Friday/Saturday, September 11 and 12: We were hoping for a morning call to say the camper was ready but instead we got a call to say that the second AC compressor was also no good and they would like our permission to order a more expensive one direct from a dealer. We of course gave them the go ahead and they said it would be ready around 12:00-1:00. So we took our time with breakfast and packing at the hotel and left there a little past 11:00. We drove around town a bit and then stopped to a new spot we saw on our drive called the Barstow Station. We had lunch there at a McDonalds - their dining room is in old converted train cars.

The view from our room at the Ramada

 

After that we we we headed over to the truck repair to see if the camper was done but they still had not gotten the part although they expected it at any minute and said it would be one hour from the time they got it. So we went back to the outlet mall area and walked around a few more stores. We were just heading into a Panera Bread to kill some more time with a coffee break when Jim’s phone rang with finally some good news. The repair was complete and we could pick up the camper. We drove there immediately and then on to Enterprise to return the car and finally could leave Barstow CA. Hurray!

We stopped at a rest area about an hour on our way to let the engine cool and to run the generator and roof top air. Temps were around 105 degrees and we started out with the camper at 100 degrees inside so we were plenty toasty for awhile. A bowl of ice cream helped to cool us down a bit also. As we sat there for a bit we provided some shade for a flock of crows that landed in the shade of our camper!

You know you are in Nevada when you see this

Drive by shots of Vegas

Drive by shots of Vegas

Drive by shots of Vegas

We were trying to decide whether to stop in Las Vegas for the night or keep driving to St. George UT. We got off the highway just north of Vegas for supper and Jim noticed the engine was running very rough so that clinched the decision to stop in Vegas. The campground I had been looking at was less than four miles away so we headed there. Once the engine cooled down it was performing better but Jim thought it was time to do a more permanent version of the wiring repair. We decided to drive to St. George in the morning, get a new rental car and then sit out the day there so he would have time to work on that project.


Saturday morning we drove out of Nevada - the last big casino was the clue we were leaving the state. I was surprised that we entered Arizona and drove through a little sliver of that state before we arrived at the Utah border. The scenery just before we reached St. George was spectacular. (These are all "drive by" shots I took out the window)

Drive by shot of Nevada

We went to the St. George airport to get a car but had to wait about and hour and a half before one was available. Then we drove to the campground we picked out to stay at and parked the camper. It was just too hot to work in the camper at that time so we took a drive out to a Utah State Park called Snow Canyon. There were some awesome views of the canyon varying from dark red to black rock in the hillsides. We also drove up on a ridge overlooking the city.

We stopped back to the camper to check on the roof top air conditioning unit because we had been having some issues with the breaker tripping. It had gone off while we were gone and the temperature inside was up to 99 degrees. We reset the breaker and restarted the unit and left for about an hour for supper. Once we returned the temp inside was bearable and Jim got to work on redoing the wiring repairs. He was especially concerned that if we drove through rain in the days to come he would have more trouble. The repairs went well and we are now much more confident with that situation.

Jim hard at work repairing the wiring - again!

The finished project

 A quick trip to Walmart to replenish our ice cream supply ended our day.