BEST LAID PLANS……
Day 222 – We got by the alarm at 5 a.m. Ugh! We’d been told they’d begin work at 6:00. It was cold, 27 degrees, and we had to pack up the RV so it could be moved into a service bay, have the cats all fed and put into their room, and be ready ourselves. We were actually done in 55 minutes, not nearly awake yet, but the coffee was made & we were waiting with our gear for the day packed up in the car. We didn’t want to be far away because of the cats, so we’d just be staying in the company’s waiting area nearby.
We waited in the RV for about 15 or 20 minutes, then Bryan, the person who was dealing with putting our work in order, came over to the RV & said it would be another 15 minutes or so, the technician who’d be doing the work hadn’t shown up for work yet and there was still another RV sitting in our service bay. We relaxed, turned the heat back on in the RV, and waited.
The girls were in the bedroom behind a closed door where they travel when we’re on the road. They’d have the whole bed, a litter box, and in this instance, because the job wasn’t supposed to be finished for about 8 hours (at 2 p.m.), they had their moist food & water, too. We realized we ought to give them some dry food, also, we we opened their door. They were already sound asleep, and we gave them some dry food. When Rob was closing up their door (which is kept solidly shut by tying bungee cords between the door and the door frame), he discovered that he’d left two of the four cords off, inside the bedroom. Ooops, no problem, it’s not like we’re driving a long distance on rough road or anything. And we’d placed a sign on the bedroom door telling the workers not to open the bedroom door, there were 4 cats inside. The workmen had told us they wouldn’t need to go inside the RV anyway; all work was being done outside the vehicle. Meanwhile, Bryan had come back, said the technician had arrived and it would be probably another 15 minutes, after they’d moved out the other vehicle and they’d cleaned out the stall, and then we could move our RV in.
Forty-five minutes late, we got the word they were ready for us and we moved the vehicle to the bay. The technician said he’d be checking out the RV to see if he could do the work and he’d let us know. What? If he could do the work? Rob had had long conversations with the salesman and had taken measurements, sent them over to the company, and had been given a quote for the work, assuring us the work would be done, we’d changed all our plans, and had driven many miles to this location. AND we’d gotten up at 5 a.m., LOL! We were scuttled over to the waiting area where we worriedly waited for more information.
More time passed, then Bryan came in and asked us who’d we’d spoken with initially. Uh-oh. Rob told him who’d he’d been dealing with, Gary, and told him about the conversations they’d had. Unfortunately, Gary was out of town today. Bryan explained that the difficulty lay with the fact that there wasn’t enough room to access the suspension components that needed to be replaced – there wasn’t enough room between the fuel tank and the floor of the RV. This question had arisen before we ever had an appointment scheduled, and Rob had taken pictures and measurements which he had sent over to them before setting up the appointment, six weeks ago.
Rob asked it he could go to the service bay with Bryan & the technician so he could get a better understanding what the problem was. More time passed. He came back to the waiting room and we waited while Bryan and the technician talked some more.
Bryan eventually came back and said that it would take a lot of extra time to drop the axle to do the work. They estimated it would take two days instead of one as we’d been told, with two technicians working on it instead of one. Because this was a Friday, it would’ve involved having two people to come in and work over the weekend, and they couldn’t find any people to do it. Furthermore, our quote was for a much shorter, less labor-intensive procedure. Now we were faced with something else entirely.
Bryan agreed that if we came back, they’d honor the first quote, which was nice, and the work would be scheduled for two week days. But we had the other front end work in Iowa scheduled for the coming week. And to just drive on back to Elkhart, Indiana another time later from New York, was no easy trip. So we said maybe we’d be back some other time, and went back to the RV to hook the Honda up for hitting the road to somewhere between this appointment and the next one. Oh well, best laid plans……
We went to the service bay & climbed into the RV. Ummm, why were the cats out of the bedroom, happily sitting in chairs like they hadn’t a care in the world? Rob asked the technician if anyone had opened the bedroom door – they said they had not been inside. Turns out the girls, with less restraints holding the bedroom door closed, had forced the door open and managed to squeeze themselves out. We drove out of the service bay and into the parking lot where Rob hooked the Honda up for towing. We went to round up the cats and put them back (with a properly latched door) into the bedroom. One was missing. Where was Pixie? Totally panicked we searched every nook & cranny, under every seat, in every possible place, and what if she got outside somehow? We finally found her lodged between the kitchen cupboards & the stove & microwave compartment in the small space which is left when you close the kitchen slide-out. She couldn’t get out. Great hiding place, Pixie. Now what do we do! There was no way we could move the slide back out to get at Pixie. She’d be crushed.
She was upset, the girls were upset, we were upset. This was NOT turning out to be a good day at all. Rob jumped up on the sink area and counter, laid himself face down over the sinks and dangled one arm down into the narrow space where Pixie was lodged. He got his hand around one of her arms & her neck and pulled her up and out. I grabbed her and he managed to get himself out of the awkward position. We both hugged Pixie tight. She was curled up into a ball, a bit traumatized. We made sure she was okay, not in pain anywhere, and could walk okay. When he opened the bedroom door, she jumped onto the bed. Phew! It was 8:40 a.m. when we drove out of the Mor/Ryde parking lot, heading west & out of town. We were on the road again.
170 miles
We weren’t sure where we were going at this point, only that we had to be in Oskaloosa, Iowa on Tuesday afternoon. We stopped for a quick breakfast/snack at a rest stop in Illinois, fairly soon after leaving Indiana. We decided not to push it, mileage-wise, we all needed to stay somewhere relaxing. We stopped at Illini State Park, drove through, and found a great campsite on the Illinois River (site #16). We’d stayed at this Park in September last year for one night. At that time all the River sites were taken. Today, because it was still out of season, there was hardly anyone camping. It was 54 degrees and sunny at 12:25 p.m. We’d gone back from Eastern Standard Time to Central time yet again.
We had lunch, then sat outside by the River for several hours, both of us taking a nap. The high today was 62 degrees, and it was sunny all day. We watched the barges go by on the River. The cats settled in nicely and we all put this day behind us.
Pixie
Java
Wow!!! What a day.