… it’s another! Truck parts arrived and we got the truck and camper back on the road – good bye Coeur D’Alene. Happily on our merry way to Fort Collins. Casper, Wyoming is about 2 hours out of and that is where I noticed that the trim piece around the wheel well on the drivers side of the camper was flapping in the breeze. Looking closely in the side view mirror I told Linda, “We have a wheel missing!” We pulled into a the next exit which turned out to be a truck stop and verified that, in fact, the left-side wheel…tire with rim…were missing on the rear axle. The wheel bearing had seized and it twisted the entire assembly right off the end of the axle. This is what we saw:
A call to road-side assistance from Good Sam and we had a mobile mechanic on site within an hour. He confirmed what we had all ready known, that indeed the axle would need to be replaced. Fortunately, we had pulled into a travel center truck stop so we were parked in a safe an secure location. We “camped” between the semi trucks and spent the night with the big rigs. The next morning the repair folks arrived about 8:30 am, removed the rear axle and took it back to their shop for replacements and rebuilds. By the afternoon they were back with a new axle, wheel hub and brake assembly. Installed same, slapped on spare tire and we were back on the road. They also insured the other three wheels (the ones that hadn’t fallen off yet) were well greased. It looks like this was a service that should have been done that before leaving on this trip. It has now been added to our list of things to do before embarking on a trip.
Back on the road again, we arrived in Fort Collins late Wednesday afternoon. Today is Saturday and we are at the end of a wonderful three-day visit with my twin sisters Susan and Donna and their families. We visited Donna’s new digs at son Tyson’s house and met the newest addition to the Wormus clan, Donna’s grandson Andrew. We toured a very cool sculpture garden in Loveland, south of Fort Collins, and tonight had a family dinner with everyone.
Tomorrow morning we are back on the road with an intended destination of Kearney, Nebraska.
Glad to hear you are back on the road once more. Safe travels.
Appreciate hearing from you two gypsies and sorry to hear about your missing wheel. What Linda will do to spend the night at a truck stop. Honestly!!! Seriously, glad to hear that you are doing ok, nothing happened to my two fav people and that you are now on the road again. Bravo! I’m guessing that your birthday was a bit different this year, eh Linda? Is everyone on your Blog reading this? lol I’ll watch my tongue, just in case. Wouldn’t want them to know how _______ some of your friends are……
BTW…..please know that it only took 4 attempts to get on here so that I could respond. Ah, life often gives little surprises, eh? Lots of love to you both…….Juni
Oh my gosh!! Thankful you’re on you’re way again. It’s so great to enjoy all the bumps in the road… Right?! 😎