PART 2 - REPAIRS

Denis made it back safe and sound from Phoenix after picking up the AC compressor from the dealer.  He is a driving machine maniac and drove 670 miles round trip without incident.  Thanks be to God.

The nights are cool and the campground is quiet so we both had a good night's sleep.  We located a Catholic church less than five miles away, St. Anne's, and attended the 9:30 mass.  What a beautiful, little parish and the people (primarily Spanish) were warm and welcoming.  They recognized us as visitors and gave each of us a blessed St. Anne metal. 

We enjoyed a quiet day of reading, walking and watching our beautiful baby granddaughters on Facebook video.  I love hearing Kiev say "grammie" and get all excited.  The baby, Kloe, is eight months and daringly trying to stand on her own.   We look forward to seeing them soon.

Denis got up at 6:00 this morning to call the warranty company (2 hour time difference) to provide them with all the information they needed to file the claim for service provided by Big Sky Tire & Repair in Deming, New Mexico.  That's all set.

Sam, the service tech, showed up at 8:30 this morning to install the new compressor and belt.  Less than two hours later he was finished and we were able to drive safely to the repair shop.

If it appears to be out in the middle of no where,  that's because it is

These are the old parts

They are charging the dash AC and things seem to be going well.  We ate lunch while we've been waiting and hope to get out of here soon.  Denis would like to put in at least 3-4 hours which would get us out of New Mexico and into El Paso, Texas.

I know some of you were waiting for Part 2 of this blog and I wanted to get it out fast.  We're not off to a great start for our return trip to New England and hopefully, this will be the only glitch along the way.  Fingers crossed. 

Thanks for stopping in to say hi and God bless you.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN BUT OOPS ... NOT FOR LONG

Anyone who travels by coach knows that travel plans can never be laid in cement because the unexpected can happen at any time.  We left Yuma Wednesday morning bright and early. We noticed that our dash air conditioning wasn't working during the drive and we had to run the generator for the coach AC.  Denis figured it was a blown fuse or something simple and would check it out at our next stop.  So we drove about six hours to a Walmart for a bit of grocery shopping and an overnight stay.  The next morning, we pulled out of Walmart and heard someone honking like crazy behind us but didn't think much of it (on hindsight, we should have pulled over).  We drove a bit more and Denis noticed the engine light was on and we were overheating.  We pulled over safely and sure enough the radiator fluid was blown out all over our tow vehicle. 

We called for mobile road service and carefully drove to the next exit to find a safe place to park while we waited an hour for the mobile service guy to arrive.  The service tech found the water pump belt split in half.  Okay, you'd think, simple solution, order a new belt and install it.  Well, of course, you'd be wrong.  You can't get to the belt from underneath the rig, oh no, you've got to go through the rear bathroom under the sink.  Our tech is not a little guy and it's a pretty tight squeeze but he gets in there and finds out that the belt he has is too short.  Time to order a new belt.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we drove another mile to Little Vineyard RV Park in Deming, New Mexico for an overnight stay because we couldn't stay in the public parking lot while we were being serviced.  Driving there was fun because we're not only overheating but draining the battery.  We had to stop two times during that one mile drive to let the engine cool and battery charge. 

Had a good nights sleep and the next morning, Sam, our tech guy called, he has the new belt and is on his way over.   Now Denis has had all night to think about this and he's thinking "why did the dash air conditioning die right before the engine overheated?"  Could it be that the AC compression froze and that caused the water pump belt to break?  So when Sam gets here, Denis asks him to check the AC for movement .... NONE it's frozen.  Sam says "oh, maybe I should have thought to check that yesterday because obviously that's the problem which caused the other problem."

Sam doesn't want to install the belt because we need a new AC compressor and calls his boss to see if there's one to be found in the area.  Time passes and they tell us the part can be delivered on Thursday (now remember today is Saturday).  This puts Denis into action mode and he's on the phone and on-line doing a search for the part.  He's like a pit-bull and finally finds that Phoenix has the part.  A normal person would just over night the part but not my husband.  He tells me he'd driving to Phoenix to pick it up, kisses me goodbye and says he'll see me in about eight hours (I hate when he does that because I worry).  Now I just checked the mileage from Deming, NM to Phoenix and Google says its 4 hours and 42 minutes in light traffic. 

This post is part one of two parts.  To be continued ............................

MORE PICTURES OF SOUTH AMERICA TOUR

Denis and I took tons of pictures of our South America tour and I wanted to share some of those with you.  Hope you enjoy them.

Conquimbo, Chile

Coquimbu, Chile

Santiago, Chile

Crocodiles everywhere on our Puntarenas, Costa Rica river boat cruise

Birds and wildlife viewing on the river cruise

Denis got some great shots

Can't believe this is our second visit to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with Kurt & Diane

I missed the Nicaragua port of call because I was sick in bed for two days

Denis went and got to milk a cow

Enjoying the cruise

Went to the salon for a cut and Keratin treatment - excited about my new doo

This lovely lady was trying to sell us flowers when our train stopped

The whole gangs heres

Thanks for stopping in to say hi and God bless.

SOUTH AMERICA TOUR

Hard to believe but just a few weeks rest after our Holland America Cuba cruise we hopped on a plane from Yuma to Lima, Peru.  Call us crazy but I blame it all on our traveling buddies Kurt & Diane.

It was a world-wind land and sea tour that left our heads spinning.  I'd like to share with you some of the highlights of the tour starting with Machu Picchu.  We've all seen the photos of this UNESCO World Heritage Site but walking through the ruins was a once in a lifetime opportunity and puts into perspective the scope and size of this 15th-century Inca citadel situated on a mountain ridge almost 8,000 feet above sea level.  Imagine this place was unknown to the outside world until American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911.

We stayed in 5-star luxury hotels located in the middle of no-where in places we'd only heard about from the travel channel or National Geographic.  It was a grueling land tour on trains, planes and motorcoaches from Lima to Cusco to visit places like Saqsaywaman, Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo. Then to Santiago, Chile for another awesome guided tour.  Then back to Lima to catch the cruise ship which stopped at Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After almost a month of traveling, I was ready for our final port of call in Los Angeles to stay one night with Kurt & Diane before heading home to Yuma.

These bull statues were on many rooftops for good luck

Did a lot of stair climbing of more Inca ruins

Dressed colorfully and hoping American dollars

Inca laboratory for acclimating crops from the higher altitudes to adapt to lower

Colorful marketplaces everywhere

They wrap their babies like this and then wrap them in another blanket around their back to carry

Can't beat cruise food for presentation

Our hotel rooms were gorgeous 

Thanks for stopping in to say hi and God bless.  Coming back with a head cold and cough, we're looking forward to doing nothing for a while and just enjoying the hot sunny days here in Yuma.

CUBA CRUISE

This cruise to Cuba was a last minute decision because our friends, Kurt & Diane, invited us to join them and their friends, Frank & Sharon.  Cuba is not a place we dreamed about visiting but the history was interesting.  Holland America has not been there since 1961 so this was a pioneering experience for them and for us.  Being US citizens we needed to do what they call a person-to-person tour booked through Holland America.  We did two tours "The Best of Havana" and Cienfuegos.  The best of Havana is dirty, dilapidated and hasn't changed in 50 years.  However, the people were friendly and musically talented.  Cienfuegos wasn't much better and we never did visit the beautiful beaches that the Canadians come down to visit which was a disappointment.

Havana from the cruise ship

Christ of Havana  stands on a hilltop overlooking the bay of Havana - Carved by Cuban sculptor
Jilma Madera in 1953 - White Carrara Marble - 66 feet high and 10 feet base - Weighs
approximately 320 tons

Vintage cars everywhere - mostly used as taxis

Colon Cemetery (Cementerio de Cristobal Colon) was founded in 1876 - Named after Christopher Columbus -
Holds 800,000 graves - 140 acres - They do not embalm the bodies because they believe it is disrespectful but after two years bones are dug up and cremated then put in another part of the grave to make room for the body of another
family member's body

Music and dancing during our lunch - Some of us were skeptical about eating the food but no one got sick

Longest rolled cigar - Guinness World Record

Plaza de la Catedral La Habana - Building was finished in 1777 - Boroque facade with
asymmetrical bell towers

Beautiful statues and murals inside

San Carlos de la Cabana Fortress - After the capture by British forces in 1762, an exchange was soon made to return Havana to the Spanish, the controlling power of Cuba, in exchange for Florida. King Carlos III of Spain began the construction of this fortress in 1763.  Over the next 200 years, the fortress served as a base for both Spain and later independent Cuba.  It has been used as a prison by the government of the dictators Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul.

Revolution Square is the political & administrative center of Cuba - Image of the revolutionary guerrilla
fighter Camilo Cienfuegos on the building of the Ministry of Informatics and Communications

Jose Marti Memorial - Star shaped obelisk is 109 meters tall and has an observation deck on top floor

Revolution Square boasts an area of 72,000 square meters making it one of the largest city squares in the world.  This square is where Fidel Castro delivered his fiery speeches typically lasting several hours and Pope John Paul II offered masses in January of 1998, Pope Benedict XVI in March 2012.

New friends Frank & Sharon Gambino

Serenaded in Cienfuegos Province Botanical Gardens - officially known as Jardin Botanico de Cienfuegos

Cubas National Tree - The royal palm

Our last port of call was the Cayman Islands. Thank goodness we ended the trip in a beautiful place.  The sand, sun and water was wonderful.

I wonder who those people are

Denis testing the waters and snorkeled a bit to see a few fish

The 8-night cruise went by quickly.  Denis' sister Lorraine happened to be staying at their condo in Ft. Lauderdale and we stayed one night with them. . We went out for wings and broccoli rabe that night and the next morning they drove us to the airport.
Thank you Eddie & Lorraine for your hospitality

BACK TO MORRO BAY

We decided to take a sub sea tour at Morro Bay this afternoon.  Thankfully, we only paid $12 each because it was pretty silly.  Our captain was funny and informative.  We did see lots of otters and some California sea lions.  However, going below board to look through a window at fish was a joke.  The captain was chumming the waters and we saw some blurry smelt.  Too funny.

Denis, Kurt and I tried steering the boat and it's not as easy as it looks.  I went around in circles before sort of getting the boat to go straight.

After our boat ride we went for lunch at The Galley Seafood Grill & Bar which came highly recommended by the captain.  After lunch we strolled for a bit before heading back to the beach house.

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Thanks for stopping in to say hi and God Bless.