Thrown for a loop.

It was time for a normal update about what we've doing, where we've been exploring and where we've been hiking, but we've been thrown for a loop.  A lot of our future plans have needed to be altered and we are still working through some of the details now.

First on the list, when we arrived in Colorado Springs, we ran over to pick up the new capacitors for our broken rear air conditioner hoping to fix the unit.  Up on the roof we went with good thoughts that the new parts would solve our problem.

Compartment open and ready to go

The new PTCR and start capacitor

New run and start capacitor installed

So with happy and hopeful thoughts we turned on the breaker and tried to start it up, and...........no good!  We need a new air conditioner.  So this is now Thursday afternoon before the 4th of July holiday at about 4pm MDT, so I go online, and start calling places to see if I can find one.  Jan and I together called about 10 places in Denver figuring we could just run up there and get one.  We learned several things, first of all no one, not even Amazon stocks them.  It seems there are just too many models to stock any, so they all just drop ship from Dometic.  The other thing we learned is these are shipped on a truck, so there isn't anything like expedited shipping unless you want to spend over $600, and even then it's iffy.  So we start thinking maybe we'll have to extend our stay in Colorado Springs, a place and campground that neither Jan and I are warming up to, in fact we aren't very happy with either.  So we keep brainstorming and finally find a company that says they can get it ordered and shipped Friday, and even with the holiday believes we can get it on Thursday or possibly Friday latest even with the holiday.  Hmmm.  So Jan and I decide to try to go back to Buena Vista, which we really did like.  We call and they can accommodate us for 6 nights, plenty of time to get it even if it goes into the next week (which we both think is a distinct possibility).  Then we have to cancel reservations in Grand Lake, and Yampa. So we are all set.

So without going into detail, I'll do that later on our exploits in the Colorado Springs area, we are, on the 4th, after a very pleasant hike driving back to the campground when Jan screams, and boom we hit a deer!  Good news, we are a bit in shock, but neither of us is hurt, and we pull off the side of the road.  This is a semi divided 4 lane road with fairly heavy traffic.  I never saw the deer but it hit us right at the left side of the driver's windshield.  A couple saw it happen and they pulled over to make sure we were all right.  They said the deer had veered through oncoming traffic, and crossed right into us.  As I sat there with glass pieces all over me, I was amazed the engine was still running.  We got out, the driver's door wouldn't open all the way, and found the deer had missed the entire front end, we were lucky with that, and bounced on down the driver's side of the truck.  The cops came and we found out we needed to file an accident report with the State of Colorado, which we could do online.  After assessing the damage and cleaning the glass out of my seat, we determined that drivability was not affected.  We looked bad, but it drove fine except for the windshield that obscured visibility, and we worked our way back to the campground to contact the insurance company and make our required accident report.

Our poor truck.  The insurance company took the claim and said with the holiday we would hear from an claim representative the next day.  

We have given quite a bit of thought to situations similar to this.  We bought an extended warranty that includes a loaner car even for routine service.  This is our only vehicle so the ramifications of being without it are great.  But thinking about it and having it happen are two different things.  Once we calmed down we were able to really look it over, clean out the glass, and saw that we were extremely lucky, other than the windshield, it was all just body damage, the driver's window, handle and lock all still worked, and other than only being able to get the driver's door open about a third of the way, we felt we could wait to have it repaired until later when we had the luxury of time.  But obviously the windshield needed attention asap.

So with much back and forth with the insurance company, we arranged to have the windshield replaced, a rental car to have during that time period, have an adjuster take a look at the damage, and put off repair until we were in Durango for 5 weeks in September.  We were able to arrange with the campground in Colorado Springs to move the coach off our site before check out time and park in in another spot while took care of all this stuff.  We picked up the rental, went to the body shop, about $5000 damage, then over to the glass place who said the first appointment was Saturday afternoon, so we planned to drive separately to Buena Vista, and then come back on Saturday to pick up our truck.  The adjuster was able with a body shop guy, to bend the sheet metal around the driver's door so we can now get it all the way open.  

So with all this done, we go back, grab the motorhome and Jan and I head to Buena Vista, all set, right?  Well about half way there, my phone rings and I am told Dometic shipped the WRONG air conditioner, and by the way, it won't get there until Monday, and please refuse it!!  Are you kidding me?

We get to our campground in Buena Vista, all hooked up and we try to figure out what to do about the AC.  We have already changed things around, so the first thing is to find out what they are going to do about it, and how soon can we get a correct one here, or should we have it sent somewhere else?  So as Jan and I are figuring things out and talking to the company that we ordered it from, my phone rings, what now?!?  Well, good news, it's the glass company and our truck is already done!  Wow, okay, so we arrange to pick it up today, and save 2 extra days of the rental, not that we're paying for it.  We are told that the AC can be here next Thursday, yeah we've heard that before, so we decide with everything considered it would be best to extend further here, if we can, so we have a known quantity for a place to change it out and know we are good going forward.  We are looking at our itinerary and reservations and figure the "easiest" way is to try to shift our reservation in Wyoming 3 days, cancel another 3 day res in Wyoming, and extend here through Friday to ensure we get the AC, famous last words.

It all has come together so far, we have a new windshield in our truck and it's here in Buena Vista with us, we have been able to extend here 3 days, although we will have to move sites on the last day.  We were able to slide our 4 nights in Alcova, WY 3 days, and cancelled our Thermopolis, WY res.  So all in all if we get the AC on time now, we have had to alter and cancel 5 different stops.  When you live on the road and are in the middle of the popular summer time, you have to be flexible enough to go with the flow.

It is a bit harder these days as we are finding more and more campgrounds are absolutely full and unable to offer reservations unless they are made well in advance.  I just read an interesting article about campgrounds and RV's in America and how crowded things are getting.  The gist of it was the industry is on track to sell 400,000 units in 2017.  There is talk of very limited campground vacancy in the future.  Mark Polk of RV Education 101 did the research to find there are approximately 8500 campgrounds in the US, and there are 9 million RV owning families in the US.  He argues that there are about 500,000 campsites available assuming about 60 sites per campground, so with 9 million RV's, that is the equivalent of 18 RV's for each site.  Very interesting.

I will do a regular update in a few days.  Thanks for the support.