Troubles

Saturday was a organize day until 4pm when I got to see my old friends Donna, Jan, Sandy and Jean. Sadly, Debbie had a sick kitty and couldn't make it. As women do, we chatted and nibbled while Donna whipped up a gourmet meal of butternut squash soup, pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes and asparagus followed by the most decadent dessert I think I have ever had. It was a Bon Apetite recipe called banana coffee meringue pie. Sound different? Well, it was so beautiful I had to take a picture of it. Of course, I don't have a computer to download pictures with, so you will see us and the pie in a later post. Gary hung out with Sandy's Bill, bringing home some leftover pasta sauce and skeds. We parted after sharing little gifts and promises of seeing each other again before Christmas.

Sunday we got ready for our departure on Monday to Independence RV for some more warranty work on Bella. She is getting a new ladder (someone must have knocked into ours at one time and broken the bottom part.) Then our washer/dryer isn't drying very well at all, and other things. So I ran up to the laundry to do the sheets and was thrilled to see they had wash lines! There is nothing better than the smell of sun dried sheets. Out they went, and I practically hyperventilated inhaling the fresh scent of sunshine when we went to bed that night. Ahhhhh.

Monday we were getting things ready to head out - Gary got his shot, money, gas in Mesa, and generally tucked things away for the three hour ride up to Clermont. Around 11 am we were ready to crank her up. But it took 5 seconds to turn her engine over instead of the usual two and when she idled, it sounded terrible! Gary stepped on the gas, and she sounded fine, but when we let her idle, it was Not Good. I called the RV place, held up the phone to the back end of Bella to see if he had a clue. He said he'd call me back after talking to a mechanic. Of course they don't work on engines but he did have an idea. We tried turning off the cruise control, checked the RPMs after turning on to resume, but she still sounded sick. Gary called Caterpillar who referred him to a facility that did mobile repairs. We had to leave messages. Then I called my little brother who uses heavy equipment at work. He listened and couldn't diagnose over the phone but suggested we check the water-fuel separator, but we had already done that. There was no dash light on, but he said to not run her engine in case we do more damage. Meanwhile I had a call into CoachNet, our roadside service, and was going to make an appointment for a truck to come to us, but Gary's arm was hurting especially bad and I called the Dr. instead of waiting till midnight for another trip to the ER. They asked us to be at the office in 15 minutes, so we dropped everything and ran.

He had an ultrasound done, but they couldn't find anything other than his original blood clot, so his Dr. gave him another type of blood thinner shot that he will have every day this week, until they have s supply shipped to us. Then I get to play nurse again. But he is feeling great except for his wing, which we will get under control.

We have Bella to thank, for he would have been scared and miserable if we were up in an RV repair shop. So, as I always say, things happen for the best. We have time to get her fixed, and a mobile unit will come out tomorrow to get her engine going again, so it worked just fine.

Meanwhile, we will enjoy a re-run of White Christmas and some soup and the sandwiches I had made for lunch for our supper.

Tomorrow will be better, I'm guessing. Hope I'm right.