What an Adventure -December 11-15, 2017

On Monday, December 11, we had the motor home packed up and were on the road by 9am.  It was a cold morning with temps about 39 degrees, cold for Florida.  We drove to Brunswick, Georgia where we had the motor home serviced at a Speedco.  From there we drove over to Golden Isles RV Park, an hour a mile away, to spend the night.
The next morning, Tuesday, December 12, we were underway by 8:15am continuing our travels up I-95 toward the Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania area of our family for Christmas.  As we were motoring through South Carolina about 1:15pm in the Florence area Tom suddenly was seeing lights on the dashboard lighting up and flashing.  About the same time a passing trucker tooted his horn and motioned toward the back of the motor home.  Tom immediately pulled over on the shoulder of the road and got out to assess the problem- steam was pouring out the back.  He felt that it was a fan belt issue and we needed to call for road assistance.  Our service is through FMCA.    It was 4:15pm until a tow truck appeared and the driver after looking at our coach didn't feel he could tow us without frame damage.  He called someone else that he thought could do the tow.  When our road assistance called us saying the tow company said we declined their services we realized that nothing else was in the works to get us towed and we explained that we had not declined but the tow driver didn't think he could safely do the job and we did need a tow.  Finally, we were called saying there was a mobile mechanic that would be out.  Jamie, the mechanic showed up about 7pm and after assessing the problem felt the serpentine belt broke because the air conditioning pump seized up.  We had a belt that had come with the mh that was on the motor originally but Tiffin added the a.c. compressor needing another size belt.  This original belt should have worked by passing the a.c. compressor but it didn't.  Jamie, after a couple hours said he would return the next morning at 8am.  We spent the night in the motor home on the shoulder of busy, heavy truck trafficed 1 95.  Those trucks passing by caused the motor home to sway back and forth.  We were so uncomfortable along this busy road that we went to bed and slept as best as we could fully dressed.  A state trooper did show up around midnight wanting us to move further off the road which was not possible.
December 13, Wednesday, mechanic Jamie showed up about 9am.  Tiffin had been contacted about the serpentine belt and clarified that the belt that we had was the correct size according to their records but it definitely did not fit.  Finally about 10:30 we thanked Jamie for his service but we wanted to get the motor home towed to a safer place as we did not want to spend another night on this road.  Road assistance rounded up Sheppard towing that showed up about 1:30pm.  Albert, the driver, worked hard to get the motor home situated on the tow truck and about 2;30 was towing to Blanchard Machinary, a business that Tiffin said was an authorized power glide service center.  (Blanchard denies that is the case anymore but agreed to work on our motor home if we towed to them).  Blanchard was just a couple miles away.  Once the motor home arrived there mechanics were quickly checking out the problem.  Albert, the tow driver, noticed a couple of helper springs were broken in transit and said he would be replacing them as soon as he could get them, hopefully the next day.  We gathered a few things together- clothes, toiletries and our computers- and went to a Hampton Inn for the night.
Thursday, 14th, after a good night of sleep we had breakfast and ran a few errands and then waited.  We hoped we would be able to leave this day but reserved the possibility that we may need the room a second night.  We did not have to check out until 12noon.  At 11:20am we got the call saying the work was completed.  Tom called the tow company and was told the springs had come in and Albert would come over to Blanchard's to replace them.  By 1pm we had the repairs completed and we were on the road heading further north.  We travelled 204 miles to Roanoke Rapids and the RV Resort at Carolina Crossing.
Now we are up to today, Friday the 15th of December.  Early this morning Tom detected some problem with the heat pumps, furnace and the house batteries.  He located a service center in Ashland, Virginia.  So we found our way there and RV Services agreed to do diagnostic testing about 10:30.  So we waited in the waiting area feeling really low and discouraged about RVing.  A few minutes before noon the motor home was pulled out on the parking lot and the mechanic came in to say they found the problem which was a loose battery cable.  We were on the road by 12:30pm.  We continue on well until we came to the Leesburg area where there was an accident and we crept for quite sometime.  We hit snow and then sun was shining when we got north of Frederick.  We arrived at Artillery Ridge campground at 4:35pm, hooked up the electric and went to dinner at Montazuma's restaurant.  So glad to finally be here safely.  It is cold with temperature in the 20's but it is to get warmer the next several days, we sure hope so.