Maggie in for Repairs and Our Own Vortex

When we pulled into Quartzsite we noticed Maggie began to shake while we were driving.  At slow speeds a very little and then when we reached highway speeds a lot more.  Since we felt this shake on our first voyage drive over 8 years ago we assumed it was our UJoints that needed to be replaced again.  Something that Jerry thought he could do since he had done this sort of repair many times before during his life as a Mechanic, but it wasn’t going to be so we made an appointment with Mead Automotive and RV Repair in Blythe, California. 

Three hours later they said they replaced the 3 UJoints, and that 2 of them were bad and then told us that there was a right rear axle seal leak that would need to be repaired but they did not have the time to do it and would not be able to schedule that until next week but that it needed to be done as soon as we arrived in Yuma.

We had made a reservation in Ehrenberg, Arizona which was less than 10 miles from the repair shop and once we got up to speed on the highway the shake began again with little difference. 

We found out a few years back that Maggie could not be aligned due to the way Ford made the bar that fits on the front tires, it would have to be redone by Ford and would be costly if at all.  So we have opted to rotate tires and purchase new tires more frequently than most people do and thus far this had worked but we had slacked off doing it the past few years since we had not been traveling many miles and staying west for the most part.

Once we got settled into our site Jerry got underneath to check out the tires for strange wear and tear and he found it.  Not only was the inner, rear, passenger side tire leaking it was warped and bubbled.  We called Good Sam Road Service and had them put our spare tire on and then the plan was to drive to Yuma to get tires rotated and replaced if necessary.  We are now confident that this is the answer to the shake and we really didn’t need the UJoints replaced yet but they are done and it doesn’t hurt to have them newly replaced.

We had a long and uncomfortable drive to Yuma with the spare tire on and the leaking seal but we made it without any issues.  Discount Tires were pretty booked up for appointments over the weekend so we were going to check into the resort and then get it done first thing Monday morning. 

Unfortunately, from that moment forward all hell broke loose and we got into this vortex that has taken us for a ride under the blackest cloud.  We wrote a separate article all about our difficulties once again with Colorado River Adventures CRA MembershipParks, this time in Yuma.

As for our issues with Maggie, they continued and then got worse…

Since CRA would not honor our reservation we were in a pickle to say the least.  We were stranded at 4pm in the afternoon in Snowbird Yuma without a reservation and Maggie was wounded.  After many calls we finally found a place to stay the night that was not going to break the bank.  We limped over to Rolle’s Lynda Vista RV Park and we are really shocked that the reviews were so good.  See our separate review on this stay.  Anyway after a sleepless night due to extreme noises we called Discount Tires to try to get in that morning, which was a Saturday, they were able to squeeze us in so off we went.  Or, so we thought…

As I jumped into the driver’s seat to move it off the blocks, I turned the key…nothing!  A slight little click, click and then nothing again…  We do have an emergency button that allows us to switch our engine battery to our house battery in such an emergency so to start our engine and it worked great.  Whew…again could have been worse but we now have to purchase a new engine battery but at least we are not stranded.

Arrived at Discount Tires for our appointment and the place was packed…  After standing in line and then going out to Maggie to check out the tire issues we then determined that because of the one tire causing the shaking just made everything else worse.  After closer investigation that shaking caused a few of the other tires to have strange wear and tear and the only thing to do was to purchase 6 new tires…OMG there went our travel fund cushion.  We now barely have enough to get across country but the alternative would have been much worse so we bit the bullet and got them all replaced and it only took a little over an hour.  They were fantastic and now with Walmart stepping away from tire replacing on RV’s more and more we think we will be happy with Discount Tires for servicing along our travels.

Once they were done we stopped at Walmart and replaced our battery…more out of our travel fund…will this ever end?  We thought it had and we found a nice place right next door to stay, read our separate review about our stay at Suni SandRV Resort, a little over our budget but we felt welcomed and right now in our journey that was what we needed.

Once settled into our site we turned on the water heater for showers as I put the dye into my hair, all of this stress was turning my hair grey…yea right!  After about 45 minutes I stepped into the shower and turned on the water…waited for the hot water that never came.  Screamed out to Jerry for some help as I came out of the shower.  We then realized that the water heater was not igniting, usually when that happens we get a warning light but probably due to the battery issue the warning light never lit up.  The igniter burned out since it was continuously trying to ignite for those 45 minutes…ugh…really?  There I sit with dye in my hair for a lot longer than advised and wondering when this will ever end.  Once Jerry realized it was the igniter, he remembered that he had a backup that we had purchased in Quartzsite the year before when we had that issue then.  What a stroke of luck!  It took him only moments to replace it and it ignited and the water began to heat up.  Thanking the lucky stars that keeping the dye on for a lot longer than it should have been on did not hurt my hair and that all this mayhem could be worked out.

We did dig deep into our funds with all the issues and at this point we only have just enough to make it back east with nothing to spare.  So we are looking for work, something temporary that we can do between Benson, Arizona and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina that will replenish our funds once again.  If not we have decided that we will continue east with what we have and just continue to pray it is enough.  Not our ideal way to travel across country but it won’t be the first time and the way our lives seem to play out, it won’t be the last time either.

Life throws us curves and we can choose to either take a deep breath and go with it or we can kick and scream and allow it to take us down.  We choose to release our fear and just believe that we are meant to head east and have the time of our lives enjoying all the wonderfulness of our dreams.

If anybody knows of anybody in need of a few good workers along our route, please EMAIL US with their information, and of course please say a little prayer for us.

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