Neither one of us slept very well the night before. An evening searching the internet did not give us any decent leads on a new tow hitch that we could have sent to us overnight so Monday we decided to check the RV dealerships in the towns around us. With some luck one of them would have the part in stock. Clearly we had no luck. We did find a dealership in Minot (pronounced my-not not minnow) who could get it for us and we asked him about overnight delivery. That being done Rick got as bundled up as he could and set off for the tow yard to see who he could find to get the how hitch welded back onto the RV.
We were directed to what we thought was a local farm (was actually an old school) so that we could get the tow hitch welded back on the RV. We met Dave, the town welder, who bumped all jobs to get us in and done. When he was finished he said we would be able to tow the Titanic now! All of the people we have met in Martin ND so far have gone out of their way to help us which soothed our somewhat frazzled nerves.
Rick called the dealership back to check on the delivery of the trailer hitch. He called back to say it was going to cost us an additional $600 US if we wanted to part delivered the next day. Now we were already paying over $900 US for the part so we asked him to check on other options. We even offered to pay someone to drive it to us. He called back an hour or so later today if we did not want to pay the $600. The best he could do was a Thursday delivery. Rick had a contract for work that started on Monday but if we had to wait for the part until Thursday there is no way we would make it home on time unless Rick drove for 16 hours each day and no way was I going to let that happen. After reviewing our options, or should I say lack of options,we ended up calling them back to order the part. he told us the part should be in sometime before lunch on Thursday. Rick contacted his boss to say he would not be there on Monday and we revised our plans.
We drove to the town of Harvey to get some cash from the ATM to start paying some of the charges associated with pulling the jeep out of the weeds and getting the hitch welded back onto the RV. We got to the bank and found out the only ATM they had was a drive thru so Rick walked around the side of the building and walked through to get his cash. Another first! 😏😉
Right Across the road from the bank was an old locomotive. I had seen SOO Line on some of the locomotives going past the town so I grabbed a picture.
We headed back to Martin to pay the welder but he had gone for lunch, so we waited. While we were waiting we considered our options in terms of where we were going to stay the next 3 nights, We found an RV park in Harvey that had all the amenities we needed but decided to find a park in Minot, since we had to go there anyhow to pick up the part we needed. We found a place called Roughrider Campgrounds which was pretty close to the RV Dealership so we decided to go there. After making the decision I checked my list of Passport America Campgrounds and they were on the list. At last one piece of good news! It meant our first 2 nights were going to be half price. So off we went to the new campground. The new site was more sheltered than the one we stayed at in Martin so it was a wee bit warmer. Did I mention North Dakota was cold? With a brisk wind? I don't think it got above -5C the entire time we were there.
On Tuesday we did not do much of anything except to stay hunkered down in the RV. We did a quick check of our supplies and realized we would probably need to get more food to last the rest of the trip and propane for the furnace.
We decided that on Wednesday we would unhook the RV and go for a trip around town to get the supplies we needed. A friend of Rick's recommended a local diner called Kroll's. We had noticed the place on the way into town and decided we would have lunch there. We arrived at Kroll's around 11:00 am - just before the lunch hour rush. We both had burgers and I ordered one of their milkshakes. Wow! The food was good and the milkshake was the old-fashioned kind with scooped ice cream and milk. You got the shake and the rest of the mixing container and there was enough for 2 full shakes. I ended up taking the rest of it with us and had it at supper time.
After lunch we picked up some groceries and headed for the RV dealership to ask if they could trace the package and make sure it is still going to arrive the next day. We spoke to a very nice lady who made some calls and was able to trace it while we looked around their store. She told us it was due to arrive tomorrow as planned but then told us it would not be there until 3:20 pm. I think you could have heard both of our hearts hit the ground. Not getting it until late afternoon would mean we would not have the jeep hitched up and ready to go until 6:00 pm at best. That would put us at our campsite at 9:00 pm. Night driving. We were going to be nervous starting to tow again and, doing it at night meant we could not check for the jeep's shadow to make sure it is still back there. As we were leaving I jokingly said to the lady "ask the UPS guy to go a little faster and deliver your packages a bit earlier tomorrow" We all laughed and then went back to the RV park.
Thursday morning was bright and clear and cold, but we should be back on the road so there was a bit of excitement as well as dread. We had breakfast and were just finishing our coffee when the lady from the RV shop called. She told the UPS guy the day before that there was a very important package coming in and she needed it as soon as he could get it there, so he delivered there first that day. It was just after 9:00 am and the part was there! We had quick showers, secured everything and were on our way to the dealership by 10:00 am. When we got the part the gentleman who brought it out to the RV for us said there had been a big snow storm the day before in the eastern part of the state and that we should check the road conditions. I had already checked the weather along the route and there was nothing there about snow either today or yesterday. The sky was clear and we were finally going to be moving again. No worries. Well except was the jeep going to stay attached.
We arrived in Martin just over an hour later and picked up the jeep and were back on the road by lunch time. We had decided to keep our original schedule for campsites so we only had 300 kms to cover. A nice easy trip to get used to towing again. We hit the road singing "On The Road Again" with our fingers crossed.
No comments:
Post a Comment