As the ongoing oil leak saga continued, we heard from the San Diego mechanic that they felt the Beaumont mechanic was jumping the gun by concluding that we need a new engine, as they hadn’t performed all the testing that would be required to determine that. The San Diego mechanic tried reasoning with Beaumont, and even worked on getting CAT corporate involved (we have a CAT engine, and all the parts the San Diego mechanic used in the rebuild were new CAT parts), but no one could convince Beaumont to do more than they’d already done. In the end they decided to put the engine back together, charge us for a week’s worth of diagnostic labor, and return the coach to us – basically washing their hands of the situation.
After trying unsuccessfully to find another nearby CAT-authorized mechanic who would agree to work on it, we realized our only real option was to head back to San Diego so that they can perform all the tests they need to find the real diagnosis, and fix it.
Thankfully, the San Diego mechanics are standing by their work and have assured us that they’ll take care of us.
In our downtime while we waited for our coach to be put back togehter, we began pursuing other avenues (our RV insurance, CAT corporate) to try to get some compensation for the incomplete diagnostic testing and the two weeks of hotel stays we’ve incurred so far. And we were entertained by a couple days of thunderstorms, and new wildlife that appeared afterwards.
Deron’s birthday was on Tuesday; it really lifted his spirits to receive texts and calls from lots of friends and family. We celebrated by taking a pretty road trip across Lake Houston to the nearest Torchy’s Tacos, in Kingwood. The tacos were delicious!
Sadly, on the ride home, we heard the devastating news about the horrible events in Uvalde. Our hearts and prayers go out to all the families represented at Robb Elementary School, especially to those who lost a loved one. Though it was over 40 years ago, I still vividly remember sitting on the bus hearing the news that Brenda Spencer had opened fire at Cleveland Elementary, where my cousins were at school. Tragedies like those are life-changing, and really put little bumps in the road (like our oil leak) in perspective.
Today we’re finally back home in our RV, and it feels great! We’re spending the weekend back in Livingston, then heading straight to San Diego with brief stops near Austin, Fort Stockton, Las Cruces, Tucson and Yuma, arriving at the mechanic on June 6 to drop off the coach. From that point we’ll just wait and see what happens… we have no idea whether it will take them 3 days or 3 months to figure it out, get new parts, and fix it. Of course we’re hoping it’s more like 3 days so we can quickly get on the road again (now it makes even more sense to head north rather than east, so that’s what we’re planning on), but however long it takes, we’re sure hoping we won’t have to spend too much time in a hotel room!
We are both so appreciative of your prayers as we navigate this frustrating situation!
Schutzonthemove 