oh no… still in Alamogordo!

So we checked out of our Alamogordo hotel late Monday morning, on faith that the part for our RV would be delivered and installed before the shop closed at 5pm. At 12:30 we heard the part had indeed arrived, but the mechanic was at lunch. While we waited, we spent the afternoon driving around / parking in the Honda, trying to stay cool since we no longer had a hotel room to return to. The only highlight was a brief walk to check out a nice viewpoint at Desert Foothills Park, where we could see the white sands in the distance as a white line on the horizon.

Finally, just before the shop closed, we discovered the wrong part had been shipped and it would not fit! The shop had been working all afternoon to locate the correct part. So… back to the hotel we went – where they very kindly rearranged things to put us back in the same room for two more nights. (Krista at the front desk and I have declared ourselves new best friends because I’ve been in the office so many times.) One bonus – as an extended stay hotel, maid service is only available on request, and is an extra fee – but we found the workaround, LOL, because after we’d checked out, they’d cleaned our room.

The correct part arrived Tuesday and was installed, but unfortunately did not resolve the problem. So we had to bite the bullet and have them replace the injectors – a very pricey fix – but one that will insure the engine really runs well. But that also meant we’d still be stalled in Alamogordo until Saturday morning! The hotel staff are all starting to feel sorry for us – on Wednesday morning when I added two more nights at the hotel, the manager waived half of the pet fee, and then that evening when I went back in to add Friday night as well, they waived the pet fee altogether.

We spent the rest of our week discovering new places to explore – we drove up into the hills to investigate the view from the expensive homes, saw a few dust storms, and took a road trip (including 4 miles on a crazy deserted unpaved road – thanks a lot, Google maps) to the old Sunspot Observatory. Such amazing scenery!! The rain rolled in while we were walking around the observatory, but the view was so beautiful it made up for the wet ride home. On Thursday Deron checked out a local coffee shop that roasts their own beans – it was yummy!

Sadly, on Friday afternoon we got word that the mechanic was ALMOST done installing the injectors, but that he’d still need to work on programming them on Monday. We were SOOOO disappointed. Once again, I added three more nights to our hotel stay, and we prepared for yet another weekend trapped in this town – this time forecasted to be a wet, muddy weekend with flash flood warnings. The dogs are going to be very sad to miss their trips to the dog park, but there’s no way we’re letting them loose in what is sure to be a mud bog at this point!

We spent a lot of time Friday night talking and praying about this prolonged delay and all the extra money we’re spending. Thankfully, when we finally fell asleep, it was with a great deal more peace – we are well aware that this is just a blip on the radar and someday we’ll laugh about the Groundhog Day feeling of being trapped in this little town for days on end.

We’re really looking forward to having actual travel news to share in next Saturday’s blog post!