A Tramping life of well…. Craziness to be exact

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Girl, wash your face. Total side note, that’s a REALLY good book. You should consider reading it. Back to what I was saying. Girl, I need to wash my face…. Oh wait! I can’t, we don’t have water! Ha!

Go on the road with your Lineman they said! It’ll be fun they said! Yes, it’s been fun. However, it has been up and down for sure. Life on the road is NOT easy, glamorous or without problems. Let me take you to present day 2020.

I leave to run to a store for a part that is 2 hours away from our camper. I get a text message about an hour into my drive. My amazing neighbor tells me there is well, A LOT of water pouring out and under our camper. No, not just the sweat from the A/C kinda water either. Did I mention we JUST bought this thing in January!?

Well, I had a choice. I could freak out cry, stress out, and turn around and go back. Or I could tell her to shut the water off, text my Lineman and deal with it when I get back. That is what I did! I asked her to shut the water off and we would deal with it later. Then I broke rule 101 ladies! I texted him at work with an issue that wasn’t “urgent”. The cool part was he was able to take the rest of the day off to fix the issue once he told his boss. (This is the part where I toss a shout out to his incredible boss! You Rock! Thank you!)  My neighbor who turned the water off’s husband was also on the crew. She sent him a video and he showed my husband.

I was still driving to pick the part up for something totally unrelated. I got back to the camper many hours later to a very well, unhappy husband. Nothing seemed to work to stop the leak on the water heater. Yes, we called the camper place and even the company who makes the water heater! I won’t dime them out, but they all were no help at all. Turns out when you buy a new camper and something breaks, they don’t always have extra parts made yet. This is the stupidest excuse ever by the way. So, you mean to tell me they will need to replace the entire hot water system instead of just one small part?

Sounds like a waste of resources to me! Hey, but who am I? I am just a Linewife! So, day one, we get it fixed or well “rigged” to at least give us water for a shower. Did I mention I had a sink FULL of dishes? I was able to let the dishes soak in the sink, while we rushed through a cold shower. Which normally wouldn’t be an issue in California in the summer. But California at night gets chilly, especially on the water! So, we both jumped in, got clean and shivered under the covers until we warmed up!

Day two. The “fix” held overnight but wasn’t permanent. He didn’t have to work this weekend. Thankfully, that meant he was able to work on the water heater! Yay! Well, partial yay I guess. A trip to ACE, Home Depot, and even a plumbing supply store and it’s rigged to hold. For now…

Day Three, I finally got a hold of the company that makes our camper. To my surprise they didn’t have the schematics for our water system. The local camping parts store I called couldn’t find it either. So, I emailed the company rep again to have them dig a little further.

Day six, I get a call back from the rep at the company. They apologize and say, that part is a recalled part. They just put out the recall last month for the exact issue we had. The parts are not even being made because the plants have shut down due to covid-19. So, we play the waiting.

If your Lineman is a contractor and travels a lot, you know this is an issue. I would have to drive from wherever we are to pick up this part or new water heater. Jobs can change at any moment. This is my fear. Having to drive far away from a new place. But this is a part of that life!

More on this adventure coming soon!