Day Care

Reluctantly, we made our way from Gunnison yesterday to Loveland. We arrived in the late afternoon at DM RV Repair. Owners Don (The "D") and Mary Ann (The "M") welcomed us and graciously offered a space for us to hook up the moose and get a good night's sleep before things really got going this morning.

Today's forecast in Loveland wasn't pleasant. The forecast highs were into the upper 90s.  On a day when our moose was expected to go hours without AC we were faced with an important challenge: What to do with our cats?

Anyway you looked at it, the outlook for any being to survive, much less thrive, in our rolling home today was poor, at best. With temps in the upper 90s and the Front Range sun a blazing, the mercury inside an AC-less Bullwinkle was projected to approach or top the century mark.

And, life inside our mighty Jeep didn't look much more promising today.

So, today, we looked for alternatives.

After a quick online evaluation of feline day care facilities, today's winner became obvious. It was five minutes away, the folks were oh-so-pleasant when we called in to inquire, and they had space available today for our feline friends to hang out in cool comfort today.

Done deal.

So, after checking in with the good people who had the power to restore cooling power to our moose, we crated up the cats for their first-ever kitty day care experience.

We drove up, met the lovely people, handed over our critters and asked ourselves this question.

What parents in their right mind would hand over their nine-year-old children to complete strangers?

Scary!

The good news is it all felt right. With clear kitty parent consciences we headed out to kill way too much time in Loveland.

We went to Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond, and Smashburger (Yum!) and Super Cuts and TCBY and JAX (a place we'd never heard of) and Kohl's and we even checked out our egress out of town tomorrow.

Yes, we were definitely killing time. And, when it comes to that we don't do it very well.

We went back to the shop and checked in on our progress. Things were moving slowly. But, they were moving.

With our pick-up deadline looming, we checked in with our tech. Everything was coming together. By 6 o'clock, everything would be wrapped up. We made a quick dash to the vet center to pick up our babies before the magic hour of six. They seemed happy, well, and a bit wiped out. We so wish they would answer our many questions about how their first-ever day of day care went. Alas, they can't. But, based on their desire to rapidly devour dinner and hang out with their parents, we're assuming it all went well.

At just about six, our heat pump was in place. With an inside temp of 98 degrees, our magical technician Don gave us the go ahead to fire things up. Within 30 minutes, the temp was down to the low 90s. Within an hour, we were into the low 80s. The cats were happy and so were we.

Both compressors are firing. The temperature is dropping. The cats and peeps in our house are definitely happy.

It's been 14 months since our heat pump worked properly. It's been a long, ugly journey. Maybe someday we'll tell the whole ugly story. But, tonight we're just appreciating what we have.

Our heat pump works. Finally.

Kudos to Mary Ann and Don of DM Mobile RV Repair in Loveland for wrestling the "Heat Pump From Hell". At least one Winnebago dealer and folks at the factory couldn't conquer this beast, but DM did. We're so grateful for their skilled craftsmanship and warm hospitality. For all and any of our RVing friends passing along the Front Range, is you need service, these are definitely the folks to call. We're so glad we did!

Three cheers for Coleman, the manufacturers of our heat pump. You folks get a bad rap that isn't always deserved. Thank you so much for stepping up and honoring your factory warranty long after many others would have passed. We really appreciate how you've gone the extra mile.

We have nothing, and I mean nothing, good to say about Winnebago Factory Service through this ordeal. Y'all screwed up. Plain and simple. Enough said.

Finally, after nearly 14 months we have a heat pump that actually works. And, we're so happy.

And, our cats have had their first taste of day care.

Tomorrow, after three completely unexpected months in Colorado, we're heading to Kansas.

Wahoo!