Category Archives: accident

Free at Last

Three months ago, I wrote about the poor service I was experiencing as the Interstate languished in the storage yard at Pete’s RV’s in South Burlington. I guess I knew then, when they took their sweet time to do anything, that my rig was a hostage. Early on, I wasn’t too concerned since I had no plans to travel and many other projects on my plate but in the last few months, it’s been ridiculous.

I won’t make you read all the details but it was just unresponsive service: concentrating on prepping sold rigs, delaying getting the rig in and then blaming suppliers for long delays, never initiating status calls or emails, just forgetting to do things and letting the rig just sit there. I was quite patient (too patient) having not a lot of other options.

My insurance adjuster for Progressive has been wonderful, but frustrated. He knows that he recommended Pete’s over a couple of smaller local RV centers. He was happy to call me Wednesday with the “it’s ready to go” news.

Nice to be home – loose wires and missing fasteners and all.

So, after five and a half months, I picked up the rig Thursday and brought it home. The awning is still missing but that’s another story.

Penny found her resting spot right away and is ready to go, whether we are or not.

Time to move on and do some local travel before heading out in January. This year’s winter trip is nearly set. Up ahead, look for more positive reports, bird photos, and less whining.

Heading Home

While in California, I learned that my dead MacBook battery was going to be a $750 repair so I am limping home using just the cord, which is touchy. So blogging is slow since I can’t pull off the bird photos easily. (End of whine.)

I found some loose tubing hanging down and have determined it is a break in the propane vent line which has shut down the system. No big deal at the point and we will fix it at home.

However, we were hit with a “dust devil” while parked in New Mexico with the awning out. It came out of nowhere on a hot sunny afternoon and in seconds, nearly destroyed the awning. Neighbor campers helped Sally and I removed broken supports and manually retract it so that I could tie it up for the journey home. We were too concerned to get a “before” picture but here’s the wonderful trio that worked an hour or more to sort things out.

After stops at [Seminole Canyon SP](https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/seminole-canyon) and [Falcon Lake SP](http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/falcon), we are settled at [Goose Island State Park](http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goose-island) in Texas, seeing some good birds including some early warblers.

The game plan is to stop in Louisiana next week and start swinging north with an ETA of the 11th or so. Starting to get itchy for the Green Mountain State.

All Cracked Up

We were heading west from Laredo on a rural highway with many trucks sharing the road. Sally was driving, doing about 75 which is the speed limit, and I was editing photos on my MacBook. The road was smooth and traffic moving nicely when, wham, there was an explosive noise in front of me and I was covered with tiny shards of glass. We had taken a hit, probably from a rock from a truck in the oncoming lane – but Sally thinks it was a small meteorite. In any case, she saw a dark image fly across just before the impact.

The result was dramatic, a bullseye hole in the windshield, up in the black radio antenna section, was visible with three cracks emanating from it. We pulled over, dusted off, and were back on our way.

The small hole and long crack are dramatic but seem stable. The crack has gone from five inches long to down the whole windshield.

I called my insurance company who took down the information and told me to contact them when I was ready to replace the windshield. (We are a long ways from shops where we can wait all day for work to be done.)

The bad news is that I have $500 deductible on my glass damage but keeping things in context, it could have been a lot worse. I’m glad I was wearing sunglasses to ward off the glass particles, many very minute, that plastered my face and shirt front. We have some down time in the weeks ahead where I can get a shop approved, get the windshield ordered, and leave the van for a half-day. Hey, it’s only money – and it wasn’t a bird strike.

Leg 2 – On The Way

After a wonderful Christmas visit to Jennifer, Ben, & Mac – where we went to a frenzied but fun church pagaent, participated in a memorable Christmas buffet coked by iron chef Ben, and had lunch with our dear friends, the Russell’s, we headed out from MA Saturday morning. (this was after several days of thawing out the Airstream, loading gear, and finally, hoooking up Friday night.)

My plan was to leave Saturday to avoid the heavy commuting traffic on I-495 beltway, and later, through the I -84 passage of Hartford, CT. That worked as planned – we lauched at 7:50 AM and the first few hours were easy. The truck pulled well, the weather was great, and things were rosy – until Danbury, just before the NY border.

I have decided that there are too many people and too many cars in the Northeast. I noted a warning sign saying, "traffic congestion Exits 3-1" and shortly thereafter, a long line of stopped cars and trucks. It was awful – extremely slow moving with no relief. (I later realized that it was caused by the I-184 exit down to New York city.)

Finally, I came to an exit and got out of the mess, made a wrong turn, explores some new industrial parks, and eventually, with Mary’s help on the iPad, got into another slow moving stream on a small road that followed I-84. We were moving and soon, travelling at 50 mph. We entered the Interstate just before the Beacon-Newburg bridge and off we went westward. After fueling (don’t ask) we stopped for a lunch break at spot where Penny could get a short run, and we could sort-off picnic outdoors in the 50 degree weather.

I had never driven I-84 in PA over to Scranton – it was hilly, lightly travelled, and an easy drive. The entrance on to I-81 was smooth (the interminable construction seems done) and soon we were cruising toward Wilkes-Barre, until we weren’t. Again, an abrupt stop, two long lines of stopped vehicles, and a long wait. A police cruiser raced by on the shoulder and we crawlwd, for a half hour. It was a minor accident that clogged things, and then it was the typical I-81 rat race of many trucks heading toward Harrisburg.

Ten miles north, I saw another electric sign: "watch for slow traffic due to an incident at exit 77). Great! What a trip this was turning out to be. Six miles or so out, we hit stopped traffic, that crawled ahead, but then loosened up for a few miles. Then, three miles north of Exit 77, we hit another long line and spotting an exit, headed off to try something, anything. Mary launched her iPad, which was getting low on juice, and I spotted a possible alternate route. No one else was taking it – now I know why. It was a Vermont-type narrow wingong road – a challenge hauling a trailer at times – but damn it, we were heading west and not just sitting there. There was no internet signal so the iPad essentially said, "You’re on your own, folks" as we wended our way through parts of PA we had never seen, and hope not to see again.

We made it to Harrisburg, joined the trucks and cars heading south, never really knowing whether my "shortcut" was worth it. About an hour later, we pulled off at Chambersburg, ans found the Walmart where we have overnighted before. Saturday night brings out all the country kids with their tune-up pickup trucks so we went to bed to the sound of noisy exhaust pipes, and slept quite well.

This leg was planned to be our toughest of the trip – just get out of the winter weather. I never anticipated the extra several hours due to traffic. Today (Sunday) is a shorter run down I-81 to another Walmart in Virginia. It’s raining, and will much of the trip today but it will help remove the road salt from the trailer. I hear a crow calling and of course, Penny has to growl at it. After more coffee and yogurt, we’ ll ease out of here and be traversing Maryland, West Virginia before lunch. Traffic should be light on Sunday (famous last words.)

Getting Out With Birds

As I slowly recover from knee surgery, my birding has consisted mainly of sitting for brief moments watching our feeders — and enjoying it even while knowing that migration is underway and that I likely have warblers moving through our woods.  It’s frustrating at times but each day gets minimally better — and I know that I could have much tougher medical situations to deal with.

Our daughter sent me a neat gift the other day — a iTunes coupon for the short movie, The Central Park Effect, which I blogged about last year but never got to see.  Here’s the trailer:

I watched it on the computer a couple of days ago and as I knew, it was delightful.  My only complaint is that I need to watch it again with a better birder since I was not sure of a couple of the identifications.   A couple of takeaway items for me were these:   Enjoy the birds you have around you, even the ones you see every day.  And you need to get out and be with them, just experiencing them.

Yesterday and today, I spent time on our decks (I don’t dare venture on to the ground with crutches yet) just absorbing the birds coming and going.  I got buzzed by a couple of hummers, had a young Hairy Woodpecker very close, cocking his head to check me out.  An Eastern Phoebe bobbed its tail in the unweeded garden.  Song Sparrows and American Goldfinches were hitting the tall grass.  And it felt good to sort of be “out there” with them.

It will be a few weeks, assuming that progress continues, before I can do much serious birding.  But the great little movie made me appreciate what a wonderful spot we have here for birds and that it is therapeutic to get out and be  with them.  Good birding.

Who Put Those Dents In Back?

I have not blogged about my encounter with a Texas tree, which must have moved behind me as I backed up, but to make a long story short, I was in a hurry to get going from Falcon State Park. We had emptied tanks and the layout forces you to turn around to leave the park. I thought we were clear and as I backed up (not having asked Mary to help) I heard sort of a crack of a branch. Just thought it was brush I’d backed over so I pulled ahead, backed up and heard it again. And off we went toward Corpus Christi.

After an hour or two, we stopped for fuel and as I approached the trailer from the rear, this is what I saw.

 It didn’t make my day. I was sure there were no trees back there, they must have moved!

We had an insurance person take a look at it before we came home but now it is time to deal with the dents.  So, the other day, I hooked up the Airstream and we drove over to see one of the experts in Airstream restoration, Colin Hyde.

Colin, well-known for his renovation work, is located across Lake Champlain, about two hours away.  The day didn’t start well — I again had trouble with the electronic jack that raises the front of the trailer.  I tinkered with that and soon we were heading toward Burlington on I-89.  It made us think of the last time we had done that — just four months ago, when the weather was similar with low clouds and spitting precipitation, but the temperature was about 30 degrees colder.

Getting to Plattsburgh involves either driving up to Rouses Point and way back down the Northway, or taking the ferry.  I’d never used the Grand Isle ferry with the trailer but it was a piece of cake.  Colin’s operation was just down the road and soon, he was looking things over.

The problem with having an expert look at your used trailer is that he sees everything — the problems with the floor, the inoperative break-away switch, the leaky vent — I came home with quite a laundry list.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have sharp eyes helping and Colin is very good at separating “nice-to-do” items from critical ones.

Colin’s business is booming and I’m going to try to shoe-horn our project into his busy work schedule.  We brought the trailer back and while he is ordering parts and scheduling the work, I’ll take a stab a disassembling some of the cabinetry and other items needing to be removed before his work begins.  It’ going to be a hassle but who can I blame but myself.  Trust me, I’m much more cautious with my backing up and now always ask Mary to help me out.