Spain/China 2023, finally back

[aadler]

First full day home – August 10 Thursday

I’d set my alarm for 7:00AM, but the hotel alarm woke us at 6:00. I thought I turned it off, but apparently only hit snooze, because it sounded again a few minutes later. I went ahead and got a shower and shave.

Susan and I got all our stuff together and went downstairs. I took our belongings to the car, then rejoined her back inside for the hotel breakfast. Once that was done, we got on to further business.

I drove us to the nearest Walmart for supplies: primarily a set of booster cables, plus cough syrup and cough medicine for Susan. We returned to the RV park and hooked the cables to the RV battery, trying to use our vehicle to get enough of a charge that we could crank it up and get it back to our assigned lot space. While I was letting the charge accumulate (I hoped), I walked to the office and paid rent for the rest of the month. We still have some things to take care of, but we’ve been stationary (not counting our weeks overseas) for too long, we want to be on the move again starting in September.

I not only couldn’t get the RV motor to start, the charging didn’t seem to be having any effect at all. I called the number of an RV repair guy who’d left his card in the park’s laundry room; he was finishing up another job, but said he could be with us within an hour and a half.

He showed up, and his testing indicated that the battery didn’t seem to be holding or transmitting any kind of charge. After several attempts to boost from his truck, we decided that the next logical step was to replace the battery. I told Susan she could go ahead to pick up her dog from the vet’s while we took care of that. At the nearest O’Reilly’s Auto Parts, we got another battery (just under $230), and when we installed it in our Navion, the vehicle cranked on the first try. Nice to have something so straightforward. I went on and moved our vehicle to the assigned lot, and Susan arrived with her dog while I was backing in; got the electricity hooked up, and everything seemed to be operating normally.

I paid the RV tech, and we arranged for him to come back in about 10 days to take a look at a water leak issue. (Also, I got from him a recommendation for work on our generator, since he doesn’t do generator stuff himself.) Susan and I sorted through a few things to get the RV interior sufficient for borderline habitation; there are a number of other things we’ll have to sort through and take care of in time, but this was enough to meet immediate needs.

Together we drove to the nearest Applebee’s (yes, we’re middle class, and not bothered by that) and had a solid lunch. When we got back to the RV, it was somewhat past 2:00PM …

… and Susan was still tired from our long way home, and I was willing to get some rest myself, so we both went to bed. And slept for the entire remainder of the day.