March 4th – 12th
Monday March 4th was the last day of my visit with Kelley and Casey. We got take-out for dinner and Vicki joined us at K&C’s house. Kelley leaves for work at 6:30am and Casey has to study in the morning, so this evening was our final goodbye. On the 5th my plan was to shop for groceries (since I hadn’t been camping in weeks), go to Joan’s house in Lenoir, go out to dinner with her, stay overnight, hookup the trailer and head out on March 6th to go see Danny and Julie in Clemmons, then go on to Florida for an RV rally put on by my Escapees Solos group.
That was the plan. On March 6th as I headed away from Joan’s, I hit a rock or a pothole, heard a loud THUMP, and stopped to check the tire. It was flat – blown out. So I called AAA and waited 3 hours for them to come and put the spare tire on. I didn’t want to drive without a spare tire, so I stopped at a nearby Walmart and got a new tire and had them rotate them all so the oldest tire was now the spare. I had noticed a weird angle on the tires, so I asked the tire guy if he thought the axle looked like it might be bent. He said it might be, and referred me to a local mechanic only a few miles away and I drove over there. The place was Fowler’s Auto in Hudson NC. Terry, the owner, took one look at it and said the axle was definitely damaged and I should not drive it at all as it would risk shredding the tires and a possible blowout. So I proceeded to empty everything from the trailer into the truck, including all the fresh food I had just purchased, and drove to Clemmons. It was 7pm by the time I got there and I was exhausted. Not a great day.
Next day I cancelled my reservation in Florida, and waited to hear from Terry about the parts and repairs. I finally heard from him at 4pm. He was trying to get the best price on parts, and asked me if I had insurance coverage. I hadn’t even thought of that! So I contacted my insurance agent and got started on the paperwork. Danny and I took all 4 dogs for a walk in their neighborhood. On Friday the 8th, I talked to the insurance claims adjuster and she said she needed more info from the mechanics. I talked to Terry and told him to go ahead and order the parts – if we waited for the insurance adjuster it could be days into the following week before he could order it. The axle has to be custom made and can take 2 weeks or more to get it. Yikes! So he was able to order it that day. I figured I had to have it repaired even if the insurance didn’t pay for it, so it was best to just get it started. Took the big dogs for another walk, then watched TV with D&J. Spent Saturday catching up on emails, travelogues, checkbook, etc.
On Sunday, the 9th, D&J and I took all 4 dogs to Tanglewood Park and walked the Nature Trail. In the afternoon, April (Danny’s daughter) and her son Noah, and his daughter Cora (4 years old) joined us for lunch at a place called JJ’s Mama’s Soulfood. Delicious. Noah’s wife Taya was working so wasn’t able to join us. Then we followed Noah to a place called the AxeHole (where he works). It’s a place for people to go to play games such as beanbag tossing (known as Cornhole), pool, and axe throwing! It even has a skating rink and is a great place for people to have parties. Needless to say, Noah is an expert at axe throwing. Danny and Julie and I weren’t very good, but we all landed a few!
Monday was a quiet day but I had time to publish a travelogue, took dogs for walks, had dinner with D&J. I talked to Terry in the afternoon. At this point, everything was in motion to get the trailer fixed and it was an unknown as to when the parts would actually arrive. So I decided to continue to do some of the things I had planned to do after going to Florida, I just wasn’t going to be camping. I figured I’d have at least 2 weeks before it was fixed. On Tuesday the 12th I drove back to Terry’s shop in Hudson. I moved some stuff into the trailer to make room in the truck. Packed the clothes I needed for several weeks. Stopped at the Olde Hickory (train) Station, had a wonderful salmon lunch (it was Scottish salmon, they said!), and headed back to D&J’s. Took dogs for walk, chatted a bunch, had dinner, and finished packing the truck. Had a CWMA board meeting on Zoom, then went to bed.
I left the next morning, the 13th, on my no-trailer adventure! The next part of the journey is heading up the east coast, stopping in Baltimore, and going to New Hampshire.
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