Why not four?

When we originally arrived at Beaver Dam Golfand RV Resort the “plan” was to be here one day while Tom (with assistance from Forest and I)  installed the new relays, capacitors, etc. in his Amana refrigerator.  As the story has unfolded you know now that ultimately none of the components we replaced were the problem……the problem was the compressor.  I know some of you are thinking that this is why you wouldn’t want to trave full time in an RV……expensive things break, and when they break on the road way far away from home it gets very expensive to fix, or replace them.  No doubt this is true, and it is one of the problems with RV’s that are used on an infrequent basis.  Mechanical things need to be run, used, operated….you pick the verb.  When RV’s sit for long periods of time in storage it is hard on engines, generators, refrigerators, running gear, tires, etc.  Refrigerators, whether they be the household type like Tom’s, or absorption like mine, need to be run on a continuous basis in order to avoid premature failure.  Tom has only owned his 2002 Newell for less than 2 years…..prior to that it was a hospitality coach for American Honda, and sat a lot.  I’m sure you all can cite examples of refrigerators you have owned for a decade, or two without incident, but of course it was plugged in running almost continuously for 15-20 years, right?

At any rate, when things break and need replacement, or repair you deal with it and continue on with style, just as you did before…….just as you would when something at home breaks like the garage door opener, air conditioning, furnace, roof, BBQ, etc.  Our good friends, Chris and Cherie, have been sitting in Billings, MT for the better part of a month while their Detroit Diesel 8V71 is rebuilt….and they are almost done, and should be back on the road in a week, or so.  They are great examples of people who live on the road and deal with break down with grace…..they have made lemonade out of a big lemon, and have adjusted to their circumstances with style.

Well, we have adjusted to what I consider to be a minor inconvenience to Tom’s refer breakdown.  Sure it’s not our refer, but when you travel in a caravan anyone’s breakdown affects the rest.  With plans written in Jello we have been able to adjust to our circumstances and are having a blast.  By the time we depart Beaver Dam on Sunday we will have been here over 4 days…..sitting in the middle of the beautiful, stunning “middle of no where”…..we should have been in Lake Louise, Banff, the Columbia Icefields, and Jasper by now and on our way south back into Montana to see Glacier National Park, and we will see them soon…..in the mean time we have met people we never would have met, and come to appreciate and enjoy the peace, and serenity of the wide open farmland here in southern Alberta.

On Friday we ended up leaving for Calgary to pick up Tom’s new Kitchenaide refrigerator at Trail Appliances around 9 am in Forest’s Chevy pickup truck…..it took about 45 minutes to get there.  Trail is an enormous appliance store….the biggest I have every seen.  Tom paid for his new refer, but before we unloaded the old  Amana, and loaded the new Kitchenaide we headed over to Home Depot to buy a new water line (he has water and ice in the door), and then then new string for one of Forest’s window shades in his coach….the string broke several weeks ago, and he has had to hold it up with clamps since then.  Once those things were acquired we headed back to Trail to unload the old Amana, and pick up the new Kitchenaide.  By that time it was lunch so we stopped at a local Humptey’s (a chain of 50’s style dinners) for a hamburger…..on top of the great hamburgers they also provide free WiFi for customers…..score!

The trip back to Beaver Dam was uneventful, and saw us arriving around 1:30 pm….while Tom and Forest removed the packing material from the new refer I helped the ladies with a small part of their re-stringing project of Forest and Cindy’s window shade….a long metal bar that attaches to the bottom of the shade was slightly deformed and needed straightening, so I took care of that.

Since the new refer was laying on its side all the way back from Calgary it will have to sit upright for 24 hours before it can be run, and that is going to put us into late afternoon Saturday, necessitating our delayed departure until Sunday.  In order to put the new refer inside the coach we had to remove the doors just as we did on the old Amana to get it out.  Additionally, we had to make a couple of minor alterations to the compartment for the new refer to fit properly.  We will finish that process Saturday morning, and then insert the Kitchenaide into its rightful spot.  Around 5 I headed over to our coach to watch the end of Friday’s Tour de France leg, and take a nap before dinner.

The ladies successfully restrung the window shade and now it goes up and down, staying in what ever position you desire.  We had another communal dinner, and then headed for our individual “homes” for the evening around 9 pm….early for us!

Thanks for stopping by!