Trip report (long)

[krobins2@twcny.rr.com (Kenneth & Georgianna Robinson)]

----I wish I could run into nice people like that in my travels.Hats off to
you Rick for keeping a level head during all of this.Ken R.- Original
Message -----
From: "Rick Alexander" <ralexander03@snet.net>
To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>; <wasser-werks@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 12:01 AM
Subject: Trip report (long)


> If the story of our great adventure is not your cup of tea then delete
now.
>
> This trip must have been too well planned (Murphy and all). In hind sight
I
> should have just said it's going to take a week and gone by myself. I
drove
> the first 5 hours, Lyman drove the next 5 hours and Merrilee was into her
> shift by a couple of hours at 1:30 Friday morning. That's when it went
> South, literally. Lyman was navigating and I was sleeping in the bed of
the
> truck. It was on I 71 Westbound in a construction zone where they were
> working on the slow lane and the breakdown lane. There were Armco barriers
> up keeping the two lanes of traffic very close to the side of the pavement
> towards the median (50' wide and 6' deep). In actual fact there was only
> about 4" from the line to the edge of the pavement which dropped off
sharply
> for three inches or so. Next to this drop off there was from six to eight
> inches of hard gravel then newly placed top soil and hay. It had rained
all
> day so rather than top soil this was really mud, closer to slime actually.
> Some of you know what happened next and the rest of you can probably make
a
> very good guess but here it is. The left tires fell off of the pavement
onto
> the gravel. this upset the trailer and attempts to get the rig back on the
> road way simply made the trailer swing worse until it eventually took out
> the drivers side of the Cadillac that was in the slow lane. Eventually the
> front tire of the truck went into the six inch deep new top soil (mud).
This
> of course pulled the truck into the median. The truck proceeded sideways
> down into the median with the trailer at right angles following in its
> normal course. Apparently this was the attitude of things down into the
> bottom of the median where we lost our fuel tank and then up the other
side.
> This is where the tractor trailer comes into play. The tractor trailer was
> East bound in the fast lane probably doing 80 or so. Fortunately for all,
> the East bound road side was in a very similar condition to the one we had
> just left. When our truck hit the side of the road it kept us out of the
> path of the big truck and whipped us around to end up facing East with the
> trailer seriously jackknifed. I'm sure the truck driver must have pulled
off
> at the next exit to check his load. Two cruisers, two fire trucks, an
> ambulance, and two wreckers arrived to investigate. We were towed to a
motel
> where the hook driver left us with a dolly, Mikes car and our bags. There
> wasn't anything to be done till the morning so we tried sleeping. At 7:00
I
> got up and starting making the insurance calls. It was about 10:30 when
> Merrilee and Lyman got up and I ran out of people to call. At 2:00 in the
> afternoon we had the truck back and were on the road again. Not too bad,
we
> had only lost 12 and a half hours. Lyman was simply too shaken up to
> continue so Ron 'Cheapass' Pieper made some calls and had arranged for
> Lyman's transport back home by the time we had reached Columbus, OH.
Lyman,
> your everything, thanks for trying. With Lyman safely on his way home we
> decided that there was no decision to be made. We simply had to press on.
We
> could actually have made it back home for work on Monday with a few longer
> days and shortening up some stops along the way. Too much planning again.
It
> turned out that Merrilee could not muster up the nerve necessary to get
back
> in the saddle again. So the remainder of the trip was driven by me which
> made overnight stops and extended fuel stop necessary. We were also
hindered
> by leaking fuel. It turns out that we had left some very important gaskets
> on that median in central Ohio. I could only put 15 gallons in at a time
or
> spill fuel until there was only 15 gallons left. This meant that we were
> forced to three times as many fuel stops and that is a lot of time. We
> missed Daun at his spread but did manage to pick up a pristine dash for
> Rolling Roc. Thanks Daun, sorry we missed you but getting going was really
> important right then. We pushed on to Ron 'Cheapass' Piepers where we
washed
> some of the many pounds of mud out of Mikes car. Things really were
filthy.
> Brian 'Big Mac' McGarvey's transmission was put in the garage and a clean
> new one was put in the truck for ATS Patrick Bureau. Ron, sorry for the
mess
> we left in the street in front of your house. I hope the fuel oil washes
> away before the neighbors get upset. And send our thanks to Amanda for
> letting us clean up in the house and leave her with a mess there too. Next
> stop, Mike VanAmburgh in Sedalia, MO to deliver the some what rounded off
> car. Mike, that was mighty magnanimous of you to give us such a warm
welcome
> after we customized your car. Mike arranged to get some welding done to
the
> trailer and he and Kim took us out for breakfast. Let me know when that
> adjuster gets in touch with you and what he has to say. Somewhere along
here
> Allyn Malventano and Brian 'Big Mac' McGarvey called us just to check in
and
> see if we were ok. Those calls sure did lighten up my mood. It's nice when
> you can see that people do care. Thanks guys. Next stop, Austin... wait a
> minute, that's ATS Patrick Bureau on the phone. He recommends that we come
> to Dallas to stay with Brian Wagner and proceed to Austin in the morning.
> Really good thinking! We certainly weren't thinking very well by this
time.
> We did go to Dallas, delivered the re-built tranny to Patrick and
proceeded
> to down some suds with Brian, Kim and Patrick. After the VW chat we had a
> great nights sleep and headed out bright and early in the morning. Thank
> you, that was right on time. We arrived at Ryan Schuermans just about an
> hour before he had to go to work. We did our transaction and loaded up.
> Suzanne fixed us a wonderful meal. Lots of Southern breakfast specialties
> that we hadn't ever had the opportunity to try before and it was very
good.
> Suzanne, you can come and cook for us anytime. Thank you. Ryan, the car is
> just as you had represented it to me. I have found no surprises yet.
> Merrilee even said she liked the car (phew!). When I reported this to our
20
> year old daughter Carrie she said, "You know Mom is going to want to drive
> it don't you? You are so screwed!". The rest of our trip was uneventful.
We
> got to see lots of this country of ours that we hadn't seen before and too
> damned many fuel pumps.
>
> Here it is late Wednesday night and I still haven't had a tantrum over
this.
> Damned I must be getting old - there was a day... Merrilee and I
celebrated
> our thirtieth wedding anniversary on the road and I have come to the
> realization that in all those years this is her first wreck. I guess with
> that kind of record the odds were stacked against her. Or looking at it
> another way, I'm good to go for the next thirty.
>
> What a great list, what wonderful people, if any of you are ever anywhere
> near New England I expect, no demand, an opportunity to return the favors.
>
> By the way, the entire list is welcome to call upon me while traveling in
my
> corner of the world. Just not all at once ok?
>
> THANK YOU!
>
> Rick Alexander
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l