It rained hard all night and into the early afternoon before easing off. I decided, “to hell with it”, and rolled over and went back to sleep getting up at 11:00 am. It was easy to do that with the sound of the rain on the roof. After viewing the awning damage, all I wanted to do was to bury my head in the sand and the pillow was the next best thing. I crawled out and we went out for a quick walk before returning for breakfast.
I started researching trying to find someone to repair or replace the awning on the RV and after several different phone calls managed to find Scotty’s RV located in Rogers. I called them and a mechanic came out to look exclaiming, “That I have never seen one damaged like this before”. Of course, he hasn’t. Mine had to be one of a kind. He took measurements and left saying they would be in touch.
My next move was to call the front RV office to explain that I did not think I would be able to move out on the arranged date because of the problem and I was not expecting it to be repaired immediately.They very graciously said they would work with me. That is a relief as now the deadline is not as important. Then, I called the next campsite, Southgate RV Park in Fayetteville and explained the situation with them. Again, they were very helpful, and our reservation has been pushed back to whenever we can move.
I received a call from Scotty’s RV to say they had a used unit in stock. If we agreed on the price, they would send the mechanic back to install it which of course, I quickly said yes and about 30 minutes later, three of them showed up and started work. They took about an hour while I sat inside and listened to the noise of the drill as they worked away. Eventually, they had it repaired by replacing the bent arm with a good used one they had in stock. I got a break on the price accordingly but what the heck, new, used who cares as long as it functions properly. It is a used RV after all! Just as they finished, it came on to rain but this time, the awning was in with no fear of any damage to it.
I was impressed with their service and called Scotty’s RV back to see if they had a Blue Ox tow bar to replace the one that I damaged. They did not have one in stock, and I got them to order one which should be here next week. On top of that, they will drop it off for me. Cannot ask for better service than that.
I received text messages from where the Jeep is located, and they informed me that they are working on diagnosing the problems but think that both batteries will need to be replaced which, incidentally, are $400.00 apiece which includes the installation. I told them to go ahead with the repair and asked them to check out the suspension at the same time. Things are finally coming together. Meanwhile, I had to call both the campsite we are staying at and the new one we are moving to and go back to our original arrangement meaning that we will leave here on the 8th of this month. That is, unless something else comes up.
It came on to rain and I mean rain. It just fell out of the sky in torrents accompanied by loud thunder. No wonder everything is so green here. We just snuggled up inside Quatro feeling much better about the world.
Oh yes, the awning was cranked in when it rained. Not making that mistake again. I always pulled it in when there was any sign of strong wind but I did not think about heavy rain which built up and the additional weight is what caused the awning to collapse.
Written 09/03/2022. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com
Monte Ne RV Park, Rogers AR, Day 10 Saturday 09/03/2022
Back when I was a working man, many years ago, I always looked forward to Saturdays as it was a day off from the tedium of the 9-5 jobs that I had. Well, more like 7:30 am to 4:30 PM but you know what I mean. Nowadays, Saturday is the 7th day of the week and no different for us than all the other days in the week, month and year. The only time we are governed by the date or time is on moving day and the very occasional doctors’ appointments which only happen when we are back in Texas. This Saturday is not going to be any different than the rest of the week. Well, maybe that is not entirely true as yesterday we had the awning repaired and hopefully will never have to do that again. I do miss not having the Jeep as I am tied to walking this park. I am also trying hard to stretch my remaining food supply and such until we get the Jeep back, whenever that may be. At least, it may give me a chance to clean out the freezer by eating the food in there. Same is true of the multitude of canned foods. I will not starve but will be drinking my coffee black. I may even have to eat the couple of cans of sardines…
We walked around the park not seeing a single soul and managed to cover a half mile before returning for breakfast followed by the usual trashing emails and writing in the blog. Compared to yesterday, today will be very quiet, I hope…
Following breakfast, I sat and answered a couple of emails before turning my attention to the blog which usually takes a couple of hours a day. A lot depends on if I am caught up or writing out of memory which is not so good anymore and I really have to think about what happened if it is more than a couple of days ago. No such thing as instant recall unless it happened twenty-five years ago and then there are no memory problems. Well, OK, maybe still some…
I watched as a couple pulled into the tent sites across the street and quickly and expertly, set up their large tent. They had obviously done this before and had a system worked out both doing their assigned things but working as a team. Quite a difference between their form of camping and ours. Even so, we probably both have a bond with the same love of the outdoor lifestyle. Mine just has a lot more creature comforts and air conditioning. Then again, my old bones would not do well sleeping on the ground.
I busied myself with things I was looking up on the computer and spent quite a considerable amount of time on that research before the dogs reminded me that it was time to go out for the evening walk. We wandered around the park as we usually do and even though there is no great distance, it is quite a workout going up the several hills that lead from the bottom road to the top one. These hills are short and pretty steep, and we have usually raised our air intake by quite a bit by going up them. Coming down is much easier of course except the blacktop is covered in rain washout which includes of lots of small rocks and stones that tend to skid out from underfoot. I am especially careful going down as I do not need to go ass over tip and hurt myself. The dogs have no problem in either direction but then again,they have four legs and a tail and are much lower to the ground.
Back at Quatro, we sat outside with a seltzer and listened to Audiobooks for a while before adjourning back inside for the usual evenings repast.
Written 09/03/2022. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com
Great that you are getting things fixed! And so nice that the campsite folks were gracious and understanding. There are still a lot of good people in the world. 🙂
Yes there are always people ready to help. thank goodness. Sometimes though, you have to think real hard before offering the help for fear of insulting the other camper.
I got the chronological order of the awning catastrophe confused and thought, because I had already talked to you about it, that this was a second time it had broken. Thank goodness! having that repaired once is enough. If you were in Texas, you could call H-E-B and have a delivery of food. I wonder if you’re close enough to a town that the grocery would do that. The thought of having black coffee in the morning is more than I could bear.
Drinking black coffee is a small price to put up with. It did give me a chance to clean out my freezer and use up food that I would have preferred not to eat.