What I Love...

What I love about being an RVer is that I meet so many interesting folks.  Through LoWs I've made some great friends who are always ready to offer their ideas and assistance for day-to-day mundane issues.  For instance, one day my friend asked me if I do art - he knew I'd drawn an egg shape on a piece of metal for another friend who is building his computer and wanted to see inside the case, through an egg shape.  He was covering a window in his bedroom, and thought he'd like to have something more interesting to look at outside than a blank window.  As we talked I mentioned that the cover for the front window of my trailer had been broken for several years, since a micro-burst storm in Tucson.  He said he could fix it and maybe we could work a trade for a painting.  He also said he would help me reseal the topper on my truck, as it has been leaking.

"Walter" (not his real name, but some would say his real personality!) wanted a painting of a hobo - my own creation would be fine - whatever I wanted.  I made a sketch and we agreed on a few details.  Then I set to work.  What fun I had! With a couple of onlookers the painting was installed.  It looks pretty neat. 

I love the song, "The Happy Wanderer" and that could be the title for the painting. 

While I was making the Rapid City trip I put the truck in the shop for some repairs; I had a specific concern that I wanted them to check out.  When I returned and picked up the truck I learned that the garage had put 40 miles on the truck, used up most of the gas in the tank, and they didn't 'see' or 'feel' the symptoms I'd described.  Returning the truck to them, after two more days, they told me that I would need a transmission at a cost of about $2700 - $3300 for a new transmission, installed.  Well, I'd also learned that my friend had just had his truck transmission rebuilt in a local transmission shop for $1200.  He gave me the number and I called.

Last Friday, after about four days in the shop, I too now have a rebuilt transmission, for $1500 (I have 4-wheel drive). And the issue I was concerned about is now resolved.  It isn't that I didn't need a new transmission - it was the cost - and the first shop's inability to 'find' what was wrong the first time (actually, they'd checked it out last spring when I was getting ready to leave Deming for the summer and didn't pay much attention) In the future I will give my business to the transmission shop (they do other things, too).

This is Diana Decker's recording of "The Happy Wanderer", from 1954.