Our 4th of July Weekend

This is way to good of a story not to share it with everyone!

This past weekend we went to Pennsylvania to visit some of Paul's family that he hasn't seen in years. The town they live in was having a parade and we decided it was a great time to get together. And since it was going to be a 4 day weekend we should camp in Pennsylvania. (For those that don't know we love to camp and have a 5th wheel camper.....a house on wheels if you will.)

So we load the family up and leave Virginia at 9:00 for our 200 mile drive up and down the mountains. Traveling with a 2 year old and a 3 month old, we figure we should be there by 1:00 2:00 at the latest. An hour and a half into the trip we stop because the check engine light comes on in the truck. This has happened many times before so Paul thinks it's no big deal. We decide to buy Ronnie, the 2 year old, some toys and books for the car ride because if I have to hear "MOM!....HI" one more time I'm going to go nuts. (He said it 8 million times between leaving home and stopping.) 25 minutes later we have to stop for food because he's hungry and Robert, the 3 month old, is hungry and needs a diaper change. OK. No big deal.


So, with food in everyone's belly and diapers changed we head back out on the road. As we are driving we are having a great conversation on how much Paul loves his truck and how good it pulls the camper..blah blah blah. Not 3 minutes later we hear a loud Boom and smoke starts pouring out of the truck. On route 68 in Maryland on the way up a mountain none the less. Tractor trailers and cars are flying by as we are going up the mountain at 10 miles an hour. Did I mention that at one point in time Paul got out of the truck to make sure it wasn't on fire while the boys and I were still in the truck? It's now 1:30 PM and we should have been at the campground already!


So we limp into Rocky Gap State Park and realize we are now officially screwed. We have no truck to pull our camper the last 60 miles to the campground, no way to move the trailer at all really, and no way to get home. OK. Call someone to get the phone number to a local Ford dealer (thanks Mom). Call 3 Ford dealers and the only one that can look at the Super Duty F 250 can't look at it until the middle of July. We get the number to one more dealership and they say tow it in, DO NOT drive it, and we will look at it on Monday. We call AAA and they say they can tow the truck but they only cover the first 3 miles of towing. It's a 36 mile tow to the dealer. With the truck gone we now only have to worry about getting the trailer and the family home.

We called in the cavalry, AKA Mom. She and Tom, my step dad, go to our house in VA and pick up my SUV and start driving to Rocky Gap State Park. We at least need to get the boys out of there. About an hour into this ordeal I look out the window and see a truck pulling a bigger 5th wheel then we have and run out to tell Paul. He already saw it and was on his way to the street to ask for help. The driver saw that we were in need of help and was in the process of stopping. He and his friend were staying at Rocky Gap and agreed to pull the 5th wheel to our campground 60 miles away. We decided that Paul would go with him and the trailer while the boys and I waited for my SUV.

A few hours later my SUV arrived and we eventually were all reunited at 8 PM on Friday night. We now had to find a way to move the 5th wheel from the spot at the campground to the storage lot at the campground. We decided to do that on Saturday after visiting family.

So on Saturday we found someone to move the 5th wheel for us and life continued as normal. On Monday we packed up my SUV and loaded the boys up to leave. We go to start the car and the battery is dead. Ronnie decided to play in the car and turn on the headlights and everything else he can reach and drained the battery. So we had to get a jump.

I have decided that someone was watching our for us this weekend. And there are still nice people left in the world. I only hope our next camping trip is not this eventful.