In July and into August we attempted to go through our extended warranty company, and get our RV repaired. We had looked into it when we were still in Florida, we have at least four stress cracks and multiple issues with the slides. But our biggest problem was our main slide would not go in.
After our first Switch it up Huddle in Texas, when we left we went to a campground that we saw One Strange Adventure, Harold and Cindy, unbeknownst to us, we were in the middle of a Grand Design Rally. And we were chatting, I asked Harold where he would get his RV repaired if he did not have a manufacturer to go to. He immediately and highly recommended Goshen Indiana, Affinity RV group.
So later I called our extended warranty company and told them I would like to take it there. So we made the arrangements to take off of work a few weeks, and would go to Indiana and arrange for them to take a look at it.
It's about 600 miles give or take, so we left on July 30th, and stayed a night on the Ohio Turnpike. Here's our rig porn.
Jim found a KOA for Sunday night. Our appointment was to arrive Monday morning at Affinity RV. We arrived at the KOA not even 10 minutes into our getting set up. We ran into Marv and Terri Hein that we met at an Escapes Bash in the desert in 2019.
When they saw us they hollered to Jim we have Yuengling beer.
We ended up spending the rest of the day and evening together, until like 10:00 p.m.. we ended up having a potluck together. We had the gas propane bottle and he had the propane fire ring . We couldn't have planned it any better. What a great night. The next day we both had to leave in the morning.
We arrived at Affinity RV group for them to take a look at our slide, and all our other issues. We knew it was huge, but it is even larger than we anticipated. We put the slide out a little for them so they could see all the things. Rod was fantastic going through everything. He had Alicia writing furiously all our things we would need for the repairs. He said once they started it could take 2 to 3 weeks to finish, OMG.
They submitted it to the Extended Warranty company. And now we wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Etc
This is such a long story, long story, I won't do that again but you get my point. Is a long story. Hard to do the short version, but I'm going to try.
Rod said we could plug in and stay for a few days waiting for the warranty company. Everyone leaves at 3:30, we have the place to ourselves, and we are in there gated area. We could leave if we wanted to, but we never did. I just wanted to start packing up for the hotel, but just would be premature to start yet. He said he would try let us stay in FW at night. But probably would have to go to a hotel for a few nights, once the work was started.
So one night Jim grilled and sat outside, was windy here.
After the second day he suggested maybe we will have to go somewhere else to wait, as he had other people coming in. We were just dying to get in the bay and have them start on the work that needed to be done.
I love details, and it's so hard not to put all of them in here.
So Jim feverishly looked for a campground to go to. He thought there was a Thousand Trails nearby I called to make the reservation. Told her what we were doing here, Jim hollered in my ear, they don't care. But when she heard where we were she said there's another place closer. Called Twin Mills and it's free for us almost a half an hour closer she even called to see if they had room. She said they did, and to Call right away, That was so nice of her,, glad I said it.. so I called and made a reservation.
This was such a stressful time knowing how much the RV needed, to be whole again. Affinity RV told us the claim would be probably in the ballpark of $30,000. That was hard to hear. And they said at some point they probably would have an adjuster want to come and look at it to take pictures. So the next day we left to go to Twin Mills.
It was a beautiful Campground. Very large, part of it on either side of the road. Of course Amish everywhere on this trip and horse and Buggies. Jim and I decided to try and enjoy ourselves and find things to do to keep ourselves busy and have some fun. Even though this was very stressful time for us both.
August 4th my mother-in-law's birthday Jim called her today. As we made a little side trip to Michigan. Jim wanted to go. We were going to run into a Walmart next door and I saw this sign for The Dude.
August 5th we went to the RV Museum. It was a lot of fun here's some pictures of that day.
We used to have a Winabago MH 1972 that my Mother had. And much later we used.
We had a lot of fun with that one, we had it in 1990's.
Back when we camped with the horse's.
Jim had a Switch It Up T-shirt on, someone recognized it, and followed Todd and Shelia too. We chatted and they took our picture. Also Todd wrote a book about the above MH when he had one, so good, also a YouTube video, both Called One Lucky Penny, so worth your time, 2 hour video especially if you are a person of faith.
August 6 we went to Shipshewana flee market. Was great to walk around was a very hot day. Had lunch there and spoke with an older man that was there by himself, he was very lovely and enjoyable to talk to.
August 7 Pizza trailer came to the campground, was pricey but good. And we went into the pool today.
The campground was huge and a beautiful place to walk. They had a little beachy area, we both walked every day, some I did myself to go farther.
Today we found two stores we never went into before called Menards, kind of like a Walmart and a Lowe's, and the best grocery store and booze and Meijer. I found my favorite soda diet lemon lime Shasta, haven't been able to find in years. It was so exciting to look around then both.
This morning Affinity called us, first thing she said was where are you now. Come to find out the adjuster came to take pictures of our rig. But never let them know, he just showed up and we weren't there. That's his bad. So we made to make arrangements to leave the campground the next morning, go back to Affinity for him to look at it and take his pictures. Which we did, Rod showed them everything that needed done, although he didn't care, he was just there to take pictures, he was subcontracted out, didn't even really work with them. Then we left, went back to Twin Mills Campground, to continue our long, long, long wait.
Before we left we had to extend our stay, which wasn't a problem but when we returned we had to go on the other side of the road. Where the campground continued over there. Not really a problem, but we could have kept a lot of our crap on our site when we left, instead we had to pack up everything. Although we did decide to leave the golf cart at our friends in Hershey. Thanks to them again.
August 10, went to Bontrager's Surplus and Johnson's. Jim wants to reconfigure our power cord so the rig can be plugged in using it in the front or in the back of the RV. It will also make it easier to Boondock plugging the generator in the front, since it's in the bed of the truck. Since we didn't know what was going on we didn't want to spend the money yet. The cord and supplies were about 250. So we waited.
First time saw them, both had beards, today one shaved, darn, I fixed it for picture looks bad. Didn't think of getting a picture till our second visit. But I thought I was seeing double that first day.
Then we went back to see my twins. Above. They were the shop owners. Jim love that store. On the way back we stopped and got firewood.
And on my walk I saw this really cool party smoker trailer. Had a bar big smoker on it.
August 13th
I told Jim I just wanted to go somewhere pretty and walk today. So he found Pine Knob Park.
It was beautiful and we noticed they had painted rocks all around. And it was a church group that put them there. And this rock says it all for our situation.
It said if you can't read it Pray Cry Repeat. But don't give up. Amen.Which we did a lot of.
August 15th I had made arrangements to do a plant tour of DRV. It was just a handful of us. It was a fun day kept us busy.
One day we were just chilling and I told Jim look what's coming. They were also RV Youtubers with a
Vlog.
They were the Double Decker family it was a double decker bus he had converted for RV full-time living with five or six kids, I lost count. We chatted with him a few times. But I looked online immediately to see the inside. It's pretty cool. Plus they had the windows open downstairs and you could see everything when it got dark.
One day I went for a walk. We had our switch it up Garden flag out, so we can find our people. And I heard this guy yelling at me switch it up lady. I stopped and chatted with him for a while Andy and Yvonne I believe it was. They were also going to the next Huddle in Georgia at Talona Ridge. See them there.
So to continue the rest of the main story here. Nothing is happening still fighting with the warranty company. Longer story short, we decided to head back to PA so we can get back to work. As we continue our long wait.. we only have a few short weeks left before we are scheduled to leave for our official first trip as retired RV couple to Florida and all the fun things we have booked on the way. Rod said don't give up, I said you don't know me well but I Never Never give up, Jim would be the first to tell you that. If Mommy wants something, as he said Mommy gets it. So we made our trip back to PA to work, not knowing what would happen next. But I had a plan.
Needless to say,when we got back to work, they worked us to death that last month.
To be continued
Glad to see you getting us all caught up on the trials and tribulations of RV repairs.
ReplyDelete