Focht Family Blog

We are still stuck in Columbus, Ohio. The engine is totaled on the RV. We found out a few days into this ordeal that the engine had a recall on it for doing this exact thing. We got lucky that it didn’t blow through the coach or damge the transmission. The new engine is supposed to be here on Monday and the earliest we will be out of here is Friday but they are thinking it will be a little later than that. We took the kids to the Science Museum today. I will post more on that with pictures tomorrow. Spartan is going to give us some money to cover the extra eating out and the rental car. We have been able to visit with my mom’s cousins a couple of times while we have been here. They live near Dayton and that is only an hour away. Mom’s trailer is supposed to be fixed tomorrow. The tow company owner is coming to fix it and he is also going to move us a few feet into a different site at the park we are at that is available as long as we need it. Things could be much worse. We have a place to stay and food to eat. Everyone is healthy and well.

By Mr. Toad I mean the singing stuffed frog in mom’s trailer. Yesterday was another adventurous day in the life of the traveling Focht family. We were making our way from Indiana towards Pennsylvania. In Ohio, about 20 minutes east of Dayton I felt a small bump while driving and then an alarm started sounding and the engine shut off. I looked in the mirrors and saw smoke billowing out of the coach. I coasted to a stop on the side of the road and Nathan jumped out to see what happened. I had the kids at the door to get out because I was thinking fire. However, it was oil everywhere and the smoke was from the oil on the hot engine.

We called Spartan and they sent a tow truck. We called Good Sams and they sent a tow truck for the trailer. I called a cab and had them pick me up on the highway and drive me back to Dayton where I picked up a rental minivan and I came back just as the tow trucks were ready to leave. I put the kids, mom and the dogs in the minivan with me and we followed the trailer. Nathan rode in the truck with the RV. About 15-20 miles down the road I am driving behind the tow truck. He is going 64 in a 55 driving in the left lane. All of a sudden sparks are flying out of the trailer and then the trailer runs off the road and into the median heading for oncoming traffic. I should mention at this point that the tow truck was still traveling straight on the highway. Apparently he had not hooked it up correctly and he didn’t even feel it when he lost it. Just as the trailer is about two feet from going into oncoming traffic, the trailer started turning back in because of the embankment. It came to a stop in the middle of the median. It is amazing that it didn’t flip. There was some damage but it looks like it was only about $500 worth and the tow truck company is going to fix it.

Unfortunately the RV isn’t so lucky. Looks like it has major damage and they said it will probably be at least five days before they know the extent of the damage. Spartan will cover the costs but it leaves us stranded in Ohio and we are all staying cramped in the trailer. We extended the rental of the minivan for a week and the camping for a week and I am hoping Spartan will cover those costs as well as some costs for all of the meals we are now having to eat out because there isn’t enough room to cook and feed 6 in the trailer.

I guess life is never boring….. My take on it is nothing flipped, nothing caught fire, and everyone is safe and okay. Everything else is just inconveniences! :)

I forgot the camera again! I need to just keep it in my purse or something. We went to Connor Prairie on Friday and Nathan came with us. The kids had a lot of fun. It is more condensed than Williamsburg and spans more time periods. It is also more interactive for the kids so I think they enjoyed it more. They have a Indian camp where you can trade with the fur trader (we got there too late) but we were still able to see all of the different pelts and talk to them as to what they consider worth trading for. Also in the Indian camp were two different shelters and the kids could try to grind corn using a large mortar and pestle type container.

Next they had a prairie town that was set in 1836. We were able to walk through all of the houses and learn about how different careers lived and worked. They also had a barn where the kids could interact with different animals. They had goats, sheep, baby chicks, a cow and a donkey. Josh and Timmy especially liked this area. They had an opportunity to make beeswax candles. Unfortunately the boys got bored before theirs were done so Nathan ended up having to finish theirs while I took them back to the barn. :)

They also had another settlement that was based in 1886. At the farm in this area the kids could help with some of the chores. Josh was getting tired by this point but Timmy and Samantha both took turns milking a cow! :)

We are winding up our visit in Indiana tonight. We just met another family two sites over tonight that have 3 kids and also home-school. The kids have been having a lot of fun playing with them tonight. We will leave in the morning and will try to do something fun tomorrow for Timmy’s birthday. We will Walmart camp tomorrow night and then Tuesday we will be in Pennsylvania for a week so we can go to Hershey next weekend.

This is my last update before I go to bed. I think I am finally caught up on the blog and I learned how to resize the photos so it shouldn’t take so long to load the blog now. I also set it so it only shows the most recent 5 posts to aid in load time. Anyway, we are in Indianapolis until Monday morning. We will be going on a field trip on Friday to a place called Connor Prairie where the kids can experience life from the frontier days. I will post with pictures soon after. Tonight we went bowling for Timmy’s birthday. His birthday is on Monday and I asked him what he wanted to do and he said go bowling. So I looked for a local lane and they had a family deal on Wednesday so we went tonight. I will bake him a cake and take him out for a special meal on Monday to celebrate his actual day. Hope everyone enjoys catching up with our adventures.

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.