Focht Family Blog

Well… we did make it most of the way to Indy before stopping for the night. However we probably should have stopped before we did. The kids were already in bed for the night and we drove until ablout 10:00 or so before looking for a Walmart to crash at. At around 9:00 we started smelling diesel fumes but didn’t think much about it. Note: If you smell fumes, pull over and investigate.

We got off of the freeway in a little town in West Virginia called Cross Lanes. We knew we were low on fuel and decided we needed to get gas before going to Walmart so we would have enough for the generator to run all night. When we stopped we realized that we were leaking diesel at a fast rate. We pulled over to the side of the gas station and called our Good Sam ERS to have us towed. They said we would have to be cleared by a fire department before they would tow us so they called the local fire department for us. This was a volunteer department and I cannot say enough nice things about them. A young man in a pickup was the first to get there and he called it in. Next 3 more men on a fire truck showed up.

They said we needed to get the kids out because of the fumes so we took them out and put them in the trailer until we figured out what we were going to have to do. The firemen knew my cell was dying so they called all of the local hotels to find us the last room in town (big football game that weekend). The chaplain came and he drove my mom, me and the kids to the hotel where we checked in. Nathan stayed with the RV and trailer to get it towed. The trailer ended up getting towed to the hotel parking lot so we could let the dogs out every few hours (hotel did not allow animals).

Nathan had problems getting someone to tow the RV so finally at 6:00 in the morning he drove it to the local Cummins shop (luckily there was one in town). They diagnosed that a rail had a leak in it and it needed to be replaced. They didn’t have the part in stock but there was one in Louisville, KY that they could have overnighted on Monday. Unfortunately we needed to be in Indy by Tuesday so Nathan got creative with a solution. We rented a car and drove to Louisville, picked up the part from the distribution center and drove back. We dropped the part off at the shop so they could fix it first thing Monday. They had everything fixed and we made it to Indy by 9:00 Monday night.

There are still a few fumes in the bathroom because the diesel is still burning off of the engine from where it had spilled but it is getting better everyday.