Friday, January 11, 2013

Freightliner, Gila Bend, Quartzsite, Parker

Now that we’re back on the road, we’re having lots of adventures, some better than others. We left the Davis-Monthan AFB FamCamp on Wed morning (in rush hour traffic) in time for our 8:00 am appointment at Freightliner in Tucson. Upon arriving, we checked in and all seemed fine. In fact, we met a man also checking in his Phaeton – identical to ours except one model year older – whose name was also Don!

Little did we know that the technicians in the garage were treating our Phaeton like it was busy work to be done when they didn’t have important work to do on trucks. We ran errands, met up with Bob and Molly Pinner who came to our rescue when the car battery decided to die in the WalMart parking lot (Thanks, Friends!), and went back to the Freightliner customer lounge to wait. We thought the job would surely be done by noon.

Seven and a half hours later, the simple oil change and generator service were finally done, after several frustrating queries about the progress! Freightliner has treated us right in the past, but, even though they charge 25% more to work on RVs than trucks, they did not do right by us this time. There was no excuse offered except to say that having an appointment doesn’t mean that they’ll actually start working on your rig, or that they’ll keep working on it if a truck comes in later and takes priority. We will take our business to Speedco in the future. We can be in and out of there in under an hour for the same work, and at a much lower price.

End of rant.

By 4:00 pm we were finally on the road to Gila Bend, 132 miles away, to catch up with our friends Larry & Marilyn Forbes and to have dinner at Little Italy, a great little Italian restaurant that we always enjoy. That meal and a good night’s rest was just what we needed to get back into a positive frame of mind for the good adventures that lie ahead. We awoke to a beautiful sunrise.

IMG_0147

The next morning we caravanned to Quartzsite to pick up two packages we’d had sent there by UPS. On the way I called friends Susie & Denny Orr and Gloria & Frank King, who were in Quartziste already. They came to Taco Mio to meet us for lunch, bringing Liz & Roger Grant with them.

IMG_0190

How nice to see our friends again! And of course it’s always nice to have good Mexican food. Quartzsite is sparsely populated now, but it should have lots more RVs by the time we return next week.

IMG_0174

We added Frank & Gloria King to our caravan for the short drive to La Paz County Park north of Parker, AZ. The weather turned cooler and windy, so we had happy hour inside the Forbes’ motorhome.

IMG_0193

For dinner, we went to Maya’s for – you guessed it – more Mexican food!

IMG_0195

And here’s a first: Don actually ate the beans!

IMG_0197

6 comments:

  1. Too bad about the lousy Freightliner service. I agree with you about changing - no sense paying premium prices when you're getting second-class service.

    Nothing like good Mexican dinners down here in the southwest - I eat all my beans too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really enjoyed your post on how it went with getting your RV worked on. Me and my husband are looking in to RVing full time in a few years once are youngest one is out of the houses. You can get information on makes modles but the little things like maintaining one is not as easy to find. We are going down to Quarts Side AZ for the RV show and was wondering if you could give us idea of what to expect.
    Thanks Lee

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think there'a a Freightliner RV service facility in the Phoenix area that has some pretty good reviews. But we have also had good service at the Speedco in Las Vegas and Knoxville.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We used the Freightliner in Avondale. Excellent service and we stayed overnight 2 nights.
    Elec & water hookups too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great looking group! & good on Don for the BEANS! If you need us, just call Bob's Search & Rescue...we'll be right there! Hugs to all!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kurt Ault, the RV account specialist at Freightliner in Tolleson (near Avondale, west of Phoenix near I-10) is great. We live in Northern California and make a point to get our service done there. They will also do your Cummins engine and generator service. Within the past year they moved into a new facility on the same street. We'll be there next month.

    ReplyDelete

Please tell me what you think, either here, on Facebook, or by email. I *love* comments!