It was a very trying morning after a very traumatic night. We took our evening walk with Auggie and in the 15 minutes that we were gone, the electric water valve on the toilet failed and the bus flooded with water. Our neighbor noticed the water pouring out of the bus and alerted us to it as we returned to the bus from our walk. Not knowing where it was coming from, Bob looked around the outside of the bus and I went inside with Auggie. There was water in the bathroom and in the kitchen area. Bob came rushing in when I yelled and immediately figured out that it was coming from the toilet. We got the water turned off and grabbed all the towels we had to soak up the water before it caused too much damage. (That’s when having a dryer in the bus comes in handy.) The water had also drained into two of the lower compartments under the bus. We had to remove all the items in those compartments and dry them out and everything in them. This all happened between 8:30 and 10:00 PM. When we finally had everything dried up as best we could, Bob diagnosed the part of the toilet that failed and we would have to find a replacement part tomorrow. We both went to bed exhausted. Bob spent all morning tracking down a part and notifying people about a warranty claim. We weren’t having very good luck finding a part. We couldn’t get anyone on the phone from the company that distributes the part. We hung around the campground, waiting for some return calls (because it is hard to hear and talk on the phone while in the bus). We finally gave up waiting and left the campground around 11:00. We were traveling through a heavy agricultural area of large commercial farms, trucking, and huge grain storage facilities in Texas.
It is also a hub of railroad lines that transport goods to other parts of the country. After awhile, we got away from the towns and into the country, where there was nothing as far as the eye could see.
We tried calling again around 1:00 (since they were out to lunch from 12-1) and finally got somewhere. The distributor said that the part was on back order and wouldn’t be in for two weeks. That wouldn’t do. We also spoke to someone at the factory who would help us get the part. Everything was still under warranty. She knew we were traveling for another two weeks and being without a working toilet just wouldn’t cut it. The woman, Diana, was very helpful and would get the factory to make the part for us and send it to us at our campground in Biloxi, MS where we’ll be on the 17th. If I could have reached into the phone and hugged Diana, I would have. She went above and beyond the call of duty to get us what we needed. Thank God, for people like Diana! We finally felt we had gotten somewhere and hopefully the problem would be solved for the remainder of our trip! Near Amarillo, the terrain was flat, with wide-open spaces–great for wind generators.
Unfortunately, we had a pretty strong crosswind throughout most of our drive today. This has got to be one of the most boring drives ever! There is very little to look at on this stretch of I-40. However, Route 66 runs parallel to I-40 in this area for miles so that was something.
As we neared the Oklahoma border, the wind let up and made driving a whole lot easier for Bob. We crossed over into Oklahoma around 2:30.
We arrived at our campground near Clinton, OK, Hargus RV Park, at 3:30. It’s a no frills place, but it will do for the night.
We were assigned site #6 which had some grass and shade. Not that we would sit outside with a temp of 100, but it helped a little to be in the shade while we set up.
We got the AC going and Bob went right to work at removing the part from the toilet. We unhooked the Jeep and he ran over to the nearest Ace Hardware for a part to cap it off so we wouldn’t have another flood. We will have to adjust a little to use the toilet for the next 3 days until we get to our campground on the 17th and pick up the part so Bob can install it. What would I do without him? He remains calm in those types of situations and can fix just about everything. He is one fantastic problem solver!!! We relaxed before dinner after a very stressful day. We had dinner and waited for the sun to set before taking our walk. We watched some TV and turned in a little earlier than usual. We were beat! We hope to get an earlier start on our drive tomorrow.