Tears Of Frustration Followed By Tears Of Joy

When I left you last, I was telling you the story of our time in Massachusetts.  Hard to believe that was in July and it's almost the end of the year!  So much has happened to us.  Some I'd rather forget...

Tears Of Frustration

We had some difficult truck issues.  Difficult to get a proper diagnosis.  Difficult on the wallet.  Difficult on the travel schedule.  Rainier decided he was done running.  We sat on the side of the freeway waiting for two tow trucks.  One for Rainier.  And one for Raven. 

Rainier is loading while Raven's truck waits behind her

Raven getting hitched up

Ron rode in the lead truck with Raven.  Rufus and I were in the following truck with Rainier.  The hazard lights were flashing the entire way down the freeway.  I can not tell you how unnerving that drive was!

The diagnosis was that we needed two new batteries.  NOPE...  The next driving day we made it less than 70 miles before we got the same engine codes.  To our benefit there was a truck pull-off along the freeway.  This time we decided to call a mobile mechanic.

 

We had plenty of time while waiting for them to arrive.  Compared to sitting on the side of the freeway, we had it much better this time around.  Our house was in tow again so we had the comforts of a toilet and a fridge.  We set up our canopy, I made us some lunch and we ate in the shade while playing a game of Spicy Farkel.

The diagnosis this time was that we needed new fuel filters.  NOPE...  The owner of the mobile mechanic business followed us on the freeway for a short distance before the codes came up again.  We learned that the codes pop up under load while going uphill.  At least we knew what wasn't the issue!  And we knew we could drive without towing.  We parked Raven at a nearby campground, Camp-A-While.  The owners were quite understanding of our situation putting us in a site that would be vacant for three days, just in case.  We only needed it for two days. 

we scored a nice pull through site among the tall trees :-)

By this time we were near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Rainier had an appointment the following day at Hoffman Ford so off we went.  Rainier was in the shop for the entire day.  Mechanics took a while to figure it out but came to the conclusion that we needed a new inner cooler tube.  Thankfully Ron was able to get a close up look at the part and speak with the mechanic.  We kept our fingers crossed that the third time would be the charm.  This time the diagnosis was SPOT ON!  Rainier proved himself dependable the remainder of our trip :-))

Tears Of Joy

Time to go see Emmett!  YIPPEE!!

We booked seven nights at Cherry Hill RV Park so we could spend as much time as possible with Emmett (and his folks) :-))

and he also likes Opa's truck

Emmett likes Oma's cooking

        

but he LOVES slides :-)

and playing with Opa

One evening we piled into Jessica's car and went grocery shopping at Aldi's.  

I was quite happy sharing the back seat with Emmett!

My brother and sister in law live in Maryland.  When Jessica first moved out there, right after high school, she stayed at their house until she was able to afford her own place.  Last month we weren't in town long enough so I was very glad to be able to get the whole gang together for a BBQ!

my big brother, Rob, and me

After our family time in Maryland, it was time to head back to North Carolina.  We had more work lined up and we also wanted to see Ron's folks again.