What did I say about adventures?

Aaahhh yes, they are not all good although the bad ones often make great stories later on. Geoffrey says "An adventure is something you realize you have had once you get back to the place you were swearing you would never leave again while you were having it." Of course, one of the first things we tell anyone about our trip is what happened after we left Encampment ...

Having spent a great morning in Encampment we headed back north on Wyoming 130 towards Interstate 80. Although only one lane each way and with very narrow shoulders, it is basically straight with little traffic so easy to drive. But then ... about 7-8 miles south of the interstate a large truck went by the other way and wham, it was like someone stood in the road and hurled hands full of rocks at us!

With no where to pull over we continued on up to the interstate but went under and over to this little rinky dink Shell station with a closed cafe and checked out the damage. Couldn't get a good picture of the whole windshield but the photo shows two of the two dozen dings and cracks in our windshield. (The thing on the lower right is a big bug splat, ignore it.) Further investigation found another ding in the driver's side headlight and later on we found dings in the body work on the front and down the driver's side.

Made various calls to the state police and the insurance company and whoever else seemed appropriate. A nice lady trooper showed up after a while and took the report saying something about someone reporting in down at the next town south on that road which would be Saratoga. Turns out apparently the truck driver reported the event saying that a bag of rocks on his truck had split open and spilled the rocks at us. The insurance company tried calling all sorts of people but no one had the right windshield, not surprising with a new RV, sigh!

They held out some hope for Lazydays RV in Loveland, Colorado, so off we headed. The state trooped had reassured us that we could probably drive all the way home just to keep an eye on it so we headed off for Loveland. Lazydays was very nice and helpful including taking pictures of the damage and making calls to see if there was any way they could get us a windshield in a reasonable amount of time. We will always appreciate that they were straight up front with us even though it meant no business for them. They said at best it would be 5-7 days to get one, maybe, and it could take a lot longer. They repeated the reassurances of the state trooper that as long as we kept an eye on it we should be able to make it home.

One of the things we had not mentioned to anyone was that the air conditioning in the front part of the coach had quit. A warranty issue, probably Ford, possibly Fleetwood, there was no likelihood of a fast fix for that.

So we headed home, scratch the planned foray to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota for sure. Instead Geoff drove dawn to dusk and sometimes after and I watched the windshield. As you can see in the photo to the left the temperature where I sat was 100 degrees or more, foot level was worse. The driver's side wasn't much better. 



We stopped for meals and other necessary breaks. One night we stayed at a motel and even that didn't go smoothly as we had to change rooms as the shower did not work at all! Not a drop!

Another night we simply got too tired and just stopped at a truck stop, a noisy place but tired and in the dark we were in no shape to hunt for better.

We kept the air conditioning on in the back portion of the coach with fans pushing it up front which helped a little. We drank lots of water and I tried coping with the heat by using cold packs on my feet propped up on poor Wolfie ... hmmm, just realized that I never included Wolfie in my blogs.

This is Wolfie ... some how, before we even got the RV I decided I needed Wolfie, ordered from Amazon. He's nice and big and made a great footrest for me from the start.

He pretty much lived on the floor on the passenger side of Timmber Wolf and kept watch out the little side window which I understand is actually there so the driver can see the edge of the road. Anyway, if you look carefully you can see Wolfie under the towel there to keep him dry and to help prop up my feet from the hot floorboards. I have no idea how hot it got down there, don't think I want to know. Since we came home Wolfie lives on the living room floor watching out the back at the birds and occasional cat and waiting on our next foray into the big world out there.

We made it home finally just in time to plunk down in our recliners and watch Wheel of Fortune. We had a great trip but I still like home the best.