So first of all, Ranger and I live in New Hampshire now. It took us 3 very interesting days of driving to get here.
The issues started at U-Haul when I went to pick up the car dolly. They had to rewire my truck. So I was stuck at U-Haul for almost 2 hours. It only got better from there...
Before we even got to the highway to start the trip we met the local fire department. I filled the front gas tank of the truck (old Ford trucks have front and rear fuel tanks) and when I looked away from the little screen telling me how much money was being stolen from my bank account I noticed I was leaking fuel everywhere! So I ran inside to tell the attendant. They called the fire department because we didn't know how much fuel was going to leak out. I had put over 19 gallons in that tank. It was possible 19 gallons of gasoline would end up on the ground. This set us back about an hour and a half. Thankfully I only lost 2 gallons of fuel.
About halfway through the trip we had a pretty scary mishap. The tread on the back tire on the driver's side of the truck blew off and wrecked that whole section of the truck. And I mean wrecked it. I couldn't put fuel in the truck, I couldn't drive, I was stuck on the side of a highway in Ohio.
I called Roadside Assistance through my insurance company and after a 20 minute battle finally managed to convince them that the 2-wheel car dolly I was towing was NOT a trailer. So they agreed to come out to help me change the tire. I didn't have a jack otherwise I could have done it myself. Once I got off the phone with my insurance company a van pulled over behind me. I go out and asked if the man was my roadside assistance. He said he wasn't, but he was roadside assistance. Apparently Ohio had amazing people drive the highways looking for stranded motorists to help! I love you, Ohio!
He got my spare tire out from underneath the truck and put air in it (that van was seriously equipped for ANYTHING!) and as he was working on getting the spare off, my roadside assistance showed up. Talk about awkward. The guy my insurance sent leaned down and said "Um, I was sent to help her." and the guy under my truck looks at him and says "oh, I know you were. But I've got it covered. You can go."
Oh. My. Gawd. I about died. I had told the Ohio highway guy that the tow company had cancelled on me twice because of the "trailer" I was towing. He was not impressed with them, because the dolly didn't affect anything. We didn't have to disconnect it from the truck or anything.
Here's what I was towing:
That's obviously a trailer right? Right... sure. If they say so.
Here's the ruined tire:
And here are a few pictures of the damage the tire caused:
Oh what a nightmare. So the guy my insurance sent ended up putting my spare tire on the truck and then leaving. I was so upset... I couldn't put gas in my truck because the filler neck was wrecked! What was I going to do?! I still had 10 hours of driving left and my front fuel tank leaks, so I couldn't put fuel in the front tank without risking blowing up or losing all my fuel. I just kind of stood there for a minute and the Ohio Highway Guy said "I can fix that. I can't make it perfect, but I can make it so you can still gas up. You'll just have to go slow." I could have kissed him!
After our two hour delay because of this, Ranger and I were back on the road. About 30 minutes later we stopped to use the bathroom and I noticed something REALLY bad.
The car was coming off the dolly.
This is the point where I said "I give up. I'm going to live at this gas station forever." I somehow managed to get my car off the dolly and back on correctly. For some reason the straps and chains weren't holding my car in place on the passenger side so I had to keep fixing it for the rest of the trip. I just kept tightening the straps more and more until my tire was almost flat from all the pressure. I didn't care. I just wanted to be done with the trip.
We finally made it to Massachusetts, dropped the car off at a dealership for some work and then dropped the dolly off at U-Haul. Then we headed to New Hampshire. Once we got to New Hampshire we realized the spare tire was going flat, so we aired it up and moved on to our final destination.
I am never making that trip again. EVER!
Up Next: {Part II}
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