Yosemite to ??????

Yep! You read that right..... we headed out of Yosemite and are heading somewhere between here and Phoenix, AZ, which basically means middle of nowhere, desert, somewhere. Yosemite to Phoenix is 12 hours and no way do we try to do THOSE long days! lol ;) That's just crazy talk! So we go back to our original road tripping skill..... by the seat of our pants. {aka. no reservations, just go till the driver is tired} Some of us don't mind the uncertainty that brings and others get a little uncomfortable not knowing where the nights stay will be. Where I put my foot down, is when it comes to staying at these.... lol 😝

In moments of desperation, you'll see from past blogs that we've stayed at a Walmart before. But honestly it was out of SERIOUS desperation from literally every hotel and RV park being booked in an area. The one we stayed at in Colorado last time was like an RV park with everyone and their dog who was in our position and couldn't find anywhere else to stay. It was a party! But other than that, I pull up RV Park Reviews and do my best to co-pilot us to a normal RV park. When the driver starts saying "where are we going to stay tonight?" I know that's my cue to get into gear!

But I digress.... in the meantime we still have a 5-6 hour drive to get through, I mean, enjoy! 😉
So we eat lunch...

Some people are always looking for something to eat {nothing changes from being at home}... However, this position is a very dangerous proposition on the road! You have to always be on guard for sliding objects that will meet their demise in your face or on the floor - a previous trip had a full half gallon jar slamming into my toe from the fridge open while driving. So you open slowly and have your hands free to catch any forthcoming items. Btw... left hand turns are the best time to open the fridge.

We've seen some pretty cool landscapes full of amazingly large windmills.

 

And of course, I came through with a KOA we could stay at for the night. In fact, they had ONE spot left when I called about 30 minutes out. But before pulling in we stopped at one of our trusted regulars for dinner...

We finally made it to our camp spot at the KOA, put our jacks down, put the slide out and got settled for the night. As we often do, the littles went to bed and we stayed up playing games with the bigs. Here's a quick rundown of our game of Speed UNO.... 

Our plan was to get on the road first thing in the morning. Our estimated travel time was about 5 1/2 - 6 hours and we knew the closer we got to Phoenix, the higher the temps were going to rise. Thus, up and ready to put the slide in and close everything up about 8am. But there was one slight problem... the slide wouldn't budge. I mean, we could get one side to go in a bit, but the other side wasn't moving an inch. Hmmm...... well we've had some slide issues before but a little finagling and we could usually get it. BUT NOT THIS TIME!!!! 😟 

Just so you know, if the slide (which runs almost the entire length of the tin can) doesn't come in, there be.... NO DRIVING. What is important to know is that we had just replaced 1 of the 2 slide motors before we left. So our amazing driver pulled up his trusty assistant... YOUTUBE. And there he went attempting every suggestion he could find to retract the slide. 

You can see in this photo - the wall that his arm is crossing, is the amount of space the slide still needs to come in.

And we began making phone calls....

 - Beaver Coach in Bend (who just replaced the first motor)

 - KOA front desk.... any mobile RV service companies you know about?

 - the motorhome manufacturer emergency technician line

 - the mobile RV service guy the KOA lady recommended

 - RV service place in Phoenix

 - now... GOOGLE! 

 - an RV place in Barstow, CA (where we were stuck)

 - 2 more guys the above recommended

All we got was MESSAGES all the way around! Huh! And so we wait, the driver fiddles more and more, and we wait for a call back and we pray. Right then the phone rang and it was the motorhome manufacturer's emergency tech returning our call. YIPPEEEE! I mean they are in Indiana but maybe they are going to say - 'oh ya - just do this in that instance and it will come back in.' Ya - nice thinking! He was a very nice gentleman and talked our amazing driver through the issue for awhile. The consensus was to use the one good motor we had and pull one side in with it a little bit and then switch it to the other side and pull that side in a little bit. And little by little, perhaps we could get it in enough to drive. By the way, the eldest in the family originally came up with this idea! <3

It's now just after 12pm. The KOA has asked us to switch to another spot which could be a sketchy proposition driving slowly with the slide out. The chauffeur has worked on it for 4 hours now. And we are no closer to getting the slide to retract let alone get on the road. 

And so I stared at the chicken scratch of 2 names that the driver had scribbled down, two local guys that might be able to help. How do you pick between between a "Tim" and a "Richard?" We'd already left messages with both of them. But you know, maybe they didn't hear it ring originally and don't know they have a message!?! Which name would you pick? Hmmm.......... okay, Tim sounds like a guy that would have a nice personality. lol And so I punched his number into my phone and held my breath.... ring, ring, ring..... HE ANSWERED!!!!!!!!! 😁Yahooo! I explained our situation to him and that we didn't need the slide repaired, just retracted. We'd work out the repair when we made it to Phoenix! 

And he says....

OH WE CAN DEFINITELY GET YOU ON THE ROAD. I'LL BE THERE IN AN HOUR!!!!!!!!!! 

Please meet Tim! 😀 He arrived, came in and assessed the situation with the driver. He agreed with the plan to just keep switching the motors back and forth. There were a couple of hiccups in the plan but they figured those out and kept working. And when they were stuck they'd keep thinking, keep trying and do something different. 

Can I add that it was 95* out and we had our AC on as much as possible but sometimes it was too loud to be able to communicate with one person on the outside and one person on the inside. 

Oh ya - let's not forget the 4 kiddos that need occupying during this time! lol The two oldest were a huge help with the littles. And so they watched a movie, played tackle football (carefully on the gravel - lol), got ice cream from the little store, played at the park and swam in the KOA pool. We were trying to stay out of the way of the two hard workers but that was hard with a small space inside and no shade outside but we made the best of it.

And so, 4 hours later..... the SLIDE was IN! 😍 One side was out about 2 inches but overall that was not bad and very drive-able given the circumstances. And so after the driver worked 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon with Tim, we were done! It was a long day for everyone but oh so thankful we could move on! 

Tim was gracious enough to grant us a photo - he was our HERO! 

And wouldn't you know it, somewhere towards the end of the day, Tim told us he was actually a PLUMBER! lol 

Now on to Phoenix, where we have already called ahead to an RV place there and they are expecting us. The story is not quite over yet...