Some people may think that traveling around is nothing but fun and enjoyment.  The reality is that there are a lot of risks, dangers and frustrations in moving a motorhome around the country.  Think about it, we are moving an over 50′  long and 34,580 lb rig through city traffic (sometimes rush hour), changing lanes and hitting pot holes so hard it sounds like an explosion.  The impact driving has on a our home is like a normal home being hit by a category 3-4 earthquake every week.  Things literally break every time we drive it.  This causes huge amounts of frustration.  Also the slightest wrong move when dealing with such a large motorized vehicle can cause bodily harm. The last couple days have been a good example of this.  It also challenges the “is is worth it” feelings you get when “the going gets tough”.  Here is a good example of what just happened to us.

Our problems in MA started around 3:30pm when arriving at Bourne Scenic Park and trying to get parked in spot B34 which was very unlevel.  We first backed into the spot and realized that we had someone’s satellite completely blocked with the motor home. I then pulled out and backed in again to try to find a better position for the motor home and allow the gentleman to watch TV.  The next try ended up being the one that broke the camels back or in our case the front hydraulic jack.  My new position was still very unlevel and I retracted the jacks again to move to another position.  As I started to move the leveling system on the motorhome started to beep.  I looked underneath the motor home and the front jack would not retract and something was leaking from the jack onto the board underneath it.  The jack was just up enough to allow me to move into the next spot which was much more level and we were able to setup without the leveling jacks.  This is one of the frustrating moments.  Now we have an issue which could certainly cost a lot of money to fix and could interrupt our travel plans temporarily.

Now for an example of the dangers, after a conversation with technical support I learned that the jack could be retracted with a board and therefore decided not to call a repair man but to try to raise the jack myself. Since the afternoon at been so bad with the possibility of an expensive repair bill we decided to go inside and get to bed early and try today.  Around 9:30 am this morning I decided to tackle the job of raising the front jack so we could travel and worry about getting it fixed when we could wait for the part to arrive at our next stop. I crawled up under the motorhome to try and raise the jack.  As I was coming from underneath the motor home I raised my head up and hit the corner of one of the slides. I hit it hard and Polly heard it from inside the motorhome. Polly heard me yell and came outside to find me on the ground with my head on my knees and blood oozing from my head. I was able to get up and run to the shower to wash the blood from my hair.  A couple minutes later I started feeling very dizzy and nauseous so I laid down on the floor.  I didn’t completely pass out but was very close.   Polly jumped on the phone to find an Urgent Care to take me too.  Luckily the closet one was only about 10 minutes away.  We gathered the kids in the car and headed there pretty quickly.

While standing at the counter checking in at Urgent Care I started to feel dizzy again and they took me into a room to lay down.  After a few minutes laying down I started to feel ok again.  The nurse came in and inspected me and I ended up leaving with 3 stitches and instructions to go to the ER if I started feeling worse. So I now have to find someone in 5 days to take out the stitches were ever we are then.

The bottom line is that traveling is not always fun and games.  There are good days and there are bad days.  There are days when we are challenged as a family as to why we have taken this journey.  But I feel now and have always believed that “without risk there is no reward”.  The bad days only make you enjoy the good days more.  In the end, it will all be worth it.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Everyday Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.