Oh Lord, stuck in Moab again (Day 6, 7, 8, 9...)

Day 6 has turned into Groundhog's day.  While traveling from Provo to Moab, we got a flat tire on the Aliner about 20 miles from Moab.  Not only a flat tire, but complete destruction of the wheel well, because the tire shredded apart.  I had food and laundry detergent crammed away in a compartment above the wheel well which created a food processor-like concoction to add misery to the damage. 

View from inside the camper looking down through where the wheel well used to be

I was able to put the spare tire on and limp to our camp ground after stopping at a few auto shops that might be able to fix the damage.  Unfortunately, the "RV expert" in town was actually out of town (~ 2-3 days away) which means were are pinned down in Moab until he gets here.  I thought about driving to the next biggest town (Grand Junction), but the recommendation from the mechanic after I sent him some photos was to stay put. 
I haven't felt so helpless and depressed in a long time.  It is literally gut-wrenching to think that our trip might be over before we even began.  Trying to cope with factors that are out of your control at the same time trying to show some degree of positivity for the benefit of the kids did not put me in a very good emotional state.  Fortunately, set backs like these impact my "woe-is-me" attitude for about a day.  After that, I can better assess the situation and plan accordingly. 
Wendy booked us at a hotel in town that included a kitchen so we have a decent place to stay out of the heat and continue to cook our own meals.  The biggest problem is not having any sort of timeline for getting the Aliner fixed. 
It turns out the mechanic isn't a great communicator or planner.  He's not willing to provide any tangible ETA's on simply getting to Moab and it turns out that he had vehicle issues of his own on the way back to Moab.  You can't get any cell service outside of town so the kids and I are pretty much contained within a mile's radius of the hotel since the mechanic won't provide any timeframe that we can work around.  For instance, here is a text exchange between the two of us yesterday (6/30):
Me:  Just trying to figure out if I need to stay in town waiting for your call or if we can head out a bit since I only get cell service in town.
Mechanic:  No reason to leave where you are at because I'm a mobile service.  I'll come to you if you have no phone service we can text please don't let this ruin your vacation.  Go and have fun.
Me:  I'd like to go over everything when you get here.
Mechanic:  Yes that's fine.
Me:  Are you thinking you'll get here this afternoon?  Tonight?  Tomorrow?
Mechanic:  Yes.
Me:  All of them?

I didn't hear from him again until I texted him again this morning.  He was still in route.  Ugh...

The kids and I did manage to head up to Arches NP the first morning.  They were both annoyed about having to get up at 7am, but it made all the difference when hiking in the hot weather.  Olivia complained about the hike, but she always complains about hikes so it was nothing out of the ordinary. 
We decided to hike to 'delicate arch' which is the famous arch which adorns most Utah license plates.  It was neat to see such an iconic American symbol even though it was pretty crowded with people at 8 in the morning. 

Since we've been relegated to the city (more of a town) of Moab, the kids have spent A LOT of time in the hotel pool and we try to avoid the heat during the middle of the day.  I unpacked the bikes and we did a couple of rides including a trip to the Colorado River and a 9pm ride where we almost ran into a deer on the lawn of the courthouse!  It's also fun watching the process that shop keepers go through to close their operations each night. 

bike ride across the Colorado River

Deer at court

https://moabrockshop.com/

This morning we stopped at an Escape Room business.  If you don't know what an escape room is, it's basically a room that you're trapped in for 1 hour and the goal is to attempt to get out of the room within that hour using clues within the room.  We chose the medium difficulty option (there were three options:  Easy, Medium & Hard).  We actually were able to get out with 8 minutes to spare!!!  I was pretty impressed with the kids' ability to figure out clues since most of the clues were at an adult level understanding. 

I'm currently sitting poolside watching the kids swim.  The mechanic is supposedly coming here between 2-3pm.  Fingers crossed!  At that point, I can hopefully get an idea of how long it will take to fix the camper and how far off of schedule I am.  I have a feeling we're going to have to skip Colorado, Kansas & Oklahoma.  I'm really hoping that we can get back on schedule by the time we get to New Orleans.  Ugh.