Today is a definite step up from yesterday. I got more good news than bad news today, but mostly better news, all things considered.

Bad News about the YarrVee

• Nobody in the Denver metro area has the power steering pump I need in stock. There’s one for $99 on Ebay, but it wouldn’t be here until Monday, anyway.
• It will be Tuesday before one arrives.
• My employer got backed up with Year End Finance activities, and I wasn’t paid today.

Good News about the YarrVee

• I spoke with the manager at Highpointe Park, and they haven’t yet booked any cleaning, etc. services, and can extend my stay until as late as Sunday, the 18th of January.
• With some internet research by yours truly, the shop has a power steering pump for a 2005 Avalanche 2500 in their hands. The guts look the same, but the fittings are different. They’re going to research to make sure that there will be enough pressure output from the Avalanche pump, and if there is, they’ll see if they can put the guts from the new Avalanche pump into the housing from the Workhorse pump, and they may have the YarrVee back underway today or tomorrow. Maybe. With a little luck.
• I am definitely getting paid on Tuesday, and it may well be the first two invoices, since the terms are Net 30 days, and if they don’t pay both at once, my second invoice will go over 30 days before they pay on the following Tuesday.

I’m most thankful to the staff at Highpointe Park for having the flexibility to accommodate my situation – I was REALLY stressing out about my housing options given my limited funds at the moment. “Let’s tow the RV across the street to (the ever so conveniently located) Dakota Ridge RV Park” was starting to sound like a viable (read: crazy) option. I’m really glad that I have some flexibility, even if it means that I won’t be hitting the road this week the way I was hoping.

It’s only when you’re on a tight timeline that you have unplanned adventures, right?

Today’s plan was to go to Camping World, pick up the RV, drive it back to the apartment, load what little stuff I have left here into the RV, then wait until tomorrow to see if my invoice was paid. If it was, awesome, we can move forward with preparing to go to Florida. If not, we’ll hang out in the RV, work this week, then go to Florida when the invoice is paid next week.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

In this case, the enemy was…the power steering pump.

I caught a Lyft to Camping World, and waited for them to get the YarrVee pulled back around front. When they did, and I got in it, I had no power steering, and no brakes. I took the keys back to Lonnie, my service advisor, and told him I couldn’t accept the coach back in the current condition. Nobody had commented on it being difficult to drive until this morning. A little internet research while I waited for them to do some diagnostics turned up one (and only one) reference to the Chevy Vortec 8.1 losing power steering and brakes…and it didn’t look good. The indication was that the shaft on the power steering pump had sheared off inside the pump – because the brakes are hydraulically assisted, when the P/S pump goes out, so do the brakes. It’s apparently not an uncommon failure. Bryan Flanagan, the service manager at Camping World (same guy who refused to reimburse me on the tire that failed and cost me $825) was kind enough to help me line up a shop that could get the YarrVee in on my timeline. Stevenson Chevrolet couldn’t even look at it until late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Fortunately, the other shop that Camping World deals with frequently said they could get it in today. That was good news. More good news – after an hour on the phone, the $6300 Good Sam warranty I have on the coach said that they’ll cover the $2500 repair.

The bad news: They’ve estimated the repair at 20-25 hours. That jeopardizes my on-time departure from the apartment. And to top the day off – back in December I left my Galaxy Tab 4 in the drawer next to the bed, and I forgot to get it when I dropped the coach off at Camping World on Christmas Eve. Guess what was missing when I went to get it today. Apparently, “We are not responsible for customer valuables left in your RV” is code for “We are completely free to steal from you without repercussion”.

Sigh