West Virginia

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Thank You To My Readers

I am replying to all your comments about my toad’s demise in a post rather than a comment.

First of all, thank you to everyone who sent good wishes. Especially in reply to Linda, I am okay this morning. I’m a little sunburned from all those hours on the turnpike waiting on the state trooper, but that’s it. Sitting so far ahead of the wreck, I didn’t really feel the impact and only knew something was seriously wrong because I could feel the car fishtailing behind me. I’m not sitting here feeling traumatized at all. This is not at all like the morning after I lost the brakes when I know I did fifty billion things wrong beforehand and ignored my instincts. Yesterday was an accident pure and simple and I can deal with that. I had a decent night’s sleep and am ready to move on.

Croft suggested I replace the toad in the US. This would require me to have the rig fixed and I know I won’t have time for this, plus I have to wait for the insurance settlement. I have thought of buying a beater for getting around in Quebec for the summer, selling it in the fall, and then looking for a new toad when I get to the US. I really don’t want to talk about my plans for a new toad at this point, so please don’t push me about that, but I know exactly what I want and I’m pretty sure I’ll only find it in the States.

westernerbychoice provided a link to a company in Phoenix that can set up vehicles for towing. That will probably be too far for me, but I’m grateful for the lead.

Amber complimented me on my driving skills. Have I told you recently how much I adore you?

Sue asked questions about my insurance coverage. I am insured with Aviva Elite under a full-timer’s policy that covers damage to the rig and to the contents.  I am insured under Intact (formerly Axa) for damage to the car and liability issues related to the motorhome. It looks like I won’t have any issues with Aviva and they told me to get back in touch with them when I’m ready to have the rig repaired. My adjuster immediately got in touch with me by email and I was able to send her pictures. We didn’t talk too much about contents over the phone, but after I went through the rig last night I decided to make a modest claim for a few things so we’ll see how that goes.  I am not certain how Intact is going to be yet. They asked me a lot more questions about the circumstances of the crash. They will have an appraiser out here in a few days to look at the toad and we’ll go from there. Regarding the tow bar system, there could be some back and forth between the two companies, but I have put in a claim for it and both say that it should end up being covered, especially if the other driver admits he’s at fault and my insurance companies can recoup from his. That’s all I know for now.

Now, I’m ready to get back on the road to visit my friend, but I want to doubly verify that I can go, so I may have to wait a couple of hours for the insurance companies to open back west. I will go into the wrecking company shortly to see if Intact has called them and confirmed that they will be handing the towing and storage fee and that they are comfortable with my leaving. My ETA in Virginia is sometime between 6 and 8PM and all I can say is that I can’t wait to be there. I knew driving out east wasn’t going to be fun, but I didn’t expect the party to start until I was heading north out of Virginia!

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RIP My Faithful Toad

It’s tough to know how to start a post like this. I guess that “I’m fine, the cats are fine, and Miranda is more or less fine” should do it.

I’d been on the road about an hour today and was approaching Beckley on the West Virginia turnpike. Traffic was heavy and there was construction. I merged into the left hand lane around some construction when the semi in front of me slammed on his brakes to the point that there was smoke coming from them. The man in the pickup behind me was riding my car bumper and had no room to stop. He slammed into the back of the car, which slammed into the back of the motorhome.

The state trooper took me aside to say that the fact that I did not hit the semi and that the guy in the pickup did not get rear ended suffices as proof that he did not give himself enough braking distance. Because I was rear ended there is no question that the guy behind me is responsible, but the state trooper assured me that I couldn’t have done anything to prevent this. So, please, no comments like I got after the brakes incidents asking me to rehash every single moment of this. It happened, it’s being dealt with, and I can continue on to Virginia tomorrow. I am parked at the wrecking yard for the night and was given the go ahead by both insurance companies to go ahead with my travel plans.

The first photo I am going to share is going to be shocking. You can see that my tow bar assembly is sheered off and that I was pulling the car only by the cables. This is important, folks. Look at the tow assembly. It isn’t dragging on the ground. You need to crisscross the cables so that if something like this were to happen, the cables would act as a net and catch the tow bar. My system worked flawlessly.

Damage to the front of the car:

Damage to the rear of the car:

Motorhome bumper:

I don’t believe that the damage to the motorhome requires immediate attention. She drove fine the 10 miles or so from the crash site to the wrecking yard. There is damage to the under carriage where the receiver hitch was welded on. However, none of the damaged parts are attached directly to the main part of the chassis. I feel comfortable driving to Montreal but I will have the rig looked at once I get there and won’t be taking the road again until the repairs are done.

It will take a few days for an appraiser to come out and look at the car, but I reasonably certain that I am looking at a total loss on it so I am okay with leaving it behind. So long as the other party takes responsibility for his idiocy, my insurance companies will not charge me a deductible. So it would make sense to have the car repaired if the appraiser says it needs to be, and I’ll be close enough by to come back and pick it up. But I seriously doubt that will happen.

At this point, there is no sense making guesses about how I am going to proceed. I will know more once the motorhome damage is appraised and dealt with next month. The big question is my towing assembly; it could cost almost $5,000 including parts and installation, to get a new vehicle set up for towing.

I’ll be renting a car in Virginia and will see what my options are when I get to Montreal regarding getting a new toad. I’m fairly confident that the car is worth twice what I owe on it, so there is a chance that I could get the loan cleared and have enough left over to buy a decent used vehicle. One thing is for certain; I have no intention of financing another vehicle.

The big question now is, how do I carry the bike and extra propane tank? I stuffed the car roof rack and whatever I had in the car trunk into the motorhome basement, but the bike and propane tank are going to be tricky.

To my surprise, my insurance company is paying the absurd towing bill for the car, $250. It cost half that to have Miranda towed after she lost her brakes and she was going further! Anyway, the wrecking yard is letting the insurance company settle the bill rather than making me pay it and then be reimbursed, so that’s fine.

As for the inside of the rig, I need to do a thorough evaluation, but I lost one external hard drive and a bunch of dishes. It looks like everything else was secure.

It has been a very long day. The accident happened at 10:30AM. I got to the wrecking yard at 12:30 and called my insurance broker. He told me to stay by the phone and that my insurance companies would call me. I spent about an hour emptying the car (thank you so much to the nice man who helped me get the bike out of the car through the passenger side door since I couldn’t get the trunk open and to the other one who carried my 30lb propane tank the equivalent of a full block). Aviva called me around 3 for the motorhome. I hadn’t heard from Intact for the car so I called my broker back at 4 and he gave me the adjuster’s number. By the time I hung up with her, it was 5:30. It is now 7:45 and I’ve only had a small slice of pizza to eat all day (damn those nerves), so I think I will go grab a few things at the Walmart next door to make a quick cold picnic. Sitting in Miranda today was like sitting in an oven, but at least I was home.

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Grateful For My Mojo

I’m working out tomorrow’s driving day, which will take me across the Blue Ridge Mountains and one section with a 7% downhill grade over 5 miles. Last year, I would have lost sleep over this. But my experience through Idaho into Montana over the Fourth of July and Lookout Passes made me a lot more confident about my mountain driving experience. However, those were only 5% and 6% grades respectively, so I can expect this 7% grade to be a bit more challenging.

I’m only about 400 miles from my destination in Virginia and if it weren’t for this mountainous section, I would be very tempted to start early tomorrow and do a canonball run. Instead I will get through the mountains and assess the time remaining for the journey once I reach mid-afternoon. I would love to arrive tomorrow, but not if it means doing so completely frazzled! I know I am entering a particularly beautiful bit of the US and I can’t wait to savour the landscapes before I return to the teeming mass of humanity that suffocates the entire east coast.

The last two weeks have been absolutely amazing and I cannot believe I am on the home stretch for this part of the journey!

 

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La Virginie-Occidentale

I have to make a note that the French name for West Virginia sounds so much more exotic than does the English name! Isn’t Occidental Virginia a lovely name? Then again, someone might think it’s a typo and call it Accidental Virginia. Um, I suppose things should be left as they are. 🙂

(in plain French, West Virginia would be Virginie de l’ouest)

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Into West Virginia

While I will be traveling through at least another half dozen or so states on this trip, I am done adding new ones to my roster, with West Virginia being the first state to officially herald that I am back east and nearly in familiar territory.

I woke up feeling slightly disoriented this morning because of the time change. Guess what, you can get jet lag when traveling overland! 🙂

I pulled out of the Cracker Barrel at 7:45 and rolled into the nearest rest area (Midway) at 8:15. By 8:20, the kettle was on, the French press was ready, and my email was downloading. How did I ever manage in my early days of RVing when getting down to actually living in my rig was a treat reserved for when I was spending at least two nights on full hookups?!

That said, it’s amazing what can happen in a half hour. I swear my front door was whole when I left Shelbyville. What the heck happened to it?!

Can you see it? Here’s a closeup:

Not to self: find a new window frame for the front door. Anyway, what’s left is solid and the window is secure, so I can deal with this when I arrive in Virginia.

Having only about four hours to drive today, including stops, and having only three and a half or so left, I decided to spend the bulk of the day at the rest area catching up on some things. I enjoyed this bucolic view out of my office window today:

I stayed until just past two, taking the time to charge everything under the sun (literally) since I had more than 6A coming in from the solar panel:

There is nothing like a fully charged battery to make a boondocker happy!

Before leaving the rest area, I did something unprecedented: I remembered that I was out of windshield wiper fluid and actually topped it up. I usually remember these things when I get splashed with mud and am blinded. 🙂 The bugs on this trip have been nasty!!!

From Midway, it was then a rather windy but otherwise easy drive out of Kentucky into West Virginia:

I passed an amazon.com facility:

I took advantage of the fact that I am going to be in the US for a bit longer to use my latest Amazon rewards to get a ton of stuff that is being shipped to my friend’s place. I wonder if some of it is shipping out of here?

From there, it was just a few miles to where I am parked for the night, the Walmart in Cross Lanes (according to Google) or Charleston (according to my GPS). There are ‘no RV parking signs’ in the lot, but was told that that’s just to encourage folks to come into customer service and be directed to the proper part of the lot to park. You actually park as far from the Walmart as possible in front of the discount store and against Nitro Boulevard. When looking at Nitro, you need to park across from the Dollar Tree, not the Loews.

Well, the pizza I have in the oven is calling my name. It’s going to taste pretty good with the cold beer I just opened. 🙂