Houston! We have a problem!

Life in a motorhome is no different in some ways than life in a home. Sometimes, you need to call somebody to help with a problem. If you find somebody who is particularly helpful, that's who you call the next time for similar problems. When you're 1500 miles away from the last really helpful person, calling somebody closer usually makes more sense. But not always.

We took our VW Beetle into a shop in Livingston, Texas, to be inspected as part of getting it registered in Texas. I knew going in that one taillamp was burned out, and asked the shop to fix it, they said they could. However, after 15 minutes, they came and told us that they couldn't figure out how to change the bulb, so they couldn't inspect it. While they inspected our motorhome, I looked at the lamp fixture, and I couldn't figure it out, either. A call to a local foreign car service shop indicated that they couldn't look at if for 36 hours. The VW owners manual said to take it to a dealer if we needed a light bulb changed. Yikes!

Before we left the parking area, I decided to call for help. The nearest VW dealer was in Houston, about 100 miles away. I found the phone number in our Street Atlas Plus software, and called a Houston dealer. After being connected a service writer, I explained the problem. He said that I needed to remove the lamp fixture, but he couldn't tell me how to do it, and he wouldn't connect me to a service technician that did know how to do it.

So we drove into town, to continue the registration process with the motorhome, and then to get our licenses. We got the rig registered without incident.

We took an hour to eat lunch and catch our breath while we waited for the Texas DPS office to re-open after lunch. I decided to call Dana Automotive, in Northampton, Massachusetts, a place that has serviced our bug several times while we've been travelling. They connected me with a technician who walked me through the process to remove the fixture and change the bulb. I then removed the light, walked a block to an auto parts store, and fixed the problem. Later that day, we got the inspection complete on the Beetle.

Irrational as it may seem, sometimes calling that place you know to be helpful, even though they may be a world away, is the best option.