More Travel Thoughts

Tyler and Jaci's RV travel reminded me of my own RV travel. Wanna hear the tale?

It was June and Tyler was finishing his junior year at Interlochen Arts Academy. I needed to bring all of Tyler's possessions home from Interlochen as he would be leaving in a couple of weeks for the Congress-Bundestag Exchange Program — a year in Germany. I had been dating Bob Hendershot (who would become husband number three) for six months. Every time I had been out to Bob's house on the side of the Short Hill Mountain in Hillsboro, Virginia, I had noticed his Winnebago Brave. He told fond reminiscences of trips he and his late wife had taken with their kids in the RV.

And I had a light bulb moment. What if I drove Bob's RV to Interlochen to get Tyler and his things? We would have plenty of room to bring everything back in the RV, and I could sleep in it when I got to Interlochen, thus saving money on a hotel room. I asked him if he had ever had any problems with it, and he assured me it was sound.

The day before I was to leave, he drove it into the RV service place in Rockville to have the oil changed and other miscellaneous tasks attended to in preparation for my trip. He had a little trouble coming up one hill into Rockville, but downplayed that and reassured me I'd be fine.

The next morning I set out. My plan was to avoid the Pennsylvania Turnpike, instead driving west on I-40, then north around Pittsburgh, then across Ohio, north through Toledo, up to Bay City, northwest to Cadillac, and north into Interlochen. As I was driving out the Maryland panhandle, I noticed I was having to stop frequently for gas, so I started clocking my mileage. I was getting 4 miles to the gallon. Not 40. 4!!! And whenever I came to a hill, the vehicle would go slower and slower as I was climbing the hill. I got to the turnoff from I-40 to take me towards Pittsburgh. After driving about 20 minutes, I was feeling very tired, so pulled over in a truck stop to close my eyes for a few minutes. When I went to get back on the highway, I realized I had turned the wrong way at the turnoff, driving 20 miles in the wrong direction.

I made it to the Ohio Turnpike, still stopping about every 100 miles to fill up. At one point about two-thirds of the way across Ohio, I went in to the restaurant to grab something to eat. When I got back to the RV, the motor wouldn't turn over. It turns out the alternator was bad and the battery had not been charging. I had to call a tow truck and tow the RV into the nearest town, finding a hotel for the night while a new alternator was installed.

The next morning I got back on the road and pushed as hard as I could. I had hoped to reach Interlochen in time for graduation, but all the gas stops and the alternator problems had me way behind schedule. As I was driving north through Michigan, I started hearing knocking. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. All the dials looked like things were fine. About 20 miles south of Interlochen I started smelling burning oil. I drove up to the entrance to the campus, and the motor stopped, leaving me enough oomph to roll to the shoulder of the road before the engine died. I mean dead. Really dead.

The oil pump had died at some point along the road and I had burned up the engine. I had to again call a tow truck to have the RV towed to the Winnebago dealer, where they called Bob and gave him an estimate for what they'd pay him to buy the dead vehicle from him. And I then had to get on the phone and find a truck I could rent to drive back to Washington with all Tyler's possessions.

I had just lost my job a couple of weeks earlier due to an IBM cutback, and my credit cards were absolutely maxed out. I had to call Bob and ask him to let me use his credit card to rent the U-Haul. (I'm way too nice. That boy should have bought me a truck for all he put me through!)

Tyler always has a good attitude with the bizarre situations I sometimes get into. It was yet another road trip where we sang along to Billy Joel through multiple states and a district.

Bob and I married six months later, and this story became one of our funny tales to tell. But it always came across as my fault.

By the way, I've never asked to borrow anyone's vehicle since that episode!