Plans foiled again - Day 977 (Year 3, Day 245)

Austin, TX

Once again, proof that plans are made in bubbles, and this conference just wasn't meant to be.

We were all packed and hitched up by 9:00, the time we wanted to hit the road.  Were just walking around, doing the last inspections on the checklist, and noticed the front passenger tire on the truck was completely flat.  By 11:00, roadside assistance came and repaired the bad valve (I think the valves keep breaking because of the way the tire monitoring system sensors are being installed).

Ok, only a 2 hour delay, but still plenty of time to go the 80 miles and be there by 3:00.  Last on the list - close the slides and put in the steps.  Slides not closing!  Tried and tried but no response from any of the 3 slides.  We called roadside assistance again and about 1/2 hr later they had one of their techs try to walk us through troubleshooting on the phone.  We tried a number of different things:  we found that 10 minutes later the slides did close, but then we couldn't get them open again.  Another 15 mins and we finally got them to open.  Tech said the most likely reason is that the hydraulic pump is on its last legs and we needed to call a mobile RV tech to diagnose and repair.

We probably could have made it, but if this is indeed the case, we didn't want to chance that the pump would completely die because we can't live with the slides in and we can't travel with them out.  We could still get it repaired in Fredericksburg, but being 80 miles away, it would be a bit hard for Mitch to commute while waiting for a tech to come out, and then most likely waiting for parts.  So we decided not to go.  Very big disappointment as I already made some friends online and was hoping to meet them in person, as well as learn and share a lot of info about working on the road.

But the silver linings -- we noticed the flat before we pulled out of the site and not while we were on the road driving on it, and we noticed the slide problem while still parked here, where we need to be.

Oh well.  Life goes on.  At least we can go to shul tomorrow.