After our marathon drive to Elkhart, we slept soundly in spite of the fact that Duncan RV Repair is located just a block or so from a major railroad switching yard, and day and night you can hear the screeching of steel wheels on steel rails, and the banging and clanking of railroad cars being shuffled around.

While Miss Terry was having her morning coffee and checking e-mail, I went to the office and checked in, letting them know which site we were in, though that probably wasn’t necessary, since the only RVs in Duncan’s camping area are our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage and an Alpha motorhome.

We went over the things I needed done that I had listed when I made our appointment (fix water heater, which works on gas but not electric, and install our Wilson Trucker antenna on the roof of the motorhome for better reception with our Verizon air card), and then, when I discovered that Duncan is an authorized Onan service and repair facility, I added a couple of other tasks (oil and filter change, lube job, and new fuel filter on the motorhome, and service our Onan diesel generator). As long as we’re here, we’ll get everything done we can.

Later on, a service tech named Marco came out to the motorhome to go over our job list again, and since it was noon by then and he would not be able to start on our rig until about 2 p.m., he suggested that we wait until today, and he’d pull it in first thing and have the whole day to get things done, rather than start, then have to button everything back up at closing time and move the motorhome out so we could sleep in it overnight, and then do the same thing this morning all over again. We agreed, and promised we’d have the motorhome ready to go at 9 a.m. today.

With that all arranged, we drove to Phoenix Commercial Paint, where we have had our bus stored since we left the area. Owner Michele Henry greeted us, and we checked out the full body paint job she was finishing up on a Fleetwood diesel pusher. That lady does great work and is a stickler for getting every detail perfect!

We checked the bus out to be sure it was ready for its new owner on Friday, then made a quick stop at RV Surplus to say hello to our friend Trina Ambris. By then it was late in the afternoon and we were ready for dinner.

The storm that has been moving across the country began with sprinkles as we were driving back to our motorhome, and we wondered how bad it was going to get. We have snow showers predicted for the next several days, and temperatures in the 20s. Not exactly perfect RVing weather. We look forward to getting back to the South to soak up some sunshine.

Bad Nick is no fool, he spent the day inside writing a new Bad Nick Blog post titled How Do You Put A Deadline On A War?. Check it out and leave a comment. 

Thought For The Day – Bad decisions make good stories.

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I stole comedian Ron White’s line for this blog, because it is so darned true. Sometimes I wonder how some people manage to get through life without drowning in rainstorms or bashing in their heads walking into walls.

I got a long e-mail Letter to the Editor yesterday from a fellow wanting me to help him tell the world about how he is getting screwed over by a Passport America affiliate RV park where he is currently staying.

The Passport America directory clearly states that the discount rate at this particular campground is good for two days only, and that it is not good on weekends. I checked that myself. The gentleman who wrote me also acknowledges that a sign in their office says the same thing.

But he has decided that he wants to stay for a month. The campground does not have weekly or monthly rates, and again, the Passport America rate is for two days only. But he still expects them to allow him to stay there at half of their regular rate. He told me that he wrote them a check, based upon the Passport America rate, and that the owner of the campground refused to accept it, so in his mind he has done his part, and he’s not moving. The campground owner told him that his two days will be up this morning, and if he doesn’t leave, they will call the police and have him removed.

Huh? How dumb can you be? I think I’ll wander over to the nearest Mercedes-Benz dealership and hand the first salesman I see a $500 check for one of those snappy little SLK 55 convertibles and drive it off the lot. In my mind, that’s doing my part, so what the heck?

I have had a series of e-mails over the last few weeks from a couple who are involved in an ongoing series of mishaps that began with them purchasing a used high mileage Fleetwood diesel pusher against the advice of myself and everybody else they talked to.

The day after they bought the rig, they discovered that the water heater didn’t work, the generator wouldn’t start, and that the speedometer didn’t work, so they have no idea what the actual mileage is. I asked them if it had worked on their test drive, but they never drove it, because the license plates had been expired for two years and the seller didn’t have insurance on it. But he assured them that it was just like new.

Now, close to a month later, they have shared a long litany of problems that include two blowouts, a rooftop automatic satellite dish that doesn’t work, a bad leak in the bedroom, a slide out room that won’t go out, and leveling jacks that are inoperative. And they still have not received the title to this lemon, in spite of the fact that they paid in full with a cashier’s check when they picked it up! Repeated calls to the seller have brought many promises of sending the title by overnight mail, but it has never arrived. On their last call, his number was disconnected.

Their latest tale of woe is that they have now been ticketed for driving an RV with expired license plates, and the Motor Vehicle Department in South Dakota won’t issue a title to a vehicle from out of state with no documentation. They said they do have documentation, a hand written bill of sale from the seller.

I told them early on that I wouldn’t consider buying a used Fleetwood myself, and I would be very leery of any RV that had been sitting still for at least two years. But they just “loved” this coach, so they bought it.

I also advised them that whatever RV they did buy should first be inspected by a qualified RV tech to make sure all of the RV’s systems worked, and then to take it to a garage and have it inspected to determine its mechanical condition. They replied that it would have cost them over $200, and they could not see wasting that much money, when the seller insisted the rig was “like new.”

Now they want my advice on what to do next. What can I possibly tell them?

Thought For The Day – You’re getting old when getting lucky means you find your car in the mall parking lot.

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