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Sunday, September 13, 2015

Travel Day Disasters


I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we've had some troubles on this trip.  First Wayne hit the side of the camper exiting the ferry at Argentia, then we noticed the heat wasn't coming up through the vents and he's been on the floor fiddling with that issue at least twice in the past few weeks.  Then the electric water heater switch malfunctioned and we got a new part in Gander.  When we got to New Brunswick we had to replace the vent in the bathroom because it cracked before the ceiling leaked.

Our site in Vermont

All minor things, (except the side of the camper being damaged) until the fuel injectors went on the truck.  The first dealer we paid $350 CAD and the problem didn't get fixed.  The second dealer in Maine we paid $3995.00 to get the six replaced that didn't get replaced last fall in Tennessee.

Woodford state park's dump station

When we arrived at Vermont we were surprised that a "prime" site didn't include water and had to back up down the road after we initially started to pull away.  Then I ran over to the check in desk (where I had asked if there was anything else I needed to know) and cheekily inquired whether I was going to be surprised to find no electric too.  Well, of course no electric!  None of Vermont's state parks have it!  The $22 we paid was for a site with a view of the water...which we did not have, and no wifi is available anywhere not even at the office.

Upon exiting the park to dump we had to turn in to the park office area and back down the road to fit in on the "wrong" side because a unit as long as ours wouldn't have made the turn in to the dump area like the one with the red truck did.  Our conclusion?  I guess no more Vermont state parks for us.  Twenty two dollars seems a lot to pay for a place to park when there are USFS spots nearby for free.  Generator hours were only 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening and the speed bumps were so high I thought we would surely bust an axle.  We only stayed 2 nights instead of 3, and counted ourselves thankful that we at least were able to get a refund for that 3rd night.  We did have a good time exploring Bennington, I will share that another time, today it's all about complaining because it's good for the mental health to get that stuff out, right?

Ohio!

It rained all night last night but we had checked the hourly and knew our window of opportunity to leave this morning and was thankful we only had to break camp in a drizzle.  We were making good time today, which was great since there had been some miscommunication between the hubby and I and he had to be back to work a day sooner than I had thought.  Just when we were 10 miles from our stopping point for the night....BLOWOUT!  I kid you not.  So we called AAA and I was kind of excited to use it for the first time since one of my followers had pointed out what a good idea it was for just this situation.  But my Wayne was too impatient and when we didn't get a call confirming someone was on their way within 20 minutes he was outside fixing it himself.  By the time they called back to say they had found someone (not that they were on their way, mind you) more than an hour had passed and Wayne was almost done putting the spare on.

So here we sit at an interstate plaza, where apparently they have RV parking with electric for $20 in Ohio.  And a plaza with a food court that includes wifi and a Starbucks.  And we made 550 miles today from southwestern Vermont through New York, Pennsylvania and more than halfway through Ohio.




So tomorrow morning we'll be in search of a new spare tire before hitting the road to put in another 390 miles to get home.  And when we get there we will still have to use the shower in the camper because our bathroom remodel isn't finished!  But, like I said to Wayne, it could be worse, no one is hurt and everything was fixable.

9 comments:

  1. Any trip away is better than no trip at home, right? :-)

    I had no idea the interstate plaza's had rv parking with electric. good to know.

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  2. Yikes, what a post! Sorry to hear about all your travel travails. Yes, it's good no one got hurt, but that's one heckuva way to wind up a trip. Thanx for the heads-up on Vermont state parks, maybe we'll skip those, too. Hope your homecoming is uneventful and that bathroom remodel is A-OK!

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  3. So sorry to read of all these mishaps! Sure can put a huge damper on a great vacation. Hope you got home all right:) I have a question about the plaza you stated at in Ohio. Where was it? Are there others like this?

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  4. Lord. Life on the road is like that sometimes, but like you said, nobody died.
    Box Canyon Mark

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  5. You have been having more than your fair share of problems. Hope the rest of the trip goes smoothly.

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  6. You have been having more than your fair share of problems. Hope the rest of the trip goes smoothly.

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  7. Oh, I feel your pain! Our spring was rudely interrupted when our Class A ate a fuel injector, resulting in an in frame rebuild. So far, no tire issues, so that is good. Hope you make it home with no more drama and stress. Thanks for the info on Vermont state parks, they do not sound so good.

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  8. Does not sound like you had a good time with your stay or travel. Hope it is sorted now

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