Motorhome Days 9 & 10 - OH MY GOD

I hardly know where to begin reporting the last two days on the road.

We exited Berlin, Ohio a little later than we had planned, due to some more shopping at the Flea Market and a session of ear candling for everyone.  Rod picked up his magnetic vehicle signs and was delighted when he discovered that the quote he had been given was for a set of two.  They were about 30% of what they cost in Australia.

Used Car Lot in Berlin

Scene of the crime - where all the cash was spent at Berlin

The trip towards St Louis was uneventful, until about three hours into the trip we discovered that the Tom Tom was taking us towards St Louis, Michigan (in Canada) instead of St Louis, Missouri.  This cost us about four hours by the time we got the GPS system sorted and then headed in the right direction.  We finally arrived at Indianapolis, Indiana (hours after we thought we could make St Louis) and still almost three hours short of St Louis !!

Never mind, an early morning would set things straight.

WRONG.
Fifty miles short of St Louis, travelling at 65MPH we had a blowout.  BANG.  The inner rear tyre on the drivers side had de-laminated and was flapping and banging under the RV.  We were just a mile short of a town called Greenville, IL, so we called RV help and asked for assistance.  They had a serviceman close by, and when they attempted to contact him, they discovered that he was closed up for the weekend. We decided to scout around to see if we could find someone to change the tyre.  After all we had a spare.  How hard could it be?
We finally found a truck stop and a tyre replacement business - The guy there was lovely - he said he could do the job no problem - EXCEPT that he found that the spare tyre's rim did not fit the rear axle.  The centre was too small to go over the axle - a bodgee spare.  We asked him to take the shredded tyre off the good rim and put the spare tyre on that rim, but unfortunately because he only has BIG gear for truck tyres, he couldn't do the job.  He called a mate who was another six miles away in a town called  Mulberry Grove and he agreed to re-open his tyre store for us, at a price.

Shredded Tyre

 

Waiting for the tyre to be fixed

Adam - the man who fixed our tyre

So finally, after another six miles on a shredded tyre, we finally got it changed - four hours lost, and no spare.
The four hour drive to the campground at Columbia,Missouri was a doddle after that.

Crossing the Mississippi

Mississippi River

We are so glad that we will be ditching this dog of an RV in Denver. It has been nothing but trouble all the way, and we will be seeking a meeting with El Monte ASAP to discuss the situation.

Anyhow, we are still smiling (most of the time) and the beer and wine are still cold.  We have met some great people, and everyone has been so helpful. In spite of all the problems we are still having a ball.

We actually crossed a time zone in the US today without knowing it.  We arrived at our final destination at what we thought was almost 7:30pm, and wondered why the office was still open when it clearly said it closed at 7:00.  We thought that they had stayed open especially for us (they had obviously been reading our Blog), but we discovered that our watches were an hour fast - time had stood still for 60 minutes. We have now become time travellers as well !!

Crossing from Illinois into Missouri

The scenery has been beautiful along the way - the journey across the plains has been an eye opener.  There are beautifully kept farms all the way, with picture perfect barns, farmhouses, and communities. If only we had a little more time to stop and smell the roses.

Saturday afternoon traffic in St Louis

We are headed for Denver. Colorado.  It is still about 10 hours away.  We might make a big push tomorrow to get there on Sunday night, but if we get within a couple of hours we will be happy. Then, with our new motor home we will be right back on track, ready for the next phase of our journey.

Optimism is such a wonderful thing.