Lincoln County

F'n stands for frustratin'... Camping always comes with challenges. But I have to say that we have been facing setbacks daily on this trip. Besides the AC on the van going out, I've not mentioned the other frustrating situations.

We're up early today at 5 am. Neither of us can sleep because all we can think about is how to get the van AC repaired. Last night we plugged the van into an exterior outlet at the hotel, but within minutes the breaker flipped without anything large running. So when I thought Doug was just running out quickly to fetch a couple forgotten items, he disappeared for 45 minutes to park the van at a campground across the street where he could plug it in. Of course, we could have just stayed there, but we didn't know this place existed until the guy at the hotel offered that as a solution. We did get nice hot showers though and my hair is nice and clean.

Right now we're headed to the closest Walmart, 52 miles west of Quinter. Operation AC Repair: 1. Buy a socket set to get to the fuse compartment to see if the fuse is bad. 2. Call my service representative at General RV in Dover, Florida for suggested solutions. The website chat representative was no help yesterday.

Arriving to Walmart....

Well, it's not the fuse. 10 phone calls and two hours later, from General RV to Thor to Promaster business line to local Dodge dealerships times 3... and no one can help us until next month.

Since this trip began, we have had two drawer closures that are broken requiring the drawers to be taped closed, a broken bottle of olive oil that dripped down out of the overhead compartment onto my skirt that was drying on the sofa; and a soap dispenser that fell off the wall and spilled all over the counter, coffee pot and into the stove top requiring an emergency stop, 20 minutes of clean up and half a roll of paper towels. In addition, the bed extension broke and wouldn't allow the bed to close. About 10 screws stripped out of the plywood/particle board. I pushed myself belly up under the bed like a car mechanic with a Phillips screwdriver to give us at least a temporary solution so we could close the bed. It's still not perfect, so that goes on the list of things to repair. The awning is broken as well... not even sure how that happened. We've had frustrations with my phone overheating, not charging, trying to get maps to work, no signal, hotspotting, and Bluetooth connection. We had our first argument over dumping the septic, and supposedly every couple is challenged on communicating when backing in a vehicle.

At 9 am Mountain time, we are now about 1.5 hour east of Denver at the Transwest Dodge dealership in Limon, Colorado. We might be here 2 or 3 hours, but they are going to take a look and see what the problem is.. after the other six vehicles that are lined up on front of us.

1:00 pm and we're back on the road with a box of tacos in hand. The verdict is the AC fan clutch rusted and caused both the compressor and condenser to fail. Good news is that it's under warranty. Bad news finding parts is difficult. Only 12 dealerships in the country have a compressor in stock, they say.

While we were waiting at the dealership, I did some work and we looked for a campground to stay in when we're in Moab, Utah in a few days. It will be necessary for us to be plugged in to a 30 amp so that we can run the camper AC. I booked a stay for 4 nights there.

The guys at Transwest Dodge were wonderful! Jesus the auto mechanic and Dan the service manager were so nice and helpful. The parts guy also was so great and helpful. He found a compressor in Kingman, Arizona, for us and called the parts guy there to put the compressor on hold. After we left, I called Martin Swanty dealership in Kingman and scheduled a service appointment for the 19th. Then I spoke to parts to make sure they would have all the parts ready for me.

This service detour will change our schedule and plans a little bit. Staying at campgrounds until its fixed, cutting our time in Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks by one day each, and staying at least one night in Kingman at a hotel perhaps.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger and maybe, just maybe, it will be an even better experience.

Westward bound.... to check into our campsite and catch a concert at Red Rocks tonight!Read more