But after a pit stop at Taco Bell, the power refused to come back on. Mark pulled over on the side of the highway and called Rick from Mastertech (the place in Oceanside). They chatted for awhile and, after agreeing that it probably wasn't safe to drive, Mark called AAA to get the name of a RV mechanic near by. Many phone calls after that, we found a place in Surprise! AZ, right outside of Phoenix, that could work on our home. But it was a 45 mile drive to get there. Mark drove 35 mph while people passed him honking. It sucked.
We finally go there in one piece and, again, packed up all of our necessities (including the contents of the refrigerator) and left the Bounder in the hands of the professionals while we headed to a Ramada in Peoria, AZ.
It turns out that our hotel was just minutes away from Jason's house! We called him and he came over to visit. We caught up, gossiped, drank beer, and ate pizza.
And Judah and Sawyer co-opted him into some leg rides.
After awhile I kicked Jason out because the kids needed to calm down and go to sleep. I set up a table with some pillows on it in between the two beds so Judah and Sawyer wouldn't fall on their faces when they rolled off the bed. Within minutes of Sawyer falling asleep it proved to be pretty useful. And it was fun to sit on.
It was pretty luxurious having two queen sized beds between the six of us. We all sprawled out and went to sleep.
The next morning, we gorged ourselves on waffles and yogurt at the hotel's continental breakfast.
Then we headed back up to the room to lay around and relax. Sawyer had had the sniffles for a few days, and Judah woke up that morning saying "Is this what it feels like to be sick?" Apparently it was. We snuggled away the sniffles for as long as it is possible for a three year old to snuggle anything, and the moved on to snotty hotel room chaos.
We had emptied our fridge and had it stuffed in the hotel room fridge, so I wanted to try to use up some food. Plus, we were going broke with all of the hotel rooms and dinners out. But we didn't have any plates or silverware, so when I heated up the leftovers I told the kids to just use their fingers and eat like chupacabras.
As always, they were total maniacs. I tried to hide away in a corner for a moment of peace, but it backfired.
On Thursday night, I needed some fresh produce, so went to a soup and salad place for dinner. It was perfect.
On Friday, the RV was supposed to be ready to go by noon. We checked out of our hotel room at 11:00 and headed to the dealership. Judah hung out in the thrilling kids play room while I checked on the status of the Bounder. It turns out the guy in charge was at lunch, so we went to drive around for awhile and wait for him to call.
After a while, we stopped for lunch and hung out in a parking lot while we waited for our update.
Finally he called...with bad news. The new power steering pump that they had put in was faulty and they would need to keep the RV, get another pump, and install that one. Needless to say, the Bounder would not be ready that day. We headed back to the parking lot, which happened to have wi-fi, and I worked on getting us a hotel room for another night. It was Friday by this time, so the rates were a lot more expensive, but the Ramada still seemed to be the cheapest, so he headed back there for another night.
On the way to the Ramada, we got another call from the mechanic. It turns out that the pump they had just installed--the faulty pump--was the last one in the valley. They would have to ship the new pump in from another state. That being the case, the RV wouldn't be finished for another week. I started crying and told him we would call him back when we got to the hotel. I cried while Judah and his firetruck slept the rest of the way there.
When Mark called back, he asked if there was a way we could just get the part over-nighted. Jason (our dealer guy) said that we could actually get an aftermarket pump for only $130 more than our original estimate. Obviously, this was a lot cheaper than a weeks worth of hotels, so we said absolutely, do it! After that decision, the deadline moved up to Monday--yay! And I did some more research, found the cheapest hotel in Phoenix, and booked us a room through Monday.
That night, Jason (our friend) came to visit again. We drank some more beer and the kids got some more leg rides. Jason was becoming pretty popular.
When they started to get too crazy, we threw them in the bath and got them in jammies. Then we watched Christmas movies and enjoyed our clean queen sized beds for one more night.
oh urgh...that sounds like a lot of emotions. Glad that it worked out smoother than the first phone call of a weeks delay! hugs to you and I hope the rest of your trip back to Wisconsin is smooth sailing :)
ReplyDelete