Once we were too far in to stop we saw the pump island we were going to pull in to was out of order and the pumps were being worked on. That required us to pull up a slight incline and make a sharp left turn to the pumps on the second fuel island. Turned out the station was a filling station / liquor store and had a lot of traffic. A car was filling up and we had to wait quite a time before the car finally left. We then had to come down the incline to the pumps and in doing so “slightly” bumped the underside of the overhead awning with our front air conditioner. Just slight enough to ruin the air conditioner. I, of course didn’t hear or feel anything but Priss said she thought we had just pulled over something metallic on the ground when we pulled to the pump. (But it was Priss’ responsibility to watch for low flying obstacles). Anyway, the overhead awning didn’t come down on us so there is always something to be thankful for but the incident left us with only one of our two air conditioners for the Southern California summer heat.
When we got to Acton we set up and turned on the coolers but noticed the front unit was not working, and, and you could see daylight from inside the RV. Not a good indication. I climbed on the roof and saw the unit was pretty damaged and beyond repair. There was a RV dealership next to the RV park where we were staying and were able to order a replacement unit. Only problem…….. 4th of July weekend.
We had plans to do a few things while in Southern California but put everything on hold to make sure we got hands on the air conditioner. Another issue was getting someone to install it. The dealership said they were backed up for three weeks and two mobile RV repair companies said they were slammed but would try to help, to call them back when we had the new unit in our hands for sure.
The unit came in when planned and with luck on our side Frank was not working one day and said he would install the unit. Frank came over and showed me how to make ready to remove the bad air conditioner and he would come back on his day off to remove the old unit and install the new unit. I got all the bolts and stuff off the old unit and had it ready to pull off. Frank and Lisa came over and in pretty short order the new unit was installed and the old unit was in the dumpster. If you have no clue what you’re doing it’s nice to know (and be related) to someone that does. It probably took 30-45 minutes to complete the job.
Very grateful to Frank and Lisa. Was absolutely great to be in a “cool” camper instead of a “not so hot” camper.
Our plans had included going to the Nixon Library and taking a boat ride 26 miles across the sea to Santa Catalina for a day but we just put everything on hold and enjoyed visiting with the Larricks, Larricks and Politellis. Trickey Dickey and the island cruise can wait for the next west coast trip.
Brian and Misti had us over one evening for poker and thanks to Brian, Priss and I left with a good down payment on the new air conditioner. Brian probably had to refinance his new two wheeled toy.
THANKS BRIAN! AND THANKS FRANK & LISA!
On July 4th we hung out with Susan and Buddy then just before dark we drove to a spot Buddy knew on the back road to Palmdale where we could watch fireworks. The spot was a high point overlooking Lancaster and Palmdale where we could see a very large area of the two towns. We could see several fireworks displays but were just too far away. Still an enjoyable evening.
Before we overstayed our welcome and the rig was still cooling it was time for us to hit the road so off we went on the next leg of our trek.
-Tom