Never dull, not just for brightwork

Back in my Navy days, there was this horrid stuff called Never Dull which was a tedious means of polishing brightwork (any brass, or other shiny surface). It was a kind of punishment/initiation for new people and it was really, really messy and just not a ton of fun.

Feels like I've been spinning my wheels the last few days awaiting word on what happens next. We stayed at my Uncle Paul's house for a long weekend, from Thursday evening to this morning (Tuesday). Friday I was told that they'd get a better look at what was going on with the coach by Monday mid-day. I spent the weekend unsure what kind of time we had in Phoenix and I felt a LOT like I was stuck in the muck with no direction. I took care of some mundane things like getting the cracked screen replaced on my phone. I went to my cousin Tawnya's amazing home and watched the Patriots squeak out a win in the Super Bowl while the kids ran nutso with hers. And we ate out a lot, and spent more money than I intended. (Oops)

Monday rolled around and we find out that the Ford dealer in Kingman cannot fix our coach, and it has to be towed (again) this time to a larger Ford dealer in Las Vegas for repair. GREAT! (Wait, didn't we just come from there?) I was however able to find out a few things:

It takes five phone calls to Thor, Ford Customer Service, and Ford Roadside RV service to get back to the start at Ford, where I find out that

+Ford will pay something toward hotels or campgrounds or whatnot while we are out of our home.
-Ford will not let me know how much they will pay toward those costs.

+We have no reason to go to Vegas unless we want to and we have options - like travelling throughout AZ as we had intended, and seeing things while we find out how long this fix will take.
-We have no idea how much of that will eventually be out of pocket (our expense)

In any case, we headed toward Vegas, and realized we were going through Kingman, so we stop and grab a few more things from the coach. The tow truck shows up (same guy who met us the other night on the side of the road) and hooks it up and heads out.

We go out to lunch and discuss what we want to do, and agree to travel to the Grand Canyon at least, and see things we might not have been able to see (i.e. taking the coach where it is below freezing without it being winterized was not a great idea).

So I end this post, in a hotel in Williams, AZ, awaiting morning and a grand drive around the Grand Canyon. The mechanic in Vegas called and said that there is a good chance that we'll be out for between 2-3 weeks, depending on whether it needs an entirely new engine, or just head gaskets and rings and so on. He did not seem hopeful, but I will admit, I threw the "my husband is in Africa with the military," "my FOUR kids and I have been so looking forward to our grand adventure while he's gone," "it's a brand new freaking coach and this is unacceptable, after less than two weeks of driving," and "we have no other home to go to, this IS our home for the foreseeable future and Ford is NOT helping" cards and hope one of them pulls a heartstring.

First thing tomorrow, or perhaps tonight if the kids quiet down and veg for a while, I start writing letters - Thor, Ford, Better Business Bureau, our Dealer, the Consumer alert peoples, Congress... okay, maybe not Congress, but anyone else I can think of, I'm writing, and complaining. The mechanic even told me squeaky wheel gets the grease (as if I wasn't aware of that), so I guess tomorrow morning, I start squeaking. Again. I can be a little loud when I need to. )sigh(