We headed out of Green Valley, AZ and got as far as El Paso, TX the first night but as we pulled into town, we noticed hot air coming from the dashboard AC. We stayed at a nice campground with a very nice large pool and hot tub and next day they recommended a local garage - Lopez's Garage. We checked with Good Sam as our warrenty insurance is with them too and they also recommended this place. We took it over to them and they confirmed our fears that it was the compressor. They had that part but did not have the "cleaner" (for lack of better word) and spent all day looking for it and finally ordered it to come to them Fed Ex on Sat at 1pm. They offered for us to stay right there in their parking lot and they brought out electricity to us. We kept busy seeing El Paso...The Art Museum, the Indian Artifacts Museum and a lot of little shopping spots for things we had wanted to get before we left but no time....always a time thing! We took a long walk one morning and walked over to a great Mexican Restaurant for breakfast...no Gringo food!! yummy! We had dinner at Cheddars - never been there before and we were impressed. Very good menu, wonderful comfort foods and great prices...we will try another along the way.
Sat came and the wrong part came too...ugh!! Now this garage is owned by a wonderful family and the "old man" started it out under a tree when it was all a farm (now a shopping meca) and then built a garage and then another and now five as well as racing cars. Now the 2 sons mostly run it - though he has not really retired and Mammasita runs the office. The sons also race and they all rebuild classic cars - which were parked all around us for us to drool over. They were pretty frustrated by 2 pm Sat and they don't usually work on Sat - the son helping us was supposed to be in Tucson that day buying a race car and instead was working on our motorhome. He decided that on Monday they were going to every parts store in town and would build the darn thing if necessary "the old fashioned way" is how he put it. We decided to go back to the park for Sat night and Sunday where we could put our slide out and run both house AC units and go swimming and sit in the hot tub...ahh. On Sunday night during our supper, we prayed that God would help us - we had been there now since Thurs morning and it was now Sunday. We were at peace the whole time, knowing God was in control anyway and figured there was a reason we were "stuck" in El Paso. On Monday morning John remembered looking for a part number right after we bought the motohome and contacting Winnebago to get it, that they were very helpful. He decided to begin to make his own calls and once again they were very helpful and directed him to a chassie RV parts shop 48 miles back in Las Cruses. They told him that there are 2 very similiar parts and having the original would be helpful to compare. So we drove back there on Monday at lunch time and sure enough, it was the correct one. We high-tailed it back to El Paso and in 30 min it was on and we were test driving - COOL AIR! We left and headed to Fort Stockton in the afternoon getting there just at dark. We will try not to have to do that again as it is difficult to find street names etc. But John was determined we were leaving "Dodge" that afternoon...and we did. One overnight stay and we are now on to San Antonio for the next 3 days. Time to have some "western" fun in southern Texas.
One note...we regret hearing about the horrible tornadoes in TX and OK. We are grateful that it all stayed north of us but our prayers go out to those in need up there. We considered going up to help out and use our extra week we have committed to a Habitat Build in NC to assist but decided that it's just too soon and they don't need extra people around just yet. We will go on and help out in NC the first week of June.
Here are the quilts I finished. I have done some mending on road and also have the rest of my Women of The Bible Quilt blocks with me to hopefully get done. There was time for a little stitching....
