December 10 - 14, 2013 - Along the Coast

From here on in, we kept nearer each other.  As Greg rode up the coast, I stopped here and there, took pics and enjoyed the beautiful views at the water's edge...

 

As I'm driving, I see people standing with cameras, all looking out at the water in the same direction, so I gotta stop!  And there they were - whales!

 

 

 

It was really cold at night.  Greg needed a break, so we met up at this neat place that had a small shop with snacks, beverages...and a fireplace!

And then he continued on into the night... 

Cows on a hill!  How DO they do that?!

The bay of Monterey! 

Met artist Kevin Milligan.  He has a gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea.  On the slower days at the gallery, he grabs his supplies and sets up at some beautiful vista and paints!  He said he had been to NYC recently.  One of his paintings was selected for an art exhibit in the Bowery Gallery.

 

 

 

And now we take a departure from the beauty of the area to give you this message from our sponsors...lol...

...TALK TO US before you make a decision on which RV to buy!!!

It's very early in the morning.  We were getting everything ready to head to Greg's brother's for the final leg of the journey.  As I hit the button to bring in the large slide, frightening loud clunking noises emanate from the slide and it stutters along the floor as it attempts to slide in...and then this happens!

Top space - an inch...
Bottom space - 7 inches!




The bottom track pulled in the lower half of the slide, but the top track broke and it hung at an angle!

And the more we tried to fix it, the worse it got!

We looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief!

Call Thor...it's Saturday so I get voice mail.  Leave a message (I might have sounded a bit angry!) and wait.  

Meanwhile, we talk to Steve, who works at the RV park.  He goes over to the owner's house to get a phone number of a RV service center that might be able to help us.  

Someone from Thor calls back - there's an override procedure to make the motor of the slide work even though it's broken (huh?).  We try that - it doesn't budge.  He gives us a name of a service center in the area and then, well, basically, we're on our own.  

It's getting later and businesses would be open, so I call the name he gave me, and the RV park owner's suggestion and a whole mess of other places.  They either didn't handle this type of problem, or were not open today, or were out of town, or the phone number was disconnected. 

I go over to talk to the owner, Wally, and ask him if  he knows of anyone else.  He doesn't...but he does have a backhoe!  So he gets his guys, Steve, John and another guy who lives at the RV park and...!

Before they get started, I call Thor again, to make sure they will cover this irregardless of what happens!  They agree.  Wally mans the rig, the three guys get lifted up, to push the top part in, while Greg is underneath operating the override mechanism and I'm on the inside hitting the switch.  Lol, incredible.  But thank God, it works!  There was more clunking and scraping but it came completely in!   

It was just so wonderful that these kind souls helped us!  We thanked them all and finished packing up.  Steve stuck around for a while and talked to us.  He's lived in this area his whole life.  Liked hearing about our trek.  Was saying how a lot of this area gets flooded in the rainy season, but they haven't had one this year.  I asked, what about when snow melts. Snow?  He's only seen it once...when he was six.  And he remembers building a snowman!

We have a brace for the front part of the slide that fits inside to keep it from moving.  But we don't have one for the back inside part.  By the time we get to Greg's brother's house, it had shifted open a little.  So that will have to be taken care of before we head home.

Another adventure!