Mesa, AZ - Freightliner Adventure

We’re up 5:00. Well, actually I’ve been awake since 3:08. My neck is still hurting and I am having a hard time finding a comfortable position to sleep in. On my back, on my stomach - both hurt. Oh, well, we get up in a few hours.

Gary’s alarm rang, my alarm rang, the phone alarm rang - lots of back-up today. We groaned but no turning over and snoozing today. We left in the dark at 6:01. First light is at 6:48 and sunrise is at 7:15. We’re in the dark out on rte 60, the main commuter route heading into Phoenix. If we thought that we might miss the morning rush-hour by heading in at 6:00, we were sadly mistaken. Traffic is pretty lively, even now. And, of course there are the ‘swooshes’, you know the type - always looking for the fastest lane.

        ‘Oops, my lane is the slowest, I’m getting into the fastest.’ Swoosh.

        ‘Oops, the lane I was in is now the fastest, I’m getting back get over there.’ Swoosh.

        ‘Oops, there’s my exit: across 5 lanes of traffic.’ Swoosh.

        ‘Hey, I can sneak in right in front of this big RV.’ Swoosh.

Weaving in and out.

We’re not in a pinball machine, guys. This is a busy highway.

But, we finally got to the Freightliner, talked with the manager, left the RV and headed across Interstate 10 to get to the Panera on the other side of the road. Not the prettiest walk, trash littering the sidewalk, crossing 7 lanes of traffic multiple times, hardened mud, dust and sand left over from an August monsoon rain, impatient drivers honking their horns, loud traffic. Ah, we’ll, such is modern life. Remind me of this when I say that I’d rather live in a city than a small town in the middle of nowhere.

At Panera, 2 hours later, we got our news:

        1.) we need a new EGR control valve and

        2.) Good Sam doesn’t cover anti-pollution equipment and

        3.) when the guy took it out for a test drive after fixing the EGR valve - oops, he found another problem.

3 strikes and we’re out.

When it was ready, we finished up at Panera and walked back to Freightliner. We paid (through the nose) and I asked why we were having so much trouble with our Cummins engine and Freightliner chassis. Here’s a map of North America, highlighting places where we have had Freightliner service and have spent time in Freightliner lots during the last 7 months. Count them - only 7 months. As if our bucket list included visiting all of the Freightliner Service stops in North America.

Now, this map does not include Grand Junction in Colorado where we spent a full ‘bonus’ week a few years ago. See, a bucket list item. I’d say - within 3 more years, we’ll have visited every Freightliner in North America.

Things happen, the RV service manager said. ‘If it’s made by humans it will break. The next item that will break will be the exhaust manifold.’ Geez Louise, thanks for that tidbit.

And then we walked back to our RV parked next to the other RV’s awaiting service.

Note that there are 3 RV’s (there were 4 when we walked back), 3 of the 4 were Winnebagos. Now, I say: must be because they need a lot of repairs: my glass is half empty. Gary says: must be the most popular brand: his glass is half full.

Boy, that park model is sure looking good right about now.