A/C is Acting Up, Decisions, Decisions (**updated)

 Location: Foscue Creek (COE) Campground; Demopolis, Alabama

First, the good news. It is a nice campground and a nice town. My campsite is mostly shady and great for watching the tow boats as they work on the Tombigbee River. There is a great restaurant, near Walmart, that is run by the Mennonites and they have the best lunches. One day I had some great beef tips and rice and the other day I had their meatloaf. You get one of three main entree's with two sides, homemade roll and honey butter along with a drink for $12.00. For people like me that don't do much home cooking, it hit the spot just right. If you only want one side, it's $10.00. Whatever you do, don't miss out on the green beans. I talked to the woman running the place and told her the green beans were great, she said that is because they "put love in everything they cook". There was another unusually nice surprise in the campground. My neighbors were a group people from southern Mississippi, near the Gulf coast. They were in 3 or 4 RV's and routinely travel together but mainly stay in the southern halves of Mississippi and Alabama. I was literally shocked when they brought me a plate of BBQ ribs, tater salad and baked beans. On two additional nights they brought a plate of fish and spaghetti. On the last night one of the sides was a "corn salad" which was very good. Over the last nine years, I've stayed in about 400 different campgrounds all over this country. I've camped in 46 of the lower 48 states and I have NEVER had that happen before. A group of people sending a plate of food to a total stranger in a large campground. Wow, just wow.  

Now, the bad news. My air conditioner started acting up when I got here. From the time I picked Liberty up last October until a few days ago, she had provided cool air that was generally 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature. Although I just noticed it a few days ago, I suspect it has been gradually getting to the point where it is now which is about 5 degrees cooler. I did the most common troubleshooting. I made sure the filters were clean, I cleaned the outside coils, and I resealed the baffle separating the two chambers of the unit. None made a significant change in performance. It is under warranty so the cost or majority of the cost will be covered by Forest River (make of the RV) / Coleman-Mach (maker of the air conditioner).

The problem is finding a place and time to do the work. I have the warranty process started and was told I could drop her off at a service center and pick her up after 2 to 3 months. We all know that isn't going to work because I live in her full-time. So I called a mobile repairman that is a certified Coleman-Mach tech. We talked on the phone for a while and we both think it is a high probability that it has a Freon leak. Since RV air conditioners are a closed system, you can't add Freon to it like you can with your house or car. There is still an outside chance it could be something else. Sadly, my current campground is not in his area. He gave me some useful information though. Apparently, if the entire unit needs to be replaced under warranty, Coleman-Mach has to ship the unit to the technician with the sole purpose of it replacing a broken unit. This is suppose to be so they can keep tight control over serial numbers of bad units, etc. Even if the tech has one in stock, he can not install it, under warranty. It must come directly from Coleman-Mach with the express intent to be installed. When I asked how quickly they send them out, his answer was "now a days, 6 to 12 weeks at minimum". Wow. 

New information came in as I was writing this post. I just got off the phone with the same mobile tech I talked to a couple days ago. Good vibes from both calls. I asked if he could work me in either today (Thursday) or Friday or Saturday if I moved to a campground in his area. He said he could get to me on Friday. So I canceled my reservations at the COE campground at Millers Ferry and made a new reservation for today, Friday and Saturday at Meaher State Park near Mobile, Alabama. It was a campground he recommended since it is close to I-10 and he would be working in that area on Friday. This should work out OK since he will diagnose the problem on Friday and I'll know what direction, literally, to go then. I still have my reservation at Fort Pickens, which is on the barrier island off Pensacola, active for Sunday the 17th for 5 days. So, we will see. The whole situation is a little convoluted, but tomorrow's visit with the mobile tech should clear a lot of it up. The weather forecast is "iffy" in terms of daily highs being in the upper 80's for a few days. I did buy a swamp cooler to help with the limping A/C, but it is only effective if the humidity gets down to around 50% or so. The outside temperature limit seems to be around 90 degrees. I considered heading north for cooler weather, but it would take a couple days to get into suitable weather. I also thought about heading back home to Louisiana but their temperature is equal to or slightly warmer than Fort Pickens. So, I'll wait to see what the tech finds out. Hopefully, it will be something he can fix or replace on the spot. If not, I'll have to decide my next move. Everything happens for a reason.

The rest of this post will be pictures so I don't fall too far behind because of the A/C

This is a picture of the Tenn-Tom as I was leaving Pickensville Campground. The white line along the bank on the left is where the campground is located. It was a nice view.

Typical landscape on my way to Foscue Campground in Demopolis. Puffy clouds through a dirty side window. :)

My campsite at Foscue. That is the Tombigbee River in the background. I'm not sure why they changed the name from Tenn-Tom unless this is part of the original river. But that doesn't make sense since the Tennessee River is contributing to it. Maybe they just don't like Tennessee. 

This angered me a little bit. This is the entrance to the lock and dam that was built in 1955. Notice the big blue sign with the implication that Joe Biden had something to do with it. I'm guessing they replaced a toilet and used the Infrastructure money to pay for it which required them to erect this completely mis-leading sign. Like the old song said, "it's a sign of the times".

There isn't a good vantage point to get a good picture of the lock and dam. You can see the end of the lock wall on the right. That long white horizontal line in the background is water rolling over the spillway/dam. It would have been nice to have seen it better.

One of several tow boats working on the river. This was towing barges of coal. Ut oh, don't tell the man-made climate change people.

My set up to clean the coils on the roof-top A/C. I was happy to see that I could do that without getting on the roof. The A/C is close enough to the that I could spray the foam cleaner while standing on the ladder.

For my Yankee readers, this is a field of cotton. It's not a good picture. I think my cell phone was having trouble focusing due to all the white dots. One you see a field like this and picture you bent over all day as you filled a large cotton sack you dragged between the rows, you can appreciate the words, "picking high cotton".

Another travel picture somewhere in the middle of Alabama.

An observation platform to watch the river and sit on "thinking bench".

Looking back at Liberty from the "thinking bench".

I've updated this post while waiting for the Mobile RV Tech. His is suppose to be here around 9:30. Fingers crossed for a "fixable" solution. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.