Somewhere in Montana our dash heater/air conditioner went out. Working fine one day, dead the next. In hot weather, we were sweating; in cold weather, our toes were freezing. I called Ford (the motorhome is on a Ford chassis) and they made an appointment for us at a Ford truck service center in Madison. We dropped off the motorhome and while they worked on it, our dogs went to a local groomer.
The technicians found that a wire had come loose, patched it, and we got back on the road, headed for a campground in Rockford, Illinois. Then a weather front moved in. There were gusts of over 50 mph, we found out later, and our motorhome was tossed right and left, terrifying man and beast.
We reached the campground after the office was closed. According to information posted there, several sites were available, and Nancy selected the map for one of them. It was a strange campsite - very narrow, with a big tree on the right. In retrospect, it was entirely unsuitable for a motorhome, especially one with slideouts. With the storm still blowing and night approaching, I gamely drove the unit into position. There was a thunk. Thunks are never good in the RV world. It turned out that even though there was plenty of room between the tree and the right side of the coach at eye level, there was an upper tree branch that bent over and smote the awning roller over the rear slideout and scraped it pretty good. Lesson learned.
We drove out, chose a different site, and proceeded to go through the usual setup procedures. But the rear slideout wouldn't extend fully; the pooch had been screwed. So we brought the slideout in, which left no room at the foot of the bed. For me to get to my normal sleeping position, I had to crawl over Nancy and the dogs. Not very elegante. REM sleep was hard to come by.
The next morning we got up early and drove to an RV dealership in Rockford that sells some of the Thor motorhome models and has a well-reviewed repair service. I threw myself on the mercy of the service department, and a very nice gentleman - who claimed to be a 49er fan - promised to try to get us on the road that day if at all possible. Since it was Friday, if they couldn't get it fixed that day, I knew that it would be Monday at the earliest before we could resume our trip.
Happily, when we called some hours later, we were told that we were good to go. A metal arm that allows the awning to extend over the slideout had been bent in the tree incident, and they were able to get things functioning again. We were very grateful, and paid the bill with smiles on our faces.
But as we were climbing in and out of the coach, preparing to leave, the steps at the door - which are supposed to automatically lower into place when the door is opened, and retract when it is closed - just sat there, half in and half out, swinging in the breeze. A technician came out and noticed that a bolt had fallen out of the hinge mechansim, and several components were hanging loose. The technicians said that a half inch bolt had simply snapped. Now Nancy and I may have picked up a few pounds on this trip, but we and the techs were certain that it was not our fault but most likely a factory defect that would be covered by warranty. They worked on the steps for a while, but couldn't fix the problem. They taped up the steps to keep them out of the way, and suggested that we get them repaired or replaced when we would be in one location long enough for a service department to order the necessary parts. Without those steps, it was necessary to pull ourselves up and lower ourselves down - difficult but doable - and we hit the road.
Someone at the going away party had cautioned us to avoid Chicago traffic at all costs - and we tried, routing ourselves considerably south into the suburbs - but it wasn't far enough. The traffic at that Friday afternoon was heavy and aggressive and frankly a little scary. The roads in Illinois - in fact the highways all through that area - are terrible. The ride is bumpy and noisy and unpleasant. To add insult to injury, Illinois collects high tolls for the privilege of driving on those abominations.
Exhausted, we asked our GPS to take us to a Walmart, where we spent the night.
The following day, after driving over more bone jarring roads and fighting the winds, we pulled into a country campground in Ohio. Finally I could relax. We put the slides out, had dinner, turned on the furnace, and watched some television. Then I noticed on that cold evening that the furnace had stopped after only a few minutes. I looked at the control panel and was disheartened to see that not only was the temperature display on the thermostat blank, but the water heater couldn't be turned on, and most disturbing of all, the slideouts were inoperative. This was not good. We were in trouble.
I checked the circuit breaker panel; none had been tripped. I even removed the control panel from the wall, looking for loose wires, thinking that the awful roads might have jarred something loose.
We had been told that we had emergency roadside assistance available to us, although we weren't sure who was supposed to provide it. Nancy began looking through our papers to figure out who we would call in the morning. We were pretty sure that we would have to be towed in or otherwise transported. Our spirits were as low as they could get.
As a last gasp attempt, I checked the circuit breakers again. No luck. At that point I noticed a little black plastic door that I hadn't seen before and whose function, if any, was unknown by me. With some effort I was able to get it open. Inside there were about 15 fuses, each 15 amps. Each fuse had two metal prongs that should be inserted into two receptacles. I saw, to my amazement, that beside one of the fuses a red light was on. It turned out that that fuse had been installed improperly, most likely at the factory. One prong was lying on its receptacle rather than inside it, and until the recent road trauma it had maintained enough contact to function properly. When I stuck it in as intended, the red light went out, the furnace started up again, the slides became functional, the water heater came alive, the lame were made to walk, and the blind could see.
Nancy began jumping and shrieking, "You da man, you da MAN!"
As you can imagine, I don't get many of those. From boob to brainiac in two short days.
After weeks with everything working, suddenly it seemed that we were under a black cloud. Would things get better?
Stay tuned.
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