STRANDED!!!
We pulled out of New Orleans Tuesday morning (March 20th)
headed for Vicksburg, Mississippi. 200 miles/320 km
About 20 miles east of Vicksburg (near Utica) we ran out of luck!!
We noticed smoke coming from one of the camper wheels! We pulled over and waited for a while to let it cool off, so we could limp (halte) to Vicksburg to let somebody take a look at it.
We took off again, but after only a couple of minutes a car behind us flashed his lights and we pulled over again. Now there was not only smoke but fire!!
We took the wheel off and could see that the whole thing was falling apart.
Put it back on and moved carefully a few hundred yards (meter) down a gravel road (grusvej) to a small church. The Strawbridge Missionary Baptist Church of Utica.
Parked on their ground and called AAA (Falck). This was around 2:30 in the afternoon. They had a hard time helping us. We needed a lowloader (blokvogn) to put the camper on as it could not drive on 3 wheels. At 7 pm just before it got dark somebody from AAA showed up to see if he could make a temporary fix, so we could move it on our own. Unfortunately it didn’t work. Now we were really stranded. At 9 o’clock in the evening at a graveyard (kirkegård). No electricity, no water (except for a gallon of bottled water), no nothing!
It was a quiet place 😊 so we actually slept well.
About 20 miles east of Vicksburg (near Utica) we ran out of luck!!
We noticed smoke coming from one of the camper wheels! We pulled over and waited for a while to let it cool off, so we could limp (halte) to Vicksburg to let somebody take a look at it.
We took off again, but after only a couple of minutes a car behind us flashed his lights and we pulled over again. Now there was not only smoke but fire!!
We took the wheel off and could see that the whole thing was falling apart.
Put it back on and moved carefully a few hundred yards (meter) down a gravel road (grusvej) to a small church. The Strawbridge Missionary Baptist Church of Utica.
Parked on their ground and called AAA (Falck). This was around 2:30 in the afternoon. They had a hard time helping us. We needed a lowloader (blokvogn) to put the camper on as it could not drive on 3 wheels. At 7 pm just before it got dark somebody from AAA showed up to see if he could make a temporary fix, so we could move it on our own. Unfortunately it didn’t work. Now we were really stranded. At 9 o’clock in the evening at a graveyard (kirkegård). No electricity, no water (except for a gallon of bottled water), no nothing!
It was a quiet place 😊 so we actually slept well.
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| The view from our camper Wednesday morning |
Wednesday morning it was back on the phone with AAA. They finally agreed to
forget about towing (bugsering) and accepted to pay for the transport cost of a
mechanic to where we were (the repair cost is entirely on us ☹).
We got hold of an auto repair company in Vicksburg that
would drive out here and make the repair on the spot. He got here around 11 am.
Took the wheel hub apart. The bearing (hjulleje) was totally damaged and the
breaks went the same way because of the bearing. He took off to get parts. He
came back shortly after 3 pm. It didn’t take long to put everything together
and right after 4 pm we were om the road again. 
We only went the 20 miles (30km) to Robbie’s Auto Repair where we stayed the night, because we wanted the other wheels checked, the axels greased etc. etc. We also needed two new tires (another consequential damage (følgeskade) from the bad bearing).
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| The view from our camper Thursday morning |
This morning, Thursday, we had the other wheels checked and greased (smurt), and got two new tires.
The repair shop may not look the classiest, but they were very nice people.
Very helpful and also good at doing their job.
By 10 am we were "On the road again" ♫♫♫
Written by JJ
It was bound to happen sometime on a long road trip. At least you had good company overnight. :-)
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