 |
| Travel route to date |
Having tried to make a reservation for our yearly RV
chassis maintenance the minute we knew our schedule back in February, we were told
they were booking well into May.
Darn! One possibility was to just
show up and they would fit us in within a few days - an option we decided to
do. We always try to keep our motorhomes
in top shape, particularly on such a long trip traversing the country’s largest
mountains. With reservations made for each night, a break-down would sure mess
things up, to say the least.
 |
|
It is so fabulous that the
service center gives you a place to "camp" ( as long as there is
availability ) with electric power. There is water available to add
to your tank, and a dump station! No hotels! Yeah!
|
The weather forecast was predicting a horrendous
rainstorm that was to last a couple of days in our direction of travel, so we
wasted no time packing up the rest of our site and headed out, down the
pastoral country roads. We discovered our water tank somehow inadvertently got
filled while at the campground, so we found a huge paved parking lot to dump
the 75 gallons of excess water ( weighing about 600 pounds ) before we headed
out. With barely any traffic on this
Sunday morning, this drive lasted about 4 hours, stopping for gas along the
way. The rain had started, but was not too heavy at that point.
With a minimum of fuss, we took one of the few open
spots in the service center’s “campground” to wait out both the storm and an
available spot in their schedule. It was
a good thing we got there when we did, because the lot quickly filled up.
We had more water issues when we discovered the water
filter had leaked out the rest of our water tank, and without the proper tool
to re-tighten it we were out of luck for the night. Or should I say, out of water? With some improvising, and a few bottles of
water we had dinner and a pleasant evening listening to the rain pound on the
roof.
Come morning we went to the office and were told that
we would not be seen that day so when the skies appeared to be clearing, we
headed off to do our errands in Greenville.
What a mistake! The rain came down
in torrents, and there were accidents all over the highway. I can’t believe that people travel well over
the speed limit when there are huge puddles on the highway! I was so scared! We made it, but I insisted that we take the
much longer, back roads home.
Tuesday, April 25th
 |
| Not nearly as much rust as I expected for a 2011 model |
About 20 minutes after being told they could service
our motorhome sometime after lunch, we were informed they could take us in 15
minutes! Yikes! We flew around packing up, pulling in the
slides, and removing the bike hitch off the back.
We hung around their comfortable waiting area
with several others feeling a kind of “kinship”. I felt it was similar to going to the
dentist. You go in thinking all you need
is a cleaning, and deep inside you are hoping that upon examination those old
fillings aren’t starting to fail, requiring a root canal and cap.
 |
|
Our "baby" up on the
lift. If only she could fly.......
|
Customers would be called into the office if
they encountered a problem, as we hoped for that person it wasn’t really bad
news. Some bills were in the hundreds (
like ours ) others as high as $10,000.
By the end of the day they were finished, so we stayed
one more night as previously planned, then left in the morning to head to
another Army Corp of Engineering Campground north of Atlanta.
