Despite what you might see on social media, the life of an RVer isn’t all beautiful sunsets and incredible stays in unforgettable places.

Bad things do happen -- here’s a case in point.

The break-in: Last August, we were preparing to take our RV to the Olympic Peninsula. At the time, we were keeping the Thor Gemini in a storage facility in the Ballard area of Seattle.

One day, John brought a few things to the rig, mostly backpacking stuff. The next day, we got an urgent phone call: Our RV window was smashed. Thieves grabbed the gear and split. But not before bleeding on the couch. Talk about adding insult to injury.

After that bad news call, we quickly went to the facility, cleaned up the broken glass and inspected the damage. The window on our entry door was dramatically busted, the inner screen door was cut so they could gain entry. The only things missing were the backpacking supplies -- about $2,000 worth of gear. And our peace of mind.

To their credit, the storage facility’s management quickly filed a police report and gave us a temporary fix in the form of a surprisingly sturdy plywood cover for our broken window.

The repair rigamarole: Looking back, we were incredibly naive, thinking our rig’s window could quickly be repaired.

First, we took it to an auto glass repair business. No go -- the window was custom, and would need to be fabricated. They couldn’t do it, and no other glass companies were interested in helping, we learned after several calls.

So we contacted RV repair companies and were told to get the window from our RV manufacturer, Thor Industries. Cost? Nearly $1,000 -- and it would take eight weeks to deliver.

A quick-fix was out, so we ended up going on the Olympic Peninsula trip with a window that was a piece of wood.

After we returned, we set about trying to find a place that would work with our insurance company to get it fixed. Simple, right? Not so much -- after numerous phone calls, we finally found a place and scheduled the service, but not before covering the window-repair cost in advance.

Two-plus months later, we finally had that new window installed, total cost almost $1,500.

The takeaways: In retrospect, the place we selected to store our RV had some red flags. We picked it because it was near our new home in Seattle, and the other storage places we had called were full.  But it was in a high-crime part of town and there had been other break-ins at the storage facility.

Lesson learned: Be ultra-careful about the storage facility you choose. We ended up shifting to a different storage facility, one that wasn’t as convenient but in a safer setting.

Second takeaway: There are no quick fixes when it comes to repairing a damaged RV. In almost every instance when we’ve needed work done on our RV, the repairs have been slow and difficult to schedule.

And finally: Learn from your mistakes! Let’s hope we have.

Last call for stickers

It’s officially the holiday season and we’ve heard from many readers interested in receiving their very own Going Mobile sticker. Thanks for the sweet shout-outs! We’ve sent out stickers and  holiday greetings to all who have written.

So here’s one more chance: Email us at goingmobile@spokesman.com with your name and home address, and we’ll send out a holiday greeting with your very own, highly prized Going Mobile sticker -- sure to be a collector’s item one day!

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