Answer: the coach shimmies, smell of rubber burning, brake peddle gets spongy and the ABS light blinks on/off.
Yep, take it from me that is exactly what happens and thank goodness for Coach-Net.com, Harpeth Towing and Carl Black Chevrolet. But most importantly I'm thankful I had a safe place to pull off at the bottom of a hill in Charlotte, TN. pulling a toad. WHEW!
This was the first opportunity I had to use Coach-net and they were so helpful, friendly and consoling that I just had to give 'em a plug here. Amy and Greg handled my/me complaint with professionalism and caring. I know that's what they are supposed to do but it sure worked for me 'cause let me tell you I was just a little bit stressed.
Then the young man, Sean, from Harpeth Towing was so nice to me. He said he could tell this was my baby and he would take real good care of her. Guess he thought it would make this old woman feel better and it did.
Carl Black left the gate open a couple of hours more than usual to be able to take Somewhere in and park her behind a gate with "puppies" running around. At least that is what Kemp, the service manager, said when I told him that MH contained my life. He assured me it was in good hands.
Here is the story:
I picked up Somewhere in Clarksville to take her to Montgomery Bell State Park for the weekend. My BFFs, Randy and Debbie, were going to stay there to just get away; Debbie to swim/RR and Randy to play golf.
I program Stella so that I could know how to go the back way at 44 miles instead of going around the world at 76 miles by coming back to Nashville. So off I go. No problems. Two lane roads (blue roads) but that is okay, gotta get used to the right? Anyway, a couple of times I pull off to let traffic go around me, see I was in no hurry and I think they were. Each time I would pull over, I'd get out and walk around Somewhere just to check make sure things are ok. No problems, get back in and off I go. The hills along this route are not big hills, at least not compared to Monteagle or Monterey MTN. The next to the last hill I go down Somewhere was not acting right, a woman knows these things, but it was short and I thought maybe I was just imagining. Nope, the last hill confirmed what I had suspected and now what was I going to do? I tried to gear down and I couldn't do that, a 4-way stop was coming up at the intersection and I was just praying I could stop, no one was there except my little mama angel on my shoulder. So yes, I did it! I admit it, I ran the stop sign and went right into the parking lot in front of The Pig Pit, yep, there I was in the middle of Charlotte, TN, do I know how to pick 'em, I was sure to have something to eat because it smelled so good. But about that later.
I got out and there was a horrible smell up front. I put the hood down (on a MH the hood goes down and not up) because I thought maybe it was the transmission since it wouldn't gear down. But that smell! Yuck! So I get back into the coach, start up the generator so get some air conditioning going, man it was hot.
I began calling Coach-net. Amy answers the phone and the first question she asks is "are you in a safe location?" I assured her I was and then we start talking. This was the first time I have used this service since I got Somewhere and it paid for itself this one time, if I never have to use them again. I also know what questions they will ask next time and will have those answers ready so I don't waste so much time, phone minutes, you know. LOL
Amy connected me to Greg who was the RV technician and he asked me questions, I had no clue, like "do you have an I beam?", "how far is it from middle of the front tire to the front of the coach?" I have no clue, should I go measure it? "yes" Anyway, Greg told me he would call a towing company for me and they would take Somewhere back to Nashville to Carl Black Chevrolet.
What? I've got a weekend planned, I don't have time for this. I sure didn't want to disappoint Debbie & Randy and I was looking forward to setting everything up and then kicking back for the evening meal Debbie had prepared, barbecue.
Amy called me back and said it would be 2.5 hours before the tow truck could get to me and I asked her what time the dealership closed, she would call me back. They would send different tow truck that would get to me in 1.5. After 1.5 I called Amy back, no tow truck, she called then called me back, 10 minutes.
While waiting I knew that I was not going to get that barbecue from Debbie that night but hey, Mr Pig Pit was right there in front of me. I had gone over when all this first happened to see if it was okay that I park in their lot. Wasn't their lot, it was the cities and they didn't care if I parked there. Okay, go get some lunch, barbecue sandwich. Yummy! I highly recommend their food. Nice clean place so if you are ever in the neighborhood at Charlotte TN you might want to try out the Pig Pit.
I asked Sean if I should follow. He told me I could but that I would probably want to go ahead of him. It might be tough to watch my "baby" being towed. He had made a few jokes earlier about this was his first time, he had only dropped a few on the interstate but then he got serious and I guess could tell this was really my first time having this done and he assured me she would be fine.
I, in the meantime, called Carl Black Chevrolet to let them know we would be delayed and he assured me they would have a gate open for when we got there. Sure enough at 7:45 we pulled into the dealership and that's where she is today.
Workhorse had a recall on the brakes saying something like this could happen so hopefully the costs will be covered by the recall. I asked them to go over her with a fine tooth comb as we were getting ready to hit the road next month. Oddly enough I had an appointment this coming Monday to do just that, have her checked out. There were a couple of more recalls that I was unsure that the previous owner had them taken care of and they were going to check those. They will check my transmission as I told him it wouldn't gear down for stopping. So I'm hoping everything else checks out okay.
Thank goodness it happened close to home, thank goodness my son answered his phone so he could hear me and give me assurance, thank goodness Debbie and Randy found reservations at Tims Ford State Park and their weekend wasn't a complete wipe out, thank goodness I had decided to leave Sedona at home, thank goodness no one or nothing was damaged, thank goodness Theda was available to hear me cry after it was over. Oh I could keep on going, but you get the drift. I'm thankful!
Later...
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