Kids, food, bags, Spam Musubi and camping gear go into Sprinter. We even have a trip book with our route for each day and camping reservations!
We have 2 campsites to hit before arriving for our 4 days at Yellowstone, and 2 more sites on our way back. We have the red truck hitched to the Airstream,the pop-out tent on top of the truck, the Sprinter loaded, and last-minute group photos to celebrate the great beginning of this long-planned trip! We are excited!
We travel a couple of hours, stop for lunch in the quaint rodeo town of Kititas, stretch our legs and head out for 2 more hours to the evening campsite. It’s 2 p.m., everything looking great! But, like many good plans, they go all crazy!! As we are midway up a very steep and long incline, the truck suddenly loses power! I am driving! Mike says “pull to the shoulder” and just as I get onto it, steering and brakes lock up. Slam on parking brake and we all jump out, black smoke billowing from hood. See oil pooling under the truck.
We had blown an oil line. Mike says “that’s it” for the truck. We call a tow and try to figure out Plan B with cars/trucks whizzing past at 80 mph.
We do reflect that it is so lucky it didn’t happen while going DOWN the hill….would have been a different story altogether!!! And we are lucky that there is a rest stop only 1/2 mile ahead.(Fortunate events #1 and #2) We then disconnect the truck from the Airstream and the Sprinter takes the kids and Suzy to wait it out under a shady tree at the rest stop. Sprinter comes back and we hitch the Airstream to it. We head out,8 of us, Mike driving the Sprinter. The tow is great,the kids are troupers, and we are on our way!
Truck stays behind with Katie and Jesse who ride back with the tow truck driver to Kent. It’s midnight when he drops them off…they sleep for a few hours then pick up my new 2010 VW Touareg, which I had bought only one week earlier and is sitting in Katie’s driveway. That is Fortunate Event #3!! Since it was bought to tow the Airstream! We had taken the truck for its tent and storage space–but the Touareg came to our rescue that day and all the rest of the trip. Katie and Jesse drive it straight to the campsite next morning! We are looking a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies with our beautiful vehicles and personal stuff strewn about the campsite, having come in late the night before and barely getting tent and food set up before crashing. But it’s the dawning of Day 2, we survived and prevailed over Day 1, and we are still excited!! So far, not too far behind schedule….if all goes well! To be continued!!!!
victoriasairstream 
Wow, these guys of yours will have some good “what I did on my summer vacation” stories! I love your “Fortunate Events”!!
Why am I not a bit surprised by the starting out adventure?! Glad it all turned out okay. Can’t wait for the next installment.
Love to you all!