Our Current Travels

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

On our way to the wedding

LONG STORY...................Well, we made it to Vail area, however.............. driving up I70 yesterday, about 35 miles from our exit in Frisco and about 1:30pm, we had mechanical problems. Lots of loud noises and black smoke. Luckily we were on uphill climb with a sort of wide shoulder so I coasted safely off all lanes of traffic with no power steering and brakes. Only have 15,000 miles on the engine, so I called MH customer service at Ford and they said I was out of manufacturer warranty due to the coach being 2006. Also the Ford truck dealer in town said they couldn't look at it till Wed and that I couldn't bring it there till then. Since I needed to find a place to get off the e-way, found a rv shop in Denver that would work on it and also work w/ my after market service contract provider. Got towed there and arrived after 6 pm, gates locked so we camped outside the fence. I was pretty sure we were covered by Ford because the date they use for warranty is the "in service date" not the manufacture date. This morning went into the service dept and he agreed that I should be covered so I called Ford again and the co. I bought the coach from. Well today it got worked out, I am covered and now I needed to get towed to the ford truck center and ford will cover the towing from today.

So, today after getting our second tow, we landed at the Ford truck service center. We packed the car and headed back up the mountain with a car full of stuff and found a reasonably priced, dog friendly motel, with availability for a week and is close to Vail. We are now checked into the Quality Inn in Silverthorne CO and tomorrow I get to drive back down the mountain to get more wedding stuff that we were bringing with us. Luckily at the last moment before leaving MI, my daughters maid of honor said she would take the wedding dress to CO. So all we have are the wedding shoes, all the candles and candle stick holders, table runners and a few bags of unknown stuff. I haven't let my daughter know yet, she has enough on her mind. I figure I will leave a message on her cell phone tomorrow morning while she is in flight from Chicago to Denver. Then when she calls, I can tell her all is well but to not come to the rv park that we were going to be at but we will meet her somewhere else.

Also tomorrow I find out what the real deal is w/ the engine and hopefully Ford won't find a way out of covering it.

More as it develops

5 comments:

  1. Wow - I am so sorry this happened. I'm just glad you guys are okay and that you weren't going down the mountain with no brakes. Hope they can fix whatever is wrong quickly.

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  2. Oh no! This is everyone's nightmare and you should be living everyone's dream! What a relief that they will fix it for you. Let us know what they find because what happened to you could happen to any of us.

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  3. I'm very relieved that you're safely in Vail at least! What an adventure! Probably good you haven't mentioned it to Kai yet . . . and good that Bonnie took the dress! Al & Pris are back in the country safely; I'll e-mail soon.

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  4. Oh my. I sure hope this all works out for you. Is there a Wedding Nightmares program you can sell your story to?

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  5. Hey Eric,

    FWIW, check your ERS and vehicle insurance providers; they usually have coverage for most of your living expenses -- in my case, AAA covers expenses when it's due to mechanical breakdown, car insurance covers it when it's due to any type of collision. (I don't yet know if Coach-Net or Good Sam have trip interrupt coverage, but some vehicle insurance plans do... like Liberty Mutual & Nat'l. Interstate.)

    Good Luck!

    -DonF

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