Smaller quarters - Day 418 (Yr 2, Day 51)

Marion, NC

Work on the rig is well under way.  Looks like it's been gutted to get to the waste tanks; should have taken a picture.  Good news is they didn't find anything wrong with the generator; must have been a loose wire somewhere which got corrected when they moved things around.

The manager (Mike Gunter) has been very accommodating.  For one, he pushed the schedule around so that they would work on the rig Monday and Tuesday instead of Monday and Wednesday.  Also, although the tech assured us we could probably stay in our rig while they were working on it (at least at night), there is no way this could be possible:  for liability purposes, we can't stay inside the locked bays, and with all the guts out, they can't move it outside (not to mention there's no sewer system).  Mike felt bad, and not wanting to ask us to stay in a hotel overnight, or possibly for a few days, he worked something out with their sales department and got us a loaner rig, which is parked in the adjacent campground.  Ok, it's way, way smaller quarters than we're used to (a Class B - basically a van with a galley, water closet, bed and table), but we're still very grateful for the service.  All things considered, it's rather luxurious for this class of RVs.  It really is an excellent vehicle for weekend camping (a Fleetwood Pulse, if anyone's interested.  This is a 2008 unit). 

Our temporary living quarters

It was a scramble to get some stuff, though.  The bay closes at 5 and I was only told about the loaner at 4:30.  The service area lent me a golf cart to get to the bay area (I could have walked the 1/10th of a mile, but knowing I'd be carrying a lot of stuff with me, not only back to the lounge, but then to the campground, I needed a way to carry it all).  Not having much time, I just grabbed a few necessary items like clean clothes, some toiletries and a few beers (oops - forgot the chocolate!).  I decided to forego bringing pots & pans and other food, which is a good thing because there's really not a lot of room to cook or wash dishes here.  We still have some $ left on the insurance claim so we'll just eat our meals out and get reimbursed.

Someone from service gave me a ride back to the site so he could take the cart with him.  I entered the trailer and the reality that this isn't a full service hotel hit me - nothing is provided (duh!!!)  I forgot linens and pillows.  I made a mad dash back by foot to the bay (more like 1/4 mile from the site).  Sweating and out of breath, I was lucky to have found an employee entrance still open (all the bays were closed).  I entered and was even luckier to find my mechanic still there, so I ran in and grabbed what I needed.  Even luckier is that Mitch called me at that moment to tell me he just arrived "home" and was looking for me in the lounge.  I told him where to find me (mechanic even opened the bay door for him) so I could get some help bringing the bulky pillows back.

Of course, quite a few more things were forgotten to be packed in our haste besides the chocolate and extra charging cables; namely, toilet paper and towels.  Too late now to go back to the rig.  We used our used t-shirts for hand towels (and will hold off on showering for one day until I go back later to get some), and I found a neighbor outside and asked him if I could borrow a roll of tp (he literally saved our asses!)

So now it's a question of whether everything will be finished by the end of the day or if we'll be here longer.  Mitch believes it will be longer.  My gut tells me he's right, although since they scheduled work on 2 days, reason would tell me they would stick to their schedule and get it all done.

It's really too bad that there's nothing local around here because it's such a lovely campground.

UPDATE:  we will be here one more night but looks pretty good that it'll be ready tomorrow and we'll return to Asheville on Thursday morning, as originally planned.  I took a walk back to the bay to get the rest of the stuff we needed.  Looked like Santa carrying a huge bag over my shoulder!