San Diego again.

Did I mention that we are getting SERIOUSLY frustrated with this!!

Finally we got a call to pick up the Miata from the body shop. We had moved from the SKP KOFA park to the “Q” casino intending to head off to San Diego if the shop gave us one more excuse. I had called Geico again and their rep had made some more threatening calls, plus I called Gerber's corporate office and told them what I thought about their Casa Grande shop and what I intended to post online to every site that had reviews for body shops if I didn't get the car back immediately.

Suddenly it got done! A miracle. When we collected it they knocked $200 off the bill for “Inconvenience”.

Barb and I jumped into the Fiesta and drove to Casa Grande picked up the Mazda, dropped the Fiesta in a covered storage facility and drove back to Yuma. That took the whole day and we planned to leave the next morning.

All fixed up.

It seems like we must have run over somebody's black cat lately as as soon as the Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) was turned on it started beeping for low pressure on the 2 outside rear tires. Worse we were dry camping and had no power to plug the compressor into. My anxiety disorder just went off the wall. I had to try and calm down so I could work on a plan to get out of this mess.

When I got calm again I realized we could start the generator which we'd been running for the last coupe of days to run the AC. Of course the geny decided that it wasn't going to cooperate and wouldn't start.

A TPMS sensor, this screws on in place of the valve cap.

More calming down had me remember that we'd bought a rechargeable portable compressor just to save having to get the big one out to top up the airbags in the suspension. That little thing said it was capable of 120 psi. Time to find out!

Well a welcome surprise, that little thing did it! It took a long time but it got those tires up to 100 psi even though it wasn't fully charged from the last time I used it!

Rear wheel with the hub cap removed. The hose at the bottom is one of the valve stem extensions.

When I'd finished I tried the geny again and it started! Talk about timing!

Two metal valve extensions, this is what was leaking slowly.

I spent 15 minutes playing with the steering lock on the Miata to figure out what position it had to be in to NOT lock the steering. Seems it has to be in the “accessory” position. We hooked up and set off, or we did after I got the parking brake on the rig to release! It decided to pay hard to get and I had to press on the parking brake pedal as I pulled the release handle to get it to release.

Finally we got going but only after we made a few sharp turns and got out to check the Miata wheels hadn't locked!! Driving on I8 isn't too fascinating, 100 miles of dead straight road thru the barren desert. I was driving with one eye on the rear view camera looking for smoke coming out of the Miata or other drivers flashing their headlights to signal some new disaster. Barbara made a couple of trips back to look out the rear window too! Fortunately nothing happened. We made a stop near El Centro and I checked the temperatures of every tire on the rig and the car, lifted the hood and checked under there. Everything was just fine and I started to calm down a little.

By the time we'd climbed from below sea level in El Centro over the mountains at 4200' and down the other side into San Diego I was almost a happy guy again. There is still a problem with the 2 outside rear tires on the rig loosing pressure over a couple of days, and the Miata has rubber valve stems which I don't think are suitable for use with the TPMS sensors so I will have to get those sorted before we leave San Diego but I am hopeful that we are putting our series of problems behind us at last.

Writing this latest post has also been therapeutic. It helps me get over the anxiety that has been dogging me for the last month. I'm quite impressed with how I've been able to get it under control and I'm 1000% better than I was 4 years back when it first hit me. So thanks for letting me share my story with you.

There was plenty more frustration dealing with AT&T trying to straighten out the mess that Directv Now had left my account in. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't wish Directv Now on my worst enemy and it took 2 days, endless phone calls and hours (literally) on hold before I just canceled it and walked away.

To make up for that we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista and naturally caught up on all our old friends and neighbors in town. Days of partying turned into nights of partying. The diet went completely out of the window.

Chula Vista Elks RV park.

I redid the valve extensions on the rear wheels and I hope now the TPMS will work without alarms. Unfortunately when I looked at the valve stems on the Miata they are rubber not metal and I'm not sure they will be safe to hang the TPMS monitors on!!

This one piece valve stem extender is what I hope will fix the problem.