Day 5...and 6...Where All the Plans All Went out the Window
Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park
47 Miles (under her own power)
We started the morning packing up our very unlevel camp and hitting the road to Kings Canyon. Hwy 180 to Cedar Grove was closed, so we only made it as far as Grant Grove and the General Grant Tree.
From there we headed into Sequoia and the General Sherman Tree.
HOWEVER
About 5 miles from Lodgepole Visitors Center, something went completely wrong with Fleetwood! We lost acceleration, and pulled off the road to see if we could figure it out. The drivers side rear brake was smoking so we figured they had locked up. Where we pulled off had no cell service and no one to help us. We limped the rest of the way up the mountain to Lodgepole...which was closed! Thankfully we had amazing cell service and started making some calls. The first of which was to our AMAZING insurance agent to figure how to get Fleetwood towed out of a national park...on a weekend!
Our insurance started the search for a tow company to come get us, but we eneded up spending the night in the parking lot. So we made the best of it.
We set up our 'site' and BBQed for dinner.
We saw a little black bear across the street. Which gave Lindsay nightmares! She woke up at 4am terrified because she couldn't hear daddy snoring and thought the bear had got him.
After dinner we watched a movie on my phone, and settled in for the night.
At 7am the ranger came and knocked on our door. Once he heard we were stranded sleeping in the parking lot was no big deal.
We heard from the insurance company again and it sounded like we would be spending another night in the parking lot. Since we had time, we took the shuttle to the Giant Forest Museum and the General Sherman Tree.
Once we got back we got another call from the insurance company asking what time in the morning we wanted to schedule our tow. About 10 minutes later we got a call from Bee's Towing out of Fresno and he was on his way to come pick us up! We started packing up some things to get ready and prepare Fleetwood for a bumpy ride down the mountain. Turns out on his way would take about four and half hours, but that was still better than the next day.
When he got there, he went right to work hooking us up and away we went. The route we took was so steep and windy, we were thankful he was driving towing Fleetwood and not us driving her! It took about 3 hours to get down the mountain. We dropped Fleetwood at a repair shop and hitched a ride with our friend Heather to a hotel for the night.
Fleetwood towed beautifully, so we ruled out the brakes being locked up. We did notice fuel in the exhaust and the lack of power led us to think it might be a fuel system issue or the transmission. Hoping and praying it isn't the transmission!
Glad to be off the mountain and safe, but not how this was supposed to go.
