Here’s what happened next!
We drew a straight line on a map between Bangor and Casa Grande then looked for stops around 200 miles apart.
We wandered thru Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Upstate New York staying at Elks Lodges at every stop.
In Vermont the car wouldn’t start, the 6 month old battery was completely dead! We got it from Walmart but although I thought I had the receipt I couldn’t find it. Walmart said no receipt, no guarantee and without buying an extended warranty it was only covered for 3 months! We bought a new one (But not from Walmart).
Outside Buffalo New York we let the fuel tank get down to 1/8 of a tank and when we stopped for fuel the engine wouldn’t restart. We cranked and cranked but no go. I went thru a routine for re-priming the engine where you turn the ignition on but don't start the engine, after 30 seconds the ignition is turned off. That’s repeated 6 times.
Well that didn’t work so we called the Geico roadside assistance and after a couple of hours messing about with them calling auto towing companies not RV towing ones, a BIG tow truck arrived and towed us to the Cummins dealer in Buffalo.
That seems pretty unlucky but it was also lucky because they limit the free tow to 20 miles and it was 19 to the dealer!! The dealer also had a 50 amp hook up so we camped right there.
Next day they put it on the computer and they cranked it over, The fuel pressure was really low. They cranked it again and it started! After a few seconds the fuel pressure shot up to normal. It was suggested that the low fuel level let dirt in the bottom of the tank get drawn into the fuel filters so they recommended changing the filters, but they didn’t have any in stock so it would be another day before they could get to it. We had a spare set of filters! They used them and we were on our way. They worked on it about 4 hours but we only got charged for 2, a win in our books.
Off again into Ohio (where we knock off the right rearview mirror at a very narrow toll booth), Indiana and Illinois and we started turning south.
Mostly Elks Lodges again with the occasional commercial park to empty tanks and fill the water tank. It started getting hot!
When it got too hot we stayed at a couple more commercial parks so we could plug into their power and run the AC without having to run the generator all night. (Which was working well until the rear AC died!)
Missouri briefly, then Arkansas led us into Texas and onto our favorite road RT 82 that runs all along the Oklahoma State Line through Paris Texas and to Witchita Falls, which we have visited several times.
Life was good at the Elks Lodge there but after setting off again we got to the little town of Seymore TX to fill up the rig.
We have a discount fuel card that works in certain truck stops and the one in Seymore was listed on the app.
After much messing around and driving a large RV with car in tow around the pumps they finally admitted that their pumps were broken and we couldn't get any fuel!
We then tried a regular gas station a block or two away and squeezed the rig around a tight turn to the diesel pump.
Barbara came running up shouting “Stop, stop you’re losing the car!!”. I jumped out and found a guy on a motorcycle who pointed out that the whole front of the car was being pulled off by the tow bar!
The motorcyclist said “You’re really lucky” and I agreed that we were as it could have happened going 70 mph in traffic with the car going off on its own into the oncoming traffic.
He looked at me puzzled and said “No, I meant there’s a body shop right across the street!” and before we could blink the owner of the shop came over, said he could do the work and put us on the top of his list!
Being Friday he couldn’t get to it before Monday but by Tuesday afternoon it was done and he had welded the broken tow bracket back together too!
After the trauma of the bracket breaking (where it was bolted to the car chassis) we decided to try and ship the car back to AZ but we got all kinds of scammers calling about it.
Peter and Donna Ward ship their car from Florida to Maine every year so we called them for advice. Their shipper didn’t do anything but East Coast but they suggested trying Uhaul for a trailer.
We don’t know why we didn’t think of that ourselves but with all the stress we were experiencing perhaps it’s understandable.
We called Uhaul and they had a trailer but then they suggested a tow dolly which was only $240 for 7 days.
Problem solved right?
Uhaul were reluctant to rent us equipment if we didn’t have turn signals but eventually let us go at out own risk and we set off with no turn signals and no right rear view mirror for the final 1500 miles!
We stayed in the right lane and were very careful when passing on-ramps!
Mercifully we made it home after stops in Lubbock, Roswell, Las Cruces and Wilcox.
Finally “Home” in Casa Grande and we parked the rig outside the house to unload before putting it into the storage lot at the park we stay in.
Everything was just peachy, we made it back, put the stuff away. The cleaning crew we use had been in and made the place spotless, turned on the AC (It was 105 degrees daytime!) and we started to relax. What could go wrong now we were home?
After a couple of hours it started to get warm in the house, then it got HOT in the house. The AC had died! I put in a call the AC guy everyone in the park uses and left a message. Luckily it cools off fast once the sun goes down and Leroy the AC guy showed up early the next morning and fixed everything in a couple of hours.
Finally we had things under control and all we had to do was drive the rig down to the end of the block and put it in storage.
Except that when I started it up the “Jacks Down” light and alarm started going off! I knew the jacks weren’t down so I hit the button that lifts them up just incase they had somehow dropped a little while the rig was parked.
Nothing happened, the alarm still was going off, the light was still on. I got out to look at the position of the jacks and there was a big puddle of hydraulic fluid under the rig! A hose had burst.
Luckily it was still driveable so we put it in storage and called to make an appointment at the local RV place (and they are pretty good too).
Absolutely floored by the run of bad luck we’d had we relaxed and set to get back to our winter routine, all that trouble was behind us.
We had 2 cars at our disposal. The Ford Edge we’d towed all summer and the Cadillac Escapade I use to haul my RC planes around in. The Cadillac was parked under the car port and plugged into a trickle charger so it was ready to go when we got back.
Except when I tried to start it it was dead.
The trickle charger had died at some point and the battery had discharged itself. The battery was toast, $200 for a new one!
Anyway we’ve been back since October. I don’t want to jinx things by saying that nothing has gone wrong since. The RV is in being worked on. Both cars seem to be working. The AC in the house is working and it cooled off into the 70’s during the day.
Hopefully we are done with bad luck for a while.
