The rally was beginning and the partying was in full swing when we decided to make our way home from Galveston. We checked out of our spot at 11:00 Thursday morning and headed back to home sweet home, at least until our next adventure. Everything was going as smoothly as it could have in a bumpy truck pulling a 43 ft. RV. Oh, about that…if you will remember my first post, our ride to Galveston was extremely uncomfortably bumpy!!! Will realized that the RV hitch was in the highest position and if we lower it that should help with some of the bumpiness. He lowered the hitch and viola!…almost no more bumps. It did, however, make a HUGE difference! So, back to the trip…Will is driving with Starla Moon as his co-pilot, I’m knitting (yes, at this point I can knit! Woohoo!), and the dogs are passed out in the backseat. We got through Houston, which is always so pleasant <—-(insert sarcastic tone here). Approximately an hour and a half outside of Houston we feel a weird “thump” and we’re assuming it’s a flat tire(s). Will pulls over to the shoulder, and looks at all of the tires. Nope, no flats. He got back in the truck and as we started driving again we notice that the truck was sounding a little “off”. It wasn’t getting the power it needed, then he noticed the turbo didn’t seem to be working. Great…just what we needed. Fortunately we found a picnic area a couple of miles from where we pulled over. I let the dogs out and walked around with them while Will looked under the hood. It’s a really good thing I have a handy hubby. The turbo hose thingy broke (that’s my technical term). It literally exploded! He called a friend who is very educated in diesel engines who told Will to call O’Reilly. O’Reilly told him to call a dealership for the part we’ll need. Will also called our usual mechanic just for some advice. We were advised by everyone he talked to not drive the truck, especially pulling a 43′ RV. Well, that put a little damper on things! Thank goodness it was only about 3:00 in the afternoon and everything was open. Will called a dealership not too far from the picnic area, but in the opposite direction. The part we needed was in stock…woohoo! Now we just needed to find a way to get there. We called AAA RV to see what our options were for towing us to the dealership and they weren’t much help. They said they’d be there within the hour, well we weren’t sure that was going to work because the dealership was closing soon and it was getting late at that point but we scheduled the tow anyway. (we had to keep our options open…) The service manager at the dealership said he couldn’t find anyone who could bring us the part so we (Will) decided to be creative and rig it a little so he could drive the truck a few miles down the road to pick up the part. Our mechanic suggested a wire coat hanger, which I never use because I despise them! We actually had a few from shirts I picked up at the dry cleaner recently. Ok, I had no idea what he was going to do with that, but I knew he had a plan…he always does. Aaaaaand, there it is, my friends. My husband had MacGyver-d our truck! This probably doesn’t surprise our friends who know Will pretty well, but that man never ceases to amaze me. 😉 He left Starla and me waiting in the RV while he went to the dealership with the puppies. It took him about an hour to rig the part and AAA was still nowhere to be found. He called to cancel the tow and was told they hadn’t left yet and the service call wasn’t even in their system!! Will told them, “nevermind”…figures. Ohhhhh….and it was raining!
After a 3 hour delay we were on the road again (great, now the song is stuck…ha!) but it was getting late so we canceled our reservation we had in Fort Worth and had to find another place to stay for the night. We reserved a spot a few miles north of Waco, which is only a couple of hours from home and it was decent. Of course we didn’t really have time to enjoy the amenities because we were only there for a night and we really wanted to get home the next day.
Oh, we did stop to see the Sam Houston statue off of I-45. It’s a lot bigger than it seems from the freeway. 😉
So, there you have it…our very eventful trip home…it’s never boring for the Nicholsons!!!
And just for fun…how cute is this? Our sleepy puppies! Such difficult lives they have! 😉
Until next time, my friends…