“The personality and the ego scream, while the soul whispers.”  From “Riding the Rap” by Elmore Leonard

We wake up this morning in San Antonio. A catastrophic battery failure brought us here. The real culprit is my complete lack of mechanical aptitude and common sense.

It all started Sunday morning. We had just moved over to a much better gate after 3 weeks at one not so nice. We felt that we had paid our dues and were due a more pleasant experience.

Around 4 am that day, I woke and assumed control of the gate from Gaby. There was no traffic at that time so I decided to surf the net.

Somehow, the light in the motor home seemed dim. I thought, my God, I must be losing my sight. I checked the lights in other rooms. Same thing. Nooooooooooooooooo…this cannot be happening to me.

Actually, I was not going blind. This condition was evidence of a looming disaster. Our batteries were dead or dying and soon we would be plunged into an electrical dead zone.

No A/C in the oil patch is not acceptable. Once all systems failed, I jumped into action. A quick check of the shore power generator. It was working fine. The problem was somewhere in the bowels of our 14-year-old Motorhome.

It would be an understatement to say I am a mechanical idiot. If Gaby sees me with a Phillips screwdriver (what is that?), she calls 911.

Well it looked  like a toothbrush to  me.

Luckily, we have a portable A/C unit we were able to plug directly into the shore power generator. I called Mark with GGS and explained the situation. We had to go somewhere for repairs. He could not relieve us until Monday morning. Somehow, we limped through Sunday and made it to Monday.

Our relief arrived around noon and we were off to San Antonio. Vickie Heron had recommended Iron Horse RV so we went with that. Good thing we did.

Suffice to say that these guys are professional, knowledgeable, friendly and, thorough. Best experience I have ever had at an RV repair business.

I explained the problem as well as my limited vocabulary would allow. Nothing technical. The whatchamacallit sounded funny and the lights went out. They probed. I felt oddly guilty of something. Eventually they come up with a diagnosis. My batteries were probably dead. Let’s check them.

Folks, it was embarrassing. The battery compartment and all contents looked like the detritus of a WWI battlefield. Tony the tech gave me one of those “how could you?” looks. I was too ashamed to make eye contact.

How old are these batteries?

Is that important?

The code on them indicates they are 4 years old.

Is that old?

How often do you check the water levels in them?

Should I do that? Ok, Ok. Just kiddin. I check them at least 3 or 4 times a year.

So Tony got out his measuring devices and checked the batteries. They were all dead. That was the good news. James and Wade explained to me how everything in an RV relies on good batteries to operate.

So now, all we have to do is replace the batteries and our problems would be over……maybe. Long story short……..all 6 batteries were replaced with sealed (and expensive) top of the line batteries. And that proved to be the solution.

3 hours and $1600 later we pulled out of Iron Horse RV happy. Once again, the A/C is working and the MH is humming. In addition, I do not need to check the water level in my batteries ever again. Life is good.

Iron Horse RV – 6414 Randolph Blvd., San Antonio.  210-657-1996

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