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Published: July 25th 2018
We were up and rolling a little earlier this morning...pulling out at 9:00. We had heard a weird sound from the truck when we pulled into camp yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, we heard it again even worse when we drove out of the campground this morning. Fortunately for us, we were just about four miles from a truck repair place (Effingham Tire and Repair Center) with a great reputation...sort of like Hobbs at home. At any rate, we stopped in there to get an idea of what was going on. Of course we had to get in line with folks with appointments but that was fine with us. After about an hour, a tech came out and checked our brakes. As John had thought, we had brake and rotor issues. The tech was able to find the correct parts in stock in town and so we waited some more! We were just thankful that we were so close to a good repair place with a good reputation and that we have enough money to pay for it! We would have been fresh out of luck if this had happened in some of the areas we have been in over the last few
weeks.
We have discovered through the years that people you have just met (and you sometimes hope you will never see again) will tell you just about anything. Today at the repair shop was no exception. The first one we met was a charming older local lady. As it turned out, she was 96 years old...only she was 96 years young! She has lived in this area all her life, working in the local Fedders (sp?) plant for close to forty years. Now she spends her time volunteering at her local Methodist church among other activities. We want to be her when we grow up!
Another lady...a younger one...was also very nice to talk to during the short time she was in the waiting room. THEN we got the old codger from... never mind... He wanted the TV turned up LOUD, then he wanted to comment on the weather, spam phone calls, how to talk to the folks who MAKE the spam calls, and heaven knows what else because in self defense I had to stop listening. I think he thinks John is his new best friend, and because John is congenitally polite, he continued to respond to
his conversational attacks. After what seemed like forever he decided to walk down the street for lunch, so we decompressed for awhile...and hoped we would be done and gone when he got back!
And he came baaaccckkkkk... Our chatty friend did come back from his extended lunch. As it happened our repair work was finished about twenty minutes after he returned. After we thanked everyone and were getting ready to leave, the owner came past me and asked (tongue in cheek...I hope!!) if we would take Fred with us!! I suspect that Fred is a frequent customer there. He has a ratty old van that he uses to carry abandoned scrap pieces of steel he finds and picks up along the road, which he then takes to salvage lots to sell. Bless his heart...
Our repair took several hours, but was finally done. I suspect that the gentleman who worked on Muf skipped his lunch to get us back on the road at 4:00. That made a long day of 6 1/2 hours waiting at the repair center. All the accolades we read on line about this place are all true. They took on ownership of our problem
and got us back on the road again. We were strangers, and they took us in.
From the repair shop we drove back to Camp Lakeview RV Park where we spent last night. We didn’t see any reason to go down the road another hour or so and we were pleased with the campground. We went to camp first and signed up for the lot we were on yesterday and then headed back to town for a sit down meal at Niemurg’s Steak House, which has done business in a Effingham for 40 years. It was delicious...and “he who shall remain nameless” brought back a slab (yes, I said SLAB!!) of rhubarb crisp. There will be an intervention in his future...probably about the time he weighs when we get home...
Now as if our day had not been filled with enough excitement...John discovered that the inside tire of our duelie on the drivers’ side was flat!! Luckily we were within 1/2 a mile of the repair shop so we drove back down there. We are now hoping that it is fixed. It had to do with an extension on the inside duelie. I just told you more than
I actually know. We will check again in the morning. Fingers crossed. (PS...our chatty friend, Fred, was still at the store...)
We headed back to camp at 6:20–-this has been a long day. Also, obviously we will NOT be home tomorrow. It will likely be on Thursday. We drove 14 miles today.
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Kim C
non-member comment
Yay
Glad you got to your campground tonight with everything fixed! : ) Just turn that frown upside down.