January 13 -- Not Everything Works Out As Planned...

I was going in to St. George, Utah, nearly 80 miles away one-way from Overton, to get a recall done on Discovery's awning. The "forward" to this was a long story, but basically the dealership in the area where I bought Discovery II, for whatever reason, "discouraged" me from doing it with them, even when I told them I'd be here until the end of the month, and there was no rush on it if they had to order the parts. Bizarro World. Well, read on... The day journey began with me chipping the ice off Tundra II's windows; it was below freezing the during the night. First I tried wiping them with a warm towel, it didm't work. Then I remembered someone saying that a good way to get the ice off the windshield was to scrape it off with a plastic card. So I took my Good Sam Travel Assist card out of my wallet (it was the least-used card I had in my wallet) and scraped off enough ice so I could see out of the windshield.  I hadn't taken moved Discovery II at all since January of last year, just after I picked her up at the dealership, so I drove slowly and carefully. Well, you can't drive anything but slowly on the main street of Overton as the speed limit is 25. And I was a bit worried about the brake controller, the device that syncs the trailer brakes with the truck's; I had to download the instruction sheet from the Internet on how to program it since the dealership didn't give me one, nor tell me how to use it, so I wasn't totally sure if the settings that I'd plugged in the day before were correct. Thankfully, they were. Once on Interstate 15 I pulled into a truck parking area and checked the trailer, making sure everything was ok, and took a photo of my rig --

On the road again...if only for a day. I passed by Mesquite and the dealership where I'd purchased her. and gave a one-fingered salute. (They have been less than helpful since I took Discovery off the lot.) Because they "preferred" not to do the awning recall, I had to drive 40 more miles to St. George, Utah to have it taken care of. At least it was a pretty drive; there was snow on the surrounding mountains, and driving through the scenic gorge of the Virgin River was, as always, spectacular. I'd written down the route to the RV dealership and took it with me -- but I still passed the street in St. George that I was to turn on as I'd incorrectly copied down a wrong number on the street address (1100, NOT 1000). So I had to turn around, not so easy to do on a main street pulling a trailer. But I arrived at the dealership in one piece, parked Tundra and Discovery in the lot, and went inside. I told the service guy (who I'd talked to on the phone to order the awning parts -- 4 screws) behind the counter that I also would like an overall check of the trailer, and to re-seal the fixtures on the roof as I'd noticed some tiny tears and holes in the seals. So far so good. He then checked to make sure he had the screws -- and he didn't. But he called the person in charge of the awning recall at Carefree -- the awning manufacturer -- who told him she'd overnight it. Wait a minute, I'd ordered that a week ago; I gave him the serial number of my awning, and he'd said he would call up Carefree. He now said something to the effect that "we had different screws", i.e., the wrong ones. So I said "shit" as this was supposed to have been taken care of, and now I'd have to drive another 160-plus miles back to get 4 screws replaced on the awning. But what more can you do? The screws weren't there. He then said don't wait around as it would take awhile; they certainly don't encourage you to wait, anyway, as the RV place doesn't have a lounge for waiting, and you aren't allowed to know the WiFi password. (I'm not making any of this up.) So I unhitched Discovery and went to the Pilot gas station down the interstate. I wanted working WiFi so I could get on the Internet to find the phone number of Carefree of Colorado to tell the recall person there what had happened as I was NOT a happy camper. When I called and got her on the line, she said she'd been waiting for the service guy to call her back to order the screws -- AND HE NEVER DID. She apologized profusely -- but it sounds like it wasn't her fault. Still, the service guy would never apologize, so I'm glad someone did. It didn't make the screws magically appear, though. I waited 5 hours, having lunch at a Black Bear Diner (including a humongous apple cobbler that made me momentarily forget about my frustration, as I was concentrating on an overfull stomach) --

 -- before going back to the dealership to check the status of Discovery. That's when I discovered the "lounge" was only a few chairs and a table at the front entrance, and there was basically no WiFi -- that you could use, anyway. The counter guy said it would be ready in about 20 minutes. At least THAT part was right. They gave me a list of everything they had checked; no issues, except they noted that some of the seals on the roof needed to be re-sealed as there were holes in them. Now if you'll remember, I asked them when I first got there to check those seals, and re-seal them if necessary. I knew those holes were there. I asked them to re-seal them. At the end of the day, they still weren't done. I was starting to get an Excedrin headache..But what could I do? I can't complain to management about what happened -- well, not yet, as I have to take Discovery in one more time, and the work may not get done as well as it might (you can read what you want into that). So I paid, hitched up Discovery, and got the heck out of Dodge. 

On the way back to Overton, I gave the Mesquite dealership a one-fingered salute again just in case they missed the first one. When I got back to the RV park and settled Discovery back into her space, I was somewhat rewarded for all my "pains" with a spectacular sunset; this was taken atop the roof -- 

Since I was up top,  I check the tears in the seals -- still there, of course. And I'll have to go back next Wednesday to get the awning and sealing jobs done. Alas, I just checked the weather report and there's a 70% chance of rain in St. George that day... 

FIN (for now)