Through the looking glass.....

I have been dreaming of new windshields for about 4 years now.....ever since I first noticed the lower left corner began to 'pop' out and noticed how old and brittle the glass was.  I'm pretty sure the left half of our two piece windshield is an original piece of glass as it had begun to 'fog' up along the bottom edge.  When we got hit by that cascade of rocks thrown up by a truck as we rolled through Indio on our way to Octotillo on December 30th, and then the spider web of cracks developing the next morning I realized my dreaming days were over.....it was time for action!  The right half of the two piece window had been replaced by the prior owner about 9 years ago, but it was also damaged by the rocks, so it was time to replace both sides.  

The second day we were in Quartzite Michael and I went driving to explore Quartzite, and on our way back saw this glass truck driving along one of the dirt roads which led to our encampment.  We flagged him down and asked him to follow us to our coaches as we both needed windshields replaced.  Jim inspected the windshields on both coaches, and confirmed the glass needed to be replaced so we he called our insurance carriers and helped us file our claims advising he could order the glass and have it by Tuesday (January 19th) and probably have them installed by Thursday, or Friday.  Well, as I reported two days ago we received the phone call setting our installation date for Friday between 0900 and 1300.

Marty and A.J. from Nomad Glass arrived shortly after 0900 and went directly to Michael's coach to begin installation of his glass....his windshield is much larger than mine so they had to install his first so they could get to my glass which was behind Michael's on the truck.

 The boys from Nomad Glass working on Michael's coach.....the glass is already out!

While Marty and A.J. were working on Michael's coach I got busy removing my air operated windshield wipers.....I'm glad I did, because it took me about 30 minutes to get them off.....I had to spray some penetrating oil on to the shaft of each to get them loose, and within 20 minutes they came off easily!

 The wipers are off!

They were finished with Michael's installation a little after 1100 and promptly moved their truck over to the front of my coach.  Below you see they have already removed the driver's side windshield and are carefully cleaning the rubber gasket before re-gluing it to the frame in preparation for the new glass.

Below the old battered and cracked driver's side glass..........

.......in my workaday life I was a property and casualty insurance broker for over 40 years so I have seen a lot of windshields replaced, so I must say that Marty and A.J. are both extremely patient and knowledgeable about installing RV glass.  One risk with the type of windshields I have is it is easy to be impatient and force the glass in causing it to crack......they took their time and working as a team gently 'massaged' each piece into place, made sure both were properly centered and then glued them.

 Marty and A.J. gluing the gasket back to the window frame

 On to the passenger side windshield

The passenger side glass is removed!

Both pieces are installed and now it's time to clean off the excess glue and clean both the windshields inside and out

It did take longer than I was expecting to install both pieces of glass, but in the end it was done professionally without damaging the glass.  Unfortunately it was closing in on 1330 hours by this time and we had planned to do some shopping over at the BIG WHITE tent and also meet our new friends Russ and Debbie for lunch at Mountain Quail Cafe.  Since we were running so late we went directly to lunch to meet Russ and Debbie just before 1400 hours.  I love places that serve breakfast all day, so when I found out Mountain Quail Cafe did I had to order Bacon and Eggs with hash browns.......the food was delicious!  Yelp gives them a 3.5 star rating, and based on everyone's comments I would have to agree.....not the best every, but very solid!  Just as the day before we had a lovely time getting better acquainted over lunch, and then followed them back to their 1996 Newell for their 10 cent tour.  By the time we finished it was closing in on 1600 hours and knowing the various vendors would begin to close up for the day at 1700 said our 'until next times' and headed quickly back to the BIG WHITE tent.

We had two things more to buy, but had been waiting till the end of the RV show to see if prices might drop a little.  First up we wanted to buy some new camping chairs and had found some we liked.  Originally they were selling 2 for $85, but this Friday the price had dropped, as we hoped, to 2 for $75!  We quickly bought to new red camping chairs with side tables.....

One of the two new camp chairs

....we also wanted to buy some new outdoor solar LED 'Malibu' style lights and had seen some at another booth we liked so we next headed there to get the lights (no price drop here) and then head for home home before it got dark.....one of the things we like about these new lights is they have an 'ON/OFF' switch so you don't have to remove the batteries when you stow them away.....our old ones had no such switch.

These new lights just sit on the ground.....love them!

We gathered with Mike and Liz for our last sunset fire together.....the 9th of this series.....around 1700 and talked until close to 1900 hours before heading inside for the night.....as always it was a tad bitter sweet knowing we will be parting ways Saturday for about 10 months before we meet again in Texas next November.

Thanks for stopping by!