Trouble on the Road to Biloxi


It was going to be just a two hour drive from Foley, Alabama, to Biloxi, Mississippi. Everything was going well until we felt a severe vibration in the rear of the motorhome.

Phyllis pulled onto the shoulder. It wasn’t very wide. Fast moving semi-trailer trucks were passing just inches from our driver’s side mirror. Lamont went out to find that the rear end of the motorhome had lost air. It was sitting just an inch above the tires rather than the normal 2 to 3 inches. She could see a metal rod dangling in the middle of the axle.

Phyllis checked the GPS and there was an exit 4 miles ahead. We crawled along the shoulder of Interstate 10. The slower we moved, the less noise and vibration we caused. At one point, Lamont had to put on gloves and go out and remove a huge truck tire re-tread from the shoulder. The truckers call them alligators.

Once we were on the exit ramp, we telephoned James and Gayle Veraart at Patterson RV Sales & Service in Dutton, Ontario, for advice. We had to shut off the motorhome, crawl under the axle, take the rod and push it back up into its place. James said the bags would inflate and the motorhome would lift.

Phyllis noticed two men up ahead, also on the shoulder of the exit ramp. They were loading a pick-up truck onto a flat bed tow truck.

Lamont set off to see whether the men could help us. When Lamont as a "damsel-in-distress" explained The Cooking Ladies’ dilemma, Joe Vaughn, from Lucedale, Mississippi, and Andrew Rouse, also from Lucedale, immediately wanted to help.

Phyllis put the jacks down in order to raise the rear axle. In the meantime, Joe found a long stick and reached in and put the rod back into place. The airbags immediately started to fill with air and the coach began to lift up from the tires.

Phyllis pushed the usual buttons to store the jacks and nothing happened. Why could this be? The jacks worked a few minutes before. New challenge. The jacks had to be stored manually. Up went the hood over the generator. Four levers located under the generator hood, had to be turned in a counter clockwise direction. Andrew turned two levers, Lamont the other two so that the coach would drop evenly. Otherwise the windshield could crack.
Voila. The motorhome went down and the jacks tucked up into their sleeves. Later we learned it was operator error. Phyllis had accidentally pushed in the parking brake when she started the motorhome to fill the air bags. A built-in safety won't let the jacks store if the parking brake is not on.

The trip from Foley to Biloxi took six hours instead of two hours but, thanks to James & Gayle in Ontario, and Joe and Andrew and their Mississippi hospitality, we were on our way again.

1 comment:

carmilevy said...

The kindness of strangers is a remarkably inspirational thing, isn't it?

Read your post from last May about your appearance on the morning show here in London, Ontario. My experiences with 'A' Morning as a guest were similarly charmed and fun.

Sadly, the show was cancelled yesterday and virtually everyone associated with it was let go. Hopefully, the next time you ride through our region, we'll have some alternative media venues to shine a spotlight on your neat adventures.

Travel safe!