Arrived in Jackson, GA

By the time we got everything settled at Camping World in Chattanooga, TN, and got on the road, it was just after 1:30 PM. We paid our bill and Joel (Service Manager) had some printouts of information for places for us to possibly stay near the Camping World facility in Kissemmee, FL, for the final work on our jacks. He also sent on all the paperwork to that facility so they should be able to pick up the ball and run with it next week. We have a scheduled appointment there for Thursday, January 6th. That puts us very close to Orlando where my interview is scheduled for Tuesday the 4th.

The temporary fix we had on the jacks worked once again during our drive to this location - a total of 159 miles. The only delays we had were just after leaving the Atlanta area where there appeared to be a mass exodus for the holiday weekend. It took us about 45 minutes to go 5 miles before the traffic opened up again.

We left the truck hitched up to the rig all night so that we wouldn't have to use the front jacks and also, to give us a head start today. The State Park where are staying is very nice - it's the High Falls State Park - and below is a shot of our great location:

It's the kind of place we could spend more than 1 night if we had the time to spare. The spaces are huge and private and there is lots to see and do in this area.

Our destination for today is another State Park in Adel, GA, which gets us close to the Florida border. Already the weather is better. It is 46 outside as I write this at 9 AM this morning. We see that even the desirable west coast areas - Phoenix and the Southern California area - are receiving cold and nasty weather. Snow in Phoenix (?). Maybe we are better off where we are, at least for now. No area has been spared so far this winter. We are looking forward to sitting out in the warm sun and enjoying some warm weather in Florida.

We will be leaving here at around 11 AM and expect to arrive at our destination by mid afternoon. Until tomorrow ----

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

From Hope to Despair

Yesterday was a roller coaster ride for our jack repair. Joel - service manager here at Camping World - called us to inform us that some parts did show up from Lippert Components and he wanted to get our rig back into the service bay to begin work. No problem. We were anxious to get the jacks fixed and to get on our way down to Florida.

It turned out to be false hope. The parts that were delivered yesterday were not the parts that were ordered and they could not be used to complete the repair. So, I was charged the $55 for overnight delivery of parts that took 2 days to get here, and were the wrong parts. You can believe that charge is being disputed. The situation now is that we can wait until Monday, January 3rd, order parts again and pay another overnight fee, or wait the 5-7 business days for UPS Ground delivery of the parts. No way, no how! We are having Joel coordinate a transfer of the paperwork to the Kissimmee Camping World near Orlando and we are heading out today. Our plan to spend some time with Josie's sister has been put on hold since we feel we need to get this problem fixed before it gets worse. Also, I will be able to keep my appointment for the Disney World interview on Tuesday the 4th.

One benefit from yesterday's fiasco with the wrong parts was our discovery of a Costco store, just over the state line in Georgia and about 1 mile from our campground here. We never took the right turn to Georgia (state line is .3 mi from here) when leaving this place as we always went toward downtown Chattanooga for all our activities. The Costco store is brand new - opened in October - and is the only Costco between here and Nashville. It's hard to believe that this store is only 1 mile from us and we never knew it was there because it is too new to be in our GPS and/or phone directory. It was fun walking around the store to kill time while our rig was in service.

Our plan is to stay in Jackson, GA., tonight and we have to call to make sure there is room for us for 1 night. We then will travel to southern GA. and stay in a State Park in Adel, near the Florida border. It isn't our desire to be traveling during the New Year weekend but we have no choice at this point. We just hope that it will be a safe and uneventful trip. More tomorrow...

Guess Again

We watched the UPS truck pull up to the Camping World facility around 11 AM yesterday. We thought that things would begin to happen now that our parts were here for the hydraulics repair. Wrong! Joel - service manager - called and said that the truck didn't have the parts on it so he was going to contact Lippert Components to find out what happened. It turns out that: 1- the parts were not shipped, 2-they are not even built and/or ready to ship, 3- my credit card was charged $55 for overnight shipping for these parts, 4- there is no indication when these parts will ship. You probably can guess that there is a hole in our roof where I went through. This changes everything.

The early prognosis is that the parts will not be ready to ship until January 3rd, at the earliest, since that's when these folks at Lippert return from their New Year's break. Of course, I need to be in Orlando on January 4th for an interview at Disney World, so that won't work. We also cannot travel with the jacks in their present state unless I use the temporary "fix" with the bungee cords again. Joel is going to find out this morning if there is another Camping World near Orlando that can handle the repairs and he would then just transfer all the paperwork to that store. Hopefully, they will also have a campground where we can stay while the repairs are performed. In the meantime, he will take our fifth wheel into the shop and finish up the other minor repairs today so that we can get on the road by tomorrow.

It is difficult to understand how something like this can happen. This company has known about the problem with the jacks since early December, when I tried to get a mobile tech service to come out and fix the problem before we left Campbellsville. At that time, they got the VIN for the fifth wheel and all the details of the model we have. There is no way that they could not know the hydraulics configuration before diagnosing the problem. To have someone commit an overnight delivery of parts to us, collect my money, and not even have the parts in stock in inexcusable. I am at a loss right now to figure some way to let the world know about the poor customer service from Lippert Components. Right now though, we need to finalize a plan to get the work done in Florida.

We should know the final arrangements today and we are ready - believe me, we are ready - to get out of this freezing weather. It went down to 26 overnight and is 33 degrees right now. The end is in sight...

Parts Ordered

The parts were ordered from Lippert Components yesterday and they were shipped overnight, so we should get them today. They really upset me though, as they claimed that they only approve UPS Ground as a shipment method for warranty work. If we allowed the parts to ship UPS Ground, we probably wouldn't receive them until sometime next week. It's hard to believe that this company doesn't make exceptions when the customer has already been inconvenienced as a result of their holiday shutdown. Not only that, the problem is a result of their product failing - why should we have to incur any expense at all? They closed their offices on Thursday, December 23rd, and reopened yesterday for 2 days and they will close again for the New Year tomorrow. It cost us $55 to have the parts overnighted - ridiculous!

Camping World is all ready to get the work done when the parts arrive. We have made tentative plans to stay in 2 Georgia State Parks - Jackson, GA., just south of Atlanta, and Adel, GA., almost to the Florida border. The weather isn't much different in the south from what we hear. It is 23 degrees outside right now - the low was 20 - and it is below freezing in many parts of Florida. Who's idea was this anyway to go to Florida this winter?

We're sure that the weather will improve everywhere in the Southeast. It is not normal for it to stay so cold for so long. We can remember that almost every year there is a cold spell - or two - that spreads all the way to Florida. This one could have waited until February or March. A lot depends on whether we get jobs while there. If we cannot get jobs, we will leave and head west. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

The service people will be ready to take our fifth wheel into the service bays at around 10 AM and we are about ready for them to arrive. Our plan is to take our computers and find a good place to spend some time today and try to enjoy some of the area. More tomorrow...

Getting on With Business

Our day after Christmas was another quiet day except for a trip to Sam's Club. It's the first time in almost 2 months that we were able to go to one of these warehouse stores. There is no Costco here, but Sam's Club is just as good. We loaded up on batteries, toiletries and some other things that are good deals at these stores.

I also didn't mention yesterday that Josie fixed a great Christmas dinner for us - turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, cranberry sauce, etc. We have leftovers to enjoy for a few days.

Joel, the Camping World service manager has already been by this morning to get things rolling on the repairs. He has contacted Lippert Components and they asked for some pictures of the hydraulics manifold that needs to be replaced. He also has the other fixes lined up to be done today, so with any kind of luck, the parts for the hydraulics will arrive tomorrow and we can get that work done tomorrow, and be out of here by Wednesday. We are craving some warm weather. It's only 30 degrees outside now and we have had our fill of freezing weather for a long time.

It's hard to say what will happen today until we hear back from Joel, but Josie will be doing some laundry while I stay and handle the communications with Camping World. We located a laundromat just down the street while we were out yesterday. Other than that, it appears to be just another "cold" day in Chattanooga...

Nice, Quiet Christmas

Our Christmas was very nice and very quiet. The snow actually made for a special Christmas that was very different from recent years. There are only a few people staying in this park and it looks like most of them only parked their rigs here to visit family in the area. We had the park pretty much to ourselves while enjoying the snow. The total accumulation was probably only an inch or so, but it was enough. Today it is very cold - 28 degrees - and the wet snow from yesterday is now ice.

We expect to get our parts ordered tomorrow for the fix on our jacks and, hopefully, they will arrive on Tuesday and get installed right away. We can then leave for warmer weather (we hope) further south on Wednesday. At this point, we don't have a stop lined up for Wednesday because we aren't 100 % sure we can leave by then. It all depends on the repairs.

There are a few places we wanted to go while here, but with the icy roads it may force us to stay inside. Josie also has come down with a cold and isn't feeling much like going out anywhere. It is probably a good time to relax and just enjoy the time off. It's nice to have the option right now and we are enjoying all the free time before moving on. Later...

White Christmas in Chattanooga, TN

Here it is, for only the second time in the last 100 years - white Christmas in Chattanooga, TN:

It is still snowing - probably a total of 1-2" by now, but it is 34 degrees, so I would expect it to change to rain or stop pretty soon. We are 2 miles from the Georgia border and it still snows. Sheesh!

We went to the church service last night and we arrived early thinking it would be crowded. With only ten minutes to go before the start of the service at 7 PM, the church looked like this:

The service did start at 7 PM and there were probably 30 people there. It was a nice service though and we felt better that we attended.

It was back to our rig to watch some TV and wait for Santa to arrive. Our living room was decorated with our tree, nativity scene and a few other
small Christmas items, and the only thing missing were our "stockings hung from the chimney with care":

Maybe next year for the stockings.

We hope everybody has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!