Redneck vacation and other stuff

Daughter #2 and her family left the week before the NH wedding so that they could vacation en route north.

Well, they didn’t get far before having to call Dad for HELP!  So, Maytag Man made a road trip to Virginia at 9p to help the kids get the Freightliner truck running. 

Six hours into a two-week trip, the truck just stopped running as the kids turned off the interstate.  After trouble shooting over the phone, MM and Jason decided it needed a new fuel transfer pump (oh boy, we just happened to have one on the wrecked bus, featured on yesterday’s blog!).  By 6AM the next morning, the “new” pump was on the truck and it was running, so MM headed on back home…after fueling up on a good breakfast, complete with Nana Joyce’s homemade biscuits.

Rut roh.  Thirty minutes and one phone call later, it was turn around and go back time, as the truck did not even make it out of the parking lot.  An hour later after trying all possible solutions, a bright idea came on in MM’s head---he checked the driver's side fuel tank.  Yes, it was empty, as the vent on the other tank was plugged (danged dirt dauber!), and it would not let fuel out of the tank that had the fuel gauge on it. Twelve hours later, the truck was still running fine, and the kids were in NJ, finally vacationing.

Amy figured out this was the fifth time MM had come to their rescue with fuel (twice), a tow home, and even once flying four tires to them for the travel trailer when they were stranded with a flat.  Dad is great!!!…most of the time.

Now the ‘rest of the story’ on the church bus (it only had 37K miles on it) is that it was totaled by the insurance company, so MM was able to buy it at a very reasonable price to “part out” stuff on it to use for our own Freightliner.  He and the kids (plural) were very thankful for the ugly bus parts…Brian drove the rig/camper back home from NH.  And he and Faith and young Haley were still speaking after their own camping vacation. 

Speaking of Faith, happy birthday, honey!