Mechanical Issues in San Antonio

Well it had to happen. We've had a minor mechanical breakdown. When we were getting ready to leave Guadalupe State Park on Sunday morning, the lube pump in the Vibe would not start. For those not mechanically inclined, the lube pump allows us to pull the Vibe with all 4 wheels on the ground in neutral. It keeps the automatic transmission fluid flowing thru the transmission so it won't overheat. Anyway, the lube pump would not start on Sunday morning. And we HAD to leave the park on Sunday since they were having a deer hunt on Monday morning and ALL campers had to be out. We got on the computer and located a campground on the south side of San Antonio (Elmendorf, TX) and Linda drove the Vibe while Andy followed in Barnabas and we headed across San Antonio in the Sunday morning traffic. We were sure glad that it was Sunday morning and not any kind of rush hour traffic. Their interstates were definitely confusing thru downtown. Along the way we passed the Alamo, River Walk (which is currently drained for cleaning and repair) and the Space Needle (we waved but did not stop). We'll have to plan a stop in downtown San Antonio on another trip thru. Once we were settled in our new campground -- nothing more than utilities and a small concrete slab spaced very tightly together -- Andy started diagnosing the problem. Being Sunday, there was no telephone warranty support until Monday morning. He found that the electrical connectors to the lube pump had pulled apart. Once we drove across town to a Auto Zone store, purchased connectors, and installed them -- the pump worked fine. Hurrah! But wait -- now the little blue light on the console in Barnabas would not light. This light tells us that the lube pump is working while we're driving down the road in Barnabas. No blue light -- no assurance that the pump is working. Andy dug out the manual for the system (from his not insignificant library of all the mechanical stuff in Barnabas) and worked through the "trouble checklist". His diagnosis - the console in Barnabas with the blue light was bad. Nothing to do but to wait until Monday morning and call. Monday morning dawned cloudy, cool, rainy, and windy but we had the warranty people on the phone! They had Andy redo alot of the tests he had already performed on Sunday (but they wanted to be sure) and some new ones (grounding and connectivity stuff that Linda doesn't get) and their diagnosis -- the console in Barnabas was bad. Duh! But the company stood behind their product, located a new console in San Antonio, and arranged for us to drive up there and pick it up -- at no charge. Another exciting drive thru San Antonio and we had the new console. Drove back to Barnabas, installed it, and held our breath! Glory to God! Everything worked!! This whole adventure would not have been possible without the mechanical aptitude that God gave Andy and the new Garmin GPS which we purchased for ourselves as a Christmas present! As it was, the weather was cold, rainy and windy on our breakdown days (not the best traveling weather). This morning was much of the same but heavy rain. We checked the Weather Channel radar, waited until the rain and wind had passed, disconnected Barnabas, filled up with propane, hooked up the Vibe (everything worked fine!) and headed to Quemado. We arrived here about 3:30 pm, have Barnabas all reconnected and are planning on going to dinner with our hosts to learn more about each other. We're glad all the mechanical issues are fixed and we're here in Quemado to work for the next several weeks!