Part two of Fun with a fixer upper camper

We left Oklahoma City and had good nights sleep behind us and felt good about the camper. We expected to make some repairs, so what we found was not catastrophic. The structure was sound and the floor was solid.

We made it to Amarillo TX for lunch the next day. We again stopped at a truck stop to get fuel and eat. We checked out the outside of the camper and it seemed to be holding together pretty well. Bruce started to drive a little faster and we were making good time.

We got as far as Tucumcari, NM when we had a blow out. One tire on the passenger side blew out. I mean it nearly blew the camper over. We had just passed the first exit to the city and it was too far to the next one to try and drive on it. We had the spare tire, but Bruce could not break the lug nuts loose to change the tire. I called AAA and they sent out a highway patrol man to see if we were ok. He then called a wrecker to help us. The wrecker came and changed the tire for us and then charges us $230.00 for it. I was out raged with this.

I told them I was going to call everyone I could to get a better deal. Of course they did not pay attention to me. So, we got all packed up and on our way again. Now Bruce had to drive slowly again because we did not have a spare tire.

We made it into Morarity, NM. The stations were all closed and it was hard to find any one that had a tire for sale. We stayed again in a truck stop parking lot, and I cooked supper in the camper. The next morning Bruce went out hunting for a spare tire. He found a tire shop that had two of them and we bought them. The spare we had put on was chipping off tread and so he changed that one again and put another tire on the spare rim. So, we are off again.

We were going down the road minding our own business and a big fancy camper went by waving and pointing to our camper. I told Bruce something must be wrong so he pulled over to the side and we looked at every thing and could not see what was wrong. So Bruce started to drive again and I was watching out the mirror on my side to see if I could see what the people were pointing at. Bruce was driving slowly again. I could not see a thing wrong.

Well, he decided to drive a little faster and I kept watching. When Bruce got up to about 60 MPH the awning would unwind. When he slowed down it would wind back up. It was funny- he would speed up and the awning would unwind, slow down and it would wind back up. So it began to rain and I told him we had better stop and tape it or tie it so that it would not come undone. So he pulled over again and we got out to repair it, it was freezing out. I mean it was cold. I could not believe it. He got the awning tied up and we thought it would be ok until we got to our destination.

He picked up speed again and we pulled off the interstate onto the two-lane road going to ShowLow AZ.

The awning was still coming out and so we stopped to tape it good. It was not going to come out again for awhile when I got done with it. It was like a mummy.

We got to ShowLow and got our camper parked. Bruce got out and he had another tire coming apart so he and his son went looking for more tires. He got a deal on two more tires, changed them and we enjoyed the rest of the week and the graduation.