You Meet The Nicest People!

The motorhome had been in storage for approximately six months, This day was a beautiful Easter Sunday, so we decided to take a short trip. Our route was to take us to a small town about 100 miles from home. We would eat lunch, do a little shopping (the wife's idea) and return home before dinner. We filled the motorhome with gas and started out.

As we got away from the "big city" the road narrowed to two lanes and that is where the fun began. We were traveling at 50mph with five or six vehicles ours being third in line. As we began to pass an oncoming truck pulling a straight RV trailer, a three-foot piece of board came shooting off the trailer's tongue where it must have been stored and not secured. "THUD" the board hit us right behind the front wheel, went under the motorhome bounced around underneath making an awful lot of noise and exited I know not where. What a surprise the vehicle behind me must have had if the board went his direction. You know? I still can't believe that I didn't swerve to miss the board, as that surely would have put us in the ditch if not worse...you just can not "off road" in a motorhome. When we found a safe place to pull over to look at our vehicle our traveling companions were not to be found. Lucky for us the damages were not as bad as the noise made us believe they might have been. With only a few minor dings in our side panel we were on our way again. Was this an omen of things to come?

The next fifty miles or so were uneventful. Suddenly with a loud "BOOM" we blew a passenger side inside tire. Again we stopping to assess the damages, this was becoming a habit we didn't want. The tire had blown the sidewall but was in good enough condition that I didn't think it would tear driving on it. A sidewall blowout is an indication of underinflation and a $250.00 lesson learned, This added another item, check tire pressure, to our pre-trip checklist.

At this point we decided that it might be best if we tucked our tail under and headed for home. My wife (ever the smart one) wanted to abandon the back road that we were on for a more traveled one. "No!" I said, "this road is less traveled, we can go slower, won't hold up traffic and this is the much shorter route, we'll be home in no time." We did an about face and started the 70 or so mile trip home but now at 45mph. All went well for the first hour. Suddenly the engine backfired and died "KA-BOOM" the noise from the exhaust pipe sounded like a cannon shot. With our hearts in our throats we coasted to a stop. After calming down for a few minutes, checking the motor and finding nothing wrong, restarted the motorhome and we were again on our way. Life was again good. Another two miles down the road of hell the engine again backfires but this time it would not re-start.

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