Tuesday September 27th 2016

Today was the first day since I departed New England at the end of July that I didn’t run the air conditioner. The temperature peaked in the low 80s with low humidity. I opened the windows and vents and enjoyed the weather.

I was surprised by a call at ten this morning. I was directed to bring my RV to service bay 32 for service. Based on everything I was told, I expected the call tomorrow morning. It only took me 15 minutes to store or tie down everything, get the slides pulled in and get to the bay. Every minute I delayed would eat into my three hours in the express bay.

Some of the service bays at the Tiffin Service Center.

The two techs went right to work on my list of issues. I had prioritized my list of 10 items with the critical items that I couldn’t fix myself at the top. They added their knowledge of the way the system at the service center works to the prioritized list. They got the night shade that wasn’t working shipped off to the mystery shade fixer somewhere in the service center. Then they moved on to the other items on my list.

The biggest fix was an actual manufacturing defect. It wasn’t something that just broke. When the floor was put down during construction, the hose for the black holding tank flush was crimped between the floor and the frame. They tried to pull it loose, but couldn’t make it happen. The solution was to cut the line and splice in a new piece.

I was able to stay with the motorhome during the service and ask any questions I had. While I was in the bay the horn blew for their 40 minute lunch break. The techs excused themselves and went off for lunch. I sat in my motorhome and waited. It was really quiet and strangely peaceful in the service center during the lunch break. After 40 minutes the techs were back at work and the buzz of activity resumed.

They completed everything on the list before the 3 hours limit was reached except fixing the night shade they sent off at the start of the work. I sat in the motorhome and watched the techs in the adjoining bay while we waited for the shade to come back. At the 3 hour limit the shade still hadn’t come back. I returned with my motorhome to my campsite with their promise to bring the shade to me as soon as it was ready. They thought it would be ready at the end of the day, but that didn’t happen. I expect to see them with the shade in the morning.

Assuming I get the shade in the morning, I’ll head back toward Florida tomorrow. If I don’t get the shade until after lunch, I’ll probably stay here another night. I’m not in a rush.