Westward Ho… Days 1, 2, 3, and 4 (Traveling and Breakdown)

The question is not "Are we there yet?" it's "Are we having fun yet?"

August 2…Ralph and I left Maryville at 6:10 a.m. on our way to meet Joan and Barth in the Nashville area. We were within 6 miles of each other when we reached I-24. We stopped at the Tennessee/Kentucky rest area and waited about 5 minutes for them to get there. Gas was $3.559 in Ft. Campbell, KY… cheapest we have seen in a long time. We had planned on staying at a Wal-Mart in Mount Vernon, Illinois but arrived there early in the afternoon and decided to see if we could make it through St. Louis and it was really too hot to stay without hookups… After stopping at a rest area just East of East St. Louis, Ralph and I heard this loud pop and then a really bad noise so we pulled over. To make a long story short, we had blown a plug. I called Good Sam's Emergency Road Service and they sent out a mechanic who put the plug back in and got us off of the interstate (after two hours of 18 wheelers whizzing by and making us think we were going to turn over) into a Sam's parking lot. He needed a part to go with the plug so he went to Auto Zone and found it, came back and installed it and we were on our way. Joan had already found a RV Park in East St. Louis. The Casino Queen was very convenient for stopping for the night and we could see the Arch from our motor homes. After the afternoon of dealing with the motor home, we ate dinner and went to bed, didn't even visit the Casino. Driving Distance 482

August 3… Left East St. Louis about 10:00 a.m. and drove all across Missouri and into Kansas. We stopped at the Mill Creek Campground in Paxico and this was one of our planned stops. This was a very nice campground located between I-70 and a railroad track, with a creek running through it. Joan and Barth were right on the creek. There were several old building scattered through the campground (train depot, school, little cabins and even a storm shelter. Pictures of this storm shelter will be posted later. This would have been a nice place to spend the day going through the little town. It reminded me of a previous trip we took to Whistle Stop, Georgia back in the spring. Driving Distance 336

August 4…Left Paxico about 8:30 a.m. and had planned to drive to Limon, Co, but because of the heat decided to stop at a campground in Siebert, CO. We stopped at a rest area in Kansas and Ralph walked back to see Joan and Barth and noticed that water was coming out from the front compartment where the water heater and water pump are. A hose had blown off… Barth was able to get it back on and had to fill up their fresh water tank before we could go on.

I've been checking gas prices all along for the past week or so and knew we needed to have a full tank before we left Kansas. We filled up about 10 miles from the Kansas / Colorado state lines. Price was $3.609. The most we've paid so far is $3.759.

Again, plans are always subject to change. We were within 16 – 18 miles of our destination, when Ralph and I again heard the now familiar pop and noise that is associated with a blown plug. This time Ralph said he was going to drive to the next exit and luckily there was a campground at the exit. We tried to get this plug put back in to no avail. After calling Ford Motor Company's RV Hotline I finally found someone who works on the Triton V-10 engine in Denver. Again, we called Good Sam's Emergency Road Service and told them we wanted to be towed to Denver… they told me they would tow us to the nearest repair facility, so they proceeded to try and find one near Stratton, CO and would call me back on Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. Needless to say, this was not a very pleasant evening with all the worry about the motor home and wondering what else can go wrong. Driving Distance 348

August 5…Didn't sleep much last night partly because of the time change, we are now on Mountain Time, but mostly because of the unknowns about our motor home. After talking with Good Sam's they have agreed to tow us to Denver (I think they found out like I did this was the nearest Ford facility – Rush Truck Center) ; however, they will only pay for 85 miles and we pay the rest. I also called our extended warranty company and started the process of filing a claim. They will pick up most of the amount that Good Sam's will not pay. Joan and Barth are going on to Estes Park and we will join them just as soon as the motor home is ready. Jack with JR's towing (LARGEST wrecker I've ever seen arrived at 11:00 a.m. and had us in Denver at 2:15 p.m. When Jack drove up his shirt had a motorcycle, race car and tractor on the front of it… I knew then he was Ralph's kind of man. The speed limit on I-70 in Colorado is 75 and Jack made sure he didn't get cited for going too slow. Ralph had a hard time keeping up with him and looking at the Colorado scenery. I believe he was re-living his "Cowboy and Indians" days because he kept referring to how long it would take you to ride a horse to various places in the scenery! We met Carl and Howard (service writers at Rush Truck/Ford) that we'd been talking with about the motor home and its ailment. Both were very helpful. As soon as Carl got our VIN number he contacted Ford about the extended engine warranty (which we didn't know we still had). He also contacted the company that we purchased the bumper to bumper warranty from… ironically, they are located in Denver. We were pleasantly surprised to find out they will start working on the MH in the morning and we should be ready to roll after lunch…. We'll go on to Estes Park and meet back up with Joan and Barth. Joan said they have a nick in their windshield from a rock being thrown up on the drive to Estes Park. We decided to stay in Denver tonight in a hotel although Joan and Barth invited us to stay with them. My bill was going to be free, but Barth hadn't decided what he was going to charge Ralph! Driving Distance 145 (in the car with the MH being towed). Driving Distance for Joan and Barth 198

August 6…I'm ready to post this to our blog and I did get a good night's sleep last night. I know today is going to be better after seeing who we left our motor home with. Hopefully, I'll have pictures with the next "Edition."