saying goodbye (again)

It’s been a busy and fruitful three weeks since my last post!

Once we knew the completion of our vehicle repairs was imminent, we slowly began saying our goodbyes to friends and family – coffee dates, game nights, birthday parties, lunches and dinners out. We had such a great time: we made several visits to Rob’s Brewpoint, Deron hosted a lunch for his old high school buddies and spent the evening at their regular game night, Sandie introduced me to Tabu Shabu, we had one last dinner with Rob & Kat at Lazy Dog Restaurant, we met Jim & Cathie and Matt & Taylor for a fun evening of food and spider stories at Liberty Station Public Market (the empanadas at Parana Empanadas were BOMB), Sylvia and I caught up over lunch at Black Bear Diner, and I had a delicious breakfast with Cassie & Khloe at Sheldon’s Service Station.

We took our nieces and nephews to Birch Aquarium – what a treat to watch our youngest niece, Brookie, experience wildlife up close for the first time! It hadn’t occurred to us that due to COVID, most of those types of places have been closed for much of her 4-year life, so it was all new to her.

We spent time with lots of friends at a wonderful dinner party to celebrate Sylvia’s birthday, met Deron’s dad & stepmom, Jan, at The Brigantine for Jan’s birthday, and celebrated Brookie’s birthday with the whole family at a fun dinner at Denny’s.

When we weren’t partying with other people, we cooked some great meals together, enjoyed lots of walks around the neighborhood, and had a couple of nice dates – we had delicious sushi at Tabu thanks to Lanell, and today Deron and I and the dogs enjoyed a fabulous lunch at The Presley in Liberty Station. (BTW, our dogs are only able to calmly dine with us in public due to all the work our fabulous trainer has put into them.)

In the midst of all the fun we also began taking care of business so that we would be ready to leave town this Sunday, August 21 – getting vet appointments for the pups, picking up the Honda, completing various side projects, writing endless to-do lists, plotting our trip and listing the RV parks where we needed to make reservations.

And then yesterday Deron took the RV for a final test drive.

However… SPOILER ALERT – the RV failed the test drive!!

First, the generator (which was just repaired) quit working, then the propane leak alarm went off when Deron had parked for a bit. He opened up the coach to air it out, and that seemed to resolve the propane problem (which didn’t repeat itself), but he had no luck figuring out the generator, so he headed back. The mechanics said they couldn’t do any more repairs to the generator than they already had, so Deron was ready to just take it as is, but then the mechanics found a new coolant leak!!!

So our poor beast is spending another weekend, and probably a few more days next week, at the mechanic.

And obviously we won’t be leaving town tomorrow.

Thankfully, our sweet friends have once again extended their hospitality and are allowing us to continue to stay in this cute little house until the repairs are complete.

In other good news, despite Rush Truck Center Beaumont’s attempt to lay all the blame on San Diego Heavy Truck & Equipment Repair (SDHTER), due to SDHTER’s diligent, detailed processing of the engine repair, CAT is finally onboard and is reimbursing them for all the faulty parts and their labor on this second rebuild. Deron pursued our insurance company again and was able to get us an $861 reimbursement for last year’s tow in New Mexico, he’s continuing to seek compensation for our many hotel stays, and will be pursuing Rush Truck Center for the return of the $3000.33 we paid them for an incomplete and incorrect diagnosis.

We know we’ll get going someday. We’re excited to head through the lovely Pacific Northwest again – when we’re near Portland, we’re hoping to spend some time celebrating with Tori (she and her boyfriend just launched a small business, Enlightened Minerals) and Savanah (she just got a new job) – and to see the beauty of Idaho and Montana for the first time.

Honestly, we can’t really be all that upset about the delay when we have opportunities like that waiting in front of us, and our community taking care of us in the here and now.

We are still blessed beyond measure.