The Rest Of The Story

We had left Amarillo on Mon. heading for Albuquerque, climbing in elevation and facing a fairly strong headwind when Russ noticed that the radiator was overheating.  He pulled over and let it cool down for about 15 min., and this is what we did every 50 miles or so till we reached our destination.  On the way I looked online and found there was a Freightliner service location in Albuquerque.  During one of our stops, Russ called and was told they don’t take appointments and you’re not allowed to park overnight in the lot.  He left his number so someone from the service dept. could call him.  Later that afternoon once we were settled at the casino and no one had returned the call, he called again and talked to the young lady who answered.  They open at 7am and she said there were 14 in line when they opened that morning.  It was like pulling teeth to get any information out of her but he was finally able to determine that we could drive just our car over the next morning, get in line, and then that would get us on the list to be seen (when she wasn’t sure).

 

The next morning we were at Lonestar Truck Group - Albuquerque Freightliner (www.lonestartruckgroup.com) at 6:40 and were 2nd in line.  We learned from the folks in front and behind us that this wasn’t their first day in line!  Once the doors opened and it was our turn, Russ explained the situation and what he thought might be the problem. Lyle took all of our information, went in back to talk to someone, and when he returned said that they might be able to get us in late that afternoon but there were 5 folks in front of us.  Russ asked if it would make more sense to just return with the RV first thing the next morning, and the guy said yeah, that would put us first up.

 

We returned to the RV, and I was standing at the kitchen counter when I saw a car pull in front on the other side of our car, and I said “Russ, a cop car just pulled up!”  Then I had to laugh as I watched our friend, John, step out.  He works security in the area, and knowing we’d be gone very early that morning, he had driven by to check on the RV while we were away and then returned to see how everything went.  What a guy!

 

During the month of April the casino was running specials in their grill.  Burgers and fish sandwiches were $2 each as were the fries!  We walked over for dinner, I got a burger, Russ got the fish, and we split some fries (soda was free from the self serve fountains).  Both were decent size and very good (Russ said the fish even rivaled McDonalds).

 

The next morning we were at Lonestar again by 6:40 and were first in line.  When the doors opened, a young lady was now behind the counter, looked us up in the computer, went in the back to check with the service dept., returned and said that they’d probably be able to get to us late that afternoon because there were 5 people in front of us.  Say what?!?!?  Needless to say that didn’t sit well with either of us, and Russ explained to her how Lyle had told us the exact same thing yesterday morning and said if we returned first thing this morning with the RV that we would be first to be seen.  She continually did her best customer service spiel of “I understand” to everything Russ said but was not deterred.  She told us to move the RV around to the back, and we could wait there, and when a tech was available, he’d come out to get it.  It was now about 7:30 so we sat in the RV, watched some TV, and waited.  About 11:00 a tech showed up to take it in for the “Express Assessment”, and we moved into the trucker’s lounge, Abby and laptops in tow.

 

Sitting in the lounge with the truckers was interesting, enlightening, and entertaining at times.  All were super friendly, and all had been there for several days staying at nearby motels while they waited for parts that seemed were promised each day for the next day.  Two of the guys were on day 9, and they talked of another guy who wasn’t there at the moment who’d been waiting 28 days!  Another guy who had only been waiting a couple of days decided to drive several miles down the road, picked up the part at a truck stop, and brought it back to them.  And still another guy walked in on his cell phone, obviously ticked off, and said into the phone that he was fed up, he was leaving, and they could just stick it (meaning the truck)! Unfortunately many folks are stuck and have no other option, and they know it. Nobody had anything good to say about this facility, and quite frankly we wouldn’t recommend the place either.

 

Late afternoon they finally gave Russ the estimate, basically flushed and powerwashed the radiator, and at 5:30pm (10-1/2 hours after we‘d walked in the door) and $1,000 later we were outta there.  At least we got out in one day!

 

Being so late in the day we had figured on heading back to the Sandia Casino lot but instead decided to head further down the highway to the Route 66 Casino (www.rt66casino.com) suggested by one of the truckers (we didn’t go inside this one) and actually ended up staying an extra night because it was pretty windy.  Since we had no reservations until April 11, we could be somewhat flexible with our time which worked out well given our necessary extended stay in Albuquerque.