We had been out for three weeks and all had gone well, but that was not to last. On January 31st,
Murphy came and decided to stay for a few days.
We were preparing to leave Quartzsite and go to Indio, CA, about 130 miles away. Since we had ample time I decided to install a VHF antenna, a project I meant to do before we left home. While doing the installation I noticed the weather seal between the slide out and the body of the RV had come loose and was just about to fall off. I think it came loose when we had the ice in White's City. As I headed to the truck for a tool the neighbor called over and said, "Do you know your rear tire is flat?". It turns out that I had picked up a thorn from running over a desert bush the previous day. I finished the antenna and repaired the weather seal, which took a couple of hours, then proceeded to install the spare tire. I removed the spare from storage and jacked up the truck, but try as I might I could not budge the lug nuts. They were stuck on tight! So it was on to plan B... plug the hole. Fortunately I had a purchased a small air compressor just for an occasion like this. I got out the generator and air compressor, plugged the hole, aired up the tire and started the trip to CA. We were only 3 hours later than planned and thought we would still get to CA before dark. Thirty minutes later, as we pulled into a rest area to check the tire, the hole plug blew out. What a racket! So I hauled out the generator and air compressor, re-plugged the hole and aired up the tire again. This time the repair held and we made it to CA, but not before dark. It took 6 hours to go 130 miles!
But the next day Murphy was still with us.
In the morning when we turned on the gas hot water heater it refused to light. After some fiddling it finally started, a poor connection on the solenoid I think.
Ten minutes later our son, Jim, called from home. "Hey Dad, the furnace is out, it's been out for two days." We called a service technician and the furnace was fixed the next day, which was Friday. Saturday we received another call. "Dad, the furnace is out again and it is supposed to get down to zero and stay there for the next week!" Oh boy. When it rains it pours. Murphy, please, please go away!
To make a long story short the furnace was finally fixed, for good, on Monday. The house stayed warm thanks to our wood burning fireplace with a catalytic heater insert.
But Murphy had one more surprise.....Monday when we returned from doing some errands we found the shade on our largest window dangling by one loose screw. All of the three screws holding the shade had been improperly installed at the factory and two actually fell out of their holes.
Murphy finally decided to leave us on Tuesday. Good riddance!
