Our day...

Our plan today was to drive to the Walmart in Yreka, California, boondock overnight, and then head to Nicolaus, CA, for our next Thousand Trails campground tomorrow... but... that wasn't the plan that God had for us today...

We enjoyed a beautiful drive down US101 on the Oregon coast, and then inland on a couple of  Oregon state roads that were also pretty - and then got onto I-5 heading south at Sutherlin, Oregon. We had gone 50-60 miles, up and down some mountain passes, when I noticed that Miss Doozie seemed to be vibrating a bit. Sometimes the road surface can cause this, but very shortly thereafter, we heard a noise and the bus seemed to list a little to the right... I got off the road and was happy to find that the guardrail ended and there was a nice graveled area on the side of the road that we could pull onto.

Where we got pulled off the road.

Dwayne told me later that when he heard a noise he looked into the mirror on the passenger side and saw some parts coming off the bus on that side... I had not seen that... When we got stopped, Dwayne got out to see what the problem was, and found that our tag axle wheel on the passenger side was missing... this is NOT good...

Dwayne had walked down the shoulder to where he could see some parts along the side of the interstate.

There's supposed to be a wheel and tire (and brake drum) there...

There's Dwayne where the wheel and tire ended up... you can also see the hub oil marks on the shoulder where we came off the road.

The wheel/tire and brake drum

What the axle looks like now... Dwayne had brought back the fiberglass side that got torn off and the Centramatics auto balancer.

The brake drum on the side of the road

Dwayne bringing the wheel and tire back to where we had stopped.

You can see how far the hub oil is along the shoulder.

We called Coach-Net (AAA for RVs) and got an incident started with them. While waiting for them to call back, we called master mechanic Jimmy (Patti's brother) to get his input on what had happened, what may have caused it, and what to do. Jimmy gave his opinion that we should be able to take the air bag pressure off the tag axle (which would allow it to raise) and drive/limp to the next town where there would be service. That was Grants Pass, about 20 miles away. The documentation on the bus indicates that if we dump the air for the tag axle, it will automatically restore the air pressure in the tag axle air bags once you get up to some speed... I had remembered that it would restore the pressure at 15MPH, but I got up to 20-22MPH and no air was showing on the gauge for Tag Axle Pressure. I just looked up in the documentation and it says:

In addition, the coach has automatic tag axle lift capability. A switch on the arm rest
panel [TAG LIFT) controls this function. When the switch is in the ENABLED position, the tag axle will lift when the speed of the coach reaches approximately 12 mph, thus
permitting tighter turning radius. The tag axle will automatically be dropped when the
coach speed reaches approximately 18 mph.

NOTE:
The tag axle will not lift from the ground but air pressure is removed from the tag axle suspension, thus removing load from the tag axle.

The switch isn't on the arm rest, and it isn't called TAG LIFT... once we get this problem resolved, I want to try to see if it ever automatically puts air into the tag airbags.

Coach-Net called us back and said that there was a truck shop in Grants Pass who could take us tomorrow, but they did not want us to be towed there today as they didn't have room to take us. I talked with the guy from Coach-Net about our thought on limping to Grants Pass, and he thought that was an acceptable plan.

We picked up all the items that we had found along the road... we emptied things out of the Jee-rage (Jeep) and were getting ready to put the wheel and tire in there ... when a young man showed up walking along the highway (yes, along the interstate). He had stopped at the brake drum along the shoulder, and continued walking towards us. I was suspicious of him.. but he looked at the axle and gave his opinion that he had a friend who could fix it for us. We let him know that we had a place that was going to work on it, but thanked him. He saw that we were going to try to get the wheel and tire into the back of the Jeep and offered to help - I was VERY grateful for that help. Dwayne and he got the tire and wheel in the back of the Jeep. Dwayne gave him $5 and he continued walking down the side of the interstate.

The brake drum was still on the shoulder next to the guardrail. Dwayne had checked it when he first went down the shoulder and said that it was very hot (we'd been in mountains, so that was understandable). Unlike the wheel and tire, it didn't roll very well, so Dwayne backed the Jeep up the shoulder to where it was and we got it up into the back of the Jeep on top of the tire and wheel.

At this point, I tried to call the shop in Grants Pass to make sure that we had an appointment. I couldn't get an answer from them, so I looked them up on the internet. I couldn't find any reviews of them... but in looking for them in Grants Pass, Yelp told me that Henderson's Line-Up (https://www.hendersonslineup.com/) was in Grants Pass. We have met Robert Henderson at previous RV events (Quartzsite, FMCA shows) and really admired his Christian witness and his humbleness. I called them to see if they would be able to see us, and the gentleman I spoke with said that he thought that they were booked up for this week... bummer!

I also called an RV park in Grants Pass to see if they could accommodate us for the night and they had a pullthru site available. I told the lady that it might take us a couple of hours to make the 20 mile drive and she told me that if we arrived after they closed, just pull into the site and we could settle up in the morning... she didn't even need to get a credit card or any information other than my name.

So... we started driving - I was driving the bus and Dwayne was driving the Jeep. We stayed on the shoulder with our hazard flashers on.

Some places, there was a nice wide shoulder...

What was really hard was there were some places where the shoulder narrowed and I had to drive on that rumble strip! I thought the fillings might rattle out of my teeth!

We also called Coach-Net back to ask them to verify that we actually had an appointment at the truck shop that they had indicated could take us tomorrow. The lady offered to call them and call me back, which she did... but she said that she had bad news... the person who answered was not very courteous, and there was another person in the background yelling, "We haven't talked to anyone about a motorhome, we can't help them, tell her that we won the lottery and we're shutting up shop!" The Coach-Net lady and I both agreed it was good that we found that out now and not when we tried to go there for service. I told her that I had found that Henderson's was in Grant's Pass, and I would really be more comfortable waiting until they could take us if they would. She said that she would work on that.

Meanwhile, we made it to Grants Pass and got to the RV park before the office closed. It is a nice RV park... and the guy who checked us in was very kind. He came out to look at our axle... as did the man from the coach next to us... both of them shook their heads sagely and said, "There's always something with RVs!"

The remainder - picture taken here at the campground - safe.

After talking more with Jimmy and being able to share pictures with him, we think we know what happened... we put a new wheel on that axle when we were in Virginia. We are pretty sure that Jimmy told us then that it would be a good idea to get the lug nuts re-tightened after driving about 600 miles... but... we didn't make note of that, and we didn't do that. Over the miles we've driven, the lug nuts loosened, the loose wheel worked against the studs, and eventually the studs sheared off.

Thanks be to God that it happened on a road with a wide shoulder (for many miles/weeks we have been driving on small roads with only a few inches or maybe a foot of a shoulder). Thanks be to God that we were in the right lane. Thanks be to God that there was a guard rail there and the wheel and tire and brake drum came to a rest there and did not hit anyone else or do damage to anyone else's vehicles. Thanks be to God that just at the place we had to get off the road, the guard rail ended and there was a wide gravel place for us to stop well off the highway. Thanks be to God that the shoulder continued in great shape all the way to Grants Pass (I didn't have to get into the drive lanes due to construction or any other reason). Thanks be to God that the site that we were able to get at this RV park is available into next week if we need it. Thanks be to God that the Yelp website recommended Henderson's as an alternative shop in Grants Pass. Thanks be to God even for the guy who "won the lottery" and was going to be shutting down the shop - whether that is true or not, I'm thankful that we aren't going to meet up with them. I'm trusting that God has a reason for us to be here at Grants Pass, and we're looking forward to finding out what that reason is!

We're praying that Henderson's will be able to work us in... or that God will show us something else we should do. Right now, we're thankful to be in a quiet RV park (not on the side of the freeway), with full hookups, and no rain!