[Me!]
Well, ‘lucky day, lucky day’! As I think that we are finally and hopefully, ready to hit the road once again.
As I told Tom Halter, the Service Manager for Beaver Motor Coach Service Center, “this has been the longest year in Bend that I have spent over the last month!” But really, it was not all that bad. If you have to be stranded somewhere, Bend really is not too bad a place to be…some great sights, good eats, a relaxing river, good local beer, and super weather overall.
The tech’s started the re-assembly on Friday afternoon, and continued with it at 6:00 a.m. this morning, and coming to a finish after testing and making a few minor adjustments, at 4:15 p.m. this afternoon. The new custom slide-rods are now larger and heavier than the originals (…not to mention ‘straighter’). It all works like a charm now and we are a couple of happy campers let me tell you.
I must give kudos to the Beaver Motor Coach Service tech’s and staff in handling this issue for us. I know we grew impatient and overly anxious as time flew by, but in retrospect these guys did what they could as fast as they could, and in the end it was a matter of virtually having to re-design and work the bugs out of the design, so as to have parts that were finished and ready to be installed for optimum operation. I would definitely use this shop again in the future, especially for anything major (including paint and body work, as I saw some of the “before” and “after” work that Bruce did on a couple of damaged coaches. The final evaluation is that the finish work was like ‘new’; very nice and professional. We are quite happy with the crew at Beaver, and the quality work that they performed for us, in spite of all the set-backs (out of their control) and delays caused over the past five-weeks, of which was through no-fault of Beaver Motor Coach. We watched them do the assembly, make the adjustments, test, and re-test. There were no ‘shortcuts’, but rather a high level of quality work, performed in a most professional manner. Very satisfied with the work and even with the final bill (yes, it was rather sizable, but less than we had figured it to be; plus they cut me a good discount, which helped immensely I may add).
We are so happy to be back in our own home once again (and with a ‘mended wing’).
Our plans now, that we are basically ready to roll once again, is to stay over tonight in the Beaver RV park, and then beat a trail out of here come bright and early (…you know, at least by the “crack-of-noon”; no, seriously, it will be fairly earliesish (hmmm, is that a word? It is now...kinda anyhow), around 7 or 8 a.m.). We are headed south from here in the direction of Visalia, stopping tomorrow afternoon in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and then turning southeast to Susanville, CA on Wednesday to make a visit to our grandson Billy, and his wife Erica who have a new home in Susanville. Then on Thursday we will continue south on US-395 through Reno, Carson City, Nevada and then back into California, through Mono Lake, Lee Vining, June Lake, Monmouth, Bishop (as in Mule Days and the old historic Bodie ghost town, Lone Pine (think we may be just a wee-bit late for the rally…unfortunately, but hey,we will be rolling!), and then on over to Ridgecrest, Tehachapi, Bakersfield and up through ‘America’s Breadbasket’, the San Joaquin Valley, to Visalia. We are looking forward to it, and for certain, we will keep you posted here on our traveling blog.
P. S. I should add that Kalua, who stayed with the two of us in the motel (and she is a real ‘trooper’, and such a good dog, albeit that she is old and in her twilight years now; she does take a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’!), and our Bailey-cat stayed with the coach (easier for the ‘putt’), and she had plenty of food, water, and her own potty. But we made a ‘Bailey-visit’ (also known as a “okay guys, where are we at now?”, visit) every work day, so that helped Bailey as well as the two of us also of course. The ‘kids’ did very well, in spite of the circumstances.
Did you know?: Oregon is the only state flag in our nation of 50 states, with a different front and rear to their flag; the state seal is on the front of the flag; and, the Oregon beaver is on the rear of the flag.
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