Well, let's see. Found an awesome repair place for our axle. Wednesday later afternoon gently towed Kanga into Southwest Wheel in Lubbock (1 blk off MLK, Jr, drive) from the Ford dealer in Slaton. Parked in their lot. Unloaded BMW motorcycle from pouch and I drove truck back to Slaton and Jerry rode the bike. Turned keys over to Ford to get working on the disassembly while they waited for parts to come in on Friday. Both rode bike back to Southwest Wheel - 40 degrees with 20 mpr wind....brrrrr!
Spent the night without incident even though we were on the "wrong side of the tracks." On Friday, Les, our axle man, greeted us at 8 am and they pulled Kanga into the shop. I hung out in the office area with Julie (office manager) who set up up with a desk to sit at to do my sudoku and computer stuff. Jerry oversaw work and was so pleased. Les took us to lunch at a local eatery, Cast Iron Grill. Family owned for years and awesome food and very friendly staff. It happened to be pajama day so all the wait staff had on their cute flannels, etc. Desserts to die for. Very reasonable prices. Try it if you're ever in Lubbock!
By 2 PM we were ready to roll. Les did a fantastic job. Never did determine definite cause but did find the nuts were on a little too tight when he checked the other 5 wheels. This could have caused heat build up and problem. At any rate, the shop in Blue Grass who did the wheel packing before we left has agreed to reimburse us 80% of the cost. Yippee!
3 PM our hired tow vehicle (had to hire someone as we had no truck) arrived to tow Kanga back to the Ford dealership lot where we will be staying til the truck is done... Turned out to be Gus' Lube Services - a man a wife team who do this with the pickup truck with a 5th wheel hitch along with mobile oil changes, rock chip repairs, etc. Phyllis and Gus ended up being an awesome couple. She is a retired 3rd grade teacher from Lubbock and Gus is a US citizen who was born in Uruguay, SA. They kindly let us stop at a gas station and fill up the generator resevoir with gas as we were told there was no electricity for us to plug into at the dealership.
Back at the dealership, we were parking Kanga, and J went into the shop to get our parking blocks etc. The Ford hadn't been touched! Well, I was ranting and raving about all the hassle we had to go through and the extra $100 for getting towed when we could have used our truck after all. I the meantime we finished setting up and Gus wanted to see our BMW and Phyllis wanted to see Kanga's inside so we invited them in. (They have an older smaller rv). Gus was so sweet - he said he would discount our fee to $50. PTL (For some reason they took a shine to us and said if we're ever in Lubbock, we should get ahold of them and come to their home for a steak - Uruguay style. Super nice people. Really did like them.
Jerry went into the shop and talked to Mike, our mechanic. He will begin disassembly today. Parts did come in yesterday, so that's progressing. Finally about 4:30 we got to relax. Leftovers for dinner, thank heavens!
Later in the evening, Sonny, body shop manager - we're parked next to his building, knocked on the door and offered us electricity. Jerry strung out our shore power cord and we were all set...til about an hour later when he tried to make popcorn in the microwave and tripped the circuit breaker in the shop. Not sure why...obviously the cord to his shop couldn't handle the voltage.... So back on generator - that's OK - we have lots of gas and it's pretty quiet. Maybe Sonny will be back in today and we can work on the electrical issue.
Rained a little in the night but luckily it didn't blow and our slide leak didn't show up. Yippee! Sun shining today and it is supposed to be near 50. However, snow tonight and again on Monday with 4" expected then....we hope to leave Tuesday, but will have to check the road conditions, etc.
Life's adventures continue but we are so blessed! Challenges will always be in our lives...it's how we handle them that counts. Will try to destress....LOL!
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