Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Little Slide that Couldn't

Remember Black Wednesday from a few days ago?  Apparently Sunday felt jealous and formed an alliance with our slideout. The same one that underwent repairs less than two months ago.  Maybe "repairs" is too strong a word.  "Mangling" would better describe it.  OK, "Repairs and mangling."

Last Sunday, we depart Ashland, OR.  (We including Jenna's sister, who has visited but never traveled with us before.  Boy, did she get an education.)   Eventually take a break at a rest stop.  Extend a slide for room while we eat lunch. 

Break over.  Slide will not go in!  For you non-RVers, envision a trailer with a four foot deep room  extending from the side.  The driver's side.  50 miles from Eugene, where we can obtain repairs.

Having no choice on a Sunday, we set forth on interstate 5, hugging the fog line of the right hand lane.  Oh, did I mention that the trailer brakes stopped working too?  With 6% grades stretching before us?  More an inconvenience really, as the truck can stop the trailer.  But still.

I ask Jenna to use the computer to create fake tickets to the Policeman's Ball, just in case.  But we have no printer readily available.

After 30 miles, I pull into a rest stop for a break.  Fella walks over and offers to help push in the slide.  We make some progress, and now the slide only extends two feet.  Two miles past the rest stop, we pass a trooper in the median.  He does not notice the two foot protrusion.   Likely he would have seen a four foot protrusion.

W finally reach our destination for the night, the Valley River Mall parking lot in Eugene.  Next day we tow the trailer to a solar installer for a new inverter.  A Eugene policeman takes note of our protrusion, but allows us to carry on.  He does not ask about the Ball tickets.

Today we take the trailer to the dealer.  He says that we need a new hydraulic ram, the same part that the prior dealer installed two months ago.  Installed incorrectly.  Tho he did run our payment card through without error.

Now we wait for parts.  Hopefully arrive in three days (Friday) for installation that afternoon.  Then we can continue on our way north!  In the mean time, we will enjoy Eugene.

Too bad we have no grandchildren.  Such tales we could tell.


Bruce

PS To the two readers who have taken to singing my Alaska song out loud.  One word - "Royalties."

2 comments:

palamine said...

Oh, oh, oh! We are so sorry. Chin up, stiff upper lip!

erika said...

Holy cow. I am trying to picture you travelling down the road with that slide out. Didn't people honk at you and try to stop you? Good luck tomorrow. About the royalties, if I had an address I would send you a buck a month. May you have no more problems.