Singing The Wabash Blues In Peru, Indiana

The trip enroute to the Peru, IN was very pleasant and uneventful.  As you may note for the feverish and hyper look on the face of our beloved pal, Dougal, it was really business as usual!

As usual, that is, until a backfire, an engine miss and an electrical failure rendered the Gypsy Wagon inoperative only 20 miles from our destination in Kokomo.  The next 2 1/2 hours were a slow-moving blur as we negotiated getting a tow truck with a well-meaning but hopelessly-dense call center employee working for our insurance company.  

Not wanting to jinx us, but wanting to certainly shuffle the cards of fate, we had elected to pay for roadside assistance on our policy.  I'm very glad we did!

Once we understood that our home would have to wait on the side of US31 overnight with the 4-way flashers lighting up the night sky, we went about 3 miles south to the second exit and checked into a Knights Inn for a pleasant (soon to be two night stay). We could do this because we were towing ITSARTD (our VW New Beetle Convertible) which we unloaded and drove off into the night.

I had agreed to meet the tow truck operator at 8 AM on Sunday and, as was to be expected, he showed up at 9:45 or so with a monster, Class 8 commercial tow vehicle suitable to tow our 16,000 Lb. home to a local truck repair facility.  I got back to the motel about 11 AM and we went out for a good breakfast.

Tomorrow morning, I will go over to the repair facility and ensure that they are able to fix our coach and get us back on the road (hopefully) by Monday afternoon.

Leaving Home Headed South

One of my favorite Jimmy Buffet songs advocates that one "Roll With The Punches".  That is the official theme of our first snowbird venture this winter.  We have no real deadlines and will comply readily with all of them!  

We left at about 1:20 pm on Saturday, January 4, 2020 after a series of false starts and things chucked into our path.

Like, for example, the situation with our cat, Teag.

Our daughter, Erin, agreed to have him as a house guest during our absence.  On Friday evening, we learned that her apartment complex needed more information about our cat than was ever required in vetting any recent government appointees.  After checking with the veterinary clinic where we got him 9 years ago (he is 12) we learned that they have no records that go back that far and the Erin may have to take him to a local vet to examine his non-existent testicles to ensure that he would not become the Genghis Kahn of her apartment feline community.

In spite of all these last minute demands, we managed to turn down the heat, turn off the water, program the light timers and hit the road.  Our plan was to go US131 to I94 to US31 and South to spend the night at a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Kokomo, IN.

At least, that was our plan.