Arrive in Tennessee

So the trip from Texas to Tennessee could look like a Chevy Chase vacation movie.
We wanted to leave Texas by 10 AM Monday but were a little late. It was noon before we hit the highway.
We drove to Granbery, TX where we visited our friends Dave and Gene Huett, friends we had not seen for some 30 years. We became friends while living in an appartment in LA back in 1974. YES that long ago!
It was awesome to see them. As Dave said they haven't changed abit. hahaha
We went out on Lake Granbery which was great. Lovely homes along the lake. It was nice just relaxing and seeing a new part of Texas for us. We then went out to eat at Babe's, family style and awesome. I am already looking forward to when we can go back there. Dave was correct they had not changed. Same lovely people we knew back in the good ole days.
We left Tuesday morning and headed toward Tennessee. It was a good trip.......for awhile. Outside Granbery we pulled the RV through a Sonic drive thru. Glad I saw the over hang at the window. I would have hit it big time if I tried to pull next to the window. One problem avoided.
We moved on and things were going well. I followed the procedures for towing my Escape. We went along, went through Tesarcanna(sp?), moved along to Little Rock. I would love to have gotten farther but the book says to limit speed to 65 when towing the Escape. I set the cruise control so we were running 63 at the max. In Little Rock we were tired and found a state park, along a river and spent the night. Got there just in time and got a great picture of sunset over the river. I hope I remember to put it in here after I get done with our story.
We got up after a great night sleep and connected the Escape to our rv and hit the road. We once again drove no faster than 63 mph and continued our journey. We got to Jackson Tennessee and pulled into a truck stop to get fuel. This stop had a huge truck stop and a place for autos. I didn't see any green hoses that would represent diesel so I went to the truck side. I pulled into an island after a truck exited only to find that the hose had a big head on it that won't fit in the rv. I was now stuck waiting for the truck to move out of the way after he took care of his bill. So I was waiting and decided to start the Ford to let it run for 5 minutes according to the book. I opened the car door and it was exceedingly hot inside. It was hot outside but not that hot. I turned the key and nothing. All gages were working and everything looked fine but the starter never even ticked. I tried several times and finally thought maybe something happened that would require the thing to be put into park again. so big mistake, I put it into park. It did do that.
Now it would not start and hitting the break would not allow me to take it out of park. I was stuck. The truck in front of me left and here I sat blocking one of about 20 islands. I talked with the cashier and informed her that I was blocking the island and she got someone to place a trash can behind the car so no more trucks would line up behind me. I called AAA and they sent a driver to pickup the Ford. The driver tried several tricks to fake out or correct the problem but no luck. He then informed me I would have to sign a waiver absolving him of any damage to the transmission pulling it up on the tow truck. Option 2 was for him to disconnect the linkage and put the transmission into neutral. Then I could take the car to the dealer. I chose option 2 and he snapped the linkage off, in his hand, broke it. He did get it into neutral and told me where the dealership was so I headed for the dealer. The dealer listened to my sad song and had me pull the car to the back of the lot. I didn't blame them, it was kind of ugly with tranny fluid all over the back of the car. I can't help but wonder how many people I splatted their winshield with trany fluid? I digress... The tech connected to my Ford and said yep, over heat and the rain sensor is triggered which was stopping the car from starting. What the heck is a rain sensor? I thought it but didn't ask. It was not important at the moment. So, when can I have it back? Response, we can take a look at it next week sometime. We are really backed up? Again I wonder, how many flat tow cars they had to fix? No, again I didn't ask. I said so what is my options. They said I could leave it and hang around for a week in Western Tennessee, or just tow the car as is to our destination and fix it there. I asked the obvious question, can it cause more damage, they said no, it is toast already. I asked if it could possibly lock up and they didn't think so. I forgot to ask the important question which I thought up after getting back on the road. COULD IT CATCH FIRE? No, it didn't catch fire but it would be a nice touch for the movie edition. Anyway, I head up the highway, stopping every once in awhile to see if it is getting hot. In between the stops I am watching the video display to see if the hood is starting to turn colors other than the color of the paint. At one point I see images in the hood that distress me a bit. I have Linda take a look to see if she is seeing what I see. We continue to watch while driving and I am figuring out how quickly I can disconnect from the rv should a fire break out. We figured out it was about sunset and we were seeing a reflection of the sky in the hood with clouds, that kind of looked like melting paint. After all that stress we are now driving in the dark and getting tired. I think maby driving at night in cooler temps would help. We find a rest area and whip into the lanes next to the big rigs and set the phone timer to wake us in two hours. There are limits that they want to you hang out. Seems I was the only one following that rule. We wake up and hit the road. next issue begins for the day. The RV has no power. Every little hill I hit the thing slows down to next to nothing and I have to manualy shift the trany to lower gears and I find I am doing 30 in a 70 mph zone. Not good, especially in the dark. I drive this way as stress is building waiting for some truck to give us a boost in the rear accidentally. I start using the emergency flasher and half the shoulder for good measure. Finally i am down to half a tank of fuel so I pull off and get some fuel. I was thinking maybe I got some bad fuel. I fill up and crank up and all was well, we start traveling again and the rv is halling up hills like it is nothing. I was watching for another rest stop as my eyes were starting to cross. When a rain storm hits. I was happy about this because I was still worried that the Ford would overheat and catch fire. Unfortunately the rv started it's work stopage mode on the smallest of hills. We were making great strides as we were now approaching Knoxville. We are getting within smelling distance of our destination. Now we are past Knoxville and my stress level is going up as the hills are getting longer and I am really slowing down. I start thinking I am headed toward mountains, so these hills are probably going to get longer and higher. I finally pull off to get more fuel as I have burned another half tank. Thinking maybe I need to get more fuel to help get rid of bad.
This time when I start the rv it starts a beeping code. 15 beeps, and there is an error code on the console. So I pull away from the fuel island to a safe stoping place in the parking lot and decide I need to find out what is happening. I finally get out the book like all good computer geeks. It took 10 minutes to find the book. Amazing how many places you can hide things you don't expect to use. I start searching through the book for error codes and nothing exist. Since the trany wasn't shifting by itself I look up transmission and can't find it mentioned, except in some wierd place and it half way suggest the transmission is in distressed mode. This is the only place in the book I can find the word transmission. In frustration I find a flashlight and pop the hood.
Guess what? I can't find a dip stick for the transmission. Ok now I know I am really tired. I shut the hood and walk around the rv a few times expecting to open it again and find the dip stick.
As luck would have it, it still wasn't there. Ok this isn't fun anymore. Here we sit with a broken down rv and tow car. We are really starting to get into a fun mode now. I have already called AAA once today and now I have the same vehicle broken down and the rv. While opening the vehicle book for the rv, I found this wonderful card saying call this number if you need roadside assistance. Guess what I did? Yep, I called. We went thru 15 minutes trying to communicate the rv vin number. Once we got that figured out, he says WHERE ARE YOU? I only have one reply "somewhere other than where I wanted to be". So I remember Arizona and the tom tom has coordinates where I am. I give him my coords. He starts figuring out where we are, while I go into the station and ask what exit are we at off 40. I get back to the rv and he says you are at a Pilot station with a restaureant next door, I confirmed and then told him what exit we were located at. He checks and says we have a dealer two miles away from you. He offers to send a tow to pick us up and take us to their impound lot as the dealer has no night drop, or if we stay there he would have them pick us up at 7:30 and take us directly to the dealer. I opted for 7:30 after getting permission to stay the rest of the night. It was already 3:30 or 4:00 AM. We kick back and sleep. Next morning while waiting I order breakfast at the restaurant and before we get the food, the tow is here. We have time to eat as he has to pull the drive shaft of the rv before he can tow it. Food wasn't so good, first time I had pancakes I could not cut with a fork. anyway he has to call for a second tow truck for the Ford. I was informed that Dodge would not cover that vehicle. I am thinking maybe I should call Ford road service but I don't want to get into the positon that the rv is one place and the car in another. The second tow driver shows up, I told him what had happened and that I was going to pay for this tow. I figured should not be too bad for only a couple miles away dealer. We finally get all the vehicles hooked to tow trucks and Linda and Lizzie ride in one and I the other.
We get to the dealer and sitting outside the service depart is a small truck which has the same chasis that the rv. I figure this is a good sign. They say, we don't service that chasis. Not only do they not do it but neither does any of the other dealers within a few miles. He says the only dealer who can work on this vehicle is in Knoxville, some 60+ miles away. WOOPS, I am going to have to pay for the Ford to be towed to Knoxville, this could get expensive at $5 per mile. The tow drivers get on the phone to their boss and Dodge to get permission to tow to a new destination. The driver with the Ford was a kick, he was what you would classify as a colorful individual. He starts ripping Dodge for the troubles I am having and convinces them to pay for the Ford tow. So we start our journey back where we were the night before. I asked the Dodge dealer if he knew if there were a Ford dealer close to the Dodge dealer in Knoxville, surprise, it is across the street. Ok enough playing around. Drop the RV at Dodge and drop the Ford a Ford and lets get this done. The Dodge dealer jumped on the RV, and made it a hot priority. While I was at Ford dropping the car, Dodge took the rv, Linda, Lizzie and all in and got started.
Ford on the other hand said we can't get to it for a week. SOUND FAMILIAR? This time I am not keeping it. I am only about 100 miles from my destination so I can handle that trip to pick it up.
In a couple of hours the RV is fixed. Seems a sensor assembly associated with the turbo boost fell apart and the tube from the turbo boost fell off. We finally can hit the highway and it takes us about 30 minutes to get back to where we had broken down. This time I can drive 70 mph so we head to the RV park in Blountville, TN. Finally we are at the destination location. We get a really nice spot for the month, backed in around trees blocking out the majority of the sun's heat, which is good in a black rv.
Our friend stops by after work to welcome us and he has Teddy his toy poodle with him, so Lizzie has a new friend. After getting caught up on the journey, we go to his house to pickup the Chrysler van. It was been sitting in his yard since Late January when we shipped it to him from Sac. You remember that story where Collin took my car because it did not get picked up when expected. Well the car is now back in our posession. It had low tires, dead battery and a few ants looking for a new home. We took care of the ill's of this car. Add a tank of gas and it is ready to go until I run the wipers and washer. Wipers now on the list of got to have items.
We had a nice breakfast this morning and dinner today with our friends. Great evening catching up on old times.
The Ford, no word yet.