What a Start!

Jan and I flew to Tampa on Saturday 21 November and stayed with our friends Bill and Janet in Clearwater for a couple days. Picked up the rig on Monday and were blown away at the practically new condition of the 2005 King Ranch truck and 2006 Host camper. The truck had 5,000 miles and not a nick or blemish inside or out. The leather seats in a King Ranch are really special and the smell of new leather permeated the truck. The owner gave us a quick run through and we took off heading North to spend Thanksgiving with our family in Philadelphia.

Of course a couple hours up the road we stopped at a Wal-Mart to stock up on plates, silverware, sheets, pillows and all the other necessities. Our intention was to camp out 2 nights on the way up. As the rain began and darkness set in about 5:30, we were into southern Georgia when the truck lights started dimming and engine dying. Couldn't have been a worse spot to break down on I95 as there was significant construction and the shoulder was almost non-existent. After a couple of hours with countless tractor trailers whizzing by, a tow truck showed up. Turns out they needed a larger tow truck to haul our rig. That took another hour or so and then they needed to disconnect the differential to safely tow with out the engine running!! That old Southern boy was great! Had it disconnected and hooked up in about 45 minutes. Fortunately there was a Ford dealership at the exit we just passed a few miles back so we had to go up 7-8 miles to next exit and come back.

Jan and I were stuffed into the front seat with Billy Joe and he was a character and made the experience tolerable. We dropped the rig off at the dealership (it was about 10:30 by now) and checked into a motel near by. The whole ordeal took about 4 1/2 hours and boy did that bed feel great. It was a new motel and I think cost about $49.95 which was a deal. Probably cheaper than a camp site.

First thing in the morning I spoke to the service manager and he got the truck right in. Long story, short, the alternator went bad. You're probably thinking how could a truck with only 5,000 miles have the alternator go bad......... Well not using a vehicle is not always good and having it sit around, rather than using it, can believe or not, cause premature "death". This unexpected delay was even further costly as just across the street was a large Outlet Store shopping center which brought smiles to Janice!! Living on an island causes a form of shopping depravity the women have trouble dealing with. Now she was able to get her "fix".

While she was shopping I wandered into the dealership showroom and in no time was in the business manager's office buying an extended warrantly for the truck. It covered just about everything for 48 months/48,000 miles and cost about $2,200. Figured this would get us through our Celebration Retirement Tour beginning next year. We were back on the road by about 2:30 and had hoped to get to Northern Va. in 6-7 hours.

Smooth sailing for about 3 hours when traffic came to a stand still somewhere in North Carolina. We inched along for about 2 hours and finally came to the next exit where it seemed everyone was getting off. It was about 8:30 and we discovered that an overpass bridge had collapsed on 95. Quickly got a room for overnight.

On the road by 9:30 and proceeded smoothly until about 15 miles south of D.C. when I smelled something burning! Of course your defence system kicks in along with a bit of adrenaline. Yes it's got to be someone in front that causing the oder(we were now in bumper to bumper traffic as it the day before Thansgiving!) and within minutes I see the smoke coming from our left front wheel well!! Again the emergency lane was about 9 feet wide and I need about 8 feet. I was cruising fearlessly for about a mile when I finally exited looking for a place to pull over. The Lord was surely with us as within a 1/2 mile there was a great turnoff with plenty of room to park. Sure enough somthing in the wheel/brake system was smoking!! In the interim time since our last break down we learned that our AAA membership didn't cover our truck camper rig setup so we signed up along the road with the Good Sam Club which had roadside RV service. Our new Ford extended warranty also had roadside coverage. We were having trouble getting a tow service; Jan and I were working both our cell phones which were BOTH running out of power and we couldn't find our chargers. Before we knew it two tow trucks showed up almost at the same time. The first one hooked us up and towed to a closeby large Ford dealership. Again we were treated so great and they immediately got us in, within an hour diagnosed the brake calipher had frozen and burned lines out with some computer sensors and who knows what else. They couldn't fix for 2 days because of holiday. Again the Lord blessed us; there was an Enterprise Car rental in the dealership. We got a nice Ford SUV and headed out to Philly at about 5:30. Guess what--our warranty covered everything including the car rental.

I won't bore you with the trip to Philly since compared to everything else it was a cake walk. Had to drive back to pick up the rig on Monday and drive up to New England. It was fun taking it over on the ferry over to the Vineyard and finally getting it home.

Probably the only humorous thing about this debacle was we so so excited to use the camper overnight and we ended having to spend both nights in motels!!

If anyone can beat this "tale of woe", please let me know.

John Steinbach's Rocinante in "Travels with Charlie". Probably one of the very first truck campers ever!