Pesky Plans Made in Jell-o - Saturday, December 17, 2022

Saturday, December 17, we pulled out of our site at Traveler's World and started our vacation to Phoenix and Las Vegas for the holidays. The weather was cold when we left, but not frigid, and it was a gorgeous sunny day. 

I was driving on I-10 east of Sonora when I heard a loud pop and the truck jerked. It felt a lot like the CAC tube getting a hole in it. I immediately pulled to the side of the freeway. Bob looked under the hood and saw fresh raw fluid on top of the engine. We're hoping it didn't throw a rod. Since we are not mechanical, we have no idea what is wrong.

CoachNet towed us to a "safe location," so we are at an RV park in Sonora for the foreseeable future. 

The tow truck driver (Norbert) knows a big truck diesel mechanic in Ozona who is going to look at Norbert's tow truck either this evening or tomorrow morning. Norbert will ask the diesel mechanic if he can take a look at our truck to at least give us an idea of what might be wrong. The closest Ford diesel mechanic is at a dealership in San Angelo 72 miles north of us.

We are stuck here until we find out more information. CoachNet will tow our truck to the nearest reputable diesel mechanic. The problem is, CoachNet won't be able to find that out until Monday morning when the places open for business. 

Bob talked to CoachNet and described our problem. They took a guess that it could be the fuel pump. 

Elite RV Park is basically a paved, cramped campground run by the Super 8 Motel across the street. (You check in at the motel desk.) The sites have full hook-ups and it's right off the freeway and next to a Dairy Queen (what more could you want?). It will serve its purpose for however long we need it.

The check-in desk at the 
Super 8 Motel.

When I called to find out availability in the park, the clerk said it's first-come, first-served. There are two very long sites in the park, but she explained to me that they are NOT pull-throughs. I asked if it would be possible for our tow truck driver to pull through to the front site and leave the rear site empty. At first she said, "No. The owners don't allow that."

I persisted and told her we would only take one site of the two, we just needed to be able to have the tow truck pull us through the site. The tow truck could not back us up because of the tightness of the park layout and how long we were when attached to the tow truck. 

After quite a bit of back-and-forth over the phone, the clerk said we could pull through but we couldn't have any part of our RV over the line for the other site. If we were over the dividing line, we would be charged for two sites. She also told me she couldn't guarantee one of those two long sites would be available by the time we got there. That was good enough for me. We took our chances. Thankfully, when we arrived an hour later, one of the two long sites was available.

Our site. 

In the photo below, you can see how close the sites are. Our dining room table window had a view directly into our neighbor's dining room window. We leave our curtains closed! 

Too close for comfort.

Our trip is delayed until further notice. So, since we don't have a working truck, we will be exploring Sonora on foot tomorrow. I see Dairy Queen in our future. LOL.

I will update the blog as the mystery unfolds. TravelBug out.