Monday, December 30, 2013

Mesa, AZ - You Can't Make Up Things Like This

When you see pictures of happy RV’ers, they’re sitting by the side of a lake high in the mountains, sun shining, blue sky, snow-capped mountains ringing them and nary another soul to be found. Or, it’s a family walking a path through a wooded glen. Or, maybe a couple fishing in a stream catching their dinner. Ain’t this life great? No cares, no worries, no problems. Yep. Great lifestyle.

Well. as anyone who owns an RV can tell you - not always. This carefree lifestyle is not always so carefree. Now, don’t get me wrong - I love to RV and Gary and I happy to be in our RV, traveling the US. HOWEVER - we’ll be the first to tell you that it is not always a carefree lifestyle. If you’ve read our blog for any length of time, you know about all our problems with our Safari Simba last fall and why we now have a Winnebago Journey. Or, maybe, if you have just started reading our blog, you know about our 8 days in the Freightliner parking lot in Grand Junction in September of this year.

Just like any house, an RV needs maintenance, repairs and, maybe, some renovations. Our prior experiences in the Service centers were for maintenance and repairs. This fall we spent some time at RV Renovators in Mesa when we decided to replace our carpet with something easy to clean. We got our RV back from RV Renovators and were so taken with the wood floor that we realized that we should have done one last little bit. Thinking that it was hidden and no one but we would see it, we left the carpet on the slide in the bedroom. Big Mistake. Boy, did we notice it every day and regret not getting that done when we had the rest of the floor done.

Easy to correct, just take it in and get that section done. It’s so small that it shouldn’t cost so much. And, we had an appointment for Monday. We pulled the utilities Sunday night and got the RV ready to go so we could get to RV Renovators by 8:00 in the morning. We left it there and took off for Paradise Bakery for coffee and some bagels and then to the library in Gilbert, a few miles away. We can always find things to do in a library, mostly because we take our computers. Jim at RV Renovators told us to call about 3:30 to see how things were coming. We did, he said he said to come about 4:30. End of the day, oh, shucks. I can occupy myself for a few hours in the library but 6 hours - ‘oof da’ as they say in Fargo.

We got to RV Renovators at 4:30, checked the work over, paid and drove off. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Well, as everyone who has an RV knows, nothing is simple when getting anything done. There’s always a catch. And we found ours when we got back to the resort, parked in our spot and opened our slides.

Here’s a picture of the slide with the new wood on it to match the floor.
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Looks great, right? Hey, what is that white strip between the floor and the slide? Is that the unfinished floor of the RV? Isn’t that plywood? Yep, someone at RV Renovators had not gotten the slide all the way out and had not noticed that the new wood and trim on the slide didn’t come all the way to the new wood floor. When we opened the slide ALL the way out, we noticed this. Oh, shucks. Looks like we need to take it back in - tomorrow - first thing.

We had not hooked up anything but the electricity (since we leave for Quartzsite on Wednesday) so it was easy to get ready to move. We got back to RV Renovators by 8:10 and showed them the cute little white strip of plywood. Oops. They will fix it and have it ready by 4:00. Oh, shucks. Another day making things up to do. Well, we started with breakfast out at the Good Egg which is a good choice for breakfast in Mesa then on to bigger and better things: errands. Our last errand was at Costco where we ate our way though the food section. (Who in their right mind would go to Costco on New Year’s Eve? Probably those same fools who went to Costco on Christmas Eve.) Then back to RV Renovators where we put our groceries in the refrigerator and took off for - not the library this time. We went back to the resort and sat in one of the clubhouses in the resort.

At 4:00 we picked up the RV, checked it over - opened the slide ourselves - all the way, went in to say ‘good-bye’ and ‘Happy New Year’ and we were off. We again (this is the 5th time we’ve had to park in our spot at the resort) backed in and parked. Gary hooked up the electricity while I cleaned inside. Then we went around to say good-bye to our neighbors. From October to 2 weeks ago, we had spaces on each side of us. Then two RV’s moved in and now we have neighbors. Nice neighbors, Neighbors, that if we were staying, we’d probably spend time with. I love RV’ing but, just as we’re meeting some nice people, we leave, or they leave. RV’ers never stay around too long. But, maybe we’ll see them down the line somewhere. Last year at this resort, we had neighbors who stopped in to see us in May in Iowa. We plan to stop in to see them in Washington this summer. And, that’s how it goes, we move around and maybe see each other again, somewhere down the line.

Today is Gary’s 67th birthday. Did he have a great birthday or what? Tomorrow is our 41st anniversary and we’re on the road to Quartzsite. Is that a great anniversary or what?

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