October 18, 2013

10/02/2013

Good morning all!

On Monday we moved down to Eugene and spent one night at the Armitage Campground so we could be closer to the shop that would be working on our furnace.  Armitage is a really nice Lane County park just north of Beltline on Coburg Road.

Early yesterday morning we hooked up and got the 5"er to Quality RV in Springfield about 8:30.  After explaining the problem we dropped the trailer and then headed to Shari's for some breakfast and then to Wally-Mart to pick up a few things.  While Joyce was shopping I hung out in the truck and at 10:30 the shop called to say our home was ready for pickup.  The mechanic said that the gas nozzle inside the burn chamber was partially clogged with some debris, possibly a bug.

After a very wet drive up the hill to Oakridge, we're now at Jim and Jeanne Glaspey's RV Park.  Last night we all along with Gary and Marcia Stevenson went out for pizza in town.

10/11/2013

As I write this we are still at the Glaspey's RV Park in Oakridge.  On the 4th I discovered that there was water collected in the belly of our trailer.  Jim and I got under the rig and partially pulled down the membrane that covers the underside trying to determine if it was something we could fix right away.  Jim quickly made the determination that this repair was going to take some professional attention.

I called Quality RV Repair and made an appointment for Wednesday the 9th, the earliest slot they had.

On Friday the 4th I woke up very early in the morning and found that our furnace wasn't working again.  After some troubleshooting I found that our propane pressure regulator had not switched to the full bottle when the other one ran empty causing the furnace not to light and locking it's self out.  Manually shifting the regulator didn't help so it was off to Springfield to get a regulator.  Got that installed with some changes to the plumbing due to the new regulator's configuration but the furnace still wouldn't startup.  In fact, nothing worked at all.

When we finally got the trailer into the shop on Wednesday the mechanic found that the furnace's control board was bad which has been replaced.  That was covered under out extended warranty minus our $100 deductible.

Yesterday we got a call from the shop bringing us some very bad news.  The mechanic working on our rig found that the fresh water tank's fill neck had rubbed against the trailer's frame and over time caused a hole.

We had some options including trying to repair the tank but the technician could not guaranty the fix.  So, we took the option of replacing the tank.  That is now on order from Heartland with an expected delivery to us the week of the 21st.  Quality RV is trying to get the tank drop-shipped to us rather than it being sent to Heartland and then set to us from them.

Just when we thought we had all the bad news we could stand, our extended warranty company is not going to cover the tank and repairs.  We are presently working with our insurance company to get some of this covered.  More on that later.

Jim and Jeanne have offered to let us stay in their trailer for the duration for which we are very grateful.  Joyce and I are blessed to have their support through all of this mess.

10/17/2013

Where do I start?  The past week has been hectic and very stressful.

On Friday the 11th, we drove down to California and to Travis AFB.  Since it is going to take so long to get our rig back on the road, we decided to come down here and visit our family and friends.  We stayed in the base hotel one night and have since moved into a beautiful two bedroom, two bath Chief's Suite.

On Sunday we decided to drive up to Saint Helena to visit Joyce's family.  We made a stop at the base exchange on the way and while walking up to the doors, I had some pain in my calf's and some weakness in my legs.  In fact, I have been having some minor pain in my legs for a month or so now and blew if off as just getting old.  Bad assumption on my part!

After finishing up at the exchange and driving toward Fairfield I started getting a little light headed so we turned around and headed to David Grant Medical Center on Travis.  Of course, they immediately took me right into the ER and hooked me up.

After a couple of hours and a lot of blood work, the doctor came in and said they couldn't find anything wrong.  But, he wanted to admit me anyway for one night just to be sure.

After I got upstairs the doctor's decided to do a cardiac catheterization but since Monday was Columbus Day, the test couldn't be done until Tuesday.

To make a very long story short, the procedure was done and nothing significant was found.  Dr. McGregor put me on some additional medication including Nexium to help control acid reflux due to me having a hiatal hernia.

So, we are going to hang out here at Travis until tomorrow and then move up to Saint Helena.  Joyce's good friend Chris Herdell has offered her vacation home for us to stay in for a few days.  Much thanks Chris!

Joyce and I are sorry that we didn't get to see everyone we would have liked but  time just got away from us.

That's all for now folks.  We're in the holding pattern for now.

Barry & Joyce