday, January 23rd. We were both up and running at 5:45 am to get packed up and over to the sani-dump before the line-ups start. The longest line so far is 22 rigs! By the time we got there at 6:45 there were already 2 rigs ahead. Fortunately when that was done and the water filled the sky had lightened so Ray could get back to our site in the daylight. He positioned the coach a little better for the solar panels and by 8am we were all set back up. It was good to get this out of the way so on Saturday for our range install we don't have to dump first, it's already done. I expect the dump station will be really busy as some people leave the area. We will have to fuel up though before heading back home. A month's worth of generator time has taken the fuel down 2/3 of a tank. Now that the days are getting longer should be less time on the generator and more solar time.

Colan arrived at 9 am to check out the Blu Sky remote control and after completely unhooking it for a few minutes it came back on line as if nothing was wrong ... geez. Ray had tried disconnecting the batteries and cleaning terminals etc. but did not actually disconnect the controller. Now we know. After he left, I made us our first cup of coffee of the day and  I cooked us french toast for breakfast. Ray went back to bed after that for a couple of hours.

At noon we decided to try out the Mountain Quail Cafe that we have heard about so off we went. We had to go back to the show anyways to pick up our tow bar. The food was pretty good, at least better than other places we have tried in Q. Reasonable prices and clean. A very busy little diner. Ray's throat is so bad he had difficulty chewing and swallowing.

Part of the draw is they offer free-wifi and quite a few people come in with their computers.

Back home by 2 pm after picking up our tow hitch and Ray was back to bed .. that was how I was 2 days ago. We were supposed to go with Steve and Dianne to the Canadian's Potluck at the QIA tomorrow but we have declined ... don't need to give this to anyone else.

Our lock is in and the locksmith will be here tomorrow am to install ... yeah we can put the vise grips and ladder away finally. We have a couple of door latches to the compartments that are sticky that she will checkout for us too, she thinks a wafer is gone in the lock. Great service from Betty at C & B Lock and Key. Definitely knows her way around locks and rv locks.

The rest of the day just chillin.

Friday, January 24th

Woke up a bit later than usual. Ray and I both took cold medication and managed a good night's sleep without coughing up a lung every 5 minutes. lol Here's to a better day.

Time to pay for another two weeks. Hard to believe 4 weeks have gone by already. Certainly have not had time to be bored. It will be nice when the show is over though and the majority of "groups" hit the road and free up spaces again, especially the sani-dump lineups. lol

The new solar panel seems to be helping reducing our generator use. Did not turn it on this morning at all. :)

Betty showed up from C & B Lock and Key and replaced our bad door lock. Yeah .... no more vise grips or ladder entries.

Ta Da ... finally.

Betty was unable to fix the two locks on some bay doors so we will have to order new locks when we get back home. Here invoice for the work she did was very reasonable and we would recommend her in an instant.

 Freya thought she would check out her truck. lol

Where's Betty's lunch Dad?

The lake at home is quite high so far with all the rain, hopefully that log in front does not get stuck under anyone's docks.

Hopefully it will have pushed through somewhere else by tomorrow.

Ray and I went to bed early still feeling crappy with our colds. Tomorrow we have to be at the show with the coach for 7:30 am for my range/stove install. With feeling so awful we did not do much "stowing away" before we went to bed so will be busy first thing.

Saturday, January 25th

Ray and I hit the ground running by 5:30 am, getting everything stowed away, etc. Once it was light out, he was up on the roof putting down our "tipped" solar panel. Arrived for our appointment but it seemed they did not actually get started until 8:20 am. While the stove was getting installed we walked around the show for a bit with Freya and then went back to where the coach was. Jeff took us over to the "Dometic area" outside the tent to relax for the next couple of hours. He actually interviewed us on video, as "long-time rvers" as to what we want from service people etc. to gain their trust. Our main complaint is phone back within the time frame we were told, even if they don't have an answer yet and don't promise what you cannot deliver timewise. Nothing worse than getting to a service centre first thing in the morning as you were told and then find out that they are not working on your unit until after lunch. When the RV is your home this is totally unacceptable, especially if you have pets.

They are trying to hear from the customer instead of just the Camping Worlds etc who are not the end user of their products.

One of their marketing people, Kristen, said Freya could be their poster dog! Her slogan is "dogs love camping too". She took this picture and emailed it to me. lol

Anyways at 1pm we were all signed off and ready to come back to camp. I love the stove ... the cabinet work is really messy ... but to be fair they didn't have cabinet material on site and used our old doors as supports for the stove as they were the same colour as the cabinets. Fortunately Ray has a great woodworking shop back at home and will trim it out to look beautiful later this spring so it matches the furnace screen below the stove. We have 2 cabinet doors that came with the coach that were not used and are brand new. Ray will be able to use these to finish the trim.

Back home and all set up again ... second time in 3 days ... Whew. We both laid down for a nap as we were still feeling pretty tough from our colds.

We are now finally done with all of our repairs. It's been quite busy not to mention expensive the past couple of months. The next two weeks will be for relaxing.

Sunday, January 26th

Woke up at 6 am after sleeping well all night. I went to bed at 7pm, exhausted. Ray followed by 8:30 pm. We both were surprised that we made it all night. Finally both of us are feeling better with minimal coughing. Today will be a "do nothing" kind of day to relax in and out of the sunshine after a very lazy morning.

Dave and Cheryl of Our View from Here are arriving in the neighbourhood today. It will be nice catching up with them again. Maybe now Ray and I can get out and about with friends again.

I will stop the blog here after our week of "the Grunge and Repairs". lol