We figure we’re still going to be here in Ellison Bay through tomorrow. Saturday is within the realm of possibility too. However, we did make progress today.
The locksmith came up from Green Bay this afternoon and made three keys for the RV ignition. That’s one key for Mark, one for me, and one to hide in the RV in case we both lose ours. And who knows? Maybe someday, the missing key will turn up as well!
Mark found several other problems with the RV. There is a bad gas valve on our furnace. He had ordered a new one from his supplier in Green Bay and drove down there to get it while Tucson was at the vet on Monday. Today, he went to put it in and discovered that his supplier ordered the wrong one. They are reordering the right one and we will have to pick it up on our way out of town, but Mark won’t have an opportunity to put it in until we get to Oregon. If we boondock at Walmart every night, as we have on our trips in the last couple years, we will have no heat with the possible exception of a little space heater for as long as we can run the generator without disturbing anyone.
We had a water heater problem, but Mark was able to fix that today, thank goodness!
Then he worked at loading up all the tools he needs to take with him. Last year when we were in Tucson, Mark hired on with a dealership that sold used RVs. He was on the crew that tried to fix them up after they were sold. (The boss should have waited until they were fixed to sell them, but he was in too much of a hurry to slap them together and move them off the lot.) Towards the end of the season down there, a salesman got hold of us. He’s from an organization I heard of many times when we were still involved with Workamper.com. The organization is called SE Publications and what they do is stay in an area campground and then go to businesses in the community and sell ads on a brochure that the RV park hands out to their campers with a map of the campground. The ads on the brochure tend to cater to RVers, like Mark’s RV services.
Mark and I discussed the possibility of him starting his business in Tucson as well because he was so disappointed with the condition some of the RVs left the lot in. He wanted to do better work, but his boss just mostly wanted things to look good on the surface till the buyer got the RV off the lot. He finally decided to start out with two campgrounds in Tucson: the one we stayed at last winter since they kind of know him, and the one at the Air Force base, since he is a vet and can easily get in and out.
Our plan is that he will use our pickup truck as his business truck down there so that he can carry his tools around between the two campgrounds. I am hoping to get a job near the church where we’ll be parked so that I can either walk or ride a bike to work. I spoke with the manager of the nearest H&R Block office at the end of the last tax season, and she gave me her business card and encouraged me to contact her when it’s time to choose an office to work in this coming season.
Speaking of jobs, I have sent quite a few online applications for jobs in Oregon when we get there. Up until today, I had only had one small nibble that didn’t end up amounting to a job. Today, I got an email from an organization called Sock It To Me. They sell cute and clever socks that I have always admired in stores that sell them. They want to set up an interview for me and they suggested several times on the 7th. I wrote back and said I’d love to interview with them on the 7th, but could it be a conference call since I won’t be in Oregon quite yet by then? If you would be willing to pray about this possible interview for me, I would be grateful.
I also wanted to report back on something I mentioned last night. I used the vacuum cleaner my neighbor gave me today. It was a dream come true! It has the longest cord of any vacuum cleaner I’ve ever owned before so I don’t have to keep looking for outlets to plug into. And it cleaned up all the dog hair and stuff and left my carpet looking as beautiful as it can. Praise the Lord!