Saturday, August 20, 2016

The good, the bads, and the ugly

First we had a very nice surprise.  We left our campground in Troutdale early as I explained because our appointment to have our TV cabinet worked on was moved up.  Now Jan and I have been doing this RV thing since 1995, and due to numerous different situations have had to leave a campground early, NEVER have we EVER gotten a refund, it simply isn't done, nor would we even ask for it.  So as we informed Sandy River Front RV Park that we were leaving early, they asked if there was a problem, we said no we just had a service appointment get moved up and we had to go.  We weren't down the road 2 miles when Jan's phone rang, it was the campground calling to say she had refunded our money for our early departure!!!  Kudos to them, we were so amazed and appreciative.

More good, we pulled into Amazing Creations and were met almost immediately by Scott and Bobbie who jumped right in, found out what we wanted, gave us some alternatives, measured, yanked out our TV, and said they'd be ready when we got back after our other service appointment at Elite with our new swinging cabinet front/TV mount and it should only take about 30 minutes to install!  Should save us a day or two in the scheme of things.

On to the bad, two things.  First, just reality, we have a combination microwave convection oven in our coach.  It is our only oven, and we use it almost every day, and have used it almost everyday for 7 years.  Lately it just won't heat up on convection.  It takes an hour or so just to get to 325!  It is obviously tired and GE agrees, so we are going to replace it, probably today.  

Second, our pristine windshield that we had replaced in Florida in February caught a rock chip with a big bang just 10 miles from Amazing Creations!  A stinking dump truck on the interstate tossing rocks and even though we were way, way, way behind him, bammmm.  

We called the insurance, lined up an appointment with a glass repair, found out we couldn't get a mobile until later in the week and hope to be long gone.  Called and were assured that we could get the motorhome into their shop, looked at Google Earth and it looked good, so after we killed a bit of time before our appointment, Jan took off in the truck and I followed in the coach.  She got there and saw there was quite an incline getting in their driveway and was not confident.  I got there and, of course, it is a left turn across traffic to get in, and man it looks pretty steep, but I think if I raise the coach and stay at a angle it will work.  CRUNCH!  Damn!  I stop, Jan is checking to see what's going on, traffic is backing up as I'm only half in and blocking the road, Jan says back up.  Not good, reverse, CRUNCH, CRUNCH, and back out into the traffic which is now backed up pretty good, no one yelling though:)  I pull out, go around the block, wondering what I have ruined, is it driving weird, dreading the damage I'm going to see when I can finally find a place to park.  I maneuver through a industrial area and manage to come back out and find a shady spot fairly near the glass place and park.  Jan and the glass guy meet me, I go back to see the damage, and find out, thankfully it doesn't look too bad.  The receiver hitch took the brunt of it, but the backing out pretty much mangled the steel assembly that holds the socket where the light cord to the truck plugs in.  I haven't found out yet if it still works, tomorrow.  The ugly....

So then, just to convince us Murphy is alive and well, the glass guy says the windshield is too hot to repair.  But if we sit in the shade for awhile, run the AC aggressively inside it should cool enough to do it.  I should mention that Eugene is under an unusual heat advisory and it is 107 outside!  So we wait an hour and a half while the window cools, and they finally repair it, and off we go to our campground for a few days.

All in all in the big scheme of things it's not a disaster, it's all going to be taken care of, in fact with the heat wave Jan and I might as well be working inside in the AC replacing our microwave, no one got hurt, the motorhome is dinged but not bad, we probably saved a day or so, and soon next week we will be heading out of Oregon eastward, and it won't come soon enough as neither of us is very thrilled with Oregon, but that's another story:)

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