Our 4th day out reminded us of the stressful parts of traveling. We left Northampton after a long night of heavy wind, rain and power outages. Early in our drive we ran into closed roads due to flooding or trees down, forcing us to adjust our route on the fly. Sounds easy, but driving a 40 foot coach with a car attached that is almost 13 feet high, limits what roads you can use. Tight turns, low bridges and bridge weight limits all are common in western Massachusetts.
Once we got to the Mass Turnpike we thought we were home free. But heavy rain continued, and the Breeze felt very sluggish, seeming unable to get up the long hills on the turnpike without slowing down as slow as 35 mph. By the time we had gotten into New York State it was getting worse and the last few miles before reaching our destination I drove in the breakdown lane, mostly at 25 to 35 mph.
I pulled into Post Jervis NY and stopped at a local small truck shop that was recommended by a nearby RV dealer. We then checked into a Hampton Inn for the night so the shop could get at the problems in the morning.
I spent the next day at the truck repair shop called Fullers that is run by an older man, know only as Grandfather, his son Jimmy (very much a biker type) and Jimmy's daughter Erin. They were the nicest people and were determined to solve our problem. I got to hang out, learned quite a lot about the Breeze and sit by the stove in the shop with the shop dogs Miley and Noname.
By 3 PM the problems solved we headed south again. Turned out that both the fuel filter and air filter were clogged. And I thought both had been replaced in May when I had the Breeze serviced. Obviously I was wrong.
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