When we first bought a home, we quickly learned that there would always be a project to tackle.  Sure, we brought it on ourselves by buying a house built in 1897, but we didn’t realize that it would be so continuous.

When we downsized to an RV, we thought we were downsizing our projects.  Only so many things can break in an RV, right?

Sure, only so many things can break, but that also means EVERYTHING can break.

So far since moving into our new (to us) motorhome full time, we have had almost every system that could break, break.

Immediately last summer, we found out that our refrigerator was shot.  $1600 later, new fridge was installed.

Our nice, built-in coffee maker broke the first time we tried to use it.  We replaced it with our own rack that included a coffee maker and a toaster—I’m happy to have the toaster too.

We’ve had to replace the motor on our furnace, fix a propane leak, replace the seals on our toilet (and will need to replace the entire toilet in the next couple of years).  Our generator worked last summer and does not work now—something we found out while trying to “dry camp” with our friends.  We replaced the kitchen and bathroom faucets.  Our front hydraulic jacks are broken and leaking hydraulic fluid.  The exhaust had to be reattached underneath the RV.

And now, our front A/C unit is going out.

We currently reside in the Valley of the Sun where days reach over 100° and our RV heats up pretty quickly.  A functioning A/C unit is a necessity.

RV air conditioning units are not like household units.  In most units, there is access to the freon, the cooling agent in a unit.  Not in an RV unit.  There is no port or access to the freon meaning that you cannot refill or recharge it.

After weighing the cost of buying a bunch of different parts vs. buying a whole new unit, we found that our best option was to purchase a new A/C unit altogether.

On Monday, a 109° day, we spent another long car ride bringing our no-longer-injured friend back up to start his hike again.  On the way, we researched different A/C units and determined how we would fix our problem.  We ordered the unit during the trip and Andy will install it with the help of a guy who works with him—the unit weighs 100 lbs. and there is no way I can help him lift that onto the roof.

Knowing that our new unit was only ten days from entering our lives, we sighed in relief and enjoyed the seemingly endless car ride.

We drove through one area recently ravaged by wildfires, an experience I never want to have and something I’ve come to realize terrifies me a lot (guess that means SoCal is out for our final resting spot).  Thousands of fires have already happened in California this year, with 75 in San Diego County and a current blaze on the border still being worked on.

*Fun fact, the small airport of Ramona is a fueling station for planes responding to wildfires.  It’s been very busy for the past week due to the border fire.

We drove up more than 6,000 feet to the drop-off spot and our temperature went from 113° to 88° in just a few minutes.  I am so happy our A/C unit will be coming soon!

It was beautiful here and made me really excited to start traveling again and see more of California and the West Coast.

Because we were going to spend so much time away from home and it was going to be so hot, we took the dogs with us on our trip.  They could either sit in a kennel at home with a failing A/C unit or sit in the car with us for company!

The ride back was pretty.  I took some pretty grainy pictures of the setting sun.  I love how scenic California is and wonder if anyone who lives here still notices its beauty.

Theo was happy to be back home after the long day.

That night, we watched the strawberry moon and thought about how lucky we are (even with our continuously broken home).

We are excited for next month, which will bring another visitor into town and will mark our first RV trip in months!  Our friend Alex is coming to stay with us for a few days and we will get to take him on a tour of our world.

We are going to work on fixing several things on the RV, including the A/C.  We’ve ordered the parts to fix our hydraulic jacks and to fix up the exhaust again (the right way this time).

After that, we are taking the RV out to stretch her legs!  We’ve decided to take a short trip to Nevada at the end of the month to celebrate another friend’s birthday.  So excited to get back on the road for a while!