Evanston, Wyoming

We stopped at the Pilot's on our way out of West Wendover for fuel ($3.039/gallon), and for lunch at the Flying J in Lake Point, Utah (near Salt Lake). We're spending the night at the Elks Club in Evanston, Wyoming.

Miles driven: 210
GPS coordinates: not taken

Wendover, Nevada

Stopped for lunch at Arby's in Elko, Nevada. Spending the night at the Red Garter Casino in West Wendover, Nevada (free).

Miles driven: 238
GPS coordinates: not taken

It turns out that our air conditioner is NOT fixed after all! We turned on the A/C here in Winnemucca because it was getting warm, but got nothing but warm air. We thought it had been fixed in Quartzsite, but it was early in the morning and cool outside, so I guess everyone though the air coming out was cold...NOT!

We called Peterson Industries, and they told us they have a dealer just east of Sturgis, where we're going.

Having the Truck & Fifth Wheel Weighed

Since our truck and fifth wheel were to be weighed between 7:30 AM and 8:00 AM, we got up early, had breakfast, and headed to the weighing area.

The weights on the truck turned out to be OK...we're well under all the ratings except for GCWR (100# over). Of course, we had a full fresh water tank (60 gallons) which we normally wouldn't travel with (at 8.33# per gallon that 100# would be 12 gallons of water...so if we travel with about 30 gallons of fresh water instead of 60, we'd be well under the GCWR).

We were also about 100# over the fifth wheel's GVWR -- but, again, if we travel with less fresh water, we'll be well under. The most worrying part is the fact that we were over weight on two tires -- both on the left side -- even though our axle weights were under their GAWRs. What would be nice to do is have the rig re-weighed with only 30 gallons of fresh water on board to see how much of the individual tire weights were due to having a full fresh water tank. We were over on the two tires by only a few pounds, though, so we've moved a couple of files drawers and the printer to the right side of the rig when we travel. Hopefully that, plus inflating the tires to their maximum 80#, will help. It's a good thing that we have the Pressure Pro tire monitoring system to keep track of all the tires on both the truck and the fifth wheel!

I think when the time comes to get new tires, we'll check into what it would cost to upgrade the axles, tires, and rims to the next level.

We're spending the next couple of days at the Winnemucca RV Park in Winnemucca, Nevada.

Miles driven: 341
GPS coordinates: N 40° 58.797' / W 117° 42.675'

Escapees Spring Escapade

We got up early, drained our tanks, filled up the fresh water tank, and headed to Stockton and the Escapade. Once we were parked (in boondocking), we walked down to Registration, and then to the Indoor Market area where we signed up to have our rig weighed later this week (the truck will be weighed on Thursday afternoon, and then the truck and RV will be weighed together on Friday morning...each tire position is weighed).

Ran into friends, Jerry & Darleen Hatch and John & Barbara Ragland, while walking around the grounds.

Miles driven: 28
GPS coordinates: N 37° 56.506' / W 121° 15.520'

Delta Shores Marina & RV Park

We stopped in Goshen for fuel ($2.999/gallon) and then at the Travel America in Livingston for lunch.

We're spending the night at one of our RPI (Resort Parks International) parks in Iselton, Delta Shores Marina & RV Park. We'll be able to dump tanks and fill the fresh water tank in the morning so that we'll be all set for the 5 days of the Escapade.

Miles driven: 195.6
GPS coordinates: N 38° 06.790 / W 121° 35.315

Visalia Elks Lodge

We stopped in Bakersfield for lunch and to shop at the Camping World. However, Camping World didn't have what we were looking for (the Level Master with the mounting bracket to put it on the fifth wheel king pin), so we continued on to the Elks Lodge in Visalia where we will spend the night.

Miles driven: 230.5
GPS coordinates: N 36° 19.774 / W 119° 19.482

On our way to the Escapade -- Finally!

We have air -- cold air, that is! The new A/C unit came in yesterday, so at 8:00 AM this morning, we took the rig down to RV Lifestyles and they installed it. It works like a champ!

As soon as the installation was completed, we took off for Parker where we did grocery shopping at Safeway and then stopped by the pet store to pick up some dry dog food for Maxx. We then headed west on SR-62 to Vidal Junction where we took US-95 north to Needles. We had lunch in Needles at McDonalds.

Continuing west on I-40, we stopped in Newberry Springs for diesel ($3.259/gallon -- we later saw it for $2.99 at a Travel America on I-15 south of Barstow! :-( ). We're spending the night at Stoddard Valley OHV Recreation Area off Hatch Road about 6 miles south of Barstow on I-15.

Miles driven: 270.4
GPS coordinates: N 34° 45.348 / W 117° 10.232

We learned this week that the air conditioner didn't get shipped out until Tuesday rather than on Monday as we were told it would. I guess it doesn't make any difference because, while it made it to Phoenix in just 3 days (arriving early this morning), it isn't scheduled to be delivered to Quartzsite until Wednesday, April 18. In other words, it's going to sit in Phoenix for 5+ days before the shipping company deems fit to bring it here!

The problem is that it probably won't be delivered until sometime in the afternoon on Wednesday, and RV Lifestyles has already gone on half-days, although they told Earl they'd have someone there to accept the shipment. RV Lifestyles said that once they've inspected the unit to make sure there was no damage in transit (perish the thought!), it would take them only about an hour to install. But, of course, we won't be able to have it installed until Thursday morning. Which means we'll have to cancel our stop in Coarsegold to visit friends and head directly to the Escapade in Stockton which starts on Sunday, April 22.

Well, we're not happy campers today!

After over 3 weeks without having air conditioning in the fifth wheel -- and nearly 3 weeks since we first took it in to be repaired -- we STILL don't have a working A/C unit!!!

We got a call from RV Lifestyles yesterday saying that the black box from Coleman had arrived (even though James had requested a whole unit be shipped, Coleman insisted that it was only the black box that needed to be changed out), so today we took the rig back to have it installed (note this is our THIRD trip to RV Lifestyles for the air conditioning...thank goodness they're only one mile away). After the installation, it was found that it did NOT fix the problem!

And now Coleman is not returning James' calls.

So at this point, Earl got on the phone to Peterson Industries to see if they could intercede with Coleman to get an entire new A/C unit sent out. He talked to Jack -- the person I'd talked with back during the week of March 11 when I first found out our A/C unit didn't work, and who both gave me the Authorization number AND who told me it would be OK for us to have the work done at our local RV service center rather than at the dealer from whom we'd purchased the rig (since they're 150+ miles from us).

During the conversation Jack told Earl that they (Peterson) didn't even know if we had a NEW unit (then why have we recently received a Welcome letter, a baseball cap, and a tote bag from them?) and that we should be working with our selling dealer (see the above paragraph)!

Well, as you can imagine, this really made me angry, considering Jack was the person to whom I'd spoken 3 weeks ago about this issue. So I got online and sent off a private message to Bryan Tillet, President of Peterson Industries, who takes part in the Excel Owner's Forum over on the IRV2.com website. I started out by giving him the Order number, the date that the order had been approved by Peterson Industries, the VIN number, and the date we took possession of the rig -- just background information to PROVE that we were talking about a NEW unit!!! I went on to outline everything that had taken place over the 3 weeks since we first discovered the A/C didn't work, and said how unhappy we were with both Coleman and Peterson -- neither of whom seems to care that we're sitting here in 90+ degree weather without a working A/C unit!

Both RV Lifestyles and we later received calls from Curtis at Peterson (the person to whom Earl had spoken back on March 16 when we first took the rig to RV Lifestyles) who said they'd have an entire new unit shipped out on Monday.

Hopefully by this time next week, we'll have a new A/C unit; otherwise, letters are going to be sent off to a magazine or two as well as RVCG.