Lemonade

Where is it? Is it here? It was supposed to be here by now! Actually, it was supposed to be here six weeks ago. I'm talking about my Sportsmobile motorhome, of course. Well, it's not here, but it is coming. In this post, I'll discuss the latest wrinkle in the delivery of my RV, the definite (?) delivery date I've been given, and how I may be able to deal with this bag of lemons I've been handed.

When I ordered the van for my Sportsmobile (SMB) conversion January 21st, their website said it could take up to 5 months for the Sprinter to be delivered from Germany, and up to 8 weeks after that to complete the conversion. So, in the worst case, I never had any reason to expect my completed RV before the end of August. But when the van arrived at their factory by May 20th, my expectation was that it would be completed by July 20th at the latest - the website still said 8 weeks for conversion. I made plans accordingly, intending to drive the RV to Seattle for a family wedding on August 2nd.  But by the beginning of July, I was hearing on forums that conversion times were running about 12 weeks. When I visited SMB, they confirmed that was true. Okay, these things happen; orders pour in and a backlog develops. So expected delivery was back to the end of August, and I flew to the wedding. When I paid another visit to the factory, two weeks ago, it appeared to me that there were about two more weeks of work to do; in other words, delivery by now, the first week of September. When I mentioned this to the SMB rep, he said he'd see if he could make that happen. So, I was shocked when I received an email a few days ago giving me - for the first time - an exact completion date: September 25th. What??!! It takes quite a bit to get me upset, but I sent back a strongly worded email saying they had reached the limits of my patience. Big deal, huh? It probably won't speed things along, but maybe it will prevent completion from slipping any further. If you're keeping score, thats 18 (!!) weeks after they received the van. And the website still lists a maximum of 8 weeks for the conversion.

Don't get me wrong. I still believe SMB is a good company that turns out a high quality product. But, at the very least, they could have done a better job of managing my expectations. I am going to ask them why they didn't hire additional help to manage the backlog. But I'm retired, schedules are meaningless now, right? Well, not entirely. I really wanted to spend some time with a friend at his summer home near Vancouver before he closes it in late September. I was looking forward to a wonderful time. It was unthinkable I wouldn't have the RV well before that. This latest delay nuked that plan, and it hurt. Which is why, if you haven't noticed, I'm using this post to vent, and belaboring every little detail. Ah well, there's always next summer, I suppose.

But a new deadline has reared its head. I've got a consulting job (they approached me, and it seemed like it'd be fun, which it is). It's very part time and they're fine with me telecommuting once I hit the road, but there's a conference in Las Vegas starting October 20th that they'd really, really like me to attend. Let's see, pick up the van September 25th, show up in Las Vegas October 20th - it really doesn't sound like there's time to make the grand tour of the Northwest (Glacier Nat'l Park, Calgary, Banff, Vancouver) that I'd planned. I was close to despondent, without a goal for the first time since I started planning for retirement. But I wasn't ready to give up without working it through.

What if... I don't take any "extra" days anywhere, and sometimes push my 200 mile per day rule to 300 a few days when there aren't any particular sights to see. There are 25 days between Sept. 25th and Oct. 20th and, using this new approach, I could do the trip in... 20 days. Okay! I could even throw in a few days to linger here and there along the way. Good, but not great. It wouldn't be the relaxed approach I'd hoped for, letting me feel that I'd taken time to really appreciate the places I'd visited. But, there might be a fix. I could visit the places I planned, park the van in Seattle, fly to Las Vegas for the conference, then fly back to Seattle four days later. That would save me seven days of driving before the conference - add those into the "lingering" allotment - and give me an extra week after the conference to leisurely wander down the coast highway before hitting San Diego at the end of October for an important camping trip with friends. Now we're talking. What's the airfare from Seattle to Vegas? About $225 - negligible in the grand scheme of things. So... I've got a plan, but this time I refuse to become attached to it before I've got the motorhome's keys in my sweaty little hands.

On a related topic, one bright note to end on. I've received the Millenicom wireless hotspot that will be my link to the internet while I'm on the road:

(I blotted the support number out of the photo.)

It connects to the excellent coverage of the Verizon 4G LTE wireless network and provides a Wi-Fi data signal for up to 10 devices. The entire process went very smoothly. Ordering the hotspot also signs you up for the service. They automatically prorate for the portion of the month that remains. Shipping only takes a couple days. The only small bump was that my unit came preset not to broadcast its SSID. That means I couldn't select the hotspot's network from a list on my computer, but had to type in both the network name and the password. A quick trip to the hotspot's wireless settings (it has its own display and interface buttons) fixed this small inconvenience. I've used the data connection from both my computer and my iPod, and the speed is surprisingly good. I get 20 GB of data for $90 per month - not cheap, but less expensive, better coverage, and twice the data of other plans I've seen. I honestly don't know how much of my data appetite 20 GB will satisfy, but it's only for when I'm away from civilization anyway - on the road or camping in wilderness parks. Most commercial campgrounds have their own Wi-Fi networks. I'll probably reserve streaming any movies for when I'm connected to one of those.

For a while, exciting things were happening faster than I could blog them. Now I've caught up. There may be other updates along the way, but at the least, September 25th should be a very exciting day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.