As often happens on our travels, 2026 didn’t play out exactly as we planned. After the 1st of the year in 2026, we spent a pleasant two weeks in St. Augustine, FL. Our friends, Doug and Lynne Lindsey, brought their RV up from Ponce Inlet for a few days and we had a great time with them. In mid-January we departed for Red Bay, AL to get some work done on our RV at the Tiffin factory. As we were driving, the Winter Storm Fern (AKA “Snowmegeddon”) started moving across the nation leaving massive snowfall and ice in its wake. We were almost to Red Bay, when we changed course to outrun the storm by running south and west toward Yuma as fast we could. As luck would have it, our engine blew a hose in the middle of western Texas just as the storm hit.
We called in a towing squad in mid-afternoon and it took until almost midnight until they had the right equipment to take our rig to a qualified repair shop. During the course of the 16 hours we sat on the roadside the storm caught up to us and was in full force when the tow folks started working in earnest. Around 2am, just as our RV was loaded onto the trailer, it fell off and settled barely upright, with one tire stuck on the trailer. After bringing in several large specialty trucks, they were able save it and tow it to a holding area around 9am the next morning. The temperature then dropped below 10°F and all of our pipes froze.
A few days later they towed it 180 miles to El Paso, TX where Cummins fixed the engine. By some miracle(s), it was road worthy and our major plumbing appliances were undamaged by frozen water. We drove to Yuma, repaired the bulk of the broken plumbing and other stuff, and were operational for Deb Reisch’s arrival in early February.
Over the past nine years, we’ve had a considerable number of RV problems, several of which caused us to change or abandon plans. This one was easily the most difficult. And it begs the question “isn’t this more trouble than it’s worth ?”. We would be dishonest if we said we hadn’t thought about that. However, after working through the problems, we had an incredible Winter and Spring of travel. We stayed at and visited several American treasures on both sides of the Mississippi in a way that many people never even dream of. We came to the conclusion that we still have places to go, things to see, and people to meet before we’re done. A few “little problems” shouldn’t deter us. I also think it helps to be stubborn and bat-shit crazy.
