250 miles via NY 9, NY 301, NY 9D, NY 9W, I-84 and NY 17. Cumulative tow miles: 991. Truck miles: 443. Cumulative truck miles: 1568.
This may have been my worst day of RV travel EVER. I got away on schedule, around 10:30am, but ran into a closed road (NY 9) a half hour into the trip. I think it was a downed electric line because there were LOTS of electric crews in the area. But I must have been the first vehicle to come onto the scene because the person directing traffic had not yet set up – I got stopped by a half-dozen flares across the road. Then I had to back up a quarter of a mile (not easy with a 42-foot trailer!) to a place where I could turn around. And because the GPS was not aware of the closure, it becaume useless – it just kept telling me to turn around and go back up the closed road.
Bottom line: I detoured about 25 miles, down to the Bear Mountain Bridge, then back north on NY 9W on the west side of the Hudson River. The extra miles necessitated a refueling stop, which was annoying beyond belief (why did the pump take my credit card then demand that I “see the cashier”?).
Did I mention that there were frequent heavy showers too? I had to turn on/turn off the wipers about 30 times in 3 hours.
This route has a LOT of up-and-down. The truck did okay, but there were some very long uphill stretches that strained the engine. And long downhill stretches that tested the brakes.
The worst problem, though, came at the end. The last mile to the campground was another long uphill pull. When I got to the campground the office was closed. I tried to call the number on the door, but had no T-Mobile service. I found the owner, found where my site was and went back to the truck. Started it and got an “engine overheated” message – the first I have seen since 2013 near the Grand Canyon. There was really no reason for the truck to overheat – one mile of uphill should not be that difficult.
Worse, when I tried to use the overheated truck to pull another 200 feet into the site, then engine died. And would not restart. I had to get the entire rig towed into the site so I could get electricity running to the RV to save my frozen foods (oh, yeah, the inverter once again did not work on this hop).
Problem after problem. Traveling used to be fun. Not so much now.
I should also mention that a full tank of gas took me just over 200 miles rather than the 240 that I expect. I wonder if I have a fuel leak. It wouldn’t be the first. And it might explain the “air bubble in the fuel filter” problem.
The 3 days at the Croton Point Park were fine, if you like rain. Hurricane Henri made landfall in Rhode Island and its tentacles stretched to the Hudson River and beyond. It wasn’t all that windy but the rain was torrential. Roads flooded. And the entire park was muck. Not pleasant.
I can’t figure out why a park this close to New York gets almost no OTA television. I got a dozen channels if I positioned the antenna just right, but mostly I was unable to find that “just right” position and had almost no television for the entire 3 days. Which I am used to – I had no television for 3 months in Orange MA. But I get tired of flipping through the DVDs.
So I once again have to deal with a disabled truck. Tomorrow. Tonight I am going to think if I want to continue traveling in an RV. And if the answer is “yes”… how can I replace the truck? Or eliminate the need for one?