Well, instead of hiking in Banff for my birthday yesterday, we spent it in the HOT parking lot of our wonderful mechanic, Brad. He is Pine Plaza RV Center. He has been a God send. We will love him even more when we get to wave goodbye. It seems that THOR RV parts are made by a variety of manufactures that are then assembled at the THOR plant and each unit is custom built. This makes in neigh unto impossible to get replacement parts off the shelf. We spent the better part of yesterday afternoon calling and emailing customer service and tech reps at THOR to get the information we needed to tell the manufacturer of the parts we need to fix the slide. We did muddy the waters by asking to retrofit our 2014 2 rail slide system with the sturdier 2016 3 rail slide system. It is just adding a third rail in the middle of the wall, no big deal. Right? Wrong! They need the distance we want to put the slide from the bottom rail before they can assign a part number which is required before they can process the order and start making the parts. I would understand if we currently had a third rail and existing backing, but we do not and they know that because they told we would have to add it. We told them 36.5 inches. The middle of the wall. We did not hear back from them before they closed at 4:00pm today so I will call in the morning as will Brad. He believes in double teaming them. Fingers crossed and good mojo are appreciated.
After that afternoon, yesterday, I made Bob take me out to dinner. I had no enthusiasm to cook and clean up. I needed a little something for my birthday. For those of you who wished me a happy birthday, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Those little bits of love got me through the day. It is weird to say, but Facebook was a sanity saver. We ate at Mable Murphy’s. It is a home style restaurant with grilled, fried or broiled anything. I had broiled Walleye. It was delicious!
I had been pondering how I would post about our situation. I could not think of anything to say that was not pitiful and discouraging which was exactly how I felt. All I could think about was being stranded. I just to wanted go home then remembered that the RV is my home. Carley and Jimmy are moving into the farm. Holy crap! So instead of ranting and raving and feeling sorry for myself I walked down to the lake at our new campsite, sat on the dock and watched the world be. The water was calm and the sunset reflected off the surface. I watched at least a dozen turtles dotted around the dock come up for air making delicate ripples on the surface sending the sunlight out in circles and the circles would intersect reminding me we are all connected. We merge and disperse, merge and disperse. Life.
I had been laying down on the dock checking out the fish when I heard the voices of 2 young girls, their mother and her mother at the end of the dock. The 2 girls wanted to walk down but the adults did not want to disturb me. I motioned for them to come. They did and we had a lovely chat about the lake, family, travel and dreams. We were joined by their father and grandfather. Grandma & Grandpa own a cottage at the campsite/resort and have been coming here for 30 years. Independence day is their favorite holiday on the lake. There are fireworks all around the shore and the reflections double the fun. I told them about the summer I got to go to Dobsis and watch the meteor showers reflected in the lake. They recommended going to Glendalough State Park to rent canoes and tour the lake. I had hoped to go today, but it rained all day. It is a good thing, the area needs the rain, the RV parts people needed prodding and work kept me on my toes too. I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me this flexibility and even more fortunate to have an employer who does too. Mark Wetherell, you are the bomb.
I walked back to my traveling home feeling more peaceful and ready for a good nights sleep.
Today hasn’t been nearly so eventful. Rain, soft, sometimes thundering, chiming email notifications, hoping this is the one that says the parts are ordered and under production. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow.
Good night my loving family. Cora