Post by Ken K on Sept 20, 2010 9:54:05 GMT -5
Well, as they say, “It’s all over now”!
It turned out to be another epic trip. Tons of fun and for my group, tons of problems. But with the problems came tons of laughter which helped to smooth it all out.
We started out about 2am. on Friday morning loading up our last minute stuff and getting on the road from Allen’s house in the dark.
We got rolling about 2:30am and the first problem came in the form of a major traffic jam around 8am. Turns out a bad accident had I40 closed….not just slowed down, CLOSED! The only way around it was through the local streets of some little town that did not allow truck traffic! So we were forced to sit it out on the side of the off ramp with the big rigs for 3 solid hours! It was also around this time that we discovered the generator in the motorhome would not stay running. So while we sat on the side of the road waiting, we messed with trying to get it going. Turns out it had no coolant in the reservoir which would have been an easy fix except for the fact that it would pour out the bottom as fast as we poured it in the top!. Oh well, luckily it was kind of overcast and cool out so with the fans on to move air around and the inverter to run essential electronics we were still good to go!
After we finally got going again we had a pretty uneventful ride until somewhere in the cornfields of Kansas. I had just woke up from a short nap sometime around 1am and took the wheel back from Lonnie when the truck lost power climbing a long steep grade. We pulled to the side and checked things out but couldn’t find anything to fix so we limped up the interstate to the next exit that luckily for us had a small truck stop. After unsuccessful attempts at diagnosing the problem, I called Coachnet Roadside assistance and they told me that the closest International dealer was 23 miles behind us in Topeka, KS. Since it was the middle of the night, they arranged for us to be towed there in the morning once they could get in touch with someone at the dealer. So we parked for the night, drank a few cold ones and laid down for some rest about 3am.
Next morning had us up around 6am. Since the dealer was only 23 miles away we decided that it would be much faster if we could limp the truck and trailer up there instead of waiting for the wrecker and all the associated junk that goes along with towing a rig this size, so off we went up the interstate. Much to our amazement, the truck ran fine! No issues at all. It had sat idling all night while we slept and the only thing we could figure was that something had cooled down and fixed itself. We made it to the dealer without issue to find that they were not open on Saturdays so having them check it out was not an option. What should we do? Screw it….let’s keep going!
So off down the road we went. Disaster avoided….or so we thought!
I guess it was sometime around 4pm when it happened the second time. Truck just lost power and wouldn’t go. I had an extra fuel filter in the truck so we changed it on the side of the road but that didn’t help. We limped off the interstate into the Colorado Welcome center, Burlington CO. which would be our home for the next six hours!
This time something was different. The engine was running very rough, and we knew something was broke. This wasn’t going to be an easy fix and just letting it cool off wasn’t having any effect. On the phone with Coachnet again! The closest dealer they could find that would take the truck was in Aurora, CO, just outside of Denver. It was about 170 miles away, and in the opposite direction of where we were headed. Another complicating factor was that it was now close to 5pm on Saturday afternoon. No one was going to even look at the truck until sometime on Monday. Figuring that they would most likely have to order parts we were looking at spending most of the week camped in the International dealers parking lot! NOT AN OPTION! We needed a new plan! Enter “Mom’s Attic!”
Out came the computers and cell phones. We needed a rental car that could pull the loaded trailer which we had estimated to weigh about 11,000 lbs.… Not something that most car rental companies have many of. Luckily it turned out that there is a U-Haul rental place right around the corner from where we broke down. They had a truck they said could pull the trailer so we limped the motorhome over there and this is what we found.
Mom’s Attic to the Rescue!
Mom’s Attic
Mom at the wheel!
Now enter “The Voice of Reason”!
VoR: “Hey guys, this thing only has a 2” ball on it and its welded in place. We need a 2 5/16” to pull this trailer.”
Us: “Hmmm, that could be a problem. How about we rent the bigger one and just load the stuff in the back?”
VoR: “That might work, but we don’t have any loading ramps.”
Us: “No problem, we’ll improvise with some good ‘ol Redneck engineering.”
VoR: “OK, that will work but where are we going to fit the people? It only has enough room for about 2 ½ adults in the cab and there are four of us. “
Us: “Well, a couple of us will just ride in the back.”
VoR: “Do you really think that’s a good idea? There are 800lb atv’s bouncing around back there and no good way to tie them down.”
Us: “Good point. Let’s wedge some fold up camp chairs in-between the ATV’s. That will hold them in place plus give us I nice place to sit.”
VoR: “I don’t think this is a good idea. What about the sign’s all over the truck saying that all passengers must ride it the cab to avoid serious injury or death?”
Us: “Well, that doesn’t apply to us. We’ll just wear our helmets.”
VoR: “Uh….Ok, good idea. Let’s roll!”
So after waiting another few hours for the wrecker to come haul the RV and Trailer off to Denver, we hoped in and headed off. Only about 250 miles to go.
Joe and I took the first shift in the back of Mom’s Attic while Lonnie drove and Allen navigated. We made it to Colorado Springs and the Super Wal-Mart about 1am. Have you ever seen the Mutants that hang out around Wal-Mart in the middle of the night? Well, we fit right in. Even they thought we were a bit weird when we all piled out of Mom’s Attic to do our shopping!
After stocking up on supplies for the week we were back at it. Joe and I moved up to the cab and Allen took the next shift in the back.
VoR: “Hey Allen. You sure you want to do that? We have to go over Cottonwood Pass. It’s about 14 miles of un-paved, washboard dirt road winding up and over the mountain. Might get a little rough back there.
Allen: “No worries, I’ll just wrap myself in this old moving blanket we have back here. I’ll be fine”
VoR: “OK, if you say so. Let’s Roll!”
Off we went into the night. All I can say is Cottonwood Pass was “Interesting” especially in a 24 foot U-Haul truck, in the middle of the night, after being awake for 3 days straight! There was a little screaming, yelling and snoring, but we finally made it. (and although bumped, bruised and ½ frozen to death, Allen made it too!)
We pulled into the Taylor Park Trading Post about 5:30AM Sunday morning. 51 hours after we left!
I had called the Trading Post while we were renting the truck to see if they had any cabins open. I didn’t have a lot of hope since the place books up a year in advance. All the luck was in our favor though and it turns out we got the cabin that Rory had reserved! Sweet! Now we don’t have to sleep in the back of Mom’s Attic!
Home sweet home for the next week.
Well, we rode for the rest of the week. I’ll stop and take a breath here and let some of the others chime in. It is safe to say thought that if you don’t like to ride rocks, you better stay away from Colorado!
Some of the highlights for me were riding into Aspen on the ATV’s, seeing (and riding) down the ski slopes and the Upper Italian Creek trail.
I’ve got to go do some work now, but will add some more to the report later!
It turned out to be another epic trip. Tons of fun and for my group, tons of problems. But with the problems came tons of laughter which helped to smooth it all out.
We started out about 2am. on Friday morning loading up our last minute stuff and getting on the road from Allen’s house in the dark.
We got rolling about 2:30am and the first problem came in the form of a major traffic jam around 8am. Turns out a bad accident had I40 closed….not just slowed down, CLOSED! The only way around it was through the local streets of some little town that did not allow truck traffic! So we were forced to sit it out on the side of the off ramp with the big rigs for 3 solid hours! It was also around this time that we discovered the generator in the motorhome would not stay running. So while we sat on the side of the road waiting, we messed with trying to get it going. Turns out it had no coolant in the reservoir which would have been an easy fix except for the fact that it would pour out the bottom as fast as we poured it in the top!. Oh well, luckily it was kind of overcast and cool out so with the fans on to move air around and the inverter to run essential electronics we were still good to go!
After we finally got going again we had a pretty uneventful ride until somewhere in the cornfields of Kansas. I had just woke up from a short nap sometime around 1am and took the wheel back from Lonnie when the truck lost power climbing a long steep grade. We pulled to the side and checked things out but couldn’t find anything to fix so we limped up the interstate to the next exit that luckily for us had a small truck stop. After unsuccessful attempts at diagnosing the problem, I called Coachnet Roadside assistance and they told me that the closest International dealer was 23 miles behind us in Topeka, KS. Since it was the middle of the night, they arranged for us to be towed there in the morning once they could get in touch with someone at the dealer. So we parked for the night, drank a few cold ones and laid down for some rest about 3am.
Next morning had us up around 6am. Since the dealer was only 23 miles away we decided that it would be much faster if we could limp the truck and trailer up there instead of waiting for the wrecker and all the associated junk that goes along with towing a rig this size, so off we went up the interstate. Much to our amazement, the truck ran fine! No issues at all. It had sat idling all night while we slept and the only thing we could figure was that something had cooled down and fixed itself. We made it to the dealer without issue to find that they were not open on Saturdays so having them check it out was not an option. What should we do? Screw it….let’s keep going!
So off down the road we went. Disaster avoided….or so we thought!
I guess it was sometime around 4pm when it happened the second time. Truck just lost power and wouldn’t go. I had an extra fuel filter in the truck so we changed it on the side of the road but that didn’t help. We limped off the interstate into the Colorado Welcome center, Burlington CO. which would be our home for the next six hours!
This time something was different. The engine was running very rough, and we knew something was broke. This wasn’t going to be an easy fix and just letting it cool off wasn’t having any effect. On the phone with Coachnet again! The closest dealer they could find that would take the truck was in Aurora, CO, just outside of Denver. It was about 170 miles away, and in the opposite direction of where we were headed. Another complicating factor was that it was now close to 5pm on Saturday afternoon. No one was going to even look at the truck until sometime on Monday. Figuring that they would most likely have to order parts we were looking at spending most of the week camped in the International dealers parking lot! NOT AN OPTION! We needed a new plan! Enter “Mom’s Attic!”
Out came the computers and cell phones. We needed a rental car that could pull the loaded trailer which we had estimated to weigh about 11,000 lbs.… Not something that most car rental companies have many of. Luckily it turned out that there is a U-Haul rental place right around the corner from where we broke down. They had a truck they said could pull the trailer so we limped the motorhome over there and this is what we found.
Mom’s Attic to the Rescue!
Mom’s Attic
Mom at the wheel!
Now enter “The Voice of Reason”!
VoR: “Hey guys, this thing only has a 2” ball on it and its welded in place. We need a 2 5/16” to pull this trailer.”
Us: “Hmmm, that could be a problem. How about we rent the bigger one and just load the stuff in the back?”
VoR: “That might work, but we don’t have any loading ramps.”
Us: “No problem, we’ll improvise with some good ‘ol Redneck engineering.”
VoR: “OK, that will work but where are we going to fit the people? It only has enough room for about 2 ½ adults in the cab and there are four of us. “
Us: “Well, a couple of us will just ride in the back.”
VoR: “Do you really think that’s a good idea? There are 800lb atv’s bouncing around back there and no good way to tie them down.”
Us: “Good point. Let’s wedge some fold up camp chairs in-between the ATV’s. That will hold them in place plus give us I nice place to sit.”
VoR: “I don’t think this is a good idea. What about the sign’s all over the truck saying that all passengers must ride it the cab to avoid serious injury or death?”
Us: “Well, that doesn’t apply to us. We’ll just wear our helmets.”
VoR: “Uh….Ok, good idea. Let’s roll!”
So after waiting another few hours for the wrecker to come haul the RV and Trailer off to Denver, we hoped in and headed off. Only about 250 miles to go.
Joe and I took the first shift in the back of Mom’s Attic while Lonnie drove and Allen navigated. We made it to Colorado Springs and the Super Wal-Mart about 1am. Have you ever seen the Mutants that hang out around Wal-Mart in the middle of the night? Well, we fit right in. Even they thought we were a bit weird when we all piled out of Mom’s Attic to do our shopping!
After stocking up on supplies for the week we were back at it. Joe and I moved up to the cab and Allen took the next shift in the back.
VoR: “Hey Allen. You sure you want to do that? We have to go over Cottonwood Pass. It’s about 14 miles of un-paved, washboard dirt road winding up and over the mountain. Might get a little rough back there.
Allen: “No worries, I’ll just wrap myself in this old moving blanket we have back here. I’ll be fine”
VoR: “OK, if you say so. Let’s Roll!”
Off we went into the night. All I can say is Cottonwood Pass was “Interesting” especially in a 24 foot U-Haul truck, in the middle of the night, after being awake for 3 days straight! There was a little screaming, yelling and snoring, but we finally made it. (and although bumped, bruised and ½ frozen to death, Allen made it too!)
We pulled into the Taylor Park Trading Post about 5:30AM Sunday morning. 51 hours after we left!
I had called the Trading Post while we were renting the truck to see if they had any cabins open. I didn’t have a lot of hope since the place books up a year in advance. All the luck was in our favor though and it turns out we got the cabin that Rory had reserved! Sweet! Now we don’t have to sleep in the back of Mom’s Attic!
Home sweet home for the next week.
Well, we rode for the rest of the week. I’ll stop and take a breath here and let some of the others chime in. It is safe to say thought that if you don’t like to ride rocks, you better stay away from Colorado!
Some of the highlights for me were riding into Aspen on the ATV’s, seeing (and riding) down the ski slopes and the Upper Italian Creek trail.
I’ve got to go do some work now, but will add some more to the report later!
Guess I'm gonna have to learn to slow down on those rocks. I knew the seat was hitting hard but not that hard. 
