En Route to Coralville Lake...August 28 - Day 2

(Kim's Perspective)

This morning was interesting.  We didn't get to sleep till about 12:30 am and after a few hours of the standard waking/sleeping routine, I jolted awake at 4:01.  The mouthy little kitten from last night had made his way next to us and was meowing like mad. I got up and looked out the windows in a vain effort to locate him.  I was contemplating getting dressed and going outside to feed and water him, but I knew that wouldn't be popular with either of the Bills so I went back to bed and obsessed over the fate of my poor little furball. :(   After about 45 minutes or so, I finally fell back asleep and woke at 5:40 - a full 5 minutes before the alarm was set to go off and a full 2 minutes before Mr. Sitt knocked on our door.  Huh?  What is going on here?  Why are you dressed and sitting with your truck running?  Departure time was supposed to be 6:30 but the paving crew that was working on the parking lot had a different idea of when people should wake up and and get moving.  By the way, fresh earplugs are a must when camping in a parking lot.  Here, Mr. Sitt....try these next time.  :)
 

"Sittinger Cat" Supervising the Crew

The Sitts didn't have a great night.  They had a diesel pusher roll in and park right next to them.  I hate when people do that.  It's a parking lot folks - there's a ton of space - why must you get so close?  Anyway, Bill and I got up, threw on some clothes, grabbed our stuff, grabbed the cat, and jumped in the truck.  We were on the road by 6.  Walmart camping is never a positive experience but it beats paying 30 bucks to sleep at a campground for 5 hours.  So, on we traveled...and we traveled on....

The traveling was not as trouble free as we would have liked, but we were fortunate in that each time we had to stop to address a mechanical issue, of which there were a few, we were always in a safe place to do so.  "Thank you, God." - He's always looking out for us!

A little back story...we went to serious expense and effort to "ensure" (HA!) the truck and trailer were road worthy for this trip.  For example, we replaced our LT truck tires (cha-ching!) because they only had about 60% tread life left (naturally, we sold the old tires on CL and recovered 325 bucks on the sale - wooohooo!) and we replaced the wheels and tires for the trailer at an additional cost of 450 bucks.  We also bought new pads and rotors for the truck and installed them last weekend.  While we were working on the brakes, we noticed that one of the air bags had a small wear spot.  This was caused by the bag coming into slight contact with the spring prior to rotating it awhile back.  We had an extra air bag and spent quite a bit of time trying to swap it out, but the hardware attached to the air bags was rusted so bad we couldn't get it off.  After a fair amount of time messing with it, we finally gave up and reinstalled the old bag.  Unfortunately, something went amiss (we think the valve is shot) and the bags went flat by Morgantown...you know....yesterday...less than 2 hours from the property.  Grrr.

Our second issue arose as we were leaving a gas station and Shele noticed one of the trailer wheels looked wobbly.  We pulled off before getting back on the highway, pulled the wheel, and found the wheel weld had actually broken and separated at the hub and rim point.  Nice.  We brought two spare wheels with us so we mounted one of them and got back on the road in short order.  The third and final mechanical (so far anyway) occurred as we were getting off the highway for another gas stop.  Our belly pan (basically a huge piece of corrugated plastic sheathing that covers the undercarriage of the trailer) pulled loose and was dragging on the ground.  Um, yeah, this is no good.  Especially since all of the wiring, water lines, and ductwork is exposed and just sits on top of the pan.  Seriously?  No one thought in the manufacturing process that these should be held in place to the frame directly?  Really?  Luckily, Mr. Sitt had a spare ratchet strap so we just strapped it up and continued on to the campground.


While not an immediate repair issue, the Sitts had an opportunity to experience their own "mechanical" when they noticed their brand new trailer's battery was dead at one of many gas stops earlier in the day.  A quick trip to the Mart for a replacement battery got them rolling again without any drama.

We made it to the campground by 6:30 after 12.5 hours on the road...

...which wasn't really bad considering some of the weather we encountered along the way...

We decided to drop the trailer and run into town to pick up supplies at Lowe's so we could just repair the trailer in the morning.  Shele saw a sign for Quiznos and had a hankering for a sub, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to Lowe's.  Seventy five bucks later, we were out the door and heading back to the campsite.  We set a 6:30 am departure time, said goodnight, and turned in for the night.  It was a long day and we have an even longer one tomorrow.  The 2nd 650+ mile day is exponentially more challenging than the first.  It's funny to me how different a 600 mile day feels on the motorcycle vs. the truck and trailer.  I guess there is an element of boredom that makes that kind of a distance somewhat unpleasant in the truck (at least while you're traveling through the flat and oh-so-boring states in the Midwest).  But...the drive is part of the journey and the overall experience, so in a weird way, I enjoy it more than I probably should.  :)