On The Road Again—At Least Until We Broke Speedy

We started out yesterday with Speedy towing our cargo trailer filled with the motorcycles. We are on our way to the BMW Riders Association rally in Asheville, NC. Our plan is to spend three days there, then go on to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for about a week and then to Shendoah National Park for a few more days before returning home. We are traveling with Ellen's brother and his girlfriend, who are also towing their bikes along. 

Yesterday started out well and we were on the road quite early. We zipped down I-95 to the New York border, then up to the Tappan Zee bridge and through New Jersey and Pennsylvania, ending up on I-81 to Maryland. We spent the evening at the McCoy's Ferry campground along the Potomac in the C&O Canal National Historic Park. The campground is on the riverside between the river and the remains of the canal. We actually had to pass through a tunnel under the canal to get to the campground. (No Class A RVs here,  the tunnel has a 10' maximum clearance.

It is a pretty primitive campground with vault toilets and water from a hand pump, but the view along the river was quite nice. There were lots of birds for Ellen and Beth, but they were mostly hidden in the trees and their audio identification skills are still in the beginner category. The campground  was fairly empty with only a few tent campers, including a couple who were bicycle touring. (The canal tow path is a 180+ mile trail which is a popular bicycle tour with lots of  simple campgrounds along the way).

We had dinner, Ellen's chicken chili and cornbread, at our picnic table along the river and finished it off with Beth's lemon poppy seed cake. A good time was had by all.

It was early to bed after a 515 mile drive with the expectation to get another early start today with our destination being the Rock Creek Recreation Area in the National Forest outside of Erwin, TN, about 50 miles from Asheville so that we could arrive early tomorrow, the first day of the rally.

Speedy didn't make it — neither did we. 

We got off to a reasonable start, not at the break of dawn, but early enough. It was pretty smooth sailing on I-81 south, given the density of truck traffic, and we were quickly out of Maryland, through the short bit of West Virginia and into the major part of today's route through the Virginia valleys west of the Blue Ridge. South of Roanoke, about halfway along our intended route, we headed up a long grade towards Christiansburg. Speedy was cruising slowly up the grade, as were many of the trucks, when it started to sputter—then the engine died. 

We managed to get over to the breakdown lane before we rolled to a stop. After about a minute, the engine fired and we continued up the hill, but only about a hundred yards before Speedy died again. Once again we were able to get into the braekdown lane, but were now on a curve and wedged between the rumble strip and a guard rail. Trucks were passing within about six inches of us. This time Speedy would not restart. Thus began our ordeal.


After trying to help us get it started,  we convinced Bob and Beth that it wasn't all that safe here for both vehicles (their's was parked behind us), so they went on to the next exit, while we called Coach-Net, the RV-oriented breakdown service we subscribe to. In most of the country, AAA with provide RV coverage, but not the branch serving Massachusetts. This is unfortunate, because they have always been prompt in the past when we've had auto problems. This is not the case with Coach-Net.

In the four years we've had Speedy, we have had three on-the-road breakdowns. They have all been an adventure with Coach-Net (none the good kind). After a half-dozen calls and nearly two hours, (each time we were asked the same questions about our location), they finally sent a tow truck. We'd hoped that it could be towed to the nearest Dodge dealer, in Christiansburg, seven miles away, but they couldn't service it for another week. Coach-Net wanted to send it back north about twenty miles to an independent shop.

We weren't happy with that since the last time they did that we were towed 50 miles out of the way, through the back roads of the Adirondacks to a place that didn't even service vehicles, just trailers. Today's tow truck drivers were much more helpful when they arrived. They suggested a truck repair shop, Tannahill Truck and Bus, who were, in their estimatation, very good, could diagnose it today and work on it first thing in the morning—and they were in the direction we were going.  They disconnected the trailer from Speedy. They towed it with one truck and Speedy with another and off we went to Radford, VA. 

We'd called ahead and Bob and Beth met us there. By this time it was nearly 5pm. We all decided that it was best if they went on to a nearby state park and would head on to the rally in the morning. We would stay with Speedy overnight and follow when it was repaired, hopefully in the morning. The folks at Tannahill were okay with us camping out in their yard, so here we are.