After living through the earliest snow storm this century in Denver, Pa. (Oct. 29th - 6 inches), we headed out on Nov. 11th for Howe Ind. The first day was cold, in the 40's and in Allegheny Mountains we drove through snow again. Now maybe I'd better tell you how we are traveling.
I'm driving our F-450 pulling our DRV Mobile Suites. Nice and dry, comfy with plenty of heat and heated seat. Because I wanted my Honda Goldwing trike to go to Texas with us, my very loving and courageous wife is driving the trike behind me. So who suffered the cold, snow and wind? Believe me, I heard about it all night!
First night we stayed in the KOA in Washington,Pa. This CG is on the top of a hill over looking I-70. A little cold with the wind blowing at 25 - 50 mph. Early in the morning we woke up to NO furnace. Trailer at 50 degrees. No problem, started the heat pump and got the temp up to 65 before we left.
On down the road entering Ohio, Bonnie's on the CB - "Pull over immediately!". So at the next exit (about 1/4 mile) I pulled over. Seems the bike rack on the rear of the trailer had come apart and my bicycle had been dragging on the road. A nice hi-way patrolmen pulled up behind us, lights going while Bonnie and I horse the bike into the back of the truck. Then he told us to pull on down the ramp, clear of the white line on the right and park there. so I did this and Bonnie road back to the last exit to see if she could find the part of the rack that is missing. Success!! She found it! Pulled down the raod about 4 miles to a rest stop and put the rack back together, put the bike on and off we go! Before leaving the rest stop, I noticed the passenger side front tire on the trailer looked a little low.
Now about an hour and a half later we stopped at a Pilot for lunch and fuel. After lunch I took my air gauge and went to check the tire. Pushing the gauge on on the valve stem - it pushed into the tire and a POW with a rush of air followed. Whoa - what was that? I looked at the next tire and it appears the nut holding the stem in was missing allowing the valve to push in. So I jacked up the side of the trailer with the hydraulic leveling jacks. Next to us was parked a very nice trucker named Ken. Ken saw and heard what happened so he hopped out of his truck. "I don't have anythign to do for the next three hours, I can have that changed for you in no time." Since I have my physical handicap and it would have taken me about an hour, I said "Thanks Ken. I can use all the help I can get". Well he and I had it off and the spare on in about 20 minutes. When I handed him my 3/4 inch torque wrench to tighten the nuts, he said, "Wow, you're really equipped!" Threw the tire in the back of the truck and off we went to spend the night in Wapekoneta, Oh. Hopefully uneventful !!
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