As you probably know, "RV" is the common colloquial abbreviation for "recreational vehicle".  Speaking of "RV", have you seen the movie?

Anyway… on to my own story.

A few years ago I had a great idea. Since my work requires me to travel to different cities around the country, sometimes for months at a time, I thought I could save dramatically on my travel/lodging expenses if I had an RV.   I could drive the RV and park at a campground for months at a fraction of the cost of living out of a hotel room or getting a short-term lease on a small apartment.   And, though my company was buying the thing, I could take the RV out for personal trips too. 

So, after months of debating and searching, I finally came across a beauty on eBay selling for much less than I thought it was worth.  I bought it.

My girlfriend and I drove down to Memphis, TN in her car.  The plan was that I would drive the RV home while she followed… just in case I ran into "any problems".  We would pick up the RV in Memphis, drive to Nashville, TN and stay the night there.  Then, on Sunday morning, we would drive the rest of the way home. 

"Any problems" turned out to be an understatement. 

We left early Saturday morning to make it to Memphis (about 8 hours away) by 3pm.  We planned well, because we made it right on time.  But then we had to wait almost 2 hours because the owner accidentally left the key in and in the ACC position which drained the batteries.  So we waited while his ‘partner’ put new batteries in and got the RV started.

Eventually, all was working and we left on our way home.  We made it to Jackson, TN (about 90 minutes away) before the v-belt broke, which stopped turning the radiator fan and water pump, and caused the engine to overheat. Luckily, we were able to pull into a rest area from which I had the RV towed to the nearest 24-hour service shop for $250.

After a lot of waiting and screwing around, we eventually made it to the service station in Jackson, TN around 8:30p where, since AutoZone was now closed, we would have to get a motel room and spend the night.

We slept in, showered, and after breakfast we headed to the service station.  The guy replaced the belt and the radiator hose that busted, and by about 2pm Sunday we were on our way home again.   We both hoped/prayed that this was the last of our worries.  No one was listening.  Or perhaps He was, but thought this would be a good practical joke.

I managed to drive the RV another 4 hours (yes, less than 2 hours away from home) when a belt started squeaking.  Though I noticed the alternator wasn’t charging the batteries much, I thought I could at least make it home.   Not quite.  Less than 1 hour away from our destination, the lights went out and I was driving in the dark.  Again, luckily, we weren’t far from the next exit where we found a truck-stop and a garage.  Unfortunately, the garage was closed until morning.

So, Sharon and I opted to stay the night in the RV at the truck-stop and wait for the garage to open in the morning.

Morning came and I told Sharon to go ahead to work.  She left and there I was.  I went into the station to ask about the garage owner, and the guy  told me he WAS the owner, but his wife wouldn’t be in to mind the store for another few hours.  He couldn’t leave the store until she came, so he handed me his toolbox instead and wished me luck.

I opened the hood and found the adjustment for the alternator to tighten the belt.  After a jumpstart, all was good, the batteries were charging and I was again on my way.

Things were looking good and I was optimistic.  I was driving my rig down the highway at 9am when suddenly… thump, thump, thump… scrape, scrape, scraaaaaaape.  I slowed down and kept control to steer off the highway… because my front-right tire had blown.

I called Sharon at work and left a voice-mail about what happened, then called my mom to have her look up a tow/tire service nearby that could help.

The tire-guy came and put on the temp-spare and I followed him to his service station to get that and the other front tire replaced.  I left the RV there for a few days to get an oil change and have them check out all the other major components.