One of the cool things about traveling around the country in a motorhome is that no matter where you are, when you're inside the coach you feel like you're home - even when it's in the parking lot of a Freightliner repair facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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To be doubly sure we'd be ready when our service tech came a' callin' in the morning both Suzanne and I set our phone alarms for 6:30am before going to bed. We arose this morning after a restful night's sleep, readied the coach for slide retraction, walked the dogs and were back inside stowing/securing a few last minute items when there came a knock on the door...
"Whenever you're ready, bring it on up the hill to door #7 and honk the horn!"
I retracted the slides and landing gear, disconnected from shore power, aired up the coach and drove up the hill to door #7 as Suzanne and the dogs followed behind in the car. Premier Truck Group has two very nice lounges for service customers - one for truckers and another for RVers. After allowing the dogs one more opportunity to potty we entered the building, walked through the service check-in area and up the stairs to the RVer lounge where we settled into a couple of very comfortable leather recliners, turned on the TV and awaited word from the tech as to what was wrong with our coach.
I guess it was about 40 minutes later when I got the call...
"Mr. Killian, I have some pictures and an estimate for you. I'll be up in a minute."
Gulp.
The pictures...
Leaking, rust-rotted post-turbo pipes
Not what things are supposed to look like
The estimate...
Hey... whudya gonna do? A little more than I expected - but it's a bigger job than I would want to tackle. Maybe if we were home and I had plenty of time and more tools at my disposal... maybe I'd take a whack at it. At any rate, the parts have been ordered and should be in by Friday. The tech told me he'd dedicate the entire day on Friday to getting the job done so that we can be out of here and back on the road by 7pm closing time.
P.S.
The exhaust issue I had after leaving California? This was the real problem!
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Figuring the coach was in bay #7 for the duration, we found a pet friendly motel about a mile down the road and checked in - paying for two nights. The room turned out to be... shall we say, "somewhat less luxurious than expected"? Despite housekeeping's valiant efforts, even the most liberal Lysol fumigation cannot transform a smoking room into the non-smoking variety. That, and the hairy pillow cases had us very much wishing we were someplace else. Just as we were discussing our options there came a call from our service tech at Premier.
"Mr. Killian, I've got your coach back together and parked down in the RV lot if you'd like to move back in."
Boy did I!
I went out to the front desk and got my money back, minus a $20 housekeeping fee (uh, yeah... right) and we drove back to the RV lot at Premier. We'll hang out here for the next couple of days awaiting the arrival of our parts. The RV lounge will provide a comfortable enough environment for us and the pooches to while away the hours on Friday when the coach is behind door #7 being repaired. There are also some nice looking parks and hiking trails in the area.
Then it's back to living the dream! Right?
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