RV Rescue

I was in Ventura Ranch Holiday KOAd having stayed two nights on my return to Canada from snow birding for a few months in Southern California. I have a 2022 Thor 29 Hurricane I bought last spring from Traveland.  It reallly has been wonderful home and machine despite ‘shake down cruise’ problems.  One has been the slide.  In LA it had required an RV tech to fix its clearance over the waste water outflow beneath the sink.

Now Horror of Horrors the slide would not close.  Without the slide closed I couldn’t leave. I was on a time line returning with work expectations in Canada and my Johnson and Johnson travel insurance was running out. Besides having had a wonderful time I was looking forward to being with friends again and ‘home’.

Thankfully the KOA office recommended Bob Schlesinger, a certified RV Tech, with “RV Rescue.”  He’s located in Valencia CA. 858-255 4464.  He called me back within the hour, discussed the slide problem and said he could be there that afternoon.

He came and had all the electronic equipment to address  the issue. There are  two 500:1  motors at the top of the slide which can be desyncronized.  There’s a ‘controller’ under the THor on the ceiling of the storage box.  The’ fix it yourself RV internet site” said press the button with a pen 6 times then 1 more.  This would cause flashing lights.  Then go inside and press the retract on the panel and the motors should be synchronized and the slide should go in.  First, while it was easy enough to locate the control its location was was such seeing a pressing the tiny button required a contortionist and extension mirror. I somehow did it.  But the slide  didn’t retradt

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When Bob arrived he told me there were two motors and that the controller sinked them but one   to be erratic.  He had a marvellous electronic gizmo that bypassed the controller and allowed him to test each motor.  Having diagnosed that problem he disconnected the second motor with the help of his assistant who arrived after being called.  We lower the Thor on the automatic jacks so the nose was lower pulling thee slide forward with gravity and allowing Bob to disconnect the second battery.  Then with the help of his assistant they could manually ‘push’ that end in.

Unfortunately the front end of the slide still only went half way in.  Bob then began a search for what could be blocking it.  The previous fault under the sink wasn’t the problem and there seemed nothing in the cabin that could be adding resistance. Under the THOR at the top of the first storange box he found that the slide had become loose. There were three or four of these guides in each of the boxes.  This one was enough out of alignment to block the return of the slide. Once that was diagnosed the assistant could press against the slide to help alignment as Bob brought the slide in with his bypass controller gizmo.

Voila!!!!  The slide was in.  Kaloo Kalay, the Jaberwalky cried. I said Halllujah.  Peacock were in the park at this point walked by to see what the excitement was about.   I was mobile again. I don’t need the slide to be able to go on with the Thor Motorhome . They are made to be functional with the slide in. I can walk right through and use everything I need. I just down have the extra space that adds elegance and charm and extra living space to the vehicle when I’m parked..  

I was really pleased.  3 hours of time and reasonable cost given they came out on a Sunday. Bob had solved a problem I couldn’t  without the experience and training. I  wouldn’t have been able to fix it myself  despite having a variety of ‘fix it’ skills younger.  It turned out to be a two person job anyway. 

KOA was most understanding. I paid the extra day this morning. I had planned to be going on to KOA Santa Magerita but when I called them first thing yesterday morning they were able to cancel my reservation.  I’ll keep a day late.  I suspect I’m not the only one who has been delayed by a slide.  Fortunately for me Bob came to the rescue. RV Rescue indeed.

Right now I’m waiting for him to come with a ‘Slide Lock’. Disconnceted from one motor that end of the slide could potentially swing out on the freeway.  Not something other drivers or myself would appreciate.  I’ve a few days driving and will be thankful for the peace of mind knowing that I’m safe. The slide lock is an extending pole put on the inside to prevent the slide going out. Obviously better than my idea of wrapping duck tape all around the Motorhome and holding the slider in that way.

Thank you Lord . 

Ventura Ranch KOA Holiday RV Park

What a wonderful park. The staff were terrific when I arrived. I’ve only had this 29M Thor Hurricane Motorhome this year.  It’s challenging. I’ve got lost and turned around once coming from the Palm Springs Joshua Tree KOA.  Merging onto the I5 for a bit was very exciting moving across 4 lanes .  I was doing 70 in 12 lanes in Pasadena. This one time I almost smunched the guy beside me but he accelerated past me at the speed of light. He was glad to have a fast car that day. I also thought that other drivers were doing their best to stay alive. I was only honked at once.  So coming into a campground is for me like the starship landing back on earth. Each passage gets easier in the steep learning curve.

The best part about this campground was the Peacocks.  Suddenly there they were.  I was surrounded by them setting up. Setting up was easier too.  I napped. I’m getting over a flu and wasn’t sure I’d be able to do the three hours of driving and concentration. It worked just fine but I was really tired and last night was up at 2 am unable to sleep and feeling sick.  I’m heading north. Coming south is easier going into the warm weather . Now it’s back to barn and lots of anxiety .  The KOA ‘s have been reassuring.

Today was an amazingly restful day. It started with my Saturday morning on line meeting. Then I walked Madigan up to the office. They have propane but I’d have to drive over there.  I’m low but expect. To make another night fine. The nights are chilly and I’m using electric space heaters.  I bought peacock gifts. 

After that we had a delightful walk around the activity area. They have zip gliding.  Bouncing places. Tent and wagon sites. Madigan and I walked for a mile or two along the trails near the swift little stream..More peacocks when when we came back to our site.  Another nap.  It’s quiet and peaceful and such a great nature site for all us in Birch inRV’s   The camping sites were further in.  I love it. 

 I actually did some work on the computer. Couldn’t talke to anyone , my throat still sore but I was able to text and renew prescriptions.  I feel I’m mending. It’s the right direction.  I am so thankful to be alive in this beautiful place with this great Thor Hurricane home.  Madigan thinks it’s all a lark.  

Thank you Jesus.

Ventura Ranch KOA RV Park - late night reflections

Arriving at Ventura Ranch KOa RV Park was wonderful.  The staff were terrific. Driving my Thor Motorcoach is a challenge.  I did 4 hours of freeway driving. Only 2 near misses.  In one I just got lost and was directed by the GPS map to make a U-turn off the freeway about 5 km from where I wasn’t able to get across 4 lanes in time.  The other was definitely more exiting. I was merging back onto the I 5 from a feeder when I cut off this corvette.  Thankfully the smart guy accelerate at the speed of light to avoid being crunched by the ‘assshole’ with Canadian license plates driving a motorhome.  I imagined him later telling everyone he was alive solely because his Corvette accelerated fast enough to save his life.  He’s problably right and I was thankful .  I didn’t see him as I was drifting across lanes to get positioned to avoid missing the separation that had me doing a half hour U-turn .  

I was sick with the flu.  Scarey business.  In Canada I’ve annually since childhood had a bad bout of bronchitis.  Terrible sinusitis.  Sore throats and laryngitis.  Smoking didn’t help but I stopped at 10 years and then was diagnosed as having Tubercuosis when I went to work in the US and was required to get an X-ray.  Nobody would work in the north because of the widespread TB.  The fly in doctor position I took had been vacant for several years and they couldn’t only get myself and a wild Irish doctor to fill. Later my friend Dr.  Moody would follow in my footsteps.  Then AIDS hit and people were dying of lung disease and finally Covid.

We called ‘pneumonia’ an old man’s friend.  It meant it killed him in his sleep and removed him from the misery of suffering and dying.  I was a GP and people brought their elderly to the hospital so they could die.  When I was a GP it was one of my jobs.  Palliative care is a fancy name for it.  I didn’t like the treatment for a year with anitbiotics for TB.  I didn’t like that several friends died of covid and lung diease.  I regretted smoking decades younger.  But I did get Covid in India and felt that if I didn’t pay the closest attention to breathing and didn’t panic I would have died. Funny illness. I simply couldn’t get a breath.  I’d had a scuba dive where I ran out of air in the last under the reef passage and had to surface.  Terrifying.  Not beating abler to breathe.

So that was last week.  I think I was overloaded with work. I always seemed to get sick when I overworked and felt self pity.  I met a fellow who knew my cousin. “Always work.”   I thought ‘he’s a Hay’.  My father and uncles and brothers and grandfather were all the way.  Since I was 6 I had some employment.  There was no ‘free money’ in my family. I had to so something to be ‘rewarded’ so feeding the dog, doing dishes, shovelling snow, in addition to helping my parents of course. I had my first job out of the home at 12.  Now I look back at years of multiple jobs, construction, labor, restaurants, office work, giving blood and cleaning septic systems, I suspect volunteer firefighting didn’t help the lungs.  The dirtiest job was clearing an attic of asbestos insulation.  Then all the sick people

Working with kids I was constantly sick.  Some cold or infection.  I felt for pediatricians, school teachers and nurses.  Today I see kids with fingers in their noses smearing snot on door handles.  I could be Howard Hughes but I have a dog and he’s filthier.  We survived.

But I’m past an age when that’s taken for granted and I’ve known so many friends around me dying.  It was once they were getting married, having kids, then divorces and then grand children and now it’s dying. I’m ’of the age’.  I’m actually blessed and know I’m insane. I have a multitude of irrational fears and anxieties and a severe case of poor me and catastrophizing.

Apparently the higher the IQ the more prone to depression and anxiety. That’s why the smartest computer in the world in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was so depressed.

I pray. It’s hard when your throat is refusing to swallow without the feeling of multitudes of Lilliputians cutting with little razor blades.  I like to think God is telling me to shut up. But even though I’ve worked my whole life and given half my income to the government gang and courts and divorces and felt like life was just work work work and die.  The fact is I have had a wonderful life blessed to know the most beautiful and brilliant women in the world with a family beyond anything I deserved and friends who were the best. I’ve had the greatest of mentors too. But meteors and teachers tended to be a decade or more older so for the last decade they’ve been departing. 

I like to think of Rainbow Bridge.  That’s my portal to heaven.  I liked Moody’s work on NDE’s and I have had many close encounters with divine. I’ve had the sense of the ‘presence’, the experience of ‘guardian angel’s’, communications of relatives and of all things dogs. I have marvellous dreams what I presume is the after life .  I liked Robin Williams Movie what dreams may come and Mark Twains Captain Storm get to heaven.

I thought it very rude that when I a doctor felt earth was imminent and I couldn’t work I had to fight to have space.  I love Zorba the Greek for that Image. I’m as narcissistic as the next person.  So I love. I forgive and then I slip into self pity my go to mood. Thank God for AA and Church and Mystical Teachers. Brother Lawrence is the best.  But I stop sucking on the tit of despair the second it raises its naughty head.

That was the old ‘pour me, pour me, pour me another drink’.  “Look at me mommy.’  All that attention seeking one downmaship stuff.  CBT teaches thought blocking so before I even get a run going I repeat All shall be well, All shall be well. All manner of things shall be well. I also do a lot of thank you’s .  Gratitude is the ultimate answer to despair. Not easy. Especially with pain and not getting air.  I especially like the Monty Python ‘Look on the bright side of life sung from the crucifixion.  Don’t know what happened to three days and night. I suspect a little delirium.

I have a closet of antibiotics and I’ve the best travel insurance but I thought it was ‘just a flu’. The last time I was sick a few years back my neighbour Nicolina cured me with chicken soup she made. “It cured my husband s flu’ she told me.  A simple random act of kindness when I wondered if i was going to die and thought no body cared.  

Everyone cares but we are all busy with our own living.  But three days, brain fog, fever and chills, sore throat, headache , full sinuses, cough and phlegm and the dog thankfully needed to be walked and when he wasn’t pooping and sniffing he’d cuddle up beside me hoping his can opener carried on.  

And just like storms at sea I got better.  We’d actually had severe rain and wind and cold and a terrible couple of days of storm. So of course my microcosm was alliogned with the microcosm.

It didn’t help to read that Carney was serving his own Brookfield interest getting rich like the PM before him, something that didn’t happen in the ‘good old days’.  Now the PM goes into office with a million and come out with hundreds of millions. Meanwhile all my work is going to pay rich dictators overseas and Liberal buddies in the ‘foreign affairs’ game of money laundering .  Meanwhile the Climate Change Barbie has lost a few billion dollars and no one can account for the missing money in Canada and there’s no accounting overseas.  Pakistan is the bet Bermuda Triangle for my tax dollars.  See the creeping poor me.

So gratitude. I really do have all I need except life is slipping away and my relationship with God always needs work. I tell people I play peek a boo with Jesus and whack a moll with the devil. 

Thank you Jsusus.  I’m looking forward to Mel Giblson ‘s new movie and am delighted he got into the Coptic Christians. I just saw how much love the Copitic Christian Nurses gave my dying mom.  So I went off to Ethiopia and visited the Balack Jesus scrolls and the ARck and the places of worship.  I like the sacred and holy. I loved being in Bethlehem even if I had to walk thorough a block of snipers.  Makes the hair go up on the back of your neck.  All these guns pointing into this squared.   Best to think positive.  Hope no one is going to twitch. 

Nothing i could do about it.  I love the Serenity Prayer.

Yesterday I felt better. I’d stopped coughing My throat wasn’t sore. I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t read. I wrote precriptions to keep the ball rolling thankful to be part of a team then.  Worried always about making mistakes. Perfectionism.  I could ‘argue’ like I do for disability and insurance and legal forms. I wrote a draft for a court case. There were all these unreasonable deadliness. Patients being told they need a psychiatrist opinion in weeks or months when the dying are doing it daily on waitlists and Carney has reduced health care to euthanasia .  And I’m like the guy living in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. How can they vote for someone who’s given away our gold mines and now our pensions.  See the ‘poor me’.  I support the opposition. I’m a conservative. 

The driving this bus though takes total concentration.  I’ve ridden my Harley across the country to Sturges. I loved Kid Rock  It was great to hear him at the alternative half time show for the NFL.  I bicycled across Europe. I’ve driven cross Canada and the US in trucks and cars. I drove to Napanee and back with my truck and camper last year. I drove this route with the truck and camper. But the bus is so much bigger.  Riding my motorcycle if I don’t pay attention I die. The trouble with this bus is that I’m not at all likely to die if i nod off or become distracted. But I will munch the car or motorcycle in the lane beside me .

I almost did that. I’m a doctor who’s committed his life to service,  Silly shit.  And here I am trying not to kill people with my bus.

Thankfully the Hound of Heaven taught me God’s chasing me like I’m chasing him. The guy with corvette beside me today hit Mach 1 to avoid me. His life wish was great.  I was just overwhelmed with the limited time between seeing the sign and having to get 6 lanes over going at 70 mph.

I have this incredible IPhone that has a Map and I chart my route and look at this IPad type thing on the console and it tells me what to do. I can’t see it because of the sunshine and it’s one of those things I have to change . The iPhone speaks to this screen but if I turn then the cameras for turning come on and I lose the navigation page.  Fortunately my Apple Watch has the tiny direction which I look at or feel and I somehow stay on track.  It’s a steep learning curve and I was so tired and so fatigues and so weak and when I pulled of for gas there was literally no room and I was hoping for a truck stop. But I got it done.  Pick up more orange juice.

I survived.  I’m here for 2 nights.  Minimum stay on KOA Holiday weekend.  I’m shaking when I pull in . I’m ecstatic when I park and hit the automatic jack then put out the slide.  Then I hook up wanted and electriciticy,. 

All the while I was doing this peacocks were interested in me and walking buy.  I gave them some bread when I set up the Starlink. It was roadrunners in Palm Beach and Quail in Yuma and humming birds in Niland.  I love the birds.  Evolution of dianoaurs.  Great sex lives.  Weird behaviour. Amazing survival skills

Madigan was anxious about Big Bird and watched them from inside through the door and didn’t even bark.  

I watched Star Trek Acadmy and was disappointed in this episode but Boston Blue with Whalberg was worth the watch.  I ate microwave chicken pot stew.  Drank looks of orange juice. I’ve been doing aspirin and teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and bottles of listernine.  Otrivin got me through a couple of nights.  Now I’m must up at 2 am and writing nonsense.  

I was worried about Danny and thinking of my brother and parents and then all those night vigils I did in intensive care.  All the fights with administration for oxygen or IV’s or nurses.  I don’t know why I remember the negative. I was married to the greatest girls in the world but rather than remember the joy and wonder of love my mind goes to the divorce.  The ugly months out of a decade of alright with ecstasy and love blooming in beginning.  I really have been blessed. 

Life has been good. I ‘m enjoying JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy.  I remember seeing white poverty in the north and maritime and how no one talked about it. Now it’s DTES and drugs and overdosages .  

I’ve a meeting in the morning. I enjoy the fellowship. I’ll try to go back to sleep again.  Usually journalling gets the puss out my head and I can sleep.  I coughed and cleared my lungs so don’t have that breathing challenge that woke me up.  I’m rallying.  Just enough work and movement and concentration and the systems coming back on line. If this doesn’t work I can have the peanuts butter and jam therapy. All those decades of on call I’d use peanut -butter and jam and milk with morning coffee to look forward to and somehow got through the nights.  I’d worry about a patient and God would give me an answer and a miracle would occur.  

Thank you Jesus.  The peacocks were a real reward for today. Well worth the struggle and challenge.  Thank you Jesus. 

Palm Springs Joshua Tree KOA , Feb. 15, 2026

I am so happy to be here. Palm Springs is terrific. This KOA Holiday campground is just perfect.  Easy to find. Great standard back in 30 am sites with full service and some pull through 50 Amp sites which I didn’t need given the easy lay out. Driving the hour and a half from Fountain of Youth was easy too.  Beautiful views. I love my Thor Hurricane Class A Motorhome.  Stowing is easier every time . Taking in the slide and retracting the jacks isn’t nearly as terrifying. Even loading the Vespa is becoming easy. I catastrophise so have to pray as I do each of these complex tasks.   

Leaving FOY the drive was stupendous.  Great view of the Salton Sea and sandy mountains. Incredible vista with the class A window.  I have my iPhone 17 with the Apple Watch so not only do I see the blown up version of the map on my navigation screen my watch gives me tactile cues telling me to turn as the map flashes. It was a sun blue sky whisps of white cloud day.  75 to 80 degrees 

Dillon is big road with a lot of dips but KOA was easily identified and simple entrance. . The office was terrific. I’d booked ahead a couple of days. They say it gets busy on the weekend.  It later did fill up.  I paid for the week.  I’ll have 4 days more of work then I’ll devote myself to the journey home.  Some 2000 km and I do 3 to 400 km a day. This 2 hour trip was easy.  4 hours is stressful.  

I saw an (RV repair guy FreedomAdrillRVTech.com -9078887370) on the way to my spot and asked him if he’d repair my awning. Turned out to be the best guy.  I ‘d broken a wire on the awning which I think was a low hanging tree outside the market. I’m learning.  I’d thought it was a fuse but not. The awning is important here as I have the sun shining directly on that side and it really does heat up. The awning helps keep my motorcoach cool.  The A/C is a god send. My little fur bear dog loves me for the A/C.

I liked that I had my Vespa off and the Thor set up in less than an hour.  I’m getter better at arrival and departure.

This KOA Holiday has a lot of amenities, best the pool and natural mineral hot springs .  They have several dog parks too. I immediately took Madigan for a walk around the park. He had his poop and liked the little dog park. There’s a really big one for big dogs.  You could exercise horses in there.  Once he was walked I put on my swim trunks and headed for the pool.  Three hot tubs of different heat 100 degrees to 104 degrees. .  They weren’t as hot as FOY’s Lobster Pot or tubs but they were hot and the jets were perfect.  I’ve had a couple of days of these ‘waters’ and my back really is feeling better. I suspect it’s the soothing waters and the  positioning of the jets. 

Yesterday I also got talking to Dawn a beautiful mother with some teen girls her husband was watching over and the cutest little surprise guy a few years old.  He really was as adorable as Madigan.  She was working in media and told me about the variety of KOA’s., the basic “Journey”, and the “Holiday” destination and a luxurious “Resort”, one of which was in San Diego. “It’s like a city in a campground, all the amenities and games. The ‘Holiday” and ‘Resort’ have cafe’s on site.’ 

I so enjoyed listening to her.   I must have been in the tub for over a half hour rather than the 10 to 15 minute recommendation.  The pool was full of children.  Such a contrast to the over 55 FOY.  I admit I liked the variety of ages as a change but boys with water pistols letting off steam in the pool made the over 55 crowd less ‘startling’.  I liked them both.    

In the afternoon I put Madigan’s box on the Vespa and headed out sightseeing. There are nearby markets but about 10 mile away was the Walmart and Costco I found. I need the AREDS 2 formula eye vitamins and was glad to find these.  I don’t need more food. My fridge and cupboards are full but I went hungry as a student and during divorces so guess I have a trauma response.  Alternatively I could just be a fatty.  Anyway I picked up port chops, steaks  and half and half for the coffee.  Then once I’d checked out I had to figure out how to load it all on the Vespa with Madigan. I look forward one day towing a little truck like the maverick.  I did 10 minutes on the 70 mph freeway on the VESPa FOT 120 km.  With cross winds I thought I really would like 4 wheels. Yet when I got off the freeway I was again sure God loved me and Madigan.  Meditation and prayer in motion and 2 wheels high speed mass traffic certainly focuses the attention especially if you’re carrying a little fuzz ball you adore. He loves the ride and I see him in the mirror smiling behind me. Biker Dog.  

Friday was a busy day.  I had Deli potato salad and fried chicken.  We watched the latest episode of Star Trek Academy.  I actually enjoyed it Really good plot and the characters are growing on me.  The Betazoid and her capacities made her especially enjoyable.  I love Star Trek.  Ever since Captain Kirk I’ve been a fan and I enjoy following the progress of Artemis and the brilliant Elon Musk plan to build a Moon Base as platforms for the Mars mission.  

I woke this morning with a sore throat.  It’s like I slept with my mouth open. I worried I was getting a cold but it’s not progressed and seems to be getting better. 

Yesterday I rode the Vespa by myself to O’Reilly auto parts to get chains. Now I can go back on the I5 and face the Sisyou and Grant pass. It’s more direct and mostly better driving for the motorhome. However I don’t like the idea of snow and I’ve always come back the longer route on the Coast 100 and 101.  Either way I’ll do fine . I am looking forward to returning to Canada and completing this expedition.  I’m adding a skill as bus driver to my collection and am even getting good at backing up and parking. I think of taking Laura and Madigan up to our Whistler RV Park or the Harrison RV park, places we enjoy up north which will be better now with the Thor.

I enjoyed the meetings in FOY and have kept up with my on line meetings.  Yesterday I had to do several hours of patients messages.  I was paid and glad to continue paying the bank for my Thor which I really like.  

I haven’t made it to church this morning.  The rough throat was a good excuse.  I walked Madigan around the park and he had his morning poop. Hooray.  He met a labradoodle too and they enjoyed the meet and sniff.  I pulled out the recliner and expect I’ll do a little hot tub time and then return to lie in the sun with sunscreen.  I really haven’t done much of that this year though in other years I did that much more. Maybe this week in my noon hours.  I’ve maintained working 30 hours a week most of the time I’ve been away which is good. I like that and am very thankful to Gary and Mary Lou at DocSide to keep the administration going with me working virtual these couple of months.  

I was blessed to see a road runner when I first pulled in.  Another one returned yesterday. There was no accompanying coyote.

I’m really enjoying this KOA Palm Springs Judas Tree.  

Thank you God for your love and protection.  Thank you Jesus.