Something went wrong. I predicted yesterday that we would be the big winners of the Mega Million lottery. That didn’t happen…I thought I would always get what I wished for…what went wrong? Actually, we aren’t ahead of the game, but we had $6.00 in winning tickets.
Today was refrigerator installation day and the crew got started early. Billy was back to work today after his young boy had been in the hospital due to an illness. We were glad to have him back on the job. Here are a few photos of the final preparations for the placement. There is an extra ledge that has been placed to help support the extra depth of the new refrigerator. It is put into place and then the plumbing is completed on the outside for the icemaker along with a shutoff valve should we need it in the future.
At this point we were ready to get out of their way for the day and we had plans to drive to Casa Grande to pick up Ken’s prescription and meet John and Linda for lunch. Before leaving, I called Walgreens to check on the status of the prescription. Two days ago, when we called they said the problem with the insurance company was that they wouldn’t help pay for it until today. When I called today, they said they needed a prior authorization from the doctor. Ken called the prescription person at his doctor’s office and told her what happened and she promised to call the insurance company and do what she could. Just as we were getting close to Casa Grande, she called back to tell us that she would call in a prescription for another medicine to get Ken by until she could get the prior authorization sent in which could take a couple of days. We continued on to Walgreens to check in with them and let them know what was going on. They hadn’t heard from the doctor’s office yet, so we told them we’d check back later. Back in the truck, John and Linda called and we decided to meet at Cracker Barrel for lunch. We had a great lunch and visit with John and Linda and after lunch, we met them at the Roadrunner Market where we bought the winning Mega Million Lottery ticket for tonight. John and Linda also bought some tickets, so we hope they win a dollar or two! 
Here’s a look at it in place. Due to lighting issues, the photos aren’t the best, but it gives a general idea of how it looks.
Looking back, we probably would have gone with a refrigerator that wasn’t so deep, but this one works out okay. Also, this one did not have a reversible door, but we have enough room that it is workable. The technicians here recommend a counter depth refrigerator and in our search, those are all special order items. After talking to the owner of RV Renovators, he said he would consider talking to a local appliance dealer about the possibility of having a couple of those in stock. That would be a good thing. Our RV refrigerator failed suddenly and we weren’t left with much choice as the counter depth refrigerators take 3-4 weeks to receive once ordered…not a good thing for most RVers.
On Saturday, we will be packing up and driving back to Arizona City, but not before fueling up at Flying J in Eloy and taking on propane. We only have a couple of more weeks before we need to start our journey north.
The new refrigerator was delivered Wednesday evening around 6:20pm and left outside our RV in the yard at RV Renovators in Mesa, AZ. We were anxious to have the work started Thursday morning, so we let the office know that it was here and we were ready. Before the technicians started to work, our Coleman cooler was sitting in the space left after the removal of our RV Norcold refrigerator. We’ve been able to keep a few items in there for breakfast and an evening beverage.
In preparation for the work to begin, we moved the Coleman cooler to a temporary location in front of the sofa. The technicians started out by placing some protective covering over the carpeting.
In this next photo, Tony has removed the flooring that held the RV fridge above the furnace. A new floor will be placed about an inch or so above the furnace as they continue the job.
With that task underway, we decided to take a break and drive to Tortilla Flat about 25 miles from here. We headed to Apache Junction then turned onto the Apache Trail which heads up into higher terrain. It was a very scenic drive.
This next photo is looking down to Canyon Lake.
And here we’re on the final approach to Tortilla Flat.
And a couple of photos at Tortilla Flat:
We stopped at the café for a hamburger before returning to RV Renovators in Mesa. Tony was still working on the new flooring for the new refrigerator, so we figured that Friday would be an all day job. We then planned on a trip back to Arizona City on Friday to meet John and Linda and pick up our mail. We talked to Kelly in the office to make sure someone would be in their office on Saturday to make our payment before we leave Mesa. After doing that, we returned to the RV to find out that the boss had decided the refrigerator would be moved in the RV this afternoon and they actually made very quick work out of it. First the driver side window was removed.
The window has been removed and towels have been placed over the steering wheel and pilot’s chair to protect them.
The refrigerator is moved around to the driver’s side on a forklift.
Then it’s lifted up to the platform they use to remove the window. This is the same platform they used early in February for the replacement of our front windshields.
And here are a few photos of the refrigerator being passed through into the RV.
It’s in the RV and they’re placing it into it’s overnight spot in the middle of everything!
And it is now standing up in the middle of the RV. Since it had been on it’s side for the pass through, they told us to wait a couple of hours, then plug it in to cool it off overnight.
With that completed, we headed off to Costco where Ken wanted to look at some tools which were no longer available. What can I say…I paid them off! So the only money spent there was for a Costco hotdog. From there, we briefly stopped at Walmart for a few things we needed for breakfast and then it was back to the RV. We started watching some tv after our return, and after a short while there was a knock on the door asking if anyone was there. It turned out to be a woman who was filling the vending machines and had been locked out and needed the gate opened. It was Ken to the rescue.
Tomorrow after the technicians get to work on the refrigerator replacement, we will be headed to Arizona City to pick up our mail and meet John and Linda to show them our house and have lunch.
When we ordered our new refrigerator at Sears yesterday, we informed them that the delivery would be to RV Renovators in Mesa, a business with business hours. We were told that we would receive a call sometime today to confirm a 2 hour delivery window timeframe. These callbacks leave no opportunity to speak to a human and when we received the call, we were told that the delivery would be sometime between the hours of 5:15pm and 7:15pm. Great!!! This business closes at 5:00pm, so I had to talk to a real person which is also not an easy task. So…I called the number for the Sears store on our salesman’s business card. Yet another automated phone system…when I said it was about delivery…my call went to someone who finally got ahold of someone in delivery for this area. An earlier delivery couldn’t be accomplished, but they were able to give them information that we had a key to the gate here and that they needed to call us upon their arrival.
We haven’t had business with Sears in many, many years and I’m not to eager to do business with them again after this. I think big businesses have forgotten what customer service is all about. Did I mention that I hate automated phone systems?!?
It looks like tomorrow will be another wasted day for us with nothing accomplished!
We had planned to drive the RV to Mesa on Friday to look into getting the refrigerator replaced, but the work to get the old one out took it’s toll on Ken’s body and we decided to wait until Monday to do that. During the day, we saw the skydiving planes fly over several times so I called Skydive Arizona to see if they would have any more large jumps. When we found out they had another one planned about an hour out we drove down to the Eloy airport to watch the activities. The 11 planes carrying the skydivers flew over in a “V” formation and when the jump occurred, they all appeared in the open part of the “V”. This was a group of Germans hoping to break a record, but to our knowledge that didn’t happen. It was still pretty impressive to watch.
This former van was transportation for the divers.
Employees at the airport were kept busy re-packing parachutes.
I spotted another cactus blossoming in the neighborhood.
The remainder of our weekend was spent on a variety of small jobs around the RV and house.
Today we got things packed up and put away and prepared for our drive to RV Renovators in Mesa. We arrived there around noon and checked in at the office. Most of the employees were at lunch and it would be an hour or so before anyone could take the measurements for the refrigerator. When we went back outside to unhook the truck, we received a call from Shirley and Charlie who we had talked to earlier in the day. From the earlier conversation, we knew they were headed to Camping World in Phoenix for some work. As it turned out, they were at the one just down the road and they were having lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. We were able to get away for a while to meet them for lunch and had a great, but short visit with them. Hopefully we’ll get to meet up with them again before we all head north. On our return to the RV, we met with Levi and Billy to go over what we wanted to do about a replacement for the Norcold refrigerator. We were given maximum measurements for height, width, and depth and off we went shopping (not my favorite thing to do). They had suggested that Sears or Spencers had the counter depth refrigerators that would work for us. Our first stop was Sears and anything they had was not available for 2-3 weeks. Spencers had something that might have worked depth and width, but Billy told us the height of it was not good. After talking a bit more, he told us he could make adjustments and that we had the room for a refrigerator with more depth than originally planned. So we headed out for more shopping. This time we went to the Sears store at another mall with our tape measure and we finally found something that we could both agree on. We were hoping to find something we could pack into the truck and take back with us or have delivered on Tuesday, but that wasn’t going to happen. It will be delivered on Wednesday to RV Renovators and hopefully we’ll be headed back to Arizona City by Friday or Saturday.
On Wednesday we needed to deal with looking into some kind of a replacement for our RV refrigerator. As we follow several RV forums, we knew that we could put in a household type refrigerator and it would be workable. Sheila and Glenn were coming to our place for dinner, so I got some beans started in the slow cooker before we headed to Casa Grande to do some research. We looked at Home Depot, Lowe’s and Best Buy and there wasn’t really too many household refrigerators that would fit in the space and fit through our door. So we put our thoughts on hold and returned to the house to get things ready for dinner. Compared to Sheila’s cooking, my meal was pretty simple: barbecued ribs, beans, and cole slaw. No photos, but we had a good visit with good friends.
This morning we discussed the possibilities of a new refrigerator and decided that although we didn’t really want to spend more money, that the best solution would be to take the RV to RV Renovators in Mesa to have a replacement installed. Ken called them this morning and after a long conversation, decided that we need to drive the RV up there for them to take the necessary measurements to determine what we can do. We then spent the rest of the day removing the dead Norcold refrigerator. We laid some tarps down in the kitchen area and pulled it out of it’s space. After that, Ken took a saws all to it. That was not a pretty picture and made quite a mess of styrofoam throughout the RV. In retrospect, I would have chosen to let RV Renovators take care of that task. But, in the long run, I guess that will save us a few hours of labor. Once the demolition was completed, we loaded it into the back of the pickup (with the help of our neighbor), and hauled it to the landfill.
So tomorrow is another road trip to Mesa and we may not return until Saturday.
On Sunday morning, Sheila called and invited us to be guinea pigs for a new recipe she was trying out. Since her meals are always good, we accepted the invitation and once again, we had a terrific meal. I can’t remember for sure what all was in the recipe, but a corn meal mixture with peppers and corn were baked in poblano peppers, then topped with a very good sauce with onions and/or peppers and cheese. The meal was accompanied by a southwest cole slaw with jicamas and red peppers, rice and shrimp and margaritas.
On Monday, after first going to Glenn and Sheila’s a solar screen company representative came by our us to look at the sliding door to see what could be done. His bid was higher than we wanted to deal with at this time, so we drove to Casa Grande to see what Home Depot had to offer. They had a similar type door for a better price that we ordered and it should be here in about 3 weeks. I guess that tells us we will be here until mid April for sure now.
Today while Ken worked in the garage to finish a few items for the setup of our security system, I kept busy dusting and vacuuming the RV. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but sometimes it just has to be done.
This afternoon I heard the sound of airplanes overhead and went outside to take a look. There were eleven of the skydiver’s planes in formation, so it looks like they’re building up for the big jump.
After lunch, I noticed a strange odor in the RV that at first smelled like food going bad, so I sprayed some freshener throughout but still noticed the smell getting increasingly worse. I opened up the refrigerator to look for something going bad only to get a worse smell of ammonia. As we follow several RV forums, I knew that could only mean that our refrigerator bit the dust. We’re very fortunate that this didn’t have 4 weeks later as we could have been traveling. At least here, we have the refrigerator in the house where I moved everything this afternoon. Then Ken started removing the refrigerator so that we can look into getting it replaced with a regular household refrigerator.
More adventures to follow…what can possibly happen next? I’m hoping for winning the lottery!
It’s not uncommon to see a rabbit or two in the yard in the mornings around here.
You can just barely make out the ears of the second one a little to the right in the brush.
On Thursday, Ken wanted to pick up some items at Harbor Freight, so we headed to Tempe and surrounding areas. As we left our house, there was a crop duster out spraying the cotton fields.
On our way back to Arizona City, we drove close to the new Intel building going up in the Queen Creek area. The numerous cranes can be seen for quite a distance from I-10.
Friday was another road trip for us starting with a trip to the social security office in Casa Grande as we had not received our SSA-1099 forms to complete our taxes. We had to wait about a half hour to talk to someone, but once that happened, we quickly had the copies we needed and were on the road again. We had never been to Florence, AZ which is the county seat for Pinal County. We had purchased a home security system and decided to drive there to turn in our permit and payment for the alarm system.
We start heading toward Coolidge and Florence.
Heading into Coolidge, the Casa Grande Ruins was on our right.
In Florence, there were a couple of prison facilities to the south of the Sheriff’s office.
At the sheriff’s office we turned in out alarm permit application and fee, then headed to the assessor’s office where we visited with a very knowledgeable and helpful employee. We made one other stop at another county office, then headed north of the sheriff’s office just over the Gila River where we stopped for lunch at the Riverbottom Saloon. After a good meal, we decided to drive to the Eloy Municipal Airport to check on the status of 240 person skydive that was to be taking place in this timeframe. After our arrival there, we saw this interesting bird nest a couple of cars over from where we parked. That driver will be in for a big surprise!
It wasn’t too long before we saw three planes flying overhead in a triangle formation.
And then the skydive began.
Repacking the parachutes for another go at it.
And back in Arizona City, we saw this cactus in bloom.
We had a St. Patrick’s Day visit from a female red cardinal in the bush by our RV.
