After we left Springer there were a couple of ranches that we stayed on that involved travelling on those dirt county roads. After riding one day, and getting into the routine of watching for storm clouds in the afternoon, covering the saddles as we waited for the trucks to get back with the trailers, we got a call from one of the shuttle drivers that they had lost track of a couple of the trucks.
It had started raining cats and dogs and hailing all at once til they couldn't see anything. They couldn't see Sandy anymore and didn't know which way some of they trucks had gone. Dirt road or paved? Not all the cell phones were working so they couldn't find all the drivers. In the end they found everyone.
At camp it hadn't rained or stormed at all and only a few miles away they had the storm of a lifetime. Some of the passengers even had the presence of mind to take pictures.
It had hailed 6-8 inches along with torrential rain, which on the dirt road was devastating. Windshields froze over almost immediately, and made the clay dirt road slick as ice. But, everyone made it OK except Jim who slipped crosswise on the road. The trailer went in the ditch on one side and the truck on the other. He got it straight but to get out of the ditch he had to drive in the ditch down to a right of way and then out. It wrecked enough of the camper that eventually the insurance adjuster totalled it.
Triple C Trailer Sales in Watervliet, Michigan saved the day by having a used living quarters trailer that was just what we needed and delivered it to Colorado, meeting Jim in Limon, taking our trailer back with them to sell at home. Luckily the trailer had survived the ordeal without any problems and we are back in business within a few days.
The next hurdle was finding somewhere to unload the camper so we could get the truck looked at after it's workout in the ditch. When we arrived in LaJunta we found a storage place where we might leave it for a while. Now we are waiting for parts for the truck; ball joints, seals, front end alignment power steering - all that needs to be adjusted or fixed.
If you think it's just us that has repair issues. Every time we get to a town the local RV repair gets a pretty good line up. This weekend we had two mobile repairmen on duty. The RV Medic came two weekend in a row, following us after ordering parts from last weekend. And a mobile generator repairman has been out 3 days in a row making repairs. They could probably call ahead to colleagues for good referrals. This trip is giving these rigs a good workout.
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