~Thursday, July 30, 2020~
Day 46
In the night, Jeff had a thought that maybe the neighbor’s water issues were simply that the tank was already full, not allowing them to put any more water in. We shall see.
Today’s the official day of making great progress on the truck. The transmission is supposed to arrive from Texas today, and tomorrow...installation (we pray). We’d like to be on the road by Saturday.
I finally got a welcome bit of GREAT news. I had emailed Yeti a few days ago about the 5 year-old Hopper 20 Shane had given us a few years back. Unfortunately it developed a broken zipper on our trip, so my request was just to fix the zipper, nothing more. They’ve retired the Hopper 20 (thank goodness since it really was not a good design in terms of being able to access what’s inside). The new Hopper 30 has a magnetic closure instead of a zipper, which sounds like a much improved design. Even though ours was past warranty, they approved to REPLACE it. Man that is some good customer service! Not only did they offer to replace it, they gave us 4 options to choose from and they’re not cheap (around $290 each).
We got a nice break from the heat by spending time at the pool. It turned out that our Argentinian neighbors were heading over there too. Had a fun time watching their 2-½ year-old in the water. Wow, what a swimmer already! We also met a retired couple and their 2 grandchildren. As to be expected, we struck up a conversation with them about how we ended up in Bakersfield. Sadly, they’re stuck here too for the same reason. They have a Coachmen motorhome with a Ford motor that developed a failed coil, but not bad enough that they couldn’t drive it to the RV park. At least they were able to still live in it until their parts arrive which should be next Monday. The dealership they’re working with….Jim Burke Ford. Of course we had to share too, our breakdown sob story and subsequent tow to Jim Burke. They’re on day 7 of waiting, we are on day 14. We all agreed the RV park is nice, but let’s get the show back on the road. I guess there’s some bit of comfort knowing we’re not alone.