Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The RV gods are still here

Yesterday was one of those roller coaster days that generally ended on a positive note.   For starters, we worked in the coffee tent serving coffee to rally goers, starting at 8 AM.  (I was smart enough to tell Sandy last week to not sign us up for the early shift at 7 AM.)  All went well until Sandy came to my station and said that she would replace me and that I had to get a new multi-outlet cord for the computer room, since the one servicing the projector and presenter's computer was intermittent.    So I left in a hurry and left my chocolate drink. It was gone when I returned, disposed of as "useless stuff of unknown origin".

After finishing the coffee detail later, I decided to talk to the Shurflo water pump representative about my multiple failures.  He had a real line up of unhappy folks and after a while, I decided that I needed to get my pump.   After all, describing the problem was one thing, but he had a test bench to give it a water test and see for himself.   So I returned to my motorhome, dug out my boxed old water pump and returned to the service line, about 4 unhappy folks further back.

The line seemed to move exceedingly slow, as the service fellow was "as busy as a one armed paper hanger" as we used to say years ago.  Then suddenly I was at the head of the line. He took my pump, asked for a description of the problem and hooked it up to run it dry.  It wouldn't even start!  (Same fault I had described.) Without even connecting it to the water lines, he reached into a box and handed me new pump.  That is a $200 item at most RV stores.  Needless to say, I thanked him much and left before he might change his mind.  I felt like the RV gods had really smiled on me.

We returned to the motorhome to drop the pump off and decided to skip the early morning seminars and visit the service center about a paint problem on our rig.  (At the very top where the roof meets the side, the paint is pealing off of the rounded part.   We talked to the service center folks and obtained directions where I  needed to go.  (Winnebago does not paint their own coaches but farms it out to an independent company located next door.)

We drove to IDP and found the manager I was to see. Obviously, I wasn't the first complainer and he said they could do it on Saturday and it would cost $350.  (I had been told by fellow rally goers that he had gotten his painted about a month ago for free on a coach the same age as ours.)  We told him that we'd discuss it with Sandy and see him later.  (I decided that it wasn't worth $350 to  me to have it repainted. in an area that you can hardly see unless you get on the roof.)

Back at the rally, we attended a seminar on RV refrigerators and generally I tried to keep cool.  The RV gods have definitely  smiled on the rally and it is stifling hot (as it is throughout the entire northeast.).  I'm very surprised that we don't have more folks dropping over from heat .

Tonight's entertainment was an "Elvis impersonator" and as much as I couldn't stand Elivis when he was alive, I decided to attend.  No I didn't last the whole session.  When he took his mid session break, I beat it.  No, I couldn't understand a thing he says  when he sings!

 So it was back to the motorhome to see how Sandy was doing.  She really over did herself in the afternoon and was still dragging, but doing pretty well in the cool of the air conditioning.  (She had presented a 2 hour seminar on Windows 7 in the afternoon and the room was HOT.)   We're lucky that she didn't fall over mid session.

Today is a free day for us.  We help at the coffee tent from 7 to 8 and then we have no scheduled sessions for the day.   We can make our decisions later.

One more day of stifling heat!

Gene

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