Quartzsite, AZ …and Wait, Wasn’t This Trip Supposed to Be Over?

Whaddup Chroniclers!?

The big trip is over! Well …sort of. It’s after dark. It’s Saturday and the HB and I are sitting in a rest area not quite in California, still in Arizona, waiting for daylight and this crazy wind to stop blowing. How did this happen? It’s a little bit of a long story…

It started as the four of us were prepping to begin the last leg. McCroc couldn’t get their coach to start! We tried and tried and tried. It was above the mechanical expertise of every member of our crew. We called upon Miguel. Miguel was camped out next to the doctor and the doctor was confident in the mechanical skills he’d witnessed of his camp neighbor. Miguel thought it might be a possible vapor lock in one of the fuel filters. Our motorhomes have two each.

A quick run to NAPA for fuel filters, some diesel and a call to the Auto Club for a battery jump and we were rolling — two hours later than we’d hoped, but we were on the move toward home.

As soon as we hit the interstate, I could hear McCroc screaming like a 9-year old schoolgirl at her first sleepover. “I’m overheating!” And he was. We could see steam coming from the back of his coach.

The Professor, McCroc and I pulled over. The doctor threw two fingers out his driver side window and yelled, "Deuces!" Samantha waved to us, pointed at Stephanie and I saw her mouth, "Gotta run, she wants a hot dog," and they kept going on down the road to Walmart.

Meanwhile, the Professor & I waited with McCroc for a cool down, added some coolant, and then we were off again. For ¼ mile.

Then we heard “I’m overheating again!” Yup, he was. More steam was coming from the back and this time warning lights. We pulled to the side and after several phone calls to numerous RV repair companies, many of which we only got voicemail because they are closed on the weekends, and finally a call oout to California to a mechanic McCroc has used and trusted, who diagnosed the problem correctly over the phone based solely upon our verbal descriptions. McCroc had a broken fan belt which caused the water pump to fail and thus massive overheating.

We sent the professor, Yoko, the Doc & Samantha home while the HB & I waited on the side of the freeway for a big rig tow from Good Sam or triple A with the McCrocs. Since there is no way that I would ever let Mrs. McCroc wait in an incapacitated motorhome, with no AC in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, I invited my favorite McCroc into the climate controlled Coffeehouse Mobile.

The HB gave me a sideways glance when I locked the door behind her with Cmdr. McCroc still standing outside holding his “inside Crocs” in his left hand, and his brand new lavender-tinted unicorn Crocs in his right. Although they had no effect on me, his Hush Puppy eyes softened the HB’s heart. I reluctantly let him come inside with us also.

We waited for over five hours for a big tow to show up. During our wait, the HB, Mrs. McCroc and I wanted to lay back and relax. The commander wanted to play his all-time favorite board game, Candyland. The majority won out on that one. Cmdr. McCroc sat in the chair and we all did what we wanted, pretending not to notice his lower lip protruding like a sullen 4-year old.

Once the big tow showed up, the McCrocs followed their RV to a local Valley of the Sun repair shop complete with its very on RV campsite. Convinient. Because if your RV needs work and you’re miles from home, which happens a lot, it’s nice to have a place to sleep. Especially if it’s your own place. The McCrocs went east and the HB and I were alone for the first time in eight weeks, travelling west toward home.

And that’s how we ended up spending our last night, on our own, at the rest area four miles east of the CA-AZ stateline, boondocking.

We’ll be headed out, as soon as the wind subsides.

Drink ‘em if you got ‘em!

One band, one sound.

#coffeehousechronicles