“Oh Lord, stuck in Las Cruces again”. Yep, we’re still here.
We haven’t done too much since we have been here. This is our third stay in Las Cruces so we have pretty much seen all of the tourist sights and eaten at most of the restaurants that folks have recommended. We do have to get a few chores done that we have been putting off.
We made a trip to Camping World down in Anthony, TX and picked up a couple of vent covers. When replacing the bathroom cover I found that the Maxx Air cover was also cracked so we picked up one of those as well.
Yesterday we took the CRV over to Sear’s for an oil change. Also got the tires rotated and a front end alignment while we were at it.
April 2, 2019
Today we took a drive up north east of Las Cruces to the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. The stark beauty of the the area is amazing with towering peaks reaching up to 9000 feet. The area was designated a National Monument on May 21, 2014 by President Barack Obama. If you are even in this area of New Mexico make sure you visit this beautiful place.
April 3, 2019
So the saga of the refrigerator replacement continues:
1. This morning we made some additional measurements and discovered we didn’t take into consideration how much the door swing was on the unit we bought at Sear’s. Larry, the mechanic we had been working with also didn’t think it would work.
2. After searching the internet for a replacement we couldn’t find anything that would work and that we could get delivered here in Las Cruces in a reasonable amount of time.
3. We called Holiday RV here in town and the parts guy told us that a new cooling unit would cost us $1674 plus tax. Back to the drawing board.
4. I called Larry back and he told me he wouldn’t be able to get the part until next week. Well, poop.
5. John, the parts manager at Holiday RV called be back and said that he would sell me the cooling unit for $1300 and could get it by tomorrow and the service department scheduled us in for the work on Friday. Yay. Something is finally going our way or so we thought.
6. Thirty minutes later John called as said that he forgot that they don’t get deliveries on Thursday’s and that the cooling unit would not be in until the afternoon on Friday. We now have an appointment on Monday morning to get the work done.
April 5, 2019
Joyce and I needed a break so yesterday we drove up to the Inn of the Mountain Gods in Mescalero, NM. This is a large hotel and casino complex in the mountains north east of Las Cruces. We had a nice dinner last night and breakfast this morning in the Gathering of Nations Buffet. Joyce got to play some and I just relaxed.
April 9, 2019
Yesterday morning we took our house to the Holiday World in Las Cruces to have the cooling unit on the refrigerator replaced. After checking in we had at least four hours to kill so we decided to go see “Dumbo”.
After the movie we went back to Holiday World to see how they were doing on our rig and found out that they were almost done. However, they had to pull the mechanic off the job to do some troubleshooting on another rig but that they should be able to get our work done in a couple of hours.
After having a quick lunch we returned to see how they were doing on our RV and noticed that they had not done any more work. I talked to the service department scheduler and she told me that they will have all the work done in forty-five minutes. After that time went by I asked her again what the holdup was. She said that the refrigerator work was done but when they were bringing in the living room slide a bolt broke on the drive torque tube and the they were working on that.
Well, after a little bit I talked to the parts guy and he said that they were trying to get the gear out of the drive system and then replace that. I then asked him if the part was in stock and he said yes, he just needed to know how many teeth were on our gear.
By this time Joyce and I were just a tad frustrated but we gave them another thirty minutes. I then went back to the parts guy and asked him what was going on. He said that they didn’t have the type of gear in stock but the maintenance tech was going to turn the gear 180 degrees and put it all back together. OK, whatever!
After another forty-five minutes they said that all is good and tested and that they will be bring our rig out of the shop area in a few minutes. We finally got on the road about 6 PM and headed just 60 miles to Deming, NM.
We checked into A Deming Roadrunner RV Park about 7:30, got set up (the slide went out as advertised) and got a quick supper at a Mexican restaurant in town.
The next morning we got up early and when bringing that slide in the left work good but the right side jammed. I looked around outside and then under the the inside lip but didn’t see anything that would cause the problem. Well, this ain’t good!
We called Holiday World and they said if we could get the rig back to them they would be happy to check it out. Ok, but how can we drive 60 miles down the interstate with the slide out?
We got a phone number for a mobile guy and after a sort wait Jerry showed up. He worked (if you want to call it that) for four hours and couldn’t figure it out. He did call Jimmy’s RV Repair and see if he could get us in to look at the problem and if nothing else just get the darned thing in and stowed. Jimmy said that the earliest he could get us in to his shop would be next week.
After paying Jerry a little for nothing but his time I then drove our to Jimmy’s shop and pleaded with him for help to get us back on the road. After a few minutes of studying on the that he said if we can get the rig to him early then next morning he would take a look at it.
Now, how do we get the rig to him? We decided just to drive the 2 miles very slowly. The problem with doing that was the the slide sticks about 33 inches. I decided to go by the Deming Police Department and talk to them about our dilemma. I explained the situation to the receptionist and she called Lt. Matt Ruiger to come see me.
After explaining what I planned to do Lt. Matt decided to come to the RV park early in the morning and give us an escort to Jimmy’s shop. We arrived there without a problem at 8 AM, told Jimmy that if he can just get the slide in we can head out of Deming and get the darned thing fixed later. So we left the rig in his hands and went to breakfast.
We them went back to the RV park and sat around until around 11:30. By this time the forecasted high winds had picked up with sustained speeds for 30 MPH with gusts to at least 45. Joyce and I discussed our options with the thought Jimmy might not be able to work outside with the winds blowing this hard. So, we decided to book a hotel room, go tell Jimmy that he could keep the rig overnight and work on it the next day.
When we got to the shop we noticed that the slide was stowed. We talked to Jimmy’s technician and were informed that not only did he get the slide stowed, it was actually fixed. As you can imagine Joyce and I were very happy. Jimmy explained what caused the problem and then what he did to make it right. And, he just charged us $308 for two guys labor.
The winds were really blowing hard by then with occasional gusts to over 50 MPH so we took the rig back to the RV park, got it cleaned up a little and then went to the hotel.
The culprit of the slide problem.
The next morning we woke up very early, had some breakfast and then got on the road at 7:30 headed toward Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ. After driving an hour or so we started talking about skipping Tucson and go all the way to Quartzite, AZ., which we did. That was a 458 mlle run for us that would normally be take us two days. We stayed at The Scenic Road RV Park.
April 16, 2016
We left Quartzite early on the 12th with plans to stop for the night in Bakersfield, CA. As y’all know we are very far behind in our planned travel time and stopping in Bakersfield would only give us one day to spend with my mother. So instead of making that stop we just kept on rolling all the way to the Elks Lodge in Fresno, CA., a 468 mile day.
We arrived in Fresno about 5:30 PM and then had supper with my brother Alan. On Saturday Joyce and I went to see my mother who now lives in a board and care facility. Alan came over later and we took Mom out for supper.
On Sunday we all went to church which mother really enjoyed. It had been a while since she had been to Sunday services so all of her friends came over to see her.
April 19, 2019
We left Fresno on Monday the 17th, got on CA-99 and headed north. The drive wasn’t too bad for California except the time we spent on CA-12 from Lodi to Fairfield. After fighting the traffic on I-80 for a short time we got on CA-29 and then on to the Calistoga RV Park.
During our stay we visited with Joyce’s mother Judy and her brother Frank and his wife Joann. We always have a nice time in when we are in the California Wine Country.
This morning we left Calistoga around 9 AM and drove the 165 miles to the Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, CA. for just one night.
April 21, 2019
We left Corning at 9 AM, got on I-5 and had a fairly easy run up to Valley of the Rouge State Park in Gold Hill, OR. Ran into some rain going over the mountains but the traffic was light most of the way. We were warmly greeted by the Glaspey Clan which made our return to Oregon even more special.
More later.
Barry & Joyce
