[Shiver] "Brr," I lamented, throwing the covers over my head. Bill had already gotten out of bed to see why the Raptor was now a brisk 58 degrees indoors. As I lay there shivering, I could hear Bill stomping through the rig and grumbling to himself in the darkness.
Eventually, he returned to bed with hands and feet of ice.
Also tossing the covers over his head, he explained, "I've tried everything. Troubleshooting in the dark isn't easy, but the best I can tell is that the batteries are losing power, the propane tanks are somehow empty, shore power is on, but the rig isn't recognizing it, and the generator won't turn over."
We had no power, and this week, Southern Arizona decided to "winter" itself.
Had this been a true life-threatening emergency, Bill and I would have devised several solutions to keep the Raptor and our children warm, but it was just an inconvenience at a crazy early hour, and it was easier to pretend there wasn't a problem and hide under the covers until the sun came up. So we did.
Adulting is hard some days.
At some point, while cuddling under the covers for survival, Bill remembered that our neighbor was an RV technician and decided to message him for advice once it was a more appropriate time to contact neighbors. We drifted in and out of restless sleep but still managed to utter gratitude that this happened here at home and not on the road.
As soon as the sun rose, Southern Arizona returned to being toasty warm and flip-flop weather, and Ray, our neighbor, came over to help troubleshoot. It didn't take him long to figure out our converter had stopped working in the middle of the night, probably due to an intermittent water leak in one of the pipes, which was quickly and easily fixed.
The converter is like the power brain of the RV. It changes incoming power, in any form, into usable power inside the Raptor. This meant the 50amp power coming into the rig wasn't usable, the full propane tanks weren't usable, and the generator, even if we got it up and running, wouldn't bring power to the RV. With the converter dead, we were powerless. Only the two large batteries were working but draining fast, and the batteries wouldn't power A/C units, heaters, or refrigerators.
Our great big, beautiful Raptor was now a glorified tent, but we didn't care (once it warmed up). A new converter is $400 off Amazon and will be here Monday; not a big deal. We've got this.
What was a big deal was the conversation Ray and Bill had after the troubleshooting. Bill was planning to keep up his handyman business while on the road but couldn't quite figure out how to do that in new locations every few days. Ray told Bill that mobile RV techs are in high demand and that he could just put out a sign at every location.
We had to laugh...only God.
When Bill decided to start his handyman business, he first hired on with Clayton Homes to show experience before getting his contractor license. Well Clayton is a mobile home manufacturer of lower-quality mobile homes. They want work done fast and with the crappiest quality materials on the planet. Frequently, he had a Clayton Homes manager breathing fire down his neck to "cut corners and get to the next job site" when Bill just wanted to do the job right the first time and not have the customer frustrated when it broke after the warranty expired.
Bill "did his time" and left after six months; he can't stand shoddy work and profit over people.
That's when Royal Castle, Inc. was born and began his handyman business. Now, Bill gets to bring quality to the average homeowner.
Quick side note: have you ever been asked, "What's most important to you? You can only pick two: quality, cost, or speed?"
If you want low cost and have it done fast, you must compromise on quality.
If you want high quality and done fast, you will pay a pretty penny.
And lastly, if you want low cost and high quality, it won't be done quickly.
Bill is the latter. He doesn't like his hard-earned money leaving his pockets, and he wants the project done correctly, so he sacrifices time. It's also why so many projects sit undone around our home until he has the time to do them correctly and at a reasonable price.
Let's recap...Our family takes three weeks to vacation in Hawaii, giving us the much-needed downtime to relax and allow our creativity to flow. While in Maui, we remembered our good times full-timing in an RV with our six older children. The kids begged us to "do that again" - go on another adventure.
We agreed, and as soon as we got home, we began looking for a full-time RV and moved out of our home and into storage. A 5th wheel toy hauler was found and delivered to our house, where we set up camp while renovating our home before putting it on the market to sell.
One week after purchase and delivery, the converter went out, and our fantastic neighbor diagnosed the problem and presented an opportunity to Bill, who has been training for years. He has experience working with low-quality and high-quality materials, both of which are present in an RV, plus, as a handyman, he can fix anything. There are a few nuances of an RV he will need training on. Still, a quick Google search revealed an RV tech training facility in Athens, TX.
We'll pray over this opportunity for a few days, but it's looking like we might be headed to Athens for our first adventure.
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