Trying To Just Make It Down the Road

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We had one last claim in Yreka, all the way to the Oregon border and drove there after Burney Falls. From Yreka we needed to get to Petaluma. The plan was that we’d get to Petaluma by late afternoon, Clayton and Jen would join us with their kids and pizza.

First delay was at a rest stop where we stopped for lunch. We’d just pulled into the stop and 2 of the grandkids and I had gone into the RV to get lunch stuff. One was still in the truck waking up and Dale was nearby.

I was standing at the RV table when a tractor trailer rig came thru, way too fast, pulling into a spot one over from us. The truck proceeded to go thru the parking spot, jumped the curb and hit a light post. The light post was pushed several feet away and the light fixture landed on the freeway. I looked up with the noise of the crash.

The driver of the truck backed up off the curb, got out of the truck and looked at the front, got back in the truck and drove away fast. Good thing no one was in his way.

Everything happened so fast that no one got the truck’a license plate number but I thought to call 911 as he pulled away. A Caltrans worker and I gave a good description to the dispatcher and we were told to wait for the CHP to arrive.

As we were finally sitting down to eat another Cal Trans worker came and told us that because of our quick actions the CHP caught the truck driver. Good!!!

We were about ready to leave when the CHP came to interview us. The officer interviewed the grandkid who saw the entire thing. All 3 kids kept asking the officer all kinds of questions but he was patient with them and let them ask away. We did have to stop them from showing him that they could count to 100 and beyond.

We were probably another hour down the road when a front right tire on the RV blew. We heard a bang; I looked out the side mirror to see tire pieces flying. We stopped and Dale changed the tire; fortunately he brought everything necessary for this event. Unfortunately the spare was not a great tire so we had to slow way down.

We finally made it to Petaluma, kids came and we gathered our wits about us. It was after starting to set up camp that we saw that the bottom of the RV skin was shredded. Fearing that there was damage that we couldn’t see underneath I called in a claim to the insurance.



We pulled out our much needed wine (our Poison) and took a break from our day!

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Photos

Light Post
The light post that was hit. Light fixture is on the freeway.