We had just made a left turn at Idabel Oklahoma, and our axle broke! Chuck said he never really felt anything because our truck is so big. He looked in the rearview and saw the MotherShip following at a 20% angle! We were on a 4-lane divided highway. Narrow side shoulders with some grass and then it dropped off a bit to the right down to a rain gutter. Chuck pulled over as much as he could, but the MotherShip was still a bit catawampus to the road, safely off the road… barely! I pulled up behind and put my emergency flashers on. This was about 2 pm Thursday. Chuck called Good Sam Roadside Assistance and after about 20 minutes they located By-Pass Diesel & Wrecker Service. They have 5 locations in Arkansas and had someone available in DeQueen to come take care of us.
Daryl showed up in 45 minutes! He crawled under the MotherShip for over an hour and competently repaired the axle enough for travel. We drove another 45 miles into DeQueen to the repair shop here. Daryl followed Chuck all the way and I followed Daryl in my Trailblazer.
We arrived shortly after 5 pm, or thereabouts. We pulled in to spend the night inside the fenced property to deal with everything tomorrow. We were all exhausted! By morning Daryl realized we were not going to find an axle to replace the broken one. Our axle is a bit wide compared to the norm. However, there is a business nearby that could rebuild it like new and have it back to us by late afternoon!
So off our axle went, on it’s way to be rebuilt about 10 am.
Chuck and Daryl spend the time doing a lot of man-talk stuff and I went to WalMart to stock up. While in WalMart I decided to buy the resident office cat, “Sunny” some treats.
By 3:30 pm the axle was back looking brand new!
As I sit here typing away, Daryl is busy under the MotherShip re-attaching the axle!
It is now 4:45 pm Friday and the axle will be finished in a few minutes. We also had to replace 2 tires and they should be on by tonight!
Daryl was nice enough to let us run the generator so we could get online and post this to you! We found out that not only does Daryl work here, he is the boss of this location of By-Pass Diesel & Wrecker Service! A very nice man and thank God, he is very knowledgeable and competent! He really pulled us out of a not to happy situation! We are now Happy Campers for sure.
So obviously we didn’t make it to Crater of Diamonds State Park, nor will we. We will spend one more night here inside the compound and head out tomorrow for a new destination! I will fill you in later about that!
Keep your fingers crossed that the rest of this trip goes well! We would really like to be in Apalachicola FL in time for the Seafood Festival!
That’s it from the MotherShip and DeQueen Arkansas! If ya’ll are ever out this way in Arkansas and need help… Daryl at By-Pass Diesel & Wrecker Service is the man to call!
Bye for now…. Geri, Chuck, Doogie and Radar!
