We took 4 days to drive home. We stayed overnight in Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Sullivan, MO, and Bloomington, where we stopped to have dinner with our son Thomas.
I forgot to snap a photo of him during our visit! But here is his official school photo. That's pretty much how he looked at dinner.
I forgot to snap a photo of him during our visit! But here is his official school photo. That's pretty much how he looked at dinner.
The drive home was very pleasant with one scary exception. Just outside of Terre Haute, our leaf spring failed, the camper fell down on top of the wheel, and the friction ate into the tire and created a massive amount of rubbery smoke. All at 65 mph.
Scott managed to pull off into the berm, but because it was so narrow, we were 2 feet max away from the absolutely constant torrent of semis passing at top speed. On the other side of the guardrail was a steep hill. It was pretty frightening.
Scott managed to pull off into the berm, but because it was so narrow, we were 2 feet max away from the absolutely constant torrent of semis passing at top speed. On the other side of the guardrail was a steep hill. It was pretty frightening.
Adding to the stress was that I could not find anyone to tow us. The only place that came close turned out to be some kind of scam; I was on the phone for an hour giving a total of 4 different people with heavy accents a ton of information (some about the camper because they were completely ignorant and some about my contact and credit card info) and lots of money (nearly $800). My alarms were buzzing 15 minutes into the first call, but I felt desperate, so I went through with it until it was apparent they were not coming anytime soon or, more likely, ever. I finally told them to cancel it, which didn't go down too well with them, but hopefully, since we used a credit card, we should be able to recover our money.
They were either total scammers or possibly middlemen scammers, i.e., they would get people on the phone who needed tows, take their money, pretend they were coming, call actual tow companies, and take a cut. Who knows? But since I called 6 real tow companies who all said they didn't have the equipment to tow us, the scammers would never have found a tow company either, so they would eventually be asking for even more money and taking even longer.
But at some point Scott said he thought he could rig a temporary fix good enough to get us to the repair shop. He used the wood he props the hitch up with to prop the camper up above the wheel, and then he drove slowly to the shop we had lined up; it was only 6 miles away, thank goodness. It was nerve wracking but such a relief that his fix could get us to the shop and save us having to find a tow!
This shop, Burke Spring & Alignment, in Terre Haute, IN, was fantastic! They were super friendly, and even though they were super busy, they looked at the RV right away and said if they had the parts in stock, they'd fix it the next day. Luckily, they had the leaf springs in stock and they were even better than the OEM models because they were beefier and could handle more weight.
We got a hotel in Bloomington near Thomas and had hot showers before meeting him for dinner. We had a good steak dinner and a nice visit with him.
The rest of the trip, just 6 hours, was uneventful. And other than the leaf-spring failure, the drive home was comfortable.
They were either total scammers or possibly middlemen scammers, i.e., they would get people on the phone who needed tows, take their money, pretend they were coming, call actual tow companies, and take a cut. Who knows? But since I called 6 real tow companies who all said they didn't have the equipment to tow us, the scammers would never have found a tow company either, so they would eventually be asking for even more money and taking even longer.
But at some point Scott said he thought he could rig a temporary fix good enough to get us to the repair shop. He used the wood he props the hitch up with to prop the camper up above the wheel, and then he drove slowly to the shop we had lined up; it was only 6 miles away, thank goodness. It was nerve wracking but such a relief that his fix could get us to the shop and save us having to find a tow!
This shop, Burke Spring & Alignment, in Terre Haute, IN, was fantastic! They were super friendly, and even though they were super busy, they looked at the RV right away and said if they had the parts in stock, they'd fix it the next day. Luckily, they had the leaf springs in stock and they were even better than the OEM models because they were beefier and could handle more weight.
We got a hotel in Bloomington near Thomas and had hot showers before meeting him for dinner. We had a good steak dinner and a nice visit with him.
The rest of the trip, just 6 hours, was uneventful. And other than the leaf-spring failure, the drive home was comfortable.
A couple cool things we saw on the way were a few dust devils in Arizona and some hot-air balloons in Oklahoma City (I think).
He also snapped a couple pics of me in the car doing my passenger things.
Right out of Tucson Scott saw something that amused him (and roused his respect) so he took a photo (yes, as he was driving).
We logged over 6,000 miles on this trip.
And guess what? We have already planned—and booked—our trip for 2026! On this next trip we will spend more time in Phoenix and Tucson. When we're done and heading toward home, we will detour a bit up to Kansas to visit a friend of Scott's for a day.
