On July 8, 2014 we spent the night at the Drury Inn and Suites in Findlay, Ohio. We were pretty excited because the next day, July 9, we were going to pick up our motor home.
Three years later, almost exactly to the day, on July 11, 2017 we again spent the night in Findlay, Ohio and within in view of the Drury Inn...except this time we were broken down and spending the night in a WalMart Parking lot.
We'd pulled in around 10 pm to get gas before the final 20 miles or so of our trip to Tiffin, Ohio in order to attend the funeral for Chris' Uncle Ronnie. It had been a long day before we left Lexington at about 4 pm for the drive to Ohio and we were looking forward to getting parked and getting a decent night's sleep before the funeral the next morning.
But, after gassing up, the MH wouldn't start. Nothing. We thought it was the battery and Chris plugged in some chargers to see if we could get it juiced up (please note these are not technical terms, just my report of what happened). The gas station manager was sympathetic and told us that even though the station was closing we were welcome to stay...but had to be gone by 7 am when the station opened again. I guess having us sit in front of a pump all day would be bad for business.
Though it was a lovely evening, as we sat on the bags of water softener salt pellets, we fought against discouragement. We were hot and tired and looking at potentially unknown and unlimited amounts of expenses.
But, then we looked up and saw the bright red and white sign for the Drury Inn and remembered that this was literally where our adventure had begun and ...This is all just part of the adventure. We passed the time talking about all the things we've done in our three years on the road. And all the other challenges we've figured out and survived.
The battery chargers didn't help the situation. Attempting to jump start the MH w/our car didn't work...a Hyundai is no match for a Winnebago. Finally, around midnight, we called a tow truck for a jump. The guy was nice, but still no luck.
But, the MH was on a slight incline and we were pointed directly into a large open area of the parking lot, so the tow truck guy and Chris pushed the MH until it got rolling and I "drove" it into the parking lot.
We weren't able to go anywhere, but we were safe and had a place to stay. We put out the slides, turned on the generator and tried to get some sleep...it was about 2 am. But, we were still immobile and the cause was unknown, so sleep was elusive.
The next day we let people know we wouldn't make it to the funeral and started making calls to see if we could get someone to come and take a look to see what the problem was. No mobile RV repairs or mechanics were interested or available.
Ah...but as luck would have it...we were back in Ohio where we have friends. Chris called Brad, the mechanic from the bus garage where he used to work, and Brad came through for us. Turns out we needed a new starter, not a new battery, and by late afternoon we were back on the road.
We missed the funeral, but we still got to see Aunt Mary and offer our condolences and we visited with friends and family while we could.
I'll be honest...this was pretty stressful. But in the end, we realized that if it had to happen, we were in the best place. We were on an incline and pointed in the right direction to roll into a safe spot in the parking lot. And we were just a phone call away from a reliable and honest mechanic who was willing to go out of his way to help us out.
Maybe sometimes all you need to do is make sure you're pointed in the right direction and hope for a push when you need it. And sometimes all you can do is roll.
