Boy, I was not kidding when I said this truck could be the money taker! We spent our whole day in the Tucson generator shop last Friday. It didn't take long for the mechanic to determine the problem was with the $2500 part we had replaced on it just over a year ago. Just in time for it to be out of warranty, of course. Then we had to decide if we want to keep throwing money at this unit or should we buy a new one. When we learned the price of a brand new generator the size we need was over $10,000, we decided to take them up on the slightly used unit they had right there in their shop. The mechanic said he could have them swapped out in about four hours. Well those four hours came and went and we were still sitting there at the shops closing time. They had run into a few issues, including finding out the aluminum frame that holds the generator to the truck had multiple cracks in it. They agreed to work overtime for us, knowing we had to get back on the road on Monday. Even with all their efforts, they still weren't done and can you believe they came in on their day off the next day to finish everything up just for us? That's the kind of customer service that is rare to find these days. We finally left there Saturday afternoon, exhausted and poorer, and I was lamenting our bad luck. Jorge said it was actually good luck since they were able to find and fix the problem with the frame~ something we otherwise would have never found until it fell off the truck. I suppose I'll have to say something I rarely say... he's right.
Our next load didn't pick up until Monday morning several hours away just to the west of Holbrook, Arizona. Getting there gave us a good opportunity to drive thru more of the beautiful Arizona backroads. We hadn't checked the map too closely and were surprised when we once again came upon the beautiful Salt River Canyon. It is amazing to see and coming from the other direction gave us a completely different view of it. The further north we went, the colder and more windy it got too. We ended up parking for the night when we stopped to get a few things at the grocery store only 30 miles from our pickup point. It seemed like a safe enough place to park... until we were jolted awake by the sound of a crash. We both jumped up to see what had happened. Here the wind had gotten one of the grocery carts rolling across the parking lot and it didn't stop until it plowed into the side of our truck and put a big scratch on it. I was right afterall... we are a magnet for bad luck! No wonder our friends call us the Murphy's!
We're not all bad news this week. On the plus side, Rocky has recovered well from his ordeal at the vet last week. He did thwart all our many attempts to give him his prescribed medicene no matter how well we disguised it. He appears to have made a complete recovery without it at this point though. No more rawhide bones but one night he did bring us the little milkbone substitute and asked for peanut butter on that. Yep.. he's back to normal!
That Arizona load was going to Virginia, which is where were are tonight. We unload this in the morning then will drive about 50 miles to Frederick, Maryland to get the next one. Back west we'll go as we make stops in Kansas, Colorado, and finally Laredo, Texas. That gets us close enough to Brownsville, Texas where we will take a few days off to visit with Jorge's family. We do get around, don't we?
Our next load didn't pick up until Monday morning several hours away just to the west of Holbrook, Arizona. Getting there gave us a good opportunity to drive thru more of the beautiful Arizona backroads. We hadn't checked the map too closely and were surprised when we once again came upon the beautiful Salt River Canyon. It is amazing to see and coming from the other direction gave us a completely different view of it. The further north we went, the colder and more windy it got too. We ended up parking for the night when we stopped to get a few things at the grocery store only 30 miles from our pickup point. It seemed like a safe enough place to park... until we were jolted awake by the sound of a crash. We both jumped up to see what had happened. Here the wind had gotten one of the grocery carts rolling across the parking lot and it didn't stop until it plowed into the side of our truck and put a big scratch on it. I was right afterall... we are a magnet for bad luck! No wonder our friends call us the Murphy's!
We're not all bad news this week. On the plus side, Rocky has recovered well from his ordeal at the vet last week. He did thwart all our many attempts to give him his prescribed medicene no matter how well we disguised it. He appears to have made a complete recovery without it at this point though. No more rawhide bones but one night he did bring us the little milkbone substitute and asked for peanut butter on that. Yep.. he's back to normal!
That Arizona load was going to Virginia, which is where were are tonight. We unload this in the morning then will drive about 50 miles to Frederick, Maryland to get the next one. Back west we'll go as we make stops in Kansas, Colorado, and finally Laredo, Texas. That gets us close enough to Brownsville, Texas where we will take a few days off to visit with Jorge's family. We do get around, don't we?