We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

I know this blog has been a bummer for the last few weeks.  The crap is over, and loving life on the road continues!

Last night we stayed at the Walmart in Cedar City because it was too late for a long drive once the 2nd mechanic fixed the car.  Cedar City left a bad impression on us, and not just because of a monster in mechanic's clothing.  I've never had more people bump me with their shopping carts, bump me as they're getting by, try to cut me off while driving (I'm in a 31' motorhome, mind you) not care if they block you, and basically just act like shitty people. 

One 'nice' looking family all gathered around the tomato display to laugh at a mentally ill man who was talking to himself.  They were pointing to him to make sure their young children saw him and got to laugh.  Really.  My mother looked at me and said, "At this point, what did you expect?"

A truck driver yelled at me when I pulled into the back of Walmart to turn the RV around (it was the only space large enough to do it).  When I apologized out my window and said I would be out of his way in a sec--"JUST HURRY THE F**K UP!"  Yeah.  And I didn't get upset about it.  Once you know that this is the status quo you can't take it personal.  If this had happened anywhere else I would have been seriously pissed.  Here, I just shook my head and laughed.  Oh, Utah!

I will do everything in my power never to return here.

I decided to head for Ely Nevada.  Our ultimate goal is Carson City.  I have a nice campground there that I plan to stay at for a month of 'recovery.'  But I can't get there in one trip with my mom following, and I need to wait until I've gotten my royalty payments for the month.  So, I headed to Ely to enjoy another historic Nevada town.

Pioche is a junction point between Cedar City and Nevada.  I could have stayed at the free campground again, but we had a bad experience when paying to use the shower at the pool.  It left us disenchanted with the area. 

Free Campsites.net had a boondock between Ely and Eureka.  I thought this would be great because I want to explore both old west towns.  But when I got to Ely, after driving for hours, I was ready for the trip to be done for the day.  The boondock was still 37 miles away.  This is just too much driving.  We wanted to stay somewhere in town.

I started glancing around for a cheap campground or free boondock.  When we got gas at the Shell station I noticed a dirt lot where trucks were parked.  I asked the clerk and he told me no one cared if we spent the night there.  SOLD!

Nice, huh?  The SUV is hiding on the other side of us.  She's still traumatized after her ordeal.  Poor little car.

I'm trying to get the RV in the picture without showing our license plate

I really like this Shell station because it had 'large vehicle pumps' to the side.  I would have had a lot of trouble manuvering the smaller pumps.

I know that boondocks like this are 'one night' sort of affairs, but we are devastated from everything and really need to rest for a bit.  We're going to see if we can push it to two.  Don't tell anyone, okay?

Tomorrow I hope I'll have the energy to explore Ely and give you some pictures.  @-@

The Nightmare is Over

This is in regards to the fact that Cedar Pines Automotive and RV or A-Kicking Truck Tire & Automotive, whatever name this crooked sleaze operation goes by at the address of 1001 South Main Street in Cedar City Utah, did an oil change in my car WELL over a month ago and forgot to put oil in.  Destroyed my engine.  Destroyed my life for five weeks while being as cruel and obnoxious as possible during the repair ordeal.  After three weeks of dicking me around, they demanded I pay $1,200 for them to fix the engine they destroyed.  I got the police involved.  The police told them to fix it in two weeks or face charges with the County Attorney.  Today was the deadline.

I've been too upset to write during this horror show.  We've suffered for the loss of our follow car, and also the loss of a good chunk of our summer travel.  I haven't posted here much, but I stayed in the driving range of Cedar City, either Pioche or a campground in Caliente, in order to be able to retrieve my car when it was finally done.

The mechanic is a jackass.  He held it together when the police threatened him with charges, making false promises as usual, then he sent me a nasty email saying he will pick the deadline.  Not me or the police.  This is after he had our car for three weeks already.  We didn't get a loaner because he's a sleaze.  We didn't get any consideration to the fact he destroyed our beautiful car.

He would not talk to me on the phone.  Every call went to voicemail after a ring or two.  He talked to me by email.  Eventually the dunce, named Landon Pi1key, realized he was giving me a nice paper trail for court.  He changed the last name on his email to something else in the email he sent two weeks ago.

And that was the last time I heard from him.  I called this morning, and was swiped left to voicemail.  I emailed and got no reply.  So I drove the RV down there, fully prepared to get my vehicle towed out of this man's incompetent auto shop to someone who might actually know how to replace an engine.

I'm going to paste what I posted in Facebook now.  This covers it:




This morning was the deadline the police gave the mechanic to fix our car. I emailed the mechanic and didn't get an answer. I called and was immediately put to voicemail.

I called another mechanic to get him to tow the car out of the asshole mechanic for me. He said that the mechanic had closed their business. The shop was closed and empty and all the cars were moved out of there.

I get a pain in my shoulder like I did when I had my last three heart attacks. There's nothing I can do but drive the RV there. I feel my lunch coming up my throat as I drive. I just want to puke.

So we drove to Cedar City. Our car was sitting in the parking lot of the business across the street from the mechanic. There it was. My car. Sitting there. I used my spare key to unlock and open the door.

Then I put the key in the ignition.

It turned on.

I didn't know how well it would function, but for now it was driveable.

I look across the street and I see that the mechanic is still open and all the cars are still clogging his lot like usual. I see the asshole I dealt with on the phone walking around. The other mechanic was wrong.

I went into the mechanic to get the keys. "Why didn't you call me?"

I get a contract shoved into my face. Waive all liability for future problems on the engine and acknowledge anything that goes wrong is my fault because I wouldn't pay them the $1,200.

"Sign this or we're not giving you the keys."

I see the keys sitting in front of him on my mom's red key chain. I snatch them and say I'm not signing anythign.

We bolted out of there. I drove the RV and my mom drove the car. I try to find a place to turn around to bring it to another mechanic, but I can't. Finally I find a mechanic in a neighborhood. I park the RV on the street and have her pull in to this nice looking Mexican mechanic/house.

She had been honking at me nonstop during the drive. She was overheating. All her lights were lit up. She wanted me to pull over, but I was determined to get her to another mechanic.

The mechanic gets us into his service shop right away. He works for an hour and then drives away with our car. He's gone another forty minutes. Then he parks and comes into the waiting room.

"Yeah, that's a good engine. They just had it hooked up wrong."

What?

"And they didn't put any coolant in it."

What?

"I put coolant in and drove it 45 miles away. It's running great. They just had to hook up the hoses correctly and put in coolant. The engine looks pretty new."

What??

"That will be $117."

THAT'S IT?!

It's over. It's finally over. Our car is back and running fine again. The hundred bucks was nothing compared to what we thought it was going to cost. The car is running like new again.

I cried. My mom cried. I'm still worked up and upset. I can't believe the nightmare has finally ended. THANK GOD!!!!  (End Facebook Post)

Of course I'm going to spread the word everywhere I can about this horrible mechanic.  One thing at a time.  My first goal is to get the heck out of Utah and never return!  We are boondocking in Cedar City somewhere, but will be out of this state ASAP tomorrow.

Hopefully my blog can get back to happy times.  I'm full of gratitude that this is over with and didn't wipe out my savings.  I'm ready to move on.

AND I'M SO HAPPY TO HAVE MY BEAUTIFUL CAR BACK!!! 

Remember the Alamo (Why You Shouldn't Use Your RV As A Car)

We have been without our follow car for a month now.  We're in remote rural areas, far from the Targets and Walmarts of the world.  Sometimes we take a half-mile walk to the gas station to get some convenience store groceries.  We really need our fricking car back.

Today we had to drive in the RV because we needed propane.  Once we got it we decided to use the RV as a car and go somewhere.  We felt like we deserved it during our ongoing hellish situation with the car.

We drove to Alamo Nevada, which isn't far from Area 51.  We stopped at one tourist spot on the side of highway 93, which I probably should have taken pictures of for you, since it was a nice building with aliens painted all over it.

I'm sorry.  I'm miserable over the fact that our car is most likely destroyed and there's little hope of us getting it back any time soon.  I haven't been able to write.  I'm drinking more than I should.  I'm in a funk. Please bear with me as a I don't take pictures for the blog.  Hopefully soon this can be over with.  (I won't go into detail but the mechanic asked for $1,200 to fix the engine he destroyed with the botched oil change after dicking us around for weeks.  Police got involve.  The bastards still have my broken car.)

Anywho, we didn't feel like going back to where we're camping yet, so we continued down 93 to the tiny town of Alamo.  Rumor has it there was a Mexican restaurant there if you got off the highway.

So we did.  We drove down a neighborhood street lined with houses. 

And then I stopped.  The wires crisscrossing the street were LOW.  Really low.  I didn't know if my 12' high RV was going to make it through. 

I went further with our satellite dipping just four inches below a wire.  If we'd bounced on a bump then we would have caught the wire.  This is crazy!

RVs can not be used as cars!  I have a high profile vehicle.  We were barely making it under those wires.  We tried to go back up another street to get out of there, but I swear the wires were hanging even lower!  We turned around and slowly went back the way we came.

My RV drives so easily sometimes you forget you're in a gigantic tall house on wheels.  If I was day-dreaming I might have gotten caught on a wire today.  We can not use the RV as a car.  We need our car back.  We are asking for trouble every time we take the rig off main roads.

So, from now on I'm going to Remember the Alamo when I'm driving the RV.  That means to watch out for low hanging wires!

Continuing

Pioche is a beautiful town with nice, welcoming people.  One of those places where if someone sees you walking they offer you a ride and are actually a nice person being nice and not a creepo.

But we are stressed and upset over the car situation.  We still don't have it back, and have heard nothing.  I'm still holding out a slim hope that this will work out without drastic action.  My deadline for when I've reached 'enough is enough' status is marked on the calendar.

Pioche is small enough that everything downtown is walkable, and that's basically just two restaurants, some boutiques, some casino/hotel/bars, and a convenience store/gas station.  The last one is where we've been getting the odd supply. 

The walk to said convenience store is a short half mile, but it feels like we're climbing up a 90 degree angle.  My mom made the steep walk twice already.  Once to visit the casino and once to do our huge backlog of laundry with my help.  The laundromat in town is an RV park laundry room that's open to the public.  These walks really knocked the wind out of her.  We don't have her good walker (the one she can sit down on) because it's in the back of the blankety blank SUV.  She has to take frequent breaks standing up, red faced and gasping.  She's just not able to make any more walking trips.

We both need to lose weight.  We were well on the way on a good diet before this horrible situation.  And I know I can't make excuses for stuffing my face.  That's all on me, especially when I'm the cook, and my mom would diet if I made her.  It's just that when you're dealing with such a shit-storm you say 'screw it.'  I'm sure I've gained 15 pounds over this ordeal. 

If you pray, please send a prayer for our situation.  I'm a self-employed full-time RVer in reasonably good health, living the dream most people never get a chance to.  I shouldn't be feeling as miserable as I am right now.  These people have really screwed up our lives.

Litigation Eminent

I hate the situation I'm in right now.  It's ridiculous that this is going to end up as a court case, but the fact are the facts.

On Friday, June 10th, 2016, we came down cedar breaks with the RV and SUV and had smoke come from both vehicles brakes since it was such a steep decline.

On Saturday June 11th, 2016, we went to A-Kicking Truck and Tire, formerly known as Desert RV and Automotive to have the brakes on our 2006 Nissan Armada and 2015 Fleetwood Jamboree Class C RV checked and repaired.  The RV was fine.  The Armada needed new brakes and a new brake calper (sp?)  While we were at it we had them change the oil on both vehicles.

The did not have the calper (sp?) for the Armada.  They needed to order the part.  We had to dry camp in their lot until Monday, when the part came in.

On Tuesday, June 14th, 2016, we left the repair shop with all our repairs done and oil changes performed on both vehicles.  We paid in cash.  We have the dated receipt.

As we were driving from Cedar City to Pioche Nevada on Highway 56, I was driving the RV and my elderly mother was driving the SUV.  She heard a knocking and then the engine seized.  The car would not move.

After being disabled on the highway for some time, we determined that they FORGOT TO PUT IN OIL when they performed the oil change.  Our SUV's engine was destroyed.

Someone (not us) called the police while we were disabled on the side of the road.  The officer came at the same time as the employees from A-Kicking Automotive.  The SUV was towed back to the shop.  The officer gave us his card and said if there was any problems to contact him.

A-Kicking Automotive paid for us to stay at the KOA campground next to them while they repaired the engine.  Landon Pilkey, co-owner of A-Kicking Automotive, told the KOA agent over the phone that we would likely be there SEVEN TO TEN DAYS.

While we were at the KOA I contacted the deputy and got emailed a copy of the police report from when we were disabled just in case A-Kicking Automotive forced us to go into litigation.

The police report states that we were disabled due to a BOTCHED OIL CHANGE.  It had the date and time when we were found on the side of the road by the officer.  It states that Desert RV and Automotive towed us off the highway.  Two employees agreed that the engine would be replaced.  (THANK GOD I GOT THIS POLICE REPORT!!)

I found out that the KOA was over $60 a night.  I called Landon Pilkey and said I would find a place to camp for less money because I felt bad that he would have to pay for our camping fees as well as the $3,000+ engine.

We left the KOA the next day, on Tuesday, June 14th.  We went to Parogan Gap and dry camped (boondocked) for four days.  On the fifth day we realized there was a heatwave coming and went to Camp Lutherwood to wait out the heatwave.

We stayed at Camp Lutherwood for seven days, paying $15 per day.  We could not get a phone signal in the mountains, but were able to get Internet on the campground wifi.  I had the business card from A-Kicking Automotive with an email address, so I sent them an email.

On Saturday the 25th of June we left to continue dry camping since the heat wave was over.  Landon Pilkey replied to my email with the following:

Oh good.  It will be done Wednesday.  He has no reason to lie to me, right?  Great.  I proceeded to find a shitty place to camp because I knew we would be leaving Wednesday anyway to get the SUV.  We could proceed with our journey and book a nice campground for the month of July in Sparks, Nevada, like we planed.  Yay!


We camped on the side of Highway 20 on BLM land.  It sucked, but whatever.  We'd be leaving soon.

Here comes another email.

OMG, WTF?  Friday will bring us to July 1st.  There's no way I can get from Cedar City to Carson City in one day with my mother following behind me.  She can only drive in the daylight due to her vision problems.  In the Reno/Sparks area in August is 'Hot August Nights' some big event that books up all the RV parks and hotels.  So I can't get a monthly booking after July 1st.

Ah, frick.  So much for staying at that nice campground in Sparks.  I cancel my reservation.  Shit happens.  Whatever.  As long as we have our car back on Friday everything will be fine.

I call him Thursday to let him know that we'll be there Friday at noon to pick up the car.

"It's probably not going to be done until 5pm or 6pm Friday."

-_-  What?  Why are we not good to go?  It seems to me that he's trying to hand our car over to us at closing time so we can't bring up any complaints when we inspect and test it.  If it was done Wednesday, and tested Thursday, then why isn't it ready Friday?  Why is he dicking me around?  I'm really fed up.

It's  June 28th at this point.  It's been more than seven days.  It's been more than ten days.  In fact, it's been two weeks.  That's two weeks that we didn't need or want to stay in Utah.  We could have dry camped in Carson City through the heatwave.  We wasted money being somewhere we don't want to be.

So I got annoyed on the phone.  I'm annoyed that someone would dick me around after destroying my vehicle.

And so, today, Saturday Morning, I stupidly went there to get my SUV.    We were supposed to pick it up yesterday at 5 or 6, right?  So noon on the next day should have been fine.  I expected to see my car in the parking lot.  I expected to be able to get out of here today and put this nightmare behind me.

What happened?  He said he sent me an email.  Well, I didn't check my email this morning.  I just came here.  Is the car ready or not?

"We need a couple more hours."

Omg...

FINE.  We went grocery shopping.  We went to a feed store.  We went to a clothes store.  Coming on 4pm I thought they had enough time and I went back.

And as I was walking up there they were locking the doors and jumping in a car to peel away.

Seriously.

But the idiots got stuck in traffic.  So I ran up to their car and screamed into their window.

"WHERE IS MY CAR?"

"It's not done.  It will be done when it's done.  I'm not giving you anymore time estimates."

Some more words were exchanged, but whatever.  I walked back to the RV in the adjoining lot sick to my stomach.  Landon Pilkey is despicable.  How can anyone treat someone like this?  If the car wasn't done then don't lie to me.  And then lie again.  And keep lying.

I had to tell my poor mother what happened.  And she became as sick as me.

For several minutes I'm too sick to do anything.  Monstrous people have my car.  A car they destroyed.  And they're people with no remorse.  People who don't care how much they make other people suffer.

I refused to camp on the side of the highway again.  We drove to Pioche.  It took $66 dollars worth of gas to make the 90 minute drive and it will be another $66 to get back if/when we ever get our car back.

I'm not an idiot.  I know that this repair shop does not have the skillset required to replace my engine.  The owner thought it would be done sooner because he really doesn't know what he's doing, and neither does his employees (one of whom forgot to put oil in the car in the first place).

So I have no choice but to contact another garage and get the SUV towed out of this place.  Someone else will have to fix their mistake, and I will have to pay the upfront costs.

And then, sadly, I'm going to be condemned to even more time in the horrible place called Cedar City when I take them to court to be made whole again.  I will sue for the work the other garage charges me for and for the campground expenses during the heatwave.  I kind of knew this was going to end up like this.  That's why I was gathering evidence right from the beginning.

It sucks, but what else can I do?  This is just going to keep dragging out.  I want my car back.  I'm not going to continue to be a victim of this company's incompetence.

In the meantime I've returned to the free RV park in Pioche where we are comfortable and feel safe.