We spent the week in the longhorn state. About a month ago, screws from the RV passenger side popped out, the dashboard of the coach began to shake and vibrate, and I could see a small piece of the road beneath where the coach side was pulling away! We called the manufacturer and they said it was safe to drive, but they'd like us to bring it to one of the factory shops rather than just any dealer. (As a structural issue this was still under warranty.) Ideally that would be Indiana or Oregon - neither of which was convenient for us, as we were ready to head east to VA for Christmas. However, they recently bought a dealer and service center in Alvarado, TX that will become a factory service center. And being newly acquired, the shop could squeeze us in sooner. So, Ancira RV in Alvarado it was!
Alvarado is south of Dallas-Fort Worth area so it took quite a few miles to get there and several days to have the problem diagnosed and communicated to headquarters, fixed to their specs and then for the materials to dry before we could drive it off the lot. In the meantime, we did Christmas shopping, went to Stockyards Station (historical stockyards with cobblestone streets of the Chisolm Trail where cattle continue to walk), took our dogs to play in the parks and at night slept in the coach at the RV repair lot with electric, water and sewer hookups alongside a handful of other fancy large sized RVs (50') being prepped/tested before their new owners picked up. As a result of the travel route, we were able to meet my brother-in-law Jimmy's brother, Pat, who lives in Dallas and since we were only 2.5 hours north of Austin we decided to go there after the repair work and visit a dear friend and former colleague from my Discovery days - Christine Aldrich Hathaway. So this detour to Alvarado suited us. We got the coach fixed and thankfully the dash no longer shakes while driving down the road. And while we weren't hiking, we got to visit with folks, get some errands done and relax. We even pigged out at Cheesecake Factory since we had a gift card that needed to be used - LOVE the raspberry chocolate cheesecake!
Now we're traveling east with a few stops to visit folks planned, just over 1,000 miles to cover this week. Yesterday we traveled through rain nearly all day - Terry driving all. He's a great driver, in all conditions and I'm so grateful for that