The Refrigerator Drama...Part 1 and 2

Just in time for the announced heatwave, our cooler decides to go on strike. The thermometer shows 34 degrees, the hairstyle is perfect, but the fridge only cools to 13 degrees. It tries all night to cool down the temperature, drains our battery, and the beer is still warm. We call the company in Germany and ask for help. Plug-in Festival is helpful and open to our problem. They say it's the display. It seems to be a weak point of the cooler. They send us the replacement part for free. Hope arises. Maybe it's not so bad after all? Through a Spanish friend from Germany, we get an address in the suburbs of Madrid. His sister lives here. A few days before the planned delivery date, we set off towards Madrid. I count 13 lanes of highway, thousands of cars, 34 degrees, and cops in the middle of the traffic jam...in the heat. When we arrive in the suburb, we receive the message that the display could not be delivered because it didn't fit in the mailbox! It has to be picked up at the post office blablabla...! Since we can't drive the truck to the post office, we walk the 4.5 km to the pick-up point, making a detour to our friend's sister's house to pick up a declaration of consent. After all, the package was addressed to her.

Finally, we happily hold the replacement part in our hands, drive far out and up a mountain to a national park. There we dismantle half of the kitchen again to remove the refrigerator. Hopefully, replacing the display will solve the problem, but nothing happens!! It can't cool down below 13 degrees. In other words: it's screwed!!

After browsing the internet for a day, it's clear: we need exactly the same refrigerator again because we built our kitchen around it. And no other size fits in here.

We call the company again, but they only ship the coolers within Germany! We need an address in Germany. Normally, we would solve such a problem with my mother and her husband Fritz. But they are coming back from a 4-week vacation in Canada today and are probably still jet-lagged...

We want to spare them a bit and have the cooler sent to our friends Klaus and Mara with a request to ship it to us in Spain directly by express. In the meantime, we have settled in the small mountain village of Sacedon on a cute little campsite and have a delivery address to provide. Plus, you can buy crushed ice here. Thank you campsite restaurant for existing.

When our friend wants to take the package to the German post office, she is turned away. We do not transport coolers!! What the fu...is that? It quickly becomes clear that we need another solution because the thermometer shows 38° and that's how it's going to stay here in central Spain. UPS is the solution! But since normal people naturally have to work during the day, our friend Klaus takes the cooler to my mother in the evening so that she can drop it off at UPS the next day. What a hassle for everyone!!

A day later, we receive the tracking number via WhatsApp. The cooler is on its way to Spain and will arrive in 3 working days. Hallelujah!! What would we do on our travels without the little helpers from home? Many thanks to Klaus, Mara, Mom, and Fritz. You were our saviors!

As a precaution, Kilian saws a hole in the bodywork and installs an additional ventilation grille so that the cooler gets enough air from the back. We think (and hope) that was the problem. Since we converted the truck last year under time pressure, and it was the first time in our lives, there are always things that could be improved. You're never really finished.

We spend chilled sweaty days at 38° in the shade and wait for UPS. You can only go for a walk very early in the morning and in the evening after 10 pm, and even then, the thermometer still shows 30°. Our daily walk with the dogs is twice a day to the lake so they can swim. The beautiful Entrepenas reservoir looks inviting, but unfortunately, it is drying up and smells of carp. The dogs don't care, even if they smell like dead fish after every swim. We settle for going for walks.

Lucy goes hunting for rabbits and her tracker shows us at some point that she is at the top of the mountain and is not moving anymore. That's not a good sign, and I start sprinting up the mountain. It will be dark soon, and the tracker shows that the battery is at 9%. If she's injured somewhere, we'll never find her. I climb almost vertically at 32° on a super steep goat path all the way up to the summit. I am rewarded with a completely exhausted tail-wagging Lucy and a breathtaking view of the reservoir. To get back home, we have to take a big detour because it's too steep. It's already pitch black, and Lucy falls into a dog coma until the next morning.

At the campsite, they keep a lonely pony under miserable conditions for the amusement of the children (there are none here, we are alone). The paddock is a landfill, and it is not fed. It breaks my heart to see an animal suffer like this. It stands there apathetically with its head hanging down, staring at the wall. Every day, I bring carrots, apples, and grass from the walking path, but I am aware that it will have to go hungry again in a couple of days. My animal welfare heart is bleeding. Different countries, different customs. I will never be able to get used to it.

After 2 days, the moment has come. Our cooler is in the front yard. Christmas and Easter have come together today. Quickly get rid of the old one, install the new one, and after an hour, the temperature has cooled from 34° to 0°. Hallelujah! Cheers to cooled food and drinks.

We love the simple life very much. We don't need much to be happy. We produce our own electricity and eat very locally and simply. A clean bed makes us happy, and a quiet parking spot too. But without a refrigerator at almost 40° in the shade, that's a little nightmare.

We stay on the cute little campsite for two more days, give the old cooler to the nice Romanian receptionist for repairs, make minor improvements to the truck, and prepare for our further journey north. In 10 weeks, we have appointments in Germany, and then we want to continue quickly towards the east and wherever the wind takes us.

Once again, a big thanks to Klaus, Mara, Mom, and Fritz. You are our heroes.