Adventures and Misadventures on the Road: The Journey Home

A Long-Overdue Update

Well, it has been about 10 days since the Alaska blog was updated. There has been alot going on since the last update. We ended up crossing back into the US at the Roosville, MT crossing July 29th at 12:52pm and made it to Whitefish, MT. The next morning we continued on. Around two hours into our travels that morning, I had a vertigo attack and relinquished the driving duties to Scott. When these attacks hit, I can get very dizzy to the point of vomiting and the only solution is to lie on my right side to let my head equalize. This can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours.

Recovering From Vertigo Attack

Scott had been driving for about 2 hours when I was awaken by some violent shaking of the truck and trailer. The trailer was fish-tailing wildly! Scott was fighting it with the steering wheel. I hollared for him to get off the brake and accelerate as he said he wasn't on the brake. Accelerating (and maybe grabbing the trailer brake, I can't remember) straightened us back out. I asked Scott if he fell asleep and he said his eyes were open the whole time. He must have 'zoned out' on this long, straight stretch of road and drifted onto the shoulder. We continued on until we found a wide spot to pull over, grab some lunch and assess the damages.

Assessing The Damage

There was significant damage to the entire back end of the camper, inside and out, and some additional damage on the right side. Broken dishes and cabinet doors, and generally a disaster area on the inside, greeted us when we opened the camper door. I was still needing to recover and after getting lunch, Scott wanted to continue on to our day's destination. However, I needed to contact my insurance company but what would I tell them? I needed to figure out what happened and then make the call. I got my laptop and the memory card out of the dashcam and began to search. When the road is long and straight, all the clips look the same. It took awhile but I finally found it. The truck slowly drifted off the road and the corrective action was too abrupt which, along with clipping a metal post reflector on the shoulder of the road, caused the fish-tailing. I believe if we weren't properly hitched with weight-distribution and sway bars, we would have flipped!

Resuming Driving Duties But It Was Not Over Yet

After several hours and feeling better, I took over the driving duties and we continued towards our destination. We were still on high plains and mountainous roads. We started down an 8%, 1.6 mile descent leading into Helena, MT. That was a scary descent! I was in lower gears and alternating between truck brakes and trailer brakes as not to overheat either. However, the trailer was trying to push the truck to the left towards oncoming traffic! We were maintaining a decent speed (never exceeded 63mph, speed limit 65mph) so I was not understanding why the trailer was pushing us out and the truck's traction control light was ocassionally flashing. After getting down the slope in one piece, we found a Walmart in Helena to park. Examining the underside of the camper reveal the culprit - the suspension springs and hangers were shot. We weren't moving from that parking lot and ended up being there for a week dealing with insurance.

The Journey Home Finally Continued

Finally, the decision to total the camper was made. I rented an RV Storage spot and slowly moved the camper to its final resting place before the insurance company sends someone out to haul it to wherever campers go to die. After cramming everything from the camper into my truck, I headed for Home Sweet Home!

Still have to deal with the insurance company but at least I can do it from the comfort of my home!

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It is the charge of the North Louisiana Fly Fishers to afford to the general public and our members in particular, a better understanding of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying. We wish to perpetuate the sport as a most pleasurable and exciting fishing method and provide education, instructions and the opportunities for relaxation to the membership.

The North Louisiana Fly Fishers (NLFF) serves the Ark-La-Tex area surrounding Shreveport. As the closest cold water fishery, we consider the Little Missouri (Little Mo') river near Murfreesboro, AR our home waters. We also fish the local rivers and lakes. We even have a growing group of kayak fishermen that, as well as the local rivers and lakes, will fish the gulf coast marshes for some saltwater action!