$100 A Day

Anyone have a front door that has a mail slot in it?  We did and our sweet lab, Tooley, who would lick you to death if you let her, had this thing about mail coming through that slot in the door. She turns into this vicious animal attacking each piece as it falls to the floor then picking it up and giving it a good shake. Satisfied that she has done a good job of it, she walks away to lick herself as only dogs can.

What comes in the mail today? Another wedding invitation for July! That makes 2 weddings and one family reunion all in the month of July. Would really like to attend them, but that means airfare, hotels, wedding gifts, car rental and food for probably more since the married daughter, husband and kids would like to go too and of course, Mom and Dad should (in her mind) help them pay for it.

“Ty” I said to my husband: “I don’t know how we can afford all this. How do we choose which one to go to?” His reply was very simple in his mind and that was the Fouchey Family Reunion. One weekend, then send regrets and a gift to the rest. “Wait a minute, one of the weddings is on my side of family. We can’t just go back to Michigan for your family and ignore mine. And since we are there, we might as well just do our friends’ daughter’s wedding.” Again, his reply was simple and that’s why I love my husband so because he always has non-complicated replies. His reply “Can’t go then because it is too expensive and if we do go then you know the daughters want to go, and husband, and kids and all on our dime. Nope can’t be done.”

So before sending the regrets and presents we continued to noodle the “how of it”. Ty, being the brilliant one finally tossed out the idea of “why don’t we camp?” That way we could save on car rental, save on the food bill as we would be cooking most meals, and lodging is just the cost of a campground. Now, his idea of camping is so very different from mine. He loves his tent, it is his home away from home, his tiny little adobe hut, his getaway. I on the other hand hate his tent, his home away from home, his tiny little adobe hut. He doesn’t realize that after spending the night sleeping on the ground, I require a crane to lift me upright and that’s after I manage to roll over onto my hands and knees and back out of the tent arse first. Nope, a tent just isn’t going to happen, although I am up for the idea of camping for all the economic reasons. But isn’t renting a Travel America RV really expensive? Yup they are; we might as well fly out and rent one in Michigan. But wait says Ty, and again a simple brilliant response “Unless you (meaning me) can find one for $100 dollars a day.” And that my friends, was the gauntlet thrown down! That was the ticket! The answer! And now for the rest of the story.

The Hunt

See America! Come travel with us

So many choices and options. So many prices and the extras. Bunk beds, pull out beds, tables that fold down into beds. How many sheets, blankets and pillows do you need to rent? Why rent sheets and pillows? How many place settings and cups and glasses do you need? Pots and pans. These are all extras for just a few more dollars. And it is not a flat fee, it is by the day with mileage factored in! Then there is generator cost – what is that? A generator is used if you get to a place that does not have electricity or not enough amps to run the air conditioner or microwave or in some cases even the lowly hair dryer. The generator is calculated on how much is used – much like the old fashion electric meters with those little dials, then one is subtracted from the other and your get your “hours” and that’s what you pay for. It is advised to get 600 hours for the average 3-week trip. You only pay for what you use, so if you don’t use up the entire 600 hours then you get reimbursed.

All this said means that finding an RV to rent for $100 is next to impossible because so far, I haven’t even found a rental that the base price even started at $100 never mind all the extras, minus the generator but we just won’t use that so will get reimbursed. Which also means if I ever want to blow dry my hair, I will have to go to the rest facilities in the campground.

I am undaunted and now I resort to Craigslist. This is before the popularity of the VBRO business and Craigslist was the closest I could get to finding a RV rental. And low and behold there it is!

FOR RENT

32-foot Class A for $100 per day

Sleeps 6, all bedding, dishes, pans included

600 generator hours included

Call 897-555-4783

I can’t believe my eyes! $100 a day – the prize has been found; I make the call.

Pick Up

Our good friend, Hal, a very experienced Class A owner, volunteers to go with us to pick up the rig.

For those of you unfamiliar with RVs, a Class A is the big bus type of RV. Class C are the ones that have a truck front with a portion of the rig going over the top. 5^th Wheel is like a trailer that is pulled with a truck; however, a big portion of the trailer sits on top of the truck bed. Travel Trailers are well, just that, trailers towed behind a vehicle. Pop-ups fall into the travel trailer classification. Don’t know what a truck that has the rig attached to the bed of a truck is other than small.

Ty has only driven a pop-up that’s why Hal volunteered so he could give Ty some pointers. We love Hal dearly and respect his judgement but sure wish when he laid eyes on our prize that he would have used his New Yorker instinct and told us this was a death trap just waiting to happen and let’s run while we have the chance. Noooo, Hal was smooth for once and quiet which should have been a tip off.

We inspected the 32-foot 1980 (another tip off) faded white and blue Challenger for damage, duly noted, counted out the 6 plates, cups, glasses, forks, knives, spoons. 1 large fry pan, 1 small sauce pan, 1 toaster, 1 coffee pot, various cooking utensils. 3 sleep sets consisting of top and bottom sheets. 3 pillows which I promptly gave them back telling them I would use my own and 1 blanket. No towels. Okay so I will have to supplement from home but it was only $100 per day, it was a steal! Everything checks out to our naive minds and we give the man our check for 4 weeks’ worth of use, plus a small amount for insurance, I forgot about that amount but by this time the focus was $100 a day and it included 600 hours of generator time. What a steal.

The drive home from the RV rental should have been our first clue, no, second if Hal had spoken up, that this $100 a day was going to rival Robin Williams film RV (Runaway Vacation). But we were euphoric, we were going on a 4-week family vacation for $100 a day.

Ty backs into the drive with Hal guiding him every step of the way on the driving mechanics of 32 feet of steel, wider than anything he has ever driven trying to miss other parked cars and trees and the occasional mailbox. Successfully backed in, turned off the engine just in time to witness a huge billow of steam coming out the front of the rig. The radiator has just overheated. The yellow-green fluid bubbling out of the radiator top, the grandkids screaming (they were waiting for us to arrive), my daughter shouting and all Ty and I could do was look at each other and simultaneously say “$100 a day”.

Hey, no problem says Ty, let’s not sweat the small stuff, we will just call the RV place, talk to RV Dave and get a different one. That call went like this

Ty: “Yeah hi. I just picked up the 32’ Challenger and when I pull into my drive the radiator overheated.”

RV Dave: “Did you have the air conditioner on?”

Ty: “Yes, because it is really hot here in Denver ,it’s July.”

RV Dave: “Well, that’s the problem. When you get in stop and go traffic, turn off the air and you’ll be fine”

Ty: “You don’t understand. We are taking a 2800-mile trip and will need the air. Don’t you have another rig that I can use?”

RV Dave: “Nope.”

Ty: “Well, what am I supposed to do?”

RV Dave: “Like I said, when you get in stop and go traffic, turn off the air and you’ll be fine.”

Ty: “That’s not the solution I am looking for. Don’t you have anything?”

RV Dave: “Nope. What you could do is when you have to turn on the air, then turn on the generator and run the air off of that. That’ll keep ya all cool.”

Ty: “But then I will go over the 600 hours.”

RV Dave: “Well – how about I wave that for yer. Just turn ‘er on when in the city and you’ll be fine. Have a good trip see ya in a month.”

Hal: “Okey Dokey then. Everything good? Have a good trip, call me if you have any questions.”

Off he slithers out of the rig probably thinking to himself that we have no idea what we have gotten ourselves into, and he was right!

 

Pack Up

It was decided that Beth, our youngest daughter, would fly out with Amy’s husband and meet us in Michigan. They both work and taking 4 weeks off was not an option; they will join us later on in the trip. That means there will be 5 of us making the journey. Ty, myself, Amy (oldest daughter) and her two children Ty who is 7 and Tessa who is 5. Yippee! As any grandmother would agree, 4 weeks with the grandchildren is a dream come true, especially when the mom is around to take over when I am tired.

Pack up the rig with enough pillows, blankets, clothing, dishes, all the food the refrigerator can hold and all the other stuff that we need for the trip like lawn chairs, coolers, toys to keep the youngsters occupied, make sure the iPod has all the traveling music and don’t forget sunscreen, aloe for the sun burn because you forgot to put the sunscreen on, allergy medicines, aspirin and so forth.

The big challenge is to find places for all this stuff. I mean, where do other seasoned RV’rs put it? There is a tiny closet in the back bedroom, some overhead cupboards that have to hold all the food and dishes, so just where to put the rest of the stuff for 3 more people? Amy, such a smart girl, solves the problem by shoving all the suitcases which contain the clothes into the shower and announces: “if you want to take a shower, then use the campground facilities”. Okay, I can handle that.

As Amy and I are loading everything, we notice that the precleaning by the owner left something to be desired. I am not a clean freak, but I really don’t want to have the silverware laying in someone else’s crud. And the refrigerator needs a good cleaning out, the oven – not even going there, but we did a fairly good deep clean (glad I am not using the rig’s shower) so I now know the dirt is mine. I cleaned while Amy packed up the rig. What a job. Wish someone told us to start the refrigerator 24 hours before we left.

Journey Begins

First Gas Stop

And we are off, 1400 miles, one-way, here we come! Bright and early the next morning all happy and singing. Kids think this is a moving hotel room and try their luck at roaming around while driving. Amy, the mom, is going nuts trying to keep the kids seated in the seatbelts, but they keeping insisting they have to go potty and therefore walk around.

Ty has assumed the position of driver, which the entire trip he never relinquished. Earplugs firmly inserted in his ears and the iPod blasting his favorite tunes – mostly western and 60’s rock, he is oblivious to everything going on around him claiming that he needs to concentrate on the driving.

I take the navigation seat, which I begrudgingly give up to Amy when she has had it being in the back with the kids. While I am seated, and very quickly bored with driving already, decide to take inventory of the glove compartment. Ever wonder how the glove compartment got that name, glove compartment. Probably because that’s all that will fit in there, gloves. Nowadays, you need to put in the owner’s manual, maps, Kleenex, nail file, brush, tire gauge, all the repair receipts, coupons and whatever else you can jam in. So, as I am rooting thru all the papers I come upon a piece of metal, it looks like a pin that would be used to hold together something heavy. Wonder what this is for and why in the glove compartment.

We are all settling in for the long drive; Ty driving this beast around curves and passing the slow cars and being passed. All the while the air conditioning is blowing cold air and keeping us cool but we are on the highway so that’s all good since we don’t need to use the generator. We didn’t get very far when it is time to gas up the beast – as we all soon began to call the rig. We didn’t exactly realize that 8 miles to the gallon means very frequent stops. Now for the challenge to find a gas station with a high enough cover over the pumps for us to pull in, an end cap so we don’t have to squeeze in-between pumps and have an easy exit so we don’t wipe out anything when making the swing. Found the perfect spot that met all the criteria. Ah life is so good. Ty begins the gassing maneuvers while I, daughter and kids jump out to ravage the gas station store. As we pass in front of the rig, Tessa starts to wail:” Ewe Grandma, what happened?” and she points to the grill of the rig. It is covered in butterflies that have found their demise all splayed out as they hit the grill full on. It was a graveyard. Quick thinking, I start to carefully pull them off and show Tessa how beautiful they are and look we can pin them on the wall of our travel map, what great souvenirs we’ll have. All the while my stomach is wrenching as these poor insects are no more. At least Tessa stopped wailing and started to help me take them off the grill. I still have those butterflies after all these years.

All set, gassed up, windows washed, all of us pottied, got most of the butterflies off the grill, jumped in, buckled up and Ty hits the gas. As we slowly pull away from the gas pump, we hear this awful wrenching noise from the back of rig, and then scrapping noise like we are dragging something. Ty stops, gets out to inspect, then immediately reaches for his wallet and heads into the gas station.

Gas Station Lady: “Hi, Sir, may I help you?”

Ty “I just pulled away from the pump but forgot to put the hose back and I yanked it out of the receptable. How much will this cost me?”

Gas Station Lady: “Oh Hon, don’t worry about it – happens all the time! That’s why ther’ all magnetically attached. Don’t worry, I’ll have it fixed in no time!”

Whew, that repair is not in the $100 dollar a day plan and we are only 3 hours into the trip!

That is One Big Fan

We again hit the road all singing and joyful, kids are at the table coloring when “Ouch” says Tessa. We all look back at her and she is holding a control dial that came off the overhead air conditioner. Just at that moment another control dial comes zinging down. Amy climbs up on the table and tries best she can to put the control dials back into place – all the while we are still in motion driving down I80!

After a very long day of driving in the heat, we do have to put the generator on to get some cool air but we just can’t seem to get the air-conditioner inside the rig to go on. We have turned all the dials on the control unit and the switch in the back is in the UP position so all should work, but it doesn’t. The rig’s motor air conditioning is struggling and we are afraid we will overheat, so we turn it off and open the front windows. It is noisy and the only ones to benefit from the air coming in is the driver and front passenger.  Poor Amy and kids are in a sweat box in the back.

We stopped for the night at a RV park right along I-80. It is noisy, hot, and dusty. We all make use of the restrooms to clean up and prepare for the night. We make dinner, fool around with the air-conditioner which still refuses to work. In a little while another rig pulls into the parking space right next door to us and this rig is the same model albeit a little newer than ours. Waiting forever for the people to set-up, we mosey over to make small talk but really to see if they are having the same issue with the air-conditioning as we are. Turns out, the rig we are in was “jerry rigged” with this switch as our new friends have a normal switch on the wall near all the other RV panels – right where it is supposed to be. We check ours and no such luck. They were really nice people and they had kids, and our kids played long into the night on the playground. Their little boy really fell “head over heels” for Tessa and before we all retired for the night, he wanted to give Tessa his little Chihuahua dog. Took a lot of convincing Tessa that a dog is not what we need right now.

So off to sleep in the heat – and this night is a scorcher. For those of you unfamiliar with RV’s, they don’t have a lot of windows to open and certainly none that would create a cross breeze. Add bodies to the mix and the heat in the rig just goes higher. My faith in humanity was restored that night as knocking on our door produced our neighbor with the biggest fan I have ever seen. One of those big industrial jobs. He let us borrow it for the night – just leave it on the table when you leave, he said.

We put that baby up front on the console between the front seats, turned it on high and blew everything and everyone to kingdom come. At least we weren’t sweaty anymore.

That’s what that pin is for

Cruising down the highway the next day and life couldn’t get much better than this! Here we are taking a great family vacation all for $100 a day! I feel so smug.

“Mom – Mom – MOM – A LITTLE HELP HERE”, shouts Amy

I turn around and see her standing, well more like trying to balance herself with her legs in a wide stance, rocking side to side as we bounce our way down the highway with the refrigerator door IN HER HANDS. I kid you not, she went to open the door and off it came, scattering the door contents all over the floor, milk cartoons, jars of stuff all rolling back and forth, up and down. Then the olive oil salad dressing pops open and now we have an olive oil river flowing towards the back of rig. Amy is still balancing and with the river flowing under her she is also sliding around. Ty is oblivious to all of this as he merrily is driving along singing along with Charlie Pride.

So that’s what that pin is for that I found in the glove compartment. It goes into the hinge of the refrigerator door. Whomever had this rig before us probably found it lying on the floor, couldn’t figure out where it belonged and tossed it into the compartment for the next person to find. Too bad they didn’t put it back on the refrigerator because when Amy opened the door, the weight of the one hinged side of the door was just too much and it just broke off. I retrieve the pin, slide it into the hinge not broken grabbed some duct tape and we were able to tape the bottom part of the door and the top part to at least keep it closed. Let me tell you that duct tape is the best invention ever; however, this means anytime anyone needs to get into the refrigerator it is a two-person job. One to hold onto the door, while the other gets out what is needed then close the door. The two man process is repeated once more to return all the stuff to the refrigerator. And don’t forget that we have to tape the door every time so it doesn’t fall off the hinge!

What Was That?

Refrigerator contents cleaned up and returned to their spots. Floored cleaned up as best we could of all the oil; as we continued down the highway. Well actually we never stopped. During this calamity Ty just kept on driving, earplugs in and music turned on. Hey, it’s just oil all over the floor and we are trying to mop up the mess while the rig rocks back and forth, lurching forward, slowing down.

Settled down we are driving along and Ty and I hear this ping noise – what was that? We look around the inside of the rig and we don’t see anything amiss. Okay.

“Mom – Mom – MOM – A LITTLE HELP HERE”, shouts Amy – oh goodness what is it now?

I turn and see Amy now holding the air-conditioner grate preventing it from completely coming down onto the kid’s heads. This damn air-conditioner is really starting to get to me. I duct tape the vent back onto the ceiling. Good ole duct tape.

We travel some more, getting into traffic and Ty decides to pass and when he looks into the side view mirror, we now understand what made the pinging noise. There is no mirror, just the mirror holder! This is going to make changing lanes a little trickier for the rest of the trip.

Oil Spill on the Kalamazoo River?

Kidding right?

We know we can make it to Traverse City with just a little push, and we all hunker down for the endurance test. Ty merrily unconscious to the goings on in the back, we trying to keep the kids happy, and Amy and I wishing we could just “hit the bottle”. We make it to Kalamazoo in the afternoon, I-94 is always busy regardless of the time of day and this is no exception. Just to make it more exciting the road is under construction and we travel for miles with the orange barrels leading us through the maze. All of a sudden, we hear a loud bang and we all are instantly alert! Blown front tire! All of us, are holding our breath and Ty (and I don’t know how) expertly managed to maneuver this big monster in-between the orange barrels and safely onto the side of the road without rolling us over. We take inventory that no one is hurt but we are all just sitting there stunned. I start to rummage through the glove compartment looking for the rental manual which instructs to call Good Sam to have the tire changed – then take it to a dealer to have the spare replaced with regular tire. Okay we can do that, so Ty gets out and starts looking for the spare. He doesn’t see one, so he calls RV Dave the rental owner to inquire.

Ty: “Hey hi Dave, this is Ty…um we just had a flat tire and I don’t see a spare.”

RV Dave: “No??? Well, I thought I had put one on board, it’s not in the bedroom?”

The bedroom, what is he insane? Where in this tiny 3×6 foot (if that) room will there be a spare tire?

RV Dave: “Check under the bed, sure that’s where I put it.”

Ty: “No Dave, there is no spare tire there.”

RV Dave: “Well dang it,I meant to put one there.  Well, when you call the tow truck tell ‘em to bring along a tire too. And by the way, we don’t cover replacement tires that’s on your dime.”

Ty is fuming and I mean fuming and he is not a fuming type of guy. Ty rips Dave a new one, tells him that’s not in the contract and yes, he, Dave, is going to pay for the tire. Luckily, we had taken out insurance to cover the cost of the tow and labor, but it doesn’t cover the cost of a new tire. We will deal with that later.

Called Good Sam and they have to relay us over to the tow company. Now I don’t know much about how they decide who is going to assist you in an emergency, but I would think that once you gave them your EXACT location (we were right on exit 291, east side of road, big ole RV parked right on the side of I-94, wedged in between orange barrels – can’t miss it). That’s what we assumed. But no, it turns out that the tow company is about an hour and half away. Seriously, there isn’t a tow company in Kalamazoo, where we are at, that can change an RV tire?

Tow company contacts us 45 minutes after we made the initial call and we tell them the problem of the blown tire with no spare. That’s a problem says the tow company; we know. You mean you rented an RV with no spare; we know that now (another assumption). Do you know what kind of tire you need? No, how do we find out. Call your rental place. Hello Dave, what kind of tire do we need? Hell, if I know, look on one of the other tires and there’s numbers there. Ok, we do that and what do we find? We have the blown tire with one set of numbers, the intact front tire with another set and the rears don’t match either. We call the tow. Well, I don’t know what to do then cause all your tires should be the same. Can you talk to Dave? Sure, but I don’t want to make a long-distance call. Oh brother, thank you Verizon for having conference call capability.

Meanwhile, the kids and Amy are getting restless. It is getting late in the day, time for dinner and being inside the RV on the side of road with the big trucks barreling past making us rock violently every time is not good. Amy decides that she has had it and there are hotels just over the fence on the exit; we can see the sign peeking up over the horizon. Off she goes over the wire fence to find lodging for the night. There goes the $100 a day.

Amy returns about 45 minutes later and she is all a flustered.

Amy: “Can you believe it? There is an oil spill on the Kalamazoo River and all of the hotels/motels around here are full because of the hazmat teams cleaning up the oil! I could only get one room, king bed with one roll away for the kids” .

We all kiss Ty good-bye as he waits for the tow company and Dave to figure out what kind of tire, then tow company has to go find a tire, then he will be right there – probably in about 3 hours!

Off Amy and I go with kids in tow. They are very happy because tonight it is air condition bliss and a pool too! On our trek to hotel we pass a liquor store so we stop to pick up some already mixed Tequila, snacks for the kiddos and off we go to have fun.

3 hours has come and gone and no tow truck. Amy and I decide that we need to feed the kids something besides potato chips and pop and maybe Ty is hungry too. We find a Black Jack right next to the liquor store so we buy a 6 pack of beer for Ty and more pop for kids, get a pizza for us and deliver a pizza to Ty.

About 11pm Ty finally makes it to our room, RV all fixed to the tune of $600. That sure was a long 3 hours what happened? First, the tow truck was dispatched from Ann Arbor which is roughly 98 miles from Kalamazoo. See what I mean about how it is determined what and where the tow company is? That’s an hour and a half from where we were! Then on route, the tow truck got rear ended so that matter had to be resolved before the tow could continue to help us. My god, will this never end? The saving grace is that in the summer it is still light out until about 10pm so at least the guy could see to change the tire.

We bed down for the night, kids sleep end to end on the one roll away and Ty, Amy and I all settle into the king bed with me in the middle. I am not saying, but probably the Tequila talking when I murmur that it has been a long time since I’ve slept with my baby curled up next to me. Goodnight Mom.

How much stuff can one 5^th Wheel hold?

We make it to our first planned destination without further incident. Managed to find an RV service store where we purchased 2 new hinges for the refrigerator and screws for the air conditioning cover. RVing is good again.

Traverse City State Park is home for the weekend.  We get there on Friday afternoon and set up camp.  Cocktails are in order; the kids have found a close playground and are happy clams. That’s the beauty of state parks, they are so safe and a good place for the family to be and kids can roam freely.  The evening is upon us, however, western Michigan is on the far western border of the time zone meaning the sun does not go down until well after 9:00 – 10:00 pm and that makes for a wonderful summer evening.

Amy, Ty and I are sitting outside just doing the favorite camper pastime of watching all the other campers come in and set up. It’s fun to see all the different rigs and getups that people bring with them. One in particular caught our eyes and provided an evening worth of entertainment; a huge 5^th wheel, probably at least a 40 footer (which is a lot of tow vehicle to pull behind) pulls up to campsite right across from us.

Wifey and Hubby jump out and survey the site, making the plan to back the monster in. Wifey is the director and Hubby maneuvers the truck.  That process took at least a ½ hour of back and forth, swing a little left, no right, more back and forth.  Whew, finally in! Hubby handles all the hooking up of hoses and leveling while Wifey with the help of 2 teen age boys starts on the inside. This is no exaggeration: out comes 3 bikes, 4 patio chairs (non-folding), glass round patio table with the table stand, 1 full size barbeque, 2 8×16 outdoor rugs, 6 tiki torches, 4 camping chairs, 1 lounge chair, firepit and miscellaneous toys. Boys take off on bikes, Hubby has disappeared probably to grab some firewood and beer while at it; Wifey starts to make this campsite her own. Out she spreads the rugs, positions the table and chairs all around, aligns the BBQ to be in the perfect spot, as well as, the firepit with the folding chairs all surrounding it. Strategically plants the tiki torches on the fringes of campsite. The Wifey brings out about a 100 (now that’s an exaggeration, but it sure looked like it) votive type candles. Then the lighting up of all these candles and tiki torches.  This campsite looks like a grotto, I feel like I should give her a $1.00, buy a candle and light one up.

How long did all that work take? Quick look at watch and it is 10:30pm! Wow, over 3 hours! Time to feed the kids too (we forgot during all this intense watching).

Then what happens first thing Sunday morning?  Not church, but Wifey and Hubby packed it all up off and they went! Gone before noon. When we only camp for the weekend we are lucky to bring a change of underwear.

Switch Goes Down to Turn On?

Let me tell you about this “switch” thing. The switch for the AC is in the back of the rig, a little off the floor. Definitely a homemade repair job because written on the wall in magic maker is an Up arrow with the words “ON” and similarly a Down arrow with “OFF”. But we still can’t get the air conditioning to go on. We call RV Dave who confirms, “Yup, that’s how it works. Up turns on and down turns off.” Well, it ain’t working, we check the electric post and have power, everything else is working fine, turn on the generator and flip the switch still nothing.

Michigan summers are usually very pleasant, not too hot in the day and cool evenings. Not this year, the days were setting record highs; we heard on the radio that “chickens were exploding” it was so hot and the evenings didn’t cool much. We went a couple of nights without air conditioning in the rig and then one day Ty and Tessa were playing in the back room where THE SWITCH was located and accidently bumped it putting it in the OFF position (we had it in the UP ON position, hoping by some miracle it would turn on) and guess what happened? Cool, blessed cool air came streaming out of the vents!

My first ride in a cop car!

The family reunion and 2 weddings went off without a hitch. The rest of the vacation in Michigan was relaxing and with air conditioning we had cool nights for sleeping. Amy figured she had had enough of this camping stuff and decided we would like time to be alone with kids for the return trip, actually I think she figured out this was her opportunity to escape and be childless for 3 days while we made the return trip to Colorado.

We make good time that first day on the road, kids are happy and have settled in coloring or making fart noises to keep themselves entertained.  Sailed right thru Michigan, tiny spit of Indiana, the width of Illinois and BAM!!  Another front tire blowout; the left one this time.  We are on a very downhill windy stretch of I80 almost to the Missouri River.  There is not much shoulder and a guard rail right on the edge in case anyone had the mind to fly off the side of road, this would slow the flight pattern somewhat.  With little place to maneuver Ty miraculously manages to get the Challenged pulled over onto the side, so close to the guardrail we are unable to open the doors and get out. To make the situation even worse, we are on the downhill end of a curve meaning any passing vehicles can’t see us until they round the curve, then they are right on top of us. It is scary to be in a big rig with trucks screaming by and their wind sucks on us and rocks us every which way. We know that we are in a very unsafe predicament, we decide to call the State Patrol – and it is a Sunday.

The MS State Patrol show up (unmarked car) and access the situation. He determines that it would be best if we get ourselves over to the center medium. No problem except the closest paved access to the medium is behind us and we have a flat tire which makes driving backwards and turning a little tricky. The officer moves his car behind us to the top of the hill, positions it horizontal on the road with light flashing to stop traffic. Once he is in place, he signals for us to make our move. In the meantime, I have taken every pillow and blanket and wrapped up the kids in case we crash or something they are protected. Ty backs up this monster and gets into the medium.

Now what about a tow or tire repair. Patrol officer makes a call and a tow truck will be right out – with a tire because we don’t have a spare – remember? We give them the number of the previously repaired tired, now at least 2 tires will match. BUT they don’t take credit cards or checks – cash only and it will be $600. Who carries $600 in cash at the end of vacation?

The very nice Officer tells us that he can take me (only one of us) to an ATM machine. So in I hop, well no, felt like I was being arrested as he put me in the back seat (did you know that the back seats of patrol cars are all plastic?) and while he puts me into the backseat he puts his hand on the back of my head just like they do when putting in criminals in the car. Then he radios in telling the dispatcher that he has to go into Omaha, Iowa, taking a passenger to the bank. I can just hear the dispatcher say “Whatever.”

We cross the Missouri River, and find a bank with ATM. The officer has to let me out of car, since there are no inside door handles for me to use the ATM. While I am punching in my numbers, a car drives up, not to use the machine but to ask questions. The officer puts his hand on his gun and approaches the car in question. I hear him tell the people that this is not his district, he is from MS. As I look back on this bizarre scene, I wonder if these people ever questioned that I was getting money out of ATM, that it was a police car for our vehicle and the officer was not from the state we were in. Hmmmm

Challenger was Challenged

Rest of the journey home was relatively painless. Night in Iowa where it literally rained frogs was fun for the kids as they ran in the rain and grabbed as many frogs as they could carry.

RV Dave got a hefty bill from us for well over $1200, which he paid. The Challenged turned over 100,000 miles as we pulled into our driveway when we got home.  An unheard number of miles for a RV.

The Challenger’s owner manual got changed to Challenged.

And I learned that you can RV across America for $100 a day and yes you do get what you paid for.

Epilogue

That experience didn’t deter us from RVing, but we’ve decided that owning our rig was better than renting. We have owned a 24’Class C, a 28’ travel trailer and now currently full timing in a 30’ fifth wheel. But none has been more memorable than