Moose on the side of the road

Well, we did it! We bought a 1977 Argosy Motorhome/RV affectionately called “Moose”.

Early Saturday morning, we woke up at 4am and drove North of Knoxville, TN to take a look at the motorhome. The owners were nice to give it a quick wash and turn on a space heater inside. The pictures posted online were extremely accurate and a lot of love and hard work had gone into restoring the inside of this motorhome. Sadly, we were disappointed to find a large hole and crack in the front windshield, a plexiglass window and a full on horizontal crack on another side window. I suspect we will have serious problems getting it titled in GA since an inspection is required. But we quickly found out that we have bigger problems….

We had lined up a place to get two new front tires in Knoxville, Fleet Tire, and had to get there before they closed. After paying for Moose, we headed on down the road. At the first gas station, still in town, Moose died. Literally 10 minutes from driving away. There were a lot of emotions and concerns but luckily the Seller and his son were there in a jiffy and jump started Moose. Whew! But in reality….no.

About 40 minutes later and about 10 miles North of Knoxville, Moose died again. It died directly in front of a salvage yard and don’t think that I wasn’t tempted on asking them to make me offer!!!!!!!!! But, Mike asked the lady at the salvage yard for jumper cables instead of selling it. It was so close to getting started. You could hear the engine wanting to turn over! All of a sudden, a large truck came by a little too close and the wind/draft of it literally yanked the battery out of the side compartment. We now had a dead Moose on the side of the road.

Our only option (although salvage was/is still in my mind!) was to call Good Sam Roadside Assistance and have Moose towed to a service center. Three hours later, Good Sam finally found a tow service that could pick us up. I can not correctly describe the anger, fear, angst, frustration, disgust, etc that I was going through during this time. To be fair to Moose, all of these feelings were flashbacks from 20 years ago being stranded on the side of the road in DC and AAA telling me it would be SIX hours until they could get to me. Just typing that sentence brings back 20 year old anger. I literally curse AAA!

I told my son that God was trying to teach me a lesson & I wish I knew what the lesson is. He quickly and confidently responded, “God is trying to teach you patience, hope and trust”. Awwww

Jim’s Garage Service came to tow us. Bobby the driver was awesome and very professional. I can’t say enough nice things about them. They called us and gave us a time of arrival as well as a description of the tow truck. Bobby took us on the back roads to the Good Sam preferred service center so we could avoid the rush of the interstate.

We made it to Performance Truck and Trailer repair safe and sound. Mike showed the mechanic what he thought was wrong with Moose and asked if they could get the generator fixed as well. Just talking, in general, Mike mentioned that we need tires and want a paint job. Turns out that Performance can do all of it! It will be a week before we can pick Moose up but we feel it’s safe and sound where it is.

So here is the moral of the story….. You are not going to get a perfect motorhome for $2500. We knew this and the Seller was upfront with us as well as coming to help when the first breakdown happened. We had hoped to get it to Atlanta to a local mechanic but where we got it to in Knoxville really feels like the place it needs to be. If we drove it home, it could’ve died in worse places or during construction traffic.

From the Seller to Bobby the tow truck driver to Paul at Performance….. All of them were gracious and helpful. In today’s world, it’s a rarity and most appreciated.

After a day of frustration, fear and anger, it turns out that God did teach me patience, hope and trust!

Performance charged us $1100 to replace two tires, dropped the gas tank/flushed/cleaned and replaced the batteries and battery cables.