5C's Que Pasa

I do not want to relive Wednesday .  We drove back to Parker for the AC repairs and were there 3 hours.  It was not a simple problem but fortunately for us it was a relatively good fix.  A small Mom & Pop type of operation…..the fellow discovered we had many problems, the main one being that the hi/low pressure switch that controlled the A/C under the dash was faulty, there was also a dead fuse, and the compressor back at the engine would not work ( in the end that part needed 1 Lb. of freon ), and also the fan that controlled the freon temps while at idle or in slow traffic was very very dead.

It was obvious we had a dedicated worker....

...the old and the new....

This we suspect came from all the years we camped in Pie de la Cuesta ( Acapulco ) where the surf was so strong that the front of the RV was being continuously sprayed with salt water.  Many large rigs won’t travel to Mexico for fear of damage but we decided long ago the life was for living!!   Very lucky for us, the Auto Zone store in Parker had a new fan.

We highly recommend “The Front End Shop” in Parker, Arizona @ 1 928 669- 2424.  Carlos was the manager and Randy did a fabulous job.

The best news of all was that the entire bill was for $347.05, of which $175.00 was labour.  Colin is certain that dealing with an RV dealer woudl have put us way over $1500.00.  Finally after filling both the diesel and propane tanks we were on the road at 12 Noon.  We stopped in Gila Bend for lunch and a doggie walk.

Finally we arrived at Lazy Days RV Campground which is offering 2 free nights till Nov. 30th.   Unfortunately we only arrived at dusk and we parked in the dark so have no idea what this place is about.  We are only staying here 12 hours but we did need to dump and fill the fresh water so, for free a great deal.  Colin walked the dogs and thought this place was OK but!!!

Where we are tonight but who would want to buy an RV with no windows!!??

Wifi here is great and we called Colin’ s Mom and my parents via Majic Jack.  Sadly I found out tonight that my mother is having a 6 to 8 hour angiogram on Friday with a possible immediate insertion of one or two stents.  She will then be placed on an urgent list for open heart surgery so this has been a blow to my heart cuz I do love my Mom!!!  So anyone who wants to send positive thoughts and/or prayers for this Friday would be very welcome by me.  Right now we are just taking it day by day.

I am writing this at 10:00PM Wed. night.  We plan to start the engine at 6AM ( thank goodness quiet time ends then ).  Next stop Mexico.

Did you know that they named an RV after me?

Drove a mere 315 miles today.

Tags: Family, RV repairs, travel

…almost ready to cross into Mexico.  Just a few things to deal with, mostly the A/C which is today.  We so enjoyed our day in the BLM lands yesterday.  We will stay here longer, another time.  I now understand, Larry and Mar, just going along and stopping as they wish, to enjoy the here and now.  We are not quite there yet, once retired for certain, but now we need to get ‘there’ to the Isla where we can stop and rebuild from the inside out.  Plus we are so pulled to be in Mexico but realistically we suspect that perhaps we may not always be able to travel there so for now that is our priority.

This little lady hung around us all day, always perching on the same branch. I took a dozen photos and none worked. Finally I asked Colin to help out. Of course he got it just right the first time!! I must really do some research on my photography techniques!!

I must say that having the Verizon USB modem has been a huge plus.  Not just for the blog but to check for messages and emails from clients and family.  We actually did get some business done yesterday.  However it has been a massive headache dealing with all the details.  I will be the first to admit I am a very detailed person but this experience was over the top.  I won’t go into all the details but it has cost us much more money to get everything functioning than we spent on the system in the first place.  I would do it all over again as I love being connected….well most of the time.

First of all you need to have a US address in order to get a Verizon contract.  Why, just because!!  They also require your SIN which is very different for us Canadians than Americans.  With me they couldn’t figure out how to enter it into the system and that seemed to be the cause of most of the problems.  Regarding the US address we used our Western Horizon membership park.  Unless you know someone who is willing to let you use their address you may have a problem.  They system cost $70.00 for a 2 year contract with a $50.00 rebate.  Twenty dollars is a good deal with a 50.00 per month usage charge, pro rated based on usage.   You may also put the system on hold for a charge of $15.00 per 3 month period.  So far so good.  Then I found out that you need to register the device from your own computer but because we did not have a proper SIN USA #, it would not work.  If we did not register then the bills would go to the US address we had given.  If we registered then the bill would come via email.  However the $50.00 rebate would be mailed to that address!!!!!  Well we don’t ever go there, sigh….anyway we finally got that changed by mailing in a different address ( of a friend ) and hopefully we will get the rebate card which is suppose to be good for a year!!  I must have spent at least 2 to 3 hours on our cell which has a roaming charge of at least $2.00/minute, probably closer to $3.00.  Plus a second trip into the Las Vegas Verizon store that took a while to figure out how to overcome the obstacles.  I must say that Jasmine with who I dealt with was very creative at overcoming the impossible.  Kudos to her and her manager.  I will be writing them a commendation letter.  I have been on the phone to Verizon customer service a few times with the last time my being told he had to hang up because they were having a fire drill!!!

…and just now…..I am so upset…..I lost all of the above….the system is not perfect and disconnects for no reason.   That is likely a problem of settings but I am technically challenged and have no idea where to start.  So for those who asked,  those were my problems but forwarned you should be fine.  If I had to do it all again I would bring my computer in with me and not leave the store until everything was functioning properly and registered.  Be sure to come prepared with a US address, you can give a restaurant address if you like but the problem is where will the rebate be mailed to??!!?

We had a great day just being still and enjoying.

It was a perfect day. It was about 90F in the shade but we had a slight warm breeze which felt cooling. The girls were in their element, Carmeh constantly on alert for critters while Caeli slept.

Wish us luck with the repairs and our final day in the US……..

Tags: critters, pets, relaxation

In the same 24 hour period we asked our generator to provide heat and then air conditioning.  Are we loco?  It was 98F in Lake Havasu yesterday.

We did get the RV tire checked for a second time at a Love’s Tire Centre.  The first fellow in Vegas said we needed a new valve core on an inner dual.  However another fellow near Lake Havasu City (LHC) said it was fine and his compressor was strong enough to fill the tire.  You can be sure we will be watching this tire for the next 48 hours – closely!

We did our final final purchases in LHC, got the eight 8lb bags of dog food and made a discovery.  Our dash A/C in the RV is not working, it blows air but not cool air.  Between LHC and Parker the temp inside was 90F and the girls ( me included ) were panting.  It was 4:30PM and we made a quick stop at Spanky’s RV for help.  He put us in touch with a place to get the A/C checked out…but not till Wednesday.  Meanwhile we turned on the generator, put on the roof air and drove that way.

No worries because we had planned to spend 2 nites here in the BLM lands @ Exit 112 just before Quartzsite. We arrived about 5:45 PM, just before sunset.

We only drove 209 miles but it seemed like a long day.  We do live in strange times, yesterday most of the stores I was in had the employees all  dressed up for Halloween but in one store they were playing Christmas music!!

Caeli spent most of the evening ( and half the night before coming to bed ) guarding what she considers to be her food. Carmeh was not allowed up on the dash and was growled at if she got too close.

Can you believe it? I was up and walking in the desert at 7:30AM! It was great and the girls are so happy.

The plan today is to do a bit of reorganizing in the RV and a whole lot of relaxing.  Nothing else to do but sit back and enjoy this wonderful life we have chosen to live.

You might say that we are Lucky Ducks!

Tags: Funny, pets, RV repairs, travel, Wine

We actually were driving at 7:25AM yesterday!  A miracle of sorts.  Had a great drive from Ely to Las Vegas.  It is truly amazing how one state can have such extremes of temperatures on the same day.

For those coming this way, Ash Springs is the lowest for diesel @ 3.94 with Las Vegas Love’s being 4.029 cash.  We had a lovely but seemingly endless 222 mile drive under blue skies.

Some interesting scenery along the way.

Ever changing rock formations.

From noon on we did a variety of  errands and then I ran out of energy.  Not use to walking around in 90F weather.  One thing we dealt with was the Verizon issue, another 90 minutes of time.  I will do a post with the details tomorrow.  We also did our mandatory shopping at Trader Joe’s.  Today we are already full up with a to do list.  I suspect we are going to have an RV tire issue which we hope to be able to get to Lake Havasu to deal with there.  We also are on the very final of purchases for the trip into Mexico.  Today we will get our 6 month supply of dog food, it’s prescription and they don’t have it in Mexico other than in Mexico City.  Final fruit, bread, etc. enough to keep us till we get to the Isla on the 5th of November.

As we passed the Speedway coming into Vegas we feared the worse when we saw the smoke but it was only drag racing.

We only drove 281 miles yesterday but with all the stops and go again it felt like 800 miles.  Vegas luck was with us as we almost had to unhook and back up twice but Colin managed to get us through both harrowing situations.  We spent a peaceful night in Camping World and watched the twinkling lights of Vegas in the distance.

Tags: RV repairs, travel

..not hot but warmer!  Although Nancy emailed that the temps in Mazatlan have finally started to cool down….to the 80’s as opposed to the the 90’s.

So we set the alarm for this morning but we still weren’t driving till 9:10AM.  Oh well…..we got off I84 and went along HWY 30 which is called “Thousand Springs Scenic Bypass”!!  Great choice.

Lots of great things to check out..in fact we both missed the turn off and had to do a U-turn right on the highway!

There are several waterfalls all along the highway, very spectacular!

Diesel prices are all over the place from 4.54/gal in Jackpot to 4.05/gal in Wells, Nevada where we had lunch.  It was a perfect day for driving, little wind, blue sky and puffy clouds and 65F!  We drove with the windows open.  Got to the Valley View RV Park in Ely, Nevada about 4:14 PM and within 30 minutes the park was full.  We haven’t been hooked up for over 5 days and decided to give all the systems a full check out.  That means slides out, full hook up, full pressure shower, etc.  By 6:00PM, we were all dumped and refilled.  Nice to have 50AMPS tonight with a forecast of 24F !

I am not a happy camper though, many Verizon problems because we are Canadians and now we need to go into a store somewhere in Las Vegas tomorrow!!!  Spent 35 minutes on the phone again….mucho dinero spent to save money to have wifi!!!  I finally gave up…..just for tonight though.  Also having some formatting problems with my blog!  Time for bed methinks.

Drove a mere 328.4 miles today.  Posted at 9:40PM Oct. 29th and the temp is 41F!

Goodnight from Ely, Nevada

Tags: computer stuff, stress, travel