One of my Greatest Fears of Going On The Road

One of the things I feared about going on the road was the break downs.  I had read stories about rv's breaking down on the road.  I knew that eventually it would probably happen to us.  I hate car breakdowns esp. when the car won't run.  But what about when it's your home and it' big.

Well yesterday it happened to us.  We were ready to leave the Orlando Thousand Trails at 11:00.  The rv wouldn't start.  Ed thought he may have left the auxiliary on, so we figured the batteries were dead.  We have a road side plan for the rv,  so we called them.  Because it was Sunday morning, it took over 2 hours to get a tow truck there to give us a jump.  It was hard starting but they finally did get it started.  Everything seemed to be ok so we took off.  We were about 6 miles down the road and Ed noticed  the battery light came on, than he saw we  had lost the back up video camera, than all the gauges were dead.  My first thought how are we going to make it 70 miles without any speedometer.  I didn't realize how bad it was.  We were stopped at a stop light and when it was time to go we had no power.  The coach wouldn't move, than it started moving very slightly.  Since we were at the intersection I told Ed to try and turn and I figured maybe we could get off the road.  We managed to get in the turning lane and that was it.  It wasn't going to move. 

There we were, my worst nightmare coming true.  It had already taken us 2 hours to get a tow truck the first time.  Now we are stuck on a highway.  How long will it be this time?  I called the road service.
So at least they are there to find  someone to tow us.   She asked if we are in a safe place, I tell her we are on the road but in the turning lane so we weren't completely blocking traffic.  Ed had put our orange triangles out and everyone seemed to be going around us ok.  No one was honking, so that was a good sign. 

Someone going by in a truck offered to tow us.  They couldn't haved towed the rv so they must have meant the trailer.  We bought the Jeep knowing it could tow the trailer.  So we had to take it off the trailer so when the tow truck got here we would be able to use it to tow the trailer.   So we waited 1 hour, 2 hours, 3hours, sometime in the 4 hour the road service called to say they were having a hard time finding a tow truck.  In the meantime the sheriff's office called to say they were sending out a police car to make sure we weren't causing a traffic hazard.  I guess the road service had called them to tell them we were stuck in the road.


Oh, I didn't tell you there was another MH on the opposite side also broke down.  It looked like he had been able to get off the road.  Well their tow truck had come and towed them away and we are still waiting.  We thought about it after the fact that we should have went over there to see if he could come back and tow us.  But he was gone and it was too late.

The one good thing was we had food and we had a bathroom.  Since it was Sunday the traffic wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Well after close to 6 hours the tow truck finally came.  It pulled us off to a mini mall around the corner.  I had went over earlier and asked if we could park there for the night. 

Earlier when Ed had tried to start the MH at the campground he did something and we lost power from our coach batteries.  We just figured we would get them working when we got to where we were going.  So when we got to the parking lot we didn't have power of any kind.  The refrigerator won't work on gas because you need some electric ( I didn't know that), no lights, no nothing.  Anyways we went to a pizza place and had pizza and than went to the grocery store (all there in the plaza) and bought water, and ice.  I figured we could put the ice in the frig. to keep it cold and we could use the water to flush the stool. 

So we were there for the night.  Ed went to bed (nothing to do) and I stayed up and read (I had a book light.)  Actually it wasn't bad.  I guess I was really tired because I slept pretty good.

The road service called the next morning.  They were looking for another tow truck for us and they had found a service place to work on the rv.  It was about another 2 hours but he finally showed up.  Talk about doing nothing but waiting.  

We were following the tow truck to the repair place and about 5 miles down the road there is smoke rolling out of the tires of the rv.  My first thought was there goes our tires.  Ed pulled up beside the truck and honked.  He told the driver the rv tires were smoking so he pulled over.  We pulled over in front of him.  There was enough space on the left side to get off the road.  They discovered the rv's brake hadn't completely released.  So they were able to fix it.

We got to the rv service place and it's all about waiting again.  They did start working on it right away, but it took them awhile.  They did find out it was the alternator, which is what was suspected.  We were planning on doing some service work when we got back to Elkhart so Ed decided we might as well get it done now.  So we are having the belts replaced, the transmission flushed, air filter changed and new starting batteries.  So we sat in the waiting room all day, about 4:30 they come in and tell us they won't finish until tomorrow.  So here we set in their parking lot tonight.  But they actually have 50 amp service and water hookups for their customers, so it's not so bad.

So here I am having lived through one of my greatest fears.   During this time, I was trying to put my trust in God but sometimes when you are in the trial it can be hard.  But having come through it, it wasn't that bad.

HAPPY TRAILS   Love Ed and Lyn