Saturday, November 7, 2020

Not a happy camper

 Well I'll start out with some pretty pictures from Quartzsite last night. The clouds cleared just in time for a pretty sunset. So we will enjoy these for a few minutes. 

Looking towards the east, just as pretty this way 
And the very red finish. 
Last night after parking we discovered we had no 12 volt power. No lights inside. What works off the plug in power was working fine - everything else not at all. So we sat around in the dark all night. Glad my new nook with a back light was working good. I read until time to go to bed. The brand new batteries were not holding a charge. Lovely. Still trying to figure out some things with the laptop,  but hard to do anything with no light.
Weather when we started out this morning was cool but nice. Getting gas at the Pilot before getting on the freeway. This should not be allowed to happen. 
And the day started out fine. Clear and cool. Always pretty area to drive through. Like the mountains and the cactus. 
Oh, oh - dark clouds in the sky and the wind was picking up some by 9:30.  We were still on the 10 heading towards the Gila Bend connecting road to the Phoenix bypass. 
By the time we were on the 8 the wind was blowing hard enough to push us into another lane - several times! Then the dust picked up. This truck was only a few yards in front of us. 
In a couple of places it was worse than this. Just hoped no one wrecked in front of us. 

Then the sky cleared up but the wind did not stop or let up at all. 
286 rough miles.  Got parked, while driving to the RV park I called two mobile RV service places. Neither of them called me back. Of course it is a Saturday. So back to the phone searching Tucson for another mobile service. They answered the phone! Alarie Mobile RV Service in Tucson. Owner David Alarie. Remember this name if you ever need service in the Tucson area. He said he would try and rearrange his schedule  and would call us back in a half hour. Just after we talked to him it started to pour rain, rained hard off and on for a couple of hours. We haven't seen any substantial rain for over 200 days - and today it decided to pour here in Amado. He did call back and came out within the hour.  Was here a little over an hour and a half and fixed the problem. Working outside with the batteries in the rain. Would you believe the mechanics who changed the batteries put the negative cable on a positive post. He said we were luck nothing melted or burned. Just a minute or two after he left we discovered the generator didn't start. So called him. He turned around and came right back. He knows what the problem is and will be back mid week to fix it. Our Knight in Shinning Armor.
Earlier in the day while driving we noticed our navigation system/back up camera wasn't on - oops forgot about turning it on. We only use it as a camera, Bill likes to keep track of the Jeep when we are traveling. Tried to turn it on - no way was it going to work.  Dirty Words!  But when David fixed the battery cables the system came on. Okay, sorry I called it names, wasn't its fault. 

It is now only 6 p.m. and both Bill and I are having trouble keeping our eyes open.  

I got my phone off safe mode and it seems to be working fine again. But might stop at the Verizon place in Green Valley before we head out again. Just so they can show me what I did or didn't do to it. 

Tomorrow is another day...Just going to post this, forgive any weird sentences or misspellings. 

3 comments:

Grandma on the Road said...

You did not miss much in the Las Vegas area. Yesterday, I went for a walk to see petroglyphs and just as I got back, the wind blew like crazy, kicking up a big dust storm. I had to put water in my RV and by the time I got inside, I had to wipe my arms and legs down to get the dust off--pink dust, of course. Blew and rocked and rolled RV all night and today. Some rain, but not as much as they need here. And got very cold--high about 58 today.

Hope you get everything fixed before you head south of the border!

Kathy Tycho said...

Well that was just a shitty day!!! Glad you are both okay and you've found a guy who knows what he's doing. Our RV issues and last year our truck have always been huge. Still loved though! Relax you'll get here.

Carol and Bill said...

Still cold and windy here. Hopefully when the mechanic comes back we will have discovered every thing that isn't working and he will be able to fix it all. And by then the weather should be better to.
Glad you guys made it to Mazatlan. Just makes me want to get there sooner.