Day 87 - More frustrations but we make it to Rapid City
The morning is a waiting game - nobody has any idea what
time the new air conditioner will arrive and Connie, who ordered it, has taken
the day off. This, as we'll discover
later, will cause us lots of problems since nobody at this business bothers to
tell anybody else what they've done.
We take advantage of the "free" morning by doing
the laundry and by about 1pm the new
unit has finally arrived and Justin and his team are ready to start work. We bring the cats inside the shop and then
discover nobody is now working on our RV.
Apparently somebody else is locked out and this takes precedence over
us. Quill is her usual silent type, but
Cosette makes it very clear she's not happy about a second day in the
carrier. Shirley, in the office, tells
us it will take a long time to install the new air conditioner and we tell her
we're going down to the museum in Moorcroft.
She applauds this choice. Unfortunately
we have to leave the cats where they are.
The Texas Trail
Museum is actually more of a
history museum for the town of Moorcroft,
but no less interesting for that.
Cynthia, the curator, is a wealth of information. The trail did come through town and many
cattle passed through on their way to the railroad to the north.
We browse the exhibits.
We see the World championship Saddle Bronc Saddle that Robert Etbauer
won in 1990. This is cool as we were
actually in the arena for the National Finals Rodeo that year when he won
it. He and his brothers Dan and Billy
were all among the top contenders when we followed rodeo with a passion. We didn't know they came from this area.
I'm amazed to see that the Moorcroft Lions Club was
chartered in 1924, only 6 years after Lions International was founded,. Most of the clubs in those days were in big
cities, but this little railroad town had a thriving club! They've done a lot for the community over the
years. We spend over 2 hours at the
museum and then stop at Donna's Diner for a Cynthia-recommended ice cream
before returning to Gillette.
The next half hour is not very pleasant. The RV has its new air conditioner and the
cats are glad to see us. Vicky had
worked out with Connie and the insurance company that they would bill the
insurance for the labor. (They already
made us pay in full for the unit before they would even order it!). As I mentioned, Connie has taken the day
off. Neither Justin nor Shirley will
accept what we tell them. They can't get Connie on the phone at home and the
insurance adjuster has gone home, so they insist we pay them in full.
We finally get Phil, one of the owners, involved but this
doesn't help much as he discovers they had under-billed us and wants even more
money. He does make a couple of
adjustments but we can't leave until we pay them. To make it worse, Shirley tells us it's our
fault the insurance is closed because she told us it would only take Justin 2
hours. As I've already said, she told us it would take "a long time"
and nobody ever called us to tell us the unit was ready.
My verdict on Eastern Motors and RV? The work appears to be good. We haven't had to use the new a/c unit yet
but we have been through a lot of rain and have no leaks so far. However, their staff members don't talk to
each other, and they don't trust either their customers or insurance
companies. If there were another RV
repair place in the area (which there isn't) I would go to it.
So it's 6pm. We get the cats back in the RV, give them
some water and hit the road. Vicky
drives the RV and is delighted to find that the new stabilizers we bought at
the convention have made a huge difference in the handling. I know this without her telling me since I've
been following in the loaner car and she's been driving (legally) at up to
70mph. Previously she seldom went above 50!
The 135 miles to Rapid City
go by quickly. We find Camping World
with no problem. They told us they have
concrete pads for RVs in their parking lot and if one is free we're welcome to
use it. We do find one, back in and get
a pleasant surprise. The pad has water
and electric hookups!
Did I mention that we've been having problems with the
door? It you don't slam it, it doesn't
always close. Well, Vicky comes out of
the RV to help me with the hookups. As
we do this we talk to a man walking a dog.
When I go back to check the electricity is working OK I find the door
wide open and no cats in the RV! Here we
go again!
We find them easily - Cosette is under our RV and Quill is
behind the next one. But there's no way
they are going to let us catch them until they're done with exploring. After a frustrating half hour we give up and
wait for them to come back of their own accord.
Sure enough, after a while we hear Cosette meowing at the door. Quill is still among the missing but when I
go out later I find her, still behind a neighboring RV. This time she condescends to let me pick her
up and bring her home.
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