RV Repairs and Preparing for a Long Trip

We arrived back at our place at Cedar Blue RV Park in Sulphur, OK a week ago Wednesday.  On Thursday night we had storms with wind and small hail roll in and drop 2” on us.  The following evening the storms rolled in again.  Only this time they came with tornadoes.  We, along with some neighbors, climbed into our shelter and spent about 45 minutes in our cellar.  Thank goodness the tornadoes were south of us and I don’t think they ever touched down.  We had more wind and hail and this time we had 4 ½” of rain come down.  Needless to say, Lake Arbuckle is flooding a bit and there’s lots of debris in it.  This week we are also dog sitting our friend’s dog, Munchkin, again.  We just had her about 1 ½ weeks ago so I think her parents are getting in some of their vacations while we are still in the area.  She’s a breeze to keep. 

Now back to our RV repairs.  Our refrigerator doors are closing and sealing much better now and everything is working.  So now I’m going to do battle with the extended service agreement folks who seem to think they can better diagnose the problems from Florida then the RV techs are able to do.  They wouldn’t approve coverage for anything more than yet another set of door gaskets, which would have made 3 sets.  Even the manufacturer said another set of gaskets wouldn’t work nor would they even send them and that new doors was the only fix.  So, we paid for new doors and will try to get reimbursed for them. 

One thing we did find out from Camping World was next time they would pull our unit in to diagnose and then, if it’s usable, we can pay the part of the bill and head out while they get parts ordered and in and then return for hopefully just a 1-2 day repair.  That sounds much better than a month out of it and all but 3 days of that was it sitting in their lot.

While the RV was in the shop, they found that the gasket along the top of our windshield was in bad shape and leaking.  They plugged the hole but didn’t offer us much for pulling and resetting the windshield with a new gasket.  I tried to find somebody in the area that could help but the problem that kept getting in the way was what to do if the windshield broke during the course of the pull.  The local companies would have to order a windshield which meant the RV would be without one for about a week and they wouldn’t let us leave our coach inside their garage.  I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this but finally found a place along our summer trip route in Oregon that can help!!  They are called RV Glass Solutions so that’s what they do – RV windows - and their main plant is in Oregon.  They have several windshields that should fit our unit but will have to order a gasket from the dealer.  They have a large indoor facility and provide electric hookups for rigs outside so we can spend a night in their lot if needed.  So even if they break a windshield, they have them in stock on site!  I’ve sent them pics of the bad gasket and am waiting for suggestions to reinforce it so we hopefully won’t have problems until we arrive there in early August.  Of course, if the windshield was broken none of this would be an issue as insurance would cover it all, parts would be ordered and it would all be fixed in a few hours.  I even had a company suggest that we break the windshield!  Unfortunately, I just couldn’t bring myself to do that.

We are leaving for our big trip to the NW on June 20^th and last night I was reviewing things to know for going into Canada.  I found out that we should have insurance verification from our companies that insure the RV and Jeep that show we are covered in Canada.  Sure glad I found this as it has to be requested and mailed from the insurance companies and can take a bit to get.  At least we have 3 ½ weeks to get this.  Hopefully, it will show up before we leave.  I also found a recommendation that we purchase international medical travel insurance as our medical insurance will likely not work in Canada.   I found that online as well and it was reasonably priced.  It also provides medical evacuation to home, if needed, in addition to trip interruption coverage and medical and/or emergency care.

There’s a lot to know about driving into Canada with an RV and pets.  In addition to the usual passports, we need shot verification documents for the dogs, the Canadian insurance verification, and then we have to look at what food we have on board.  Dog food and all prescriptions must be in their original containers.  We had to find a place to store our guns as only the shotgun could go with us but we’re checking that as well.  Thankfully, an RV park we are spending time in on the US side said they would store these for us. 

I think we are close to being ready to head out across the US this summer and pray for God to protect us and guide us to all the beautiful things He created.  We look forward to getting some great photos to share with everybody and just enjoy His creations.