Breakdown on I-80! Film at 10! — South Chicago
And now this . . .
What is this thing?
On our trip to Starved Rock State Park near Oglesby, IL, we hit a massive traffic jam on westbound I-80 south of Chicago.
We made about 5 miles in an hour. Turns out that two semis were involved in an accident ahead of us.
So after an hour or so we passed the accident site and started getting up to freeway speed again. As luck would have it, we ended up behind a wrecker that was hauling away one of the semis.
As we hit freeway speed, a big semi part fell off the wrecker and underneath our RV, and as soon as the part hit us, our Newmar began handling badly. It felt like a flat tire so we pulled over on the side of I-80 — no mean task.
Before & After
After checking underneath, the tires looked fine, but there was a rod hanging down between the rear tires, and the back of our motorhome was low — very low.
The adjusting rod that controls the rear air suspension broke. We had to get it fixed ASAP. Next stop — a local K-Mart parking lot.
We called CoachNet, our road service company, and within an hour a field service tech arrived and had us up and running in half an hour for a “whopping” charge of $121. Whew!
rvSeniorMoments 
So, here’s the thing. I really admire your adventurousness, but that whole traffic jam, mechanical breakdown thing would drive me absolutely bats__t. As a working man, I visited a lot of burgs/villes across the US – among them Ottawa, Peru & Spring Valley, IL many times. For me, there are far more places in the US that I hope never to return to than there are that I would like to visit. Peru, the country, yes. Peru, IL, the city, uh uh. Happy travels!
Check the wild turkeys in the next post. That made it all worth it, but yes the traffic and road debris did wack us out for a while. C’est la vie.
Wow!! A combination of bad luck and good luck. Your RV breaks down but you get a guy to fix it ASAP. May you have happy trails in the future. Kath
Tx!