Well, Suzanne is becoming a trooper! We hit the road by 7:45 this morning.
While I really like the Outdoor Resorts site at Lake Toxaway, it is a real challenge to get there with a coach, especially a tag-axle 45 footer (which most of the site owners have) coming in from the west or east. We left going east, and the first 6 miles or so included numerous hairpin turns which required maximum speeds of 10 to 20 mph. Once out of the hills, the roads improved as we headed North on highway 280/Alt. 25 East to Ashville. From there we took I40 east to I77 north. Both roads are heavily traveled by trucks and have lengthy stretches of very rough pavement.
I was a bit nervous about the climb to Fancy Gap on I77, but the coach took it in stride at 55 mph in 5th gear. Then the fun began! It seems a highway crew was doing some road work between mile markers 24 and 26 that required single lane traffic. The bumper-to-bumper, 5 mph travel started for us at mile market 12! An hour or so later, we reached mile marker 26 to find 6 of Virginia's finest highway workers resting against the guard rail. By this time, I would expect that the traffic was backed up all the way to Fancy Gap! There has to be a better way to get highway work done.
We arrived in Lexington a bit spent from the trip and checked in at the Lee Hi Campground (and major truck center) around 3:30. It is a very spartan camp site - not recommended no matter what Trailer Life says! We had dinner in the local cafe - again, not recommended.
In the meantime, I had been working on the lights on the "toad". It appears as though the fellow who installed the motorcycle lift reversed the brake and turn indicator lights in the connector, so when I signaled left in the coach, the right tail light of the car lit up. Somewhat disconcerting for those following - during the slow crawl up I77 a driver who had been following advised us of the problem.
So, being Mr. Fixit, I took the connector apart and proceeded to short it out, so now I have no connection between the coach and the car - both of which work just fine independently, thank God. Now to find the fuse for the trailer light connection. After much searching and a few calls. I was told by our trusty expert, Red Bay's Brannon Huthcheson, that it is under a black box in the last bay on the passenger side of the coach - of course nowhere is it mentioned in the Owner's Manual!
Tomorrow's job awaits as the last light of day slowly fades! After I fix the fuse, we will make the final run to Gettysburg. Hope there is no more road work!
Until tomorrow.
Cheers
John, Suz and Dixie the Wonderdog
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