07-21-03 - Went to get stuff from the camper and I asked the owner if he is assuming responsibility and he said he would and will be fixing the camper at no charge. All the parts should be on order and it should take 2-3 weeks to get it all in. MAYBE we'll be ready to go again for Labor Day weekend, if we are lucky. I know better than to get my hopes up

Thursday, July 10, the alarm goes off at 2:30am and we shower, get the last of the food in the cooler, pack up the kids and leave home about 3:15am. We get onto the Interstate about 4:00am and the kids are starting to go back to sleep.

I thought I heard Charles say someting so I ask "What's wrong?" He looks at me funny and says "Nothing. I didn't say anything." So I blow it off and start to settle in with my pillow and one of the baby blankets.

I just finished saying my prayers when Charles hears a noise and looks in his side mirror and sees a redish glow in the driver side wheel well of the camper. He says something (I don't remember what it was but it caused me to bolt upright) as he immediately pulls onto the shoulder of the highway and jumps out of the van to look. We both knew right away what it was.

I yell out the window that the fire company should be on their way and ask if the fridge is running off the propane tanks. (The fridge is to the left of the wheel well). Charles comes running back up to the van and unhooks the camper from the van and drives up the road a bit to get us away from the now raging inferno coming up the side of the camper. By this time, 2 state police cruisers have arrived but their fire extinguishers don't seem to even make a dent. The fire department shows up and puts it out. It's now 4:30am.

I concentrate on calming the kids down and finding all the paperwork for the van, camper, Triple A, Insurance cards...etc while Charles talks to the police and fire department.

We are dumbfounded as to what to do next. I call Triple A (AAA) but although I have AAA Plus, I don't have RV on it. So we'll have to pay for all the towing. Yuck! They put a rush on it since the State police want it off the road for rush hour traffic.

Next, I call my mom (who is only 40 minutes away) and after assuring her we are all physically Okay, ask her if she can come with her truck to help us take some stuff out of the camper back home. She says she'll get dressed and be there as soon as she can.

The police and fire department leave and we have to wait for the tow truck to arrive. We have no idea how long they will take to get there.

As we wait for the tow truck Charles & I discuss the events of the morning and what just happened. We both realize it could have been worse. The most important thing is that the kids and ourselves were fine and that the only physical damage was to the camper. Reality hits - It's not insured. @#$^& A million questions come up. It's covered under the automobile policy, right? We dont know, that's what everyone told us when we got it. What if it's not? @#$^& What about what's inside? What kind of damage is inside? @#$^& @#$^& @#$^&! All our cloths, toiletries, bedding... The list goes on... None of it would be covered if damaged and it's not even our fault! We do not have the money to replace any of it! Now we're really mad!

See... the last time we went out was over Memorial Day weekend. About 5 miles from the campground we were staying at, the camper brakes locked up on us and started smoking. Luckily that time, we going very slow through a small town and were able to catch it in plenty of time. We had friends with us who knew helped repack the bearings and knew how to disengage the brake on that side to get us to the campground and back home again. We took it to the local camper service place and had all the brakes looked at and had them fix whatever was wrong. Ended up needing a complete new brake assembly put on that one side. We got it back just over a week before we left.

I had since driven the van back down to the camper. It's getting light out now and the traffic starts to get heavier as the early birds make their way into work. I inquired if the propane tanks were still on. We walked back to the camper and as he is shutting off the propane, I comment that I smell smoke. "Well, Duh!" "No! A different kind than the stench from the burnt fiberglass." I end up calling 911 again and when the police show up the Police officer from before said it smelled like wood this time. That's when the fire department arrived.

Here, the trucks that had been passing us (at 50-70 MPH) were creating a backdraft that started the smoldering back up and the fire was somewhere inside now. We assumed the worst. The fireman asked Charles to open the camper door up so they could get inside it this time. Not knowing what was going on inside that camper, Charles wanted someone with a fire suit to open the camper door - but they had him do it. Luckily it was contained to one of the base cabinets where the pots & Pans are stored. We had cardboard pieces between the glass lids to protect the cookware when we travel and that was what started smoldering and set off the second phase. So minimal damage this round. Whew!

While they have the camper up, Charles gets out the suitcases and other stuff from around the door out of the camper. My mom is already here and she tends to the kids and gives them something to eat and drink while we load her truck with what we can. The tow truck arrives and gets into position. They load it up and off they go to take it back to the camper place. Charles goes with the tow guy, I drive the van and kids home with mom following me.

It's only 7:30am when we leave the scene, but I feel like a whole day has passed. Elizabeth doesn't understand what happened and never wants to camp again because she is afraid of catching on fire. She's sad that she wont get to see all the special people we planned to see on vacation. I try to comfort her on the drive home but she can sense the disappointment in my voice and we both cry a while. I then tell her that the most important things to me are already in the van and nothing else but that matters. Together, we say a prayer of Thanksgiving and we both feel better.

Mom has to leave and the camper place doesn't open till 10:00am, so we have a little wait. We call pur niece to see if she can watch the kids while we go to the camper place. She comes over and we leave. More thoughts running through our head... Maybe they'll offer a loaner camper and we can still go. Yeah, but the van can only pull a pop-up. @#$^&! They don't have one on their lot big enough to fit us.

We go in and politely ask to speak to the owner. They guy says he is the owner, how can he help us...we tell him what happened... He assures us that when it left there everything was working fine...Couldn't have been their fault...Blah Blah Blah... *discussion* I start getting upset and fighting back tears I tell him that it totally ruined our vacation. What are we suppose to do now? He chirps right up that he can have it road worthy in less than a day if we want. (Meaning new tires and wheels - nothing else). I bluntly tell him - "UH, NO! I want you to fix it right!" He reluctantly agrees to look at it and let us know what he finds. I ask him to call us when they pull it into the garage to look it over and let us see what they find. He said he'd call. End of discussion. We leave even more distraught than before.

They never called so on Saturday I called them and the guy said that it indeed was that brake that went bad and somehow the pad came off and the lining was just laying int the wheel well. the friction build up caused the heat that started the fire. That's all he knew. Wasn't sure why or how though. He already had the new brake parts ordered and will contact Jayco to get new outside panel and other parts. He never said it was his fault or that he was taking responsibility for the cost to fix it. I wasn't in the mood to start that conversation so that is a discussion for another day I suppose.

This saga wont be over for a while yet. But our dreams of a relaxing fun camping vacation is. We were not offered a loaner unit. Nothing. We spent our vacation at home. Elizabeth hasn't slept in her own room since this happened. She's afraid a fire will get her and us, so she wants to sleep in the babies room to protect them and be with us. To top it off, our dog died unexpectantly that Sunday.