Interstate 8 to Yuma (at 3:10?)

In our previous life aboard evermore, traveling with mechanical problems was pretty much par for the course. But so far our RV life has been free from this kind of stress....until now. (Could it be as simple as a 30 year-old boat versus a 5 year-old RV????)

When it came time to leave Palm Springs, after spending three weeks idyling  next door to one of the biggest RV centers in SoCal, we discovered that one of our slide-outs (those are the things that change an RV from a road rig to a livable home when parked) was broken and wouldn't retract. You know Dave - "It's time to go - let's get it fixed in Yuma." Since we can't drive down the highway with it hanging out, we muscle it in by hand. Then, to keep it from sliding out while making a left turn (I can picture this happening to Robin Williams) we place wooden blocks under it to keep it wedged in. And off we go to Yuma Lakes RV Park.



We're heading here to see our old friends Len and Connie Martin (see our blog post of a year ago) as well as traveling across the border here at Algodones, Baja California, Mexico for meds and presciption glasses. We are joined by our good friends from Lake Havasu City, Larry and Phyllie Coon who have appeared a numbers of times in this blog. Both Larry and Len are "Mr. Fixits" and I instantly recognize an opportunity for a do-it-yourself (with a bunch of help) project.

We called all over Yuma looking for the broken part, with Len using his local contacts as a starting point, with no success. Then Jan said "check out the Internet." (She left out "...you Bozo" because she's too nice to say it out loud.) Hallelujah! There it was, and only a UPS Saturday delivery away from us.

We remove the offending piece and wait for Brown to show. This is not what it looks like.

Eureka, we are saved. We slap it back together and IT WORKS! $90 instead of $500 if we had had the pros fix it. That deserves a big hug!