We stopped for gas and so on, and I noticed that the third vent (the one I didn't replace) had come untaped and was flapping. Figuring if it flapped it would rip off and we'd be left with a hole in the roof, I suggested a trip to the hardware for Gorilla Tape. I was all set to climb up and tape the living %$#! out of it, but M got sensible and said no, I wasn't going on the roof in 50mph gusts. He's resourceful - managed to find one of those self-carwashes to pull into so I had some protection. I taped the ^%#!@ out of it as planned, and we headed back out into the awful wind.
Somewhere on the road - I don't remember what little city - we stopped again and I took over driving. Outside of that city the wind got even worse - no, really, not just because it was me driving, it really was bad. But here's the kicker - as I drove along, we got hit by a small tornado.
Yes. A tornado.
Looked like one of the dust devils we get at home, only quite a bit taller, and I saw it out of the corner of my eye and had time to say something suitably trepidacious, when BAM! it crossed the road, and the camper was no longer in my control, swerving and swaying, and then something lifted up and went KABANG back down, and it was over and we were miraculously still upright and I pulled off the road. "I think we're all right," M said. I said, "No, I think the camper came off the truck."
A guy on a three-wheel utility vehicle from the farm we were next to came tearing up while we were still sitting in the cab getting oriented. "Are you all right? I saw that! It picked you right up! Never seen that before!"
M said later he doesn't believe it actually picked up the whole truck, although the farmer dude said we were up on two wheels, and from what it felt like, I think it's possible. But it DID definitely shift the camper, and loosened the turnbuckles. And it shifted enough that the turnbuckles couldn't be retightened. How on earth to shift the whole camper back, move it up on the truck?
M wins the resourceful prize again. He backed it slowly into a telephone pole. Yes, he did. I spotted for him, and he just backed it up like an elephant scratching its rear end, and pushed it on the telephone pole until it shifted up a couple inches. Defacing Public Property, most likely, but it worked and we were outta there before we could get caught and spend a night in the Utah hoosegow.
One turnbuckle is still not as tight as you'd like, but we were back on the road, headed up over the mountains.
And then the truck decided to have engine trouble.
We're still miles from anywhere, up a steep mountain, and the truck is stumbling and coughing and trying to die. M pulls over, and revs it, and it runs when it's not under load, but pull back out onto the road, it won't run. We're doing a coughing stumbling 2 mph, watching every turnout, and I'm saying nothing because what can I say that would be helpful?
M changed tanks and that did improve it, and we made it to the top of the hill. We had plenty of gas, but M thinks the truck doesn't like uphill climbs at 6,000 feet. We kept going, though!
Due to vents, tornados, and engine issues, we pulled into Kanab, Utah sort of late, dropped by the grocery store for a few dinner things, and found a Good Sam RV park, which is where we are right now. I climbed up into the back, and looked at the camper and the closets, and thought, "It looks like a TORNADO hit it." Really. I thought that. And for once I was literally correct. Things were tossed all over, nails popped out of the walls - and Ganesh must've dived for cover, 'cos he's nowhere to be found.
I said it would be an adventure, didn't I?
Photos (but none of the twister):
