I jolted out of a nice sleep around 4 a.m. It wasn’t the hour I chose but it was the time I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I did the coffee thang. Then put the motostat into ‘stow’ mode, and started locking down the slides and then out the door to unhook the electrical – BTW, you should haul that 25 foot cord around for an hour or so, talk about heavy! Unhook water lines, sewer line, and start jacking up to hitch up. I was on the road by 6:30. The traffic on the freeways here is unbelievable even at that time of day.

I made Wheeler RV by 7:30 – exactly my appointment time. Another couple andI stood outside service for 10 minutes and I finally called the office to see what the problem was. The service crew waltzed out the service door, late, but why would I expect it to be any other way? Jaded? Filled with disbelief? Abso-fucking-lutely! Don was the guy I was going to be working with today. Personnel changes there have been incredible in the last six months. It’s almost like standing at McCarran Airport and watching the tourists come in. But back to Don, I explained – I should have just recorded this explanation eight months ago – my plight with the jacks. I also told him about the fitting that was cracked on the kitchen faucet and had been ordered and was in – according to Tommy Lee, who’s no longer at Wheeler. And that I could smell propane when I was outside and I thought there was a leak. And that I couldn’t get the basket/bottom off of the water filter that’s locked inside a compartment on the coach, and all the water coming in runs through the filter. I wanted to replace the filter and the bottom ofthe unit refused to budge. Since all the fittings in these RVs are a plastic type of hose, I didn’t want to break them while taking the bottom off the filter with a freaking sledge hammer.

Don went over everything with me. And then informed me that the servicecrew would charge me $150 to open the compartment on the water filter…labor is $110 an hour. NO WAY! I can get a bit testy now and then and it shows in the edge in my voice more so than my actions. Yup! I was there! I informed him that I would not be paying anything for them to loosen thebottom of the filter. That it came from the factory like that and I would be happy to replacethe filter myself, it they didn’t use a torque wrench to put it on with.Humph!

I signed on the …….. line. And off I went. Homeless for the day, oh drear. I hit Hyman Place and logged onto the internet, my son has a router and I took my laptop. I spent about three hours there, even had a few moments with the sweet boy Riot, and got a “Love you,” and a hug as he left with his mom. BTW, not sure I’ve stated this but my son and his girl are Kaput! Sometimes it’s just better that way.

I called ccexplore about noon to see if he was alive and well rested and wanted to have lunch. Voice mail. I called Carole and she was busy painting. Kee-rist! What’s a homeless person to do? Off I went into the heat of the day, paid the gas bill at Hyman, and went shopping at Wal-Mart for things I wanted to take on the trip north. While at Wal-Mart, I got a call from Wheeler. The fitting on the sink was nowhere. Ok…I expected it. Would I mind if they put a chrome faucet set on instead. Chrome is ugly in the scheme of my coach decor but at this point, there’s no way I’m making another day trip out there a month from now just to get that damn fitting put on when/if it ever comes in. I said yes.

About 3 p.m.ish, I headed back out to Wheeler. The manager was still out of town. I asked to speak with Donna, the manager’s secretary. Nice woman. And she’s the only one that works there that ever called me back when she said she would. We visited for about half an hour as I watched the coach being pulled up to the side door and waited for Don to come in with the invoice. I told Donna I wasn’t paying for the damn water filter. Amazing as it may seem, they didn’t charge me anything, and they changed the filter, and checked out the propane and there was a leak in the fitting which they fixed, and I now have an ugly but very functional chrome faucet in the kitchen, and jacks that are as big as 4×4’s. Woo-hoo!

We shook hands, I told them goodbye, and no one…I mean no one as in service people even came out to see if I had a problem working with the new jacks or hitching up. I was on my own. But I’ve been there for years so it wasn’t a big deal but it would have been a nice touch if someone had extended that teensy bit of customer service. They were probably so damn glad to get shut of me that they went in the back and tossed shots for the rest of the day. I feel the same way about them, I just can’t stand shots.

I made it to the RV park in the afternoon traffic, unhitched, sort of leveled up, powered up and cranked on the air…I’m dying of heat stroke when I have to spend an hour and a half out doing physical labor in the desert.

I’m heading out of here in the early a.m. My first road trip is finally on. Lock and load baby!