Saturday, July 14, 2007

Roadworthy: Halleluja!

I am delighted to announce the RV is finally roadworthy. She starts, she stops and all systems work. Tonight, I picked out road music for the trip. Tomorrow I will drive her around the neighborhood, check out the newly-tuned engine and get a feel for the new brakes. By the way, there were spiders living inside the brake drums, indicating no one had worked on the brakes in quite a while. With the remains of mice and wasps inside the RV too, I wonder where it was parked? It's a mystery.

On Monday afternoon, I will leave for the Good Sam Rally in Redmond, Oregon with my friend and co-author, Andrea. The trip should take ten hours but I plan to break that up with a long rest stop after dark. We need to arrive between 7 and noon on Tuesday. Time to have some fun! If you're in the area, drop by the Pine Country Publishing/RV Authors Co-op booth and say hello. Alice Zyetz is coordinating the booth and we're both teaching seminars.

Follow-up: Midas was notified about what happened to Rick the mechanic, my shock at his termination, and the resulting loss of business from the publication of the narrative, especially among RVers who may need mufflers, tailpipes, brakes, etc. Before I received a response, I was mailed a thank-you note and a coupon for a free oil change. Back to the keyboard.

More good news: after hearing about the previous problems with the RV I purchased from the "master mechanic," I am happy to say that all subsequent mechanics who worked on her have treated her and me very well. From Rick and his son Rick at the Midas shop to the man at the Shell station who did the tune-up to Bill and his crew at the brake shop, they were determined to prove that not all mechanics cheat their customers, especially females. Bill and the members of his crew at Seaview Tire & Brake in Pacifica, CA went the extra mile to be sure I was safe when driving the RV. The man who worked on the RV drove it on the freeway and off before calling me to pick it up. (Actually, he really enjoyed driving it with the power of the Chevy 454 since he said that engine isn't used in cars any more). They all treated me like an extended member of the family. Bill kept the costs within my budget and did much more work than he was paid for. When I return next week, he asked me to stop at the shop while they examine how the brakes performed.

It was an expensive lesson. No doubt some of the problems were the fault of the seller. Some were my fault. Some were the result of age or inactivity. This RV will not stay parked for months at a time. It's meant to move and it will.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Adrianne,
    I didn't know where to go to ask this question, and hope to get a answer. I have a large dog (mastiff/yellow Lab) who loves to travel. My problem is what do you do with the dog when you want to go see sites and have to leave the dog behind? I don't want to have to run the generator, as it might be too noisey or not possible. I guess it probably is best to leave the dog home. But, like I said she loves to travel and is good protection.
    Thanks, for your input.
    Dixie

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  2. Hi Dixie--

    You might want to post your question to the RVing with Dogs website.

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