Sept 28th & 29th - Mesa

Sept 28th – Wed – Mesa
Neil arrived at 7:40 this morning as Terry is going to pick up their new-to-them 5th wheel in Tucson. Neil left his car keys with me which turned out great as I could go do laundry before Robin & her sister Terri got here. They didn’t arrive until about 2 which gave me time for some cleaning mixed with reading. After dropping a package off at the post office, we drove around to pick a spot for them to park their 5th wheel. The office had given them a couple of choices and Robin had looked at some others so we checked them all out and went to the office to see what was available. By this time Neil was calling for the site number. Terry tried to back into Robin’s first choice but couldn’t get in because of the lack of driveways across the street to pull into. The second choice just down the street worked out fine and we got the rig parked. Robin thought they had 3 slides but it turned out they have 4 and it is a 2005 version of our 5th wheel.
We rushed home so Terry could shower and change before we went to a steak fry at Mesa Regal which is another park owned by Cal-Am. It is not far away so we got there in plenty of time to join Billy & Laurie, Julie & Larry and Bob & Marlene before dinner was served. Curtis Knox, who lives here in Val Vista Villages, sang for entertainment and a bit of dancing after dinner in Mesa Regal’s large ballroom.
We were home not long after 7 to crash & relax.

Sept 29th – Thurs – Mesa
We were up early to pack up the 5th wheel and have it at Camping World by 8 to have a satellite dish installed. We left chairs, bikes, sewer hose, etc at our site and hoped it would all be there when we got back. At Camping World, our “advisor” came out to look at the rig and get instructions. When he saw a TV in a slide he left and said he would be back in a couple of minutes. 15 minutes later, Terry went looking for him just before he turned up with 2 installers who said it was a much bigger job than the estimate. The advisor disappeared to work up a new quote while we hooked up to leave as extra money was not in our plans. We waited quite a while for the advisor to show up and finally told another guy that we were leaving and would call. By now it was after 9.
We came back, set everything up again, had a light breakfast and headed back to Camping World. They said it would cost an additional $550 for labor and we said “no thanks”. We had kind of a dilemma though because we already signed up for 2 years of Direct TV. So we went to the other, larger Camping World which is further away but still in Mesa. Terry happened to talk immediately to the service manager. As soon as Terry mentioned the extra labor because of the TV in the slide, he said he could make everything right and do the job for us for no more than the original quote. Sure enough, they printed an estimate (less than the original) and asked if we could bring in the rig immediately as their satellite guru was available all afternoon. It took us 40 minutes to be back with the 5th wheel which is quite good considering it is almost 15 minutes to drive each way.
When he looked at our rig, the installer immediately said that it was constructed very “stoutly” and he knew why the other guys didn’t want to do the job. We went for lunch, came back to the park to check our stuff and visited Julie & Larry. Their friends Neal & Judy arrived today so we said a quick hi to them and then went for a swim as I was smart enough to put our suits in the truck. We were just about back to Camping World when they called to ask if we were close by as they were ready for us to hook up and pull the rig out to program the satellite. The exhausted installer had worked through his lunch and got it all done in 4 ½ hours instead of over 8 hours that the first place wanted. We had to call Direct TV to activate the receivers which took a while & 2 Direct TV representatives. Finally, at 6 o’clock and another hour overtime for the installer, we paid our bill and were on our way.
We got set up, put the clothes on the bed back in the cupboard used for the satellite controller and bedroom receiver and enjoyed an icy cold strawberry daiquiri. The rest of the mess from the cupboard over the TV and the basement storage will wait until tomorrow.