Making time to Tullahoma (Or not!)

Tullahoma, TN – April 6 - 7, 2014

We left Blue Ridge and pointed towards Tennessee. We were on track for a 4 PM arrival at Roger and Connie’s.

But first, there’s a Camping World just outside of Chattanooga that needs some of our money. On our way to Gaffney, SC we had a mishap caused by rough roads and a malfunctioning tire pressure alarm. We hit a huge pothole on I-26 that apparently popped open one of the cargo doors. This we didn’t discover until the tire pressure alarm went off, requiring us to find a place to pull into, which necessitated a right hand turn which caused the cargo door to swing open dumping out a container of precious parts. None of this was known to us until I was walking around the motorhome home checking things out and discovered the electric compartment door was ajar.

A quick inspection revealed the missing box of goodies. I looked over at the turnoff we had just driven through and saw the box of parts scattered all over the road. I hurried over and retrieved all the missing goodies, even those that had been run over by others using the same turnoff.

Fortunately, everything was salvageable except for the “Water Thief” connection. This valuable device can be used to hook up a water hose when you run up against one of those faucets that either has no threads, or threads that don’t fit a hose end.

But Camping World has a replacement, and as I said, they need some of our money.

After goofing off there for about an hour, we had just enough time left to make it to Tullahoma by 4PM. Notice the timing now allows for nothing to go wrong if we are to stay on schedule. This is known as “foreshadowing”.

We made it through Chattanooga and about 10 miles on down the interstate before significant forward progress became a mere dream. We passed a sign truck that simply said “Accident Ahead” with no clue as to whether it was one mile ahead or 20 miles ahead.

At this point, our 4 PM arrival at Roger and Connie’s was starting to look pretty iffy.

After an hour and fifteen minutes of slowly crawling up the road to Monteagle, we called Connie and gave her an update. She and Roger said no problem, get here when you can get here.

About 2 miles before our turnoff, we finally came upon the reason for the backup.

That burned out hulk being hauled on to the back of the wrecker used to be a motorhome. We sure hope the occupants were safe because there sure wasn’t much left. Seeing that definitely sent shivers up and down our spines. That’s one experience we hope we never have.

Roger and Connie greeted us and offered us the driveway to park Big Guy. Soon burgers and hot dogs were on the grill and wine was poured all around to sooth our frazzled nerves. EJ and I really enjoyed meeting Roger and it turns out we shared a lot of opinions on the world at large. We all called it an early evening since they had to go to work the next day.

A package had arrived for us at Connie’s that hopefully would solve the rooftop satellite dish problems that had plagued us since the day we left Orange Park. When we were getting ready to leave for this summer’s adventure, the dish would not stow. Since driving down the road with the dish sticking up in the air was not an option, I had to dismantle it and hope to fix it at a later date.

After some consultations with Winegard (the manufacturer of the roof dish), it was determined the unit was still under warranty and they had a fix for our problem. Connie had graciously agreed to receive the part and hold it for us until we arrived.

After several hours of removing and reinstalling parts the rooftop dish was fully functional again. Now we can continue recording “Top Chef” and “Legendary Motorcars”.

The weather has been nice and cool, but we were surprised when the breeze made the trees’ flower petals look like it was snowing.

That evening, we all got together for a supper of fried chicken, salads and dessert. And some adult beverages too. More conversation followed as we caught up and rehashed old family stories.

The next morning we learned that Roger wasn’t feeling well. We sure hope it wasn’t our company that caused that. Get better Roger!

And lastly, a group photo for those family members that might be reading this blog. Every one is smiling because they were sure I was going to trip between setting up the camera and racing across the room to get in the picture before camera went off.