I went to bed around 9:00 last night and slept straight through to 4:00 (sounds crazy early, but that was 7 straight hours!). I threw OFF a couple of blankets, snuggled up against Neelix (who was snoring to raise the roof; I love me a content kitty), and slept for another three hours! One good night doesn’t make up for a string of bad ones, but it helps!
L had told me to watch for the house door opening in the morning to signal that it was time to come in for breakfast! WOW! That happened around 8:00 and I went in to find coffee, bacon, bagels, fresh fruit, and more. Am I glad to be here! I had a chance to meet his daughter, too.
I have a few projects to work on today, but I’ll get started on laundry at some point and have a shower before we go out to dinner and a movie with some of his friends.
It’s too wet out to get under the rig, but I’m not leaving Monday so we have (ie. L has) time to get some repairs done before I take off.
We looked at a map last night and he gave me a really good compromise route. Instead of going diagonally through Nebraska and the Dakotas on secondary roads (with few overnighting options), I should just shoot north through those states and then swing west through the top of North Dakota; basically the route I took to go east last year. It’s such an obvious option that I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think of it myself!
It’ll be a little more mileage than the diagonal route, but at least I’d be on the US side for gas prices, I’d know where to overnight, and if the calendar catches up with me, I’d be able to go into Canada quickly. So that’s what I’ll do. I just checked the map and if I drive 500KM a day, from Wichita I’m five days from my property on that route.
I was originally going to hang out in Stromsburg, NE, and cannonball from there, but the revised route puts me through Hankinson with the super cheap FHU casino RV park, so that would be a better place to hang out. I may make it back to Canada yet!
That’s just horrifying, Rae! You could have lost your rig because those idiots didn’t know how to jack it up properly.
A couple of suggestions: first, you might be able to repair your gray tank pipe inexpensively with a clamp-on rubber sleeve like the one that has been holding mine together ever since last summer’s rock attack:
http://www.andybaird.com/travels/skylarking/2012/photos/3-inch-coupling.jpg
Second, if you have the owner’s manual for your motorhome’s Ford chassis, the “Roadside Emergencies” chapter has information and diagrams on the correct jack points, hook-up for wrecker towing, and so on. It pays to haul out that book in an emergency situation, just so you can make sure the job is done right.
I blame myself first because I knew that they had never worked on a rig like mine and I let them touch it.
They did jack it up at the right place. The problem was that they needed two jacks to do the job and it’s the second jack that got us in trouble.
L suggested the same thing as you about the sleeve. I’ll let him know that repair worked for you. Thanks!