Road Trip: Chapter I

What's All That Smoke?

I promised to try to chronicle my 6,000 mile, 25-day trip from Chandler, AZ to North Potomac, MD and back with the caveat of writing only "if something interesting happens."  In the lingo of Emeril Lagasse: "Bam!"  First the basics:

Vehicle of transport: One 2002 White Ford 250 pickup truck.

Traveling home: 32' Hitch Hiker II fifth wheel.

Passengers:  Me, husband Bill, mother-in-law and father-in-law. 

The weather was perfect as my family picked me up from a weekend with high school friends in Chandler, Arizona.  Bill had driven our truck down to Palm Springs to play golf with a friend, and the in-laws had driven the 5th wheel to Arizona where they all met up in Williams, left Bill's truck and drove to pick me up.  We had driven only about 120 miles on our adventure when the engine suddenly quit and white smoke started pouring out of the exhaust.  Thankfully it died just before a freeway exit that boasted a campground.  We were 40 miles east of Tucson, the last big city, but thought we might find some help in this little hamlet.  The name of said town shall remain nameless to protect the toothless.  That's right, the residents we encountered were very nice and somewhat helpful, but just dentally challenged.  Because it was a Sunday afternoon, the car repair shops were all closed, and strangely enough there were 3 of them right together.  There was some dirt and gravel with "RV Park" posted on it that charged $18 a night. 

When we first drove into town we thought we might try to stay at the RV Gravel Park so we limped into the lot, bellowing increasingly black smoke, dripping a black substance, and emitting a burning stench.  We realized too late that we had pulled into the wrong lot and were trapped.  We called AAA to tow us to the lot next door.  After calling them and noting that there were more dogs in town than people, we thought we'd be better off getting towed all the way back to Tucson.  My father-in-law was especially wary of having some Jethro work on his truck. 

AAA sent Little Doug* of Big Doug's towing.  He was a very nice guy and really went out of his way for us.  He towed the truck to the Ford dealer in Tucson and said Big Doug would come with a hitch for the 5th wheel.  Big Doug showed up after an hour or so and struggled to fit a square peg into a round hole for an hour before he declared he had the wrong kind of hitch and would go get another one.  Three hours had passed by then and we were hungry so we ate dinner in our trailer while we waited for Big Doug to return.  He didn't.  Finally we get a call from Little Doug stating that Big Doug didn't have the right hitch and he would come back with a different truck and tow our camper to Tucson also.  He even offered to have his wife drive us in her car so we wouldn't have to ride in the camper while it was being towed.  We declined his kind offer. 

So me, mom and husband got situated in the camper.  Mom sitting at the table, me lying on the couch (with a tummy ache) and Bill sitting at the end of the couch.  It was kind of like those cartoons when somebody makes a loud noise and the character lifts off the chair.  We fully lifted off the couch several times and dropped back down again.  Mom had to put a pillow on the table to pad her descent back to the table. 

Five and a half hours after our first call to AAA we were settled into an RV Park back in Tucson.  The repair shop is apparently so busy they couldn't even look at our truck today to diagnose the problem, so we decided to upend our trip and go visit the Grand Canyon now instead of at the end of our travels as planned.  We rented a car and are poised to visit that big old crack tomorrow, in the snow even!

We spent months and months planning this trip, but as my father-in-law says about planning ahead, "I don't even buy green bananas."

Blessings: 
We were safe when the engine died.
The weather was nice.
We know a great place for dentists looking for new patients.


*Name changed