5C's Que Pasa

We have enjoyed our short stay in this RV park.

The girls have enjoyed it as well, at least they had no stress. Just sunshine to laze around in.

So cute how they follow the sunshine.

This guy came in yesterday just for one night. Note his dog standing on the back of the truck. How ever do his wife and he ( tall dude ) fit inside to sleep?

Yesterday I was actually relaxing on the sofa with a glass of vino blanco when I took this shot ( from inside of course ) remember, I was relaxing.

Carlie had another incident this morning. Colin was walking them on the road, but not too far from a cactus garden. The wind must have blown pieces onto the gravel road. She screamed and held her front left paw up. He dropped Ciela’s leash and ran back to the RV. I grabbed my tweezers and started to do what needed to be done. She cried out so loudly with each pull. They were deeply embedded and I had to use my full strength to pull them out. She cried at each one. Done. She is in shock and trembling in my arms as her heart races.

Most were fully embedded right to the flower tip. Looks to be between 1/2 – 3/4 of an inch.  Poor puppy.  I had an analgesic antibiotic that I sprayed onto her foot ( the entry points were bleeding just a tiny bit ). She than lay for over an hour next to Colin under piles of blankets and dozed off and on.

It’s all about the girls.

The first purchase we made here was a carpet for them to lay on and play on. Best purchase ever. I think they look so good on that carpet.

As you can see Carlie is feeling better and Ciela has been very gentle with her all morning and keeps giving her kisses.

This came in this afternoon, looks like this Class A and its people are going to be enjoying the dessert.

Everything in this park is so neat and tidy. One of the best run RV parks we have ever been in.  Please stop in if only for a night. You can tell them that Colin Jewall recommended this place.

Can you even imagine what is behind this door?

A full dog spa! I have never ever seen anything like this. The green tub with hot and cold, a table with a hair dryer and a washing machine just for dog stuff so that the hair does not get into the people washers.  Off the the left they even had a huge plastic apron ( covered in a dog bone print ) so you stay dry.

Most impressive. Remember this is Quartzsite!  One of the first things you are told about are the areas where the free doggie bags are.

There are two washes you can walk along, with or without your pets. At night the sides come alive with colourful lights. In fact most folks have some lights strung. Fun to walk around after dark.

A large club house.

Two bridges to walk over the wash. So pretty. If we would stay in Q this is the place we would be.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long 77 mile drive. Remember fingers crossed that we make it. Prayers are welcome as well.

In case you missed my post yesterday about the Que Pasa of Our Breakdown click here.

Last Saturday somewhere in the last nine miles on I-40 before turning south to Lake Havasu there is a small section of ripple like rough pavement showing many black marks where others have bottomed out. Fortunately as always we were only driving 55mph. We did do a bit of a jump in the air, my description, Colin says that it wasn’t that bad. As we drove through Parker we heard some small bouncy squishy noises. As we turned into Running Man fuel south of Parker the sounds were much more noticeable especially when we turned the wheel. After fuelling I drove the RV in circles, fast and slow while Colin tried to find the source of the sound. Finally we carried on to our night stop in the BLM lands just before Quartzsite.

In the morning we left enroute to Amado, Arizona, our last stop before crossing into Mexico. Today would have been our second full day on the Isla, perhaps if all goes well we will be there next Friday. As we turned onto the highway we looked at each other and said that does not sound good. We proceeded to the RV Pit Stop to fill with propane. We decided from there to check with Love’s as they have helped us with advice in the past. Not friendly at all so we went to the Pilot. A young fellow came out to listen to the noise and said that it sounded like a ball joint problem and that we should not drive more than another ten minutes or we could lose control of the RV and to definitely not take it out on the highway. Our only choice was to park in the empty lot across from Best Auto and RV Repair.

Parked in the empty dirty and dusty lot. First thing was to set up a fence pen area for the girls. It was 9:30AM Sunday.

Colin soon had the dish and the generator set up. It was sunny but too windy and chilly to sit outside.

For young puppies the girls have been extremely good. They have adapted to every situation. They are to be commended for dealing with us ignoring them for the next two days as we made our hundreds of phone calls.

I really can’t remember what we did that day. At one point the owner drove in late Sunday morning and Colin ran to speak with him. He told Colin that they would see us at 8AM on Monday. I do know that we discussed options, re organized the car, took the girls for a walk. Dinner that night was a Goliath ( 20″ ) Italian Bruschetta pizza from Silly Al’s. Huge and yummy. The left overs were lunch for the next two days. No one was wearing masks at Silly Al’s. We soon discovered that no one does here in Quartzsite. We were invited to the parks Thanksgiving meal yesterday but because it was inside and no one wore masks we declined. Actually it is too soon to leave the girls alone in the RV as all they would do is bark.

We got up early Monday morning, fed the girls, pulled the slides in and were ready for whatever the day would bring. Colin was standing at the Best Auto door at 7:30AM wanting to be first in line for service. 8AM came and he was told that we did not have an appointment and that they might be able to see us in a few days. That the owner had no right telling us that we would be seen that day. If they got a break we were first inline to be checked. We were deflated, we were trapped there until we saw a mechanic. About forty minutes later I went in to see if there was anyway that they could see us even for ten minutes, to please come and listen to the noise. We just wanted to know if we could drive somewhere else, safely. Rules were rules I was told and there was no guarantee when our RV would be looked at as we had no appointment. Nothing we could do but sit and wait. We understood that others had appointments but we only needed 10 minutes to know if we could carry on. So we sat and waited and waited and watched others come and go.

Not a large office and they also run a U – Haul business.  The work takes place outside on the right.

Closer to 11AM I went back to the office and stood and waited to speak to the lady behind the counter. Someone in came behind me and was waiting as well. Finally he came beside me and lifted the counter to go in behind. Ahh he worked there, a mechanic? He asked me how he could help me. I told him that I was wondering if we could get the password for the internet – she looked up from dealing with her customer and said no as it was too slow even for just her. He lifted his hands in gesture of “I’m sorry”. Was there anything else he could help me with? Oh yeah! So I went into my spiel and he said, ‘I’ll be over in a minute to listen to the sound’. I quickly ran back to our RV and told Colin that he was coming. We had the engine on and the air building by the time Greg came along. Next thing we knew he was in the RV in his dirty greasy clothes with his shoes on sitting in the drivers seat. We thought he was just going to drive it a few feet or in a circle. He did more than that. At the end of his test drive he moved the RV into the yard and called someone else on his phone to come have a quick look. Suddenly the owner showed up as well. Long story short we had worn out ball joints and they needed to be replaced. The earliest they could see us would be December 2nd, providing they could get parts, which they would order from Freightliner in Phoenix. They did not think that we would make it to Feightliner ourselves but we could give it a try. We re parked the RV in the dirt lot and sat stunned. I was thankful that I somehow was in the right place at the right time to connect with Greg.

Out came the phone and the first of dozens and dozens of calls began. Freightliner told us that just to see if they could get the parts would take three days as things moved slowly in that department. We called other shops in Blythe which was only 25 miles away and again the parts problem. They would get back to us in a few days. Finally Colin called Spartan Chassis and their parts department. It took several attempts to get through. Eventually he spoke with Jeff ( whose name was pencilled in our manual ), we had dealt with him many years ago. It was a long, over an hour, phone call. Jeff was ever so patient. Long story short they had the parts for the lower ball joints ( one on each side ). The parts for the upper balls joints were not expected until February of 2022 😯  Jeff and Colin went at it and then Jeff had an aha moment 💡 If we didn’t mind spending the extra money we could buy two kits from a different Spartan Chassis and just use those ball joints as they would fit our rig. So a wish list was put together and Colin said he would call back to order. He wanted to see if anyone else had the parts in stock.

Another long long story short, no one has the parts and no one could do the repairs until the end of January at the earliest. Well we are not going to spend the winter here in Quartzsite. Jeff had given us hope. Next step was to confirm that Best Auto could actually do the installation of the ball joints. In effect we would be putting in a new front end. Best Auto assured us that it might be done in a day or by midday the next day.  Yes we could stay in the RV during the work and overnight if need be in their locked yard.

Colin is very analytical and thorough and detailed and so he checked and rechecked and asked more questions. He then proceeded to call Frieghtliner who could only do the lower joints  ( those are the only parts they could get ) and then we would have to wait nearby until February???  Other places returned our calls and basically no one could get parts and some said they were not capable of doing the job. It was now after 3PM Monday and we had been told that it would be okay to move to the Scenic Road RV Park directly across the road. We did that and did a full set up, after all we would be here for almost two weeks.

We are parked next to this RV who has a cat on the leash. Needless to say this critter has been driving the girls to bark by parading in front our our patio ( dog pen area ) and the front of the RV.

Colin kept thinking about the que pasa of our situation. First thing Tuesday morning Colin ordered the parts to be sent on a two day air, based on the Thanksgiving weekend. Who knew when they would arrive. Turns out they were not picked up until Wednesday morning. We are to get them today, hopefully.

Ciela hunting for a bothersome fly.

On Wednesday we found out that we would need an alignment after the install. Best Auto could not do it. So that set us off on another few dozen calls. December 2nd was a Thursday and if the repairs went into day two, the only people who could to the alignment were in Buckeye ( closest to us, surprisingly no one in Blythe  ) but not until Monday, December 6th, another long delay. Colin was rather concerned about this small shop being able to do the install for us. He spoke to someone in the Spartan warranty department and was told that a specialized tool was required and the only company that he would recommend was Rush Tire Center in Yuma and he said that should probably be able to get there. So were were back to square one. Only thing is Rush could not do the alignment plus we would have to move into a motel for one night as it was a two day install. They recommended another company down the road to do the alignment. Hmm, would they be able to do the install as well, Rush said yes.

Tuesday we were treated to a 360 degree sunset. All around us, in a compete circle, we could see the sunset.

Hopefully you see the pattern of all the phones calls, the unsettledness of the situation and how things kept changing.  Mid afternoon Wednesday Colin spoke with Purcell Tire and Service Centre in Yuma on Gila Ridge. He spoke with the manager as well as the actual mechanic and was reassured that they could do the job and if they ran into any difficulties they could get tools from Rush Tire Center.  Best of all they could do the alignment and if necessary would work overtime to complete the job the same day. If by some chance the job had to go into day two we could stay inside the RV that night. So ends the phone calls and we are booked for 8AM Monday, November 29th. We are to proceed slowly, with caution and to not get airborne. We have the names and phone numbers of a few tow companies recommended to us by Purcell.

Stunning. So looking forward to the Isla sunsets.

Life returned to a slower pace. I took a nap and Colin walked the pups. Suddenly he was back in a panic about the possible poisoning situation. Thank goodness Carlie remains in perfect health. We have only used the phone twice since Wednesday.

The three kibble that caused all the double. The orange in her regular kibble is carrot.

Our RV is twenty years old and has been well maintained. Based on research we have done very well to have come this far with no ball joint issues. Over the course of the past few days we have discovered that the main causes of ball joints failing is because of extreme heat ( remember that heat dome we experienced this past summer, although we live in heat during the summer normally, it is not that bad ) and not lubricating the ball joints. Normally we drive to Mexico which we did not do because of COVID and we did not use the RV from March of 2020 until June of 2021. Our ball joints self lubricate, perhaps they dried out. This RV has been driven for close to twenty years to Mexico, further south than Acapulco ( plus we wintered there for a few years ) and of course those gravel bumpy roads along with pot holes as big as bathtubs have taken their toll. We are thankful that this happened before we entered Mexico this year. It has been a challenge and we aren’t done yet but hopefully the worst is over.

The girls like to follow the sun as it moves from window to window.

Yersterday was a normal day for us, cleaning and laundry. I just loved being able to hang everything outside. It has been around 70F most days but is cool because of the wind.

UPS came through for us just after 1:00PM, well I would have hoped so for $581.19 in shipping costs. The parts were 108 pounds in total. Good thing Colin was outside as he was delivering to the RV beside us. Funny thing is that the girls never even barked at him.

First of all thank you all for you concerns, personal emails and blog comments. Right now that is what is keeping us going.  It has been a constant phone call after phone call since this happened.  I will do a post with all the que pasa of the situation. Suffice to say that as of 1PM this afternoon we have a new and workable plan. Details in the next post.

Of course it is all based on the delivery of parts on Friday. Shipping is just over $600.00. If they show up then comes the next part.

This afternoon Colin was walking the girls while I was still working out the details of the new plan. He quickly came back saying that Carlie who was in front had eaten a few kibble from a large pile of kibble in the middle of the street. Who leaves kibble in the street? To poison dogs, coyotes or rabbits? He rushed the girls home. I went online and he checked with a few other RVers. I did not like what I saw. We should be taking the dog to a vet ASAP. We are in such a remote area that there is no vet, never mind doctor nor a pharmacy. We called our vet back home. They had closed but he was still there and took our call. He said to get Carlie to a vet asap, not possible. He suggested that we give 9 ml of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide to Carlie to induce vomiting.  I did not have any and of course there is no pharmacy here. He was appalled as to where we were. Colin had some 3% Hydrogen Peroxide in his basement ares for our water tank – thank you ever so much Jack.

Gosh it took only 3 minutes before she started to vomit. It was not nice to watch, as she totally emptied everything in her stomach. She was rather dazed. But we did find the three pieces of different kibble so she should be alright as it had not yet gotten into her system. Does the drama ever stop?

Monday afternoon we were able to move directly across the road from the auto/rv repair shop to an RV park.

So tonight I was going to write a post about our mechanical issues. Sorry but I have nothing left in me, I am totally drained.

Such a special sunset.

As of early afternoon today we finally have a plan for repairs. We have to travel 80 miles to Yuma and will have tow trucks on standby. Not a safe trip. Details in the next post.

I want to wish a most special Happy Thanksgiving from my heart to all my American friends. Thank you for your constant support. You have more than helped us through this situation. We even got an email from a wonderful Canadian couple in Canada who are offering to bring down RV parts to us. We have had Americans who are in Mexico trying to find a shop to do our repairs, someone else doing research on our specific problem and a very special lady, Kay, who has offered us her home, her space for our RV and anything we might need. They as well as all of your comments and emails have kept us going. We have had many issues over the years, I think this is the worst but Colin says no, we have worse in past years, such as the fall of 2019 ( last trip before Covid ). We needed a new radiator and many other issues came up. I think that as I age I do not take stress as well.

The main purpose of this post was to wish my American friends a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy every moment and create some special memories.  Hugs to you all.

Please forgive any errors, grammar or spelling mistakes.  It is 10PM and I really need to eat for the first time today.

The first words in the final paragraph of my last post said “Thanks for sticking with me, things can only get better”.  Just the opposite happened. So I will leave those details to the end of this post and start back a few days ago. Looking back I can see that I made several errors in my write ups. Stress will do that to you.

I think this post may be all over the place but I doubt that I will miss anything important. I actually had been making notes on a piece of paper and that is now gone.

Could be Ciela as she has taken to shredding paper the past few days.

UPS delivered the generator Thursday. The shipper had sent us a second unit as the first had either got lost or stolen according to him. Well much to our surprise this was the original one I had ordered on November 9th. It weighs about 120 pounds.

So now we had a second generator ( the 3rd one ) being delivered to us on Friday. As well as a second generator from Home Depot which I had ordered on Tuesday.  I had no idea that the shipper of the lost generator was sending us another. At one point I had three of them on my Visa card. Meanwhile thanks to hours an hours on the phone with special people at Home Depot we were promised that even if their generator showed up ( it never did ) that we would not be charged for it. Somehow between a wonderful supervisor at Amazon working with the shipper the third generator did not arrive. Personally we think that is because we told the UPS driver to please refuse delivery on our behalf. So all is well in that area of of our lives.

Brushing the girls as they are shedding their short ( longer than our other doxies ) hair all over the place.

Colin went to Home Depot ( where by the way he found in store THE generator which they claim they never had ). Anyway he picked up oil and these two boards to roll the machine in and out. There is even space for his jack boards to be stored there.  Of course all the other items are now in the Jeep until we have time to figure out a new system.

This model is a bit different than the one we were trying to get in Canada since July. More power.

This is the model of the one we purchased off of Amazon.com. You can read all about it on your own. He did start it for five minutes in the RV park to make sure it worked. It is a bit louder than we expected but we are very happy to have it.

It fits perfectly in this particular basement. Only thing is that the two ramp boards must be put in another compartment as they are too long for this one.

The connection to our RVpropane tank which we had made at home before we left.

Remember all those unopened boxes from Amazon in a previous post, this was one of them. This  is what is called a snuffle mat.

They each got one. It is to encourage them to sniff and work out the puzzle of finding their kibble meal hidden in the folds.  It had really slowed Carlie down to 5 -6 minutes. Perfect and they love it.

Somehow we have no photos of the RV repairs. The first repair ( which I wrote about ) was the jacks. Apparently we paid $310.50US to be told that there was nothing wrong with the jacks 😯 While he was there Colin asked about repairing our steps which were now going up and down on their own. He said we needed a new gear assembly, motor, control board, linkage and he would be back to the RV on Thursday at noon. He and a fellow RV tech did not show up until 5PM ( they had so many problems earlier in the day and we were number there on the list ). By the time they arrived it was dark as in pitch black. Very very long story short they were done at 9:30PM. They kept swearing big time and complaining how they wanted to go home. I was quick to point out that it was not our fault that they were late. It was a very unsettling last hour. Both Colin and I enjoyed a few glasses of vino to settle ourselves. But they did get the job done even though they had to read the instructions on what to do and nothing worked.  Good thing that there were two of them. One was calmer than the other which helped. We were all hungry and wanted dinner. So when the final bill came in at $2200.00USD we both fell off our chairs so to speak. We both had heard that the part was close to $200.00 and not $900.00. Nothing we could do. We paid it and Colin did call the owner of the company the next day. It was what it was.

Meanwhile Colin had received the part for the Roadmaster tow bar that broke. Again no photos, sorry. At least it arrived on day 3 of a 2 day priority mail. Rather than have the techs do the install Colin figured it out himself online and did the repair. He has a few blood blisters on his fingers but it worked 😛

Friday was sort out the generator and how it fit into the RV and final groceries, etc. It took us longer to pack up Saturday morning as we had to find places to put all the extra things plus we were both tired. Anyway it got done and we hooked up the car and we were good to go, but not until 11:15.  My fault that I forgot about the one hour time change to Arizona which is also Mazatlan time.

This is how we travel. My back is to the windshield and with the slide in there is not much space what with the dog ramp and our Mr Buddy heater. The coffee table slides under my desk ( on the left ) then my dining chair which because of the desk sticks out on the side.  When the slide is open we have lots of space.

Facing forward. The big screen is a sun screen that is used when necessary. Here it is down to help keep the heat off the girls. The ramp and the bed that has been used more of late and the messy dog dash.

The very full bedroom with the slide in. Dog crate on the bottom left and my massage table against the bed and four guitars under the mirror.

With our big window driving into the sun is a problem which we can handle but the heat is difficult for the dogs. Carlie said enough and was smart enough to go down to the floor behind my seat and rest there. Ciela was restless and drove me bonkers.

Ciela napping for short while on the dash.

New to us Arizona sign. Our exit was 12 and between here and there there were six miles of extremely bumpy road. We felt like we went airborne twice. Things did jostle about quite a bit.

The Chevron station off of I-40 just before Lake Havasu. Lunch for all of us and a final pee in the grass for a few months.

Interesting sky as we drove through Lake Havasu. Very little traffic driving thru here, most unusual. I of course was very sad recalling all of our visits over the years with my dear friend Libby who passed on January 7th off this year. I doubt that we will ever camp again in Lake Havasu, just too sad.

As we passed through Parker it got darker and darker. Half way through Lake Havasu City, we noticed a small squeaky bouncy noise. We stopped at the far end of Parker to fuel up at Running Man.  The RV sounded horrible as we turned in. After filling I drove around, left, then right and in circles.  Colin who was outside could not detect where the sound was coming from but it was there. By the time we got to Quartzite it was a consistent sound.  But it was dark at 6:25pm local time which was when it was dark at 5:25PM in Vegas. We never travel this late in the year and are not use to it becoming dark so soon.

We set up and ran the generator under a variety of loads.  It needs to be run for five hours to be broken in. We drove 220 miles in six hours. Had it been just the two of us with no pups we would have done it in just over four hours and it would not have been dark. The lunch and pee break took 55 minute and there was time for fuelling up. I realize now that we have to allow extra time for the girls to stop.

The flash from my camera actually lit up the RV. You can see their glowing eyes in the dark.

Another Amazon purchase were eight flickering LED lights which we used ( bonus ) to light up the corners of the dog pen. You can see one flickering top left, the flash stopped the others from flickering.

Thanks Colin for going out in the cold to get this sunrise shot.

All we need to do is pull in the slides and drive further south for our last night in the US.

Despite setting the alarm for 7AM with a between 8:00 – 8:30AM departure we only left at 8:45AM. The ‘noise’ was even louder, we drove a few blocks to the RV Pit Stop to fill up our propane tank. As we left we looked at each other and said that this is not good.  So we drove to Love’s, who have helped us in the past. They basically told us to go away. Meanwhile I got online and discovered that the Pilot here in town now does some repairs. The fellow there told us that it sounded like a ball join issue and that we should definitely not go on the highway and to not drive far. I had also found online and he mentioned that we got to Best Auto/RV repairs. So we now sit in an empty dusty lot next to their shop.  They open at 8AM Monday morning.

Our solar lights charging up. Cute little bird came to visit.

We drove a whopping eight miles today 😥

We got one of three generators that we ordered and got refunds on the other two.  Details to follow. We had two RV techs here ( to work on the steps ) until 9:30PM last night – ouch at $2200.00 USD. The Roadmaster part came in and Colin installed it himself, not wanting to pay someone $150.00 per hour.  He has a few owies and blood boosters but the part is in. We paid $310.50 to be to be too that there was nothing wrong with our jacks. Well we will soon find our if that is true or not.

We have spent between 5 – 8 japers per day just being on hold.  One night it was to our Visa company and they put me thru to the bilingual end of the fraud department. I spent over an hour practicing my swearing in French and perfecting my accent.  Colin found I entertaining  but after 90 minutes they cut me off. Dang, I would have loved to express myself.

Four loads of laundry cost $18.00USD yesterday.

Very special people sent me more photos of our palapa as they were confused.  They thought that it had been repaired according to what I had posted but the palapa roof looked just like the before photo. I had the manager check it out and sure enough the roof top still had loose plastic flapping about 🙁

It has not been very warm here in Vegas. Right now it is 52F. Mornings are cloudy and cool, the sun comes out for a few hours after 1PM. Strange to have it be pitch black by 5PM.  Even stranger not being able to visit a casino.

I thank you ever so much for your comments ( I tried to reply to you directly ), personal emails and supporting thoughts. So many of you suggested that we stay here for longer. Sadly the park  is full full full so no extra time to stay. Big thanks you to those who offered us to come to their place or to have anything we needed shipped to them. Vey generous and giving.

It seems that the majority of our time here has been doing online research and emailing or being on hold and of course shopping. Being on hold for 5 – 8 hours per day is tiring. I would have loved to spend an afternoon sitting outside in the sun. Fortunately the girls are loving it. We feel bad ignoring them but one of us is always near by. My only complaint is their loud barking. People are surprised at the sound that comes out of them. We are working on it but the past two days have been chaotic.

The good news is that the daily cases in Mexico  have decreased to 15 per day. Much better than what is happening at home. So we will feel safe there but will wear our masks when off our site and of course grocery shopping.

Currently gas prices are $4.09 per gallon at Walmart.

No time to download and edit photos, next time – maybe. I am trying to keep you up to date as best I can. We are so looking forward to arriving on the Isla.  Once we have a dog fence built we will be introducing the girls to the beach, that will be so much fun.  We have decided ( but who knows what will really happen ) to not do our big set up for a few days but to just sit and take it all in and relax and rest.

So does anyone know where I put our napkins, we are out and I have no idea where I put them. Oh well, we do have paper towels.

We are leaving in the morning. The travel is the most relaxing part of it all at this point. I have only one major thing to do and that is to read Carols blogs about the roads, pot holes, hidden topes and everything else she and Bill discovered as they travelled to Mazatlan. I am too tired to do it now but for certain tomorrow evening.

Sorry for the lack of photos but I took more time just writing this quick update than I had time for.  Off to bed pronto. Sorry I am not proofing this tonight.

Thanks for sticking with me, things can only get better. I am not writing about the current situation in BC as it makes me too sad. There is nothing I can do but pray that everything will be resolved but that may take months and months. We are a strong province but this is such a low blow after all the fires over the summer and extreme heat and now the extreme rains, floods and mudslides. Mother Nature must have her reason for what she is sending our way.