Maiden Voyage

Friday was the beginning of our first camping trip in the new RV. It was rough from the start. Before we left the house, half of the chassis DC electrical was dead, and the generator wouldn't start. So therefore, we had no air conditioning. Not usually a deal breaker during May in Washington, but it was in the 90's. Janae called Poulsbo in Auburn, and after much attempted troubleshooting over the phone, they told us to come in. Being that this was Friday afternoon, we hurriedly left home, leaving behind firewood and bikes among other things. But we made it to Poulsbo, where the helpful shop people had our DC situation fixed promptly. Looks like the oil level sensor on the generator is kaput. We now have an appointment at Cummins Northwest to check that out. The service guy confirmed that the oil level was good (I had already checked), and said that he couldn't tell me to unhook the oil sensor sending unit, but it would work just fine with it unhooked... On our way with the generator running and cool A/C flowing!!! Oh yea, they filled our propane and gas tanks for our trouble. The Auburn Service Department has been nothing but helpful so far. Now it was rush hour, so we stopped to buy fishing poles and Arby's. Then we were on our way to Alder Lake (near Eatonville). All was good until the Mashell River bridge on SR 7. It was pretty curvy in the area, and I was going pretty slow. That was a good thing. As I drove onto the bridge, I noticed a N/B tractor trailer combo coming at me around the curve on the opposite side of the bridge. The tractor was cool, but as I approached, I noticed that the trailer was in my lane... I moved right, braking hard, wishing to avoid becoming one with the chip-hauler. As I slowed, I felt a bump, and slowed to a stop, as had the truck. We were close. I stayed in place as the truck slowly started forward. As he moved past, he was clearing my driver side mirror by about 2 inches. Eventually he went past. I pulled across the bridge and into turnout on the side of the road. It was then that I noticed the truck had continued N/B, as well as the crease down the side of my new RV from rubbing against the guardrail on the bridge. You can only imagine the foul language that was heard in the area for about the next 30 seconds. I called 911, but didn't even have them send out a Trooper. I only had a green tractor pulling a chip trailer for a description, and the guy probably didn't even know I had hit the rail. Guess we now know where the money from selling the Winnebago on Thursday will be going. At least no one got hurt. We continued on once I had recovered... We finally arrived just about 9:00pm (good thing we got the kids out of school at noon, huh?). Set up and got a fire started. Soon it was bedtime. Figures... Spent the last few days driving in rush hour traffic in the metro area with no problems. What ya gonna do? Alder Lake to follow.