Ohhhhhhh man
So, my wife & I have been planning this trip for months. 12 days, Massachusetts to Amish Country, then Virginia, then North Carolina, then the beaches of SC. We were able to score reservations for 3 beachfront state parks, and were also gonna do 2 nights at a hotel in Charleston. Heading out in our 1985 Palomino Mini L pop-up that we got for free last summer. It's a little rough around the edges for sure, but we fixed it up a bunch and took it on the maiden voyage last November. It was great, but because of the polar vortex and early snow we only spent 4 nights in it. This was gonna be out big trip and last hurrah of the offseason (we run our own business May - Nov).
We hit the road last thursday, after doing some last minute touch-up work, fresh coat of paint, etc. Fully loaded & good to go. So psyched to get out of the perms-winter we've been having (it snowed here again last night) and relax down south.
Three hours into the trip, we're driving on the New York Thruway en route to Roadside America in PA. I see something kind funny in the rear view mirror, then see the TC door bust open, and the ENTIRE ROOF flys off the top of the camper! The truck behind us skids out to avoid it, hits the guardrail, and goes into the median. We pull over to the other side, totally freaking out, while the rest of the roofless TC is basically shredded to pieces in the back of our truck.
THANK GOD nobody was hurt. Nobody hit the roof (now laying in the road) and the people behind us were fine, they drove up and talked to us for a while afterwards. The state trooper was surprisingly low-key, and told us he wasn't even sure if it would be classified an accident because nobody hit anybody else. We didn't get a ticket for anything, but spent the next few hours dealing with the tow guys. We had to get the roof towed on a flatbed, then get our truck towed, then get the wrecked TC taken off and towed to a junkyard. All told it was over $500, plus now we've got no camper and all of our stuff jammed into the truck & bed, and we haven't even made it 200 miles from home yet.
We're both pretty much still in shock at this point, trying to figure out what to do next. So we end up at this random old school "couples retreat" resort in the Poconos, basically just pounding drinks & trying to calm down, chilling out in a crazy room with a heart-shaped jacuzzi and twinkling star lights above the round bed. It was actually a really cool (if kinda corny) spot called Cove Haven. Aside from the really bad food it's worth a visit. They had a weird sports bar game room where we played pool, mini golf, indoor archery, shuffleboard, and basketball. Plus a lake, horses, etc. We saw about a dozen deer and fed them out of our hands.
Ok, so next day, we figure hey, the worst is over, atleast we got that out of the way on day one, nobody was hurt, it could've been WAY worse. We've still got our tent and all of the bedding and food and gear from the camper, we're not gonna let this wreck our vacation. We're only 2 hours from Roadside America, we'll hit that up, have lunch, and make out way down towards Shenandoah.
Looking at the weather, we see it's pouring rain there, so we decide to get some big plastic bins and tarps so we can get everything organized & packed away in the truck bed. We pull up at a Dollar General in Hamburg PA and get all our stuff together in the back. Of course now we're super paranoid about things flying out, so we've got a million tie-downs & bungee cords holding everything down. Then as we are putting on the last one, it slips out of the hook, shoots back, and hits my wife in the eye.
Luckily it missed her eye ball by about 1 centimeter, hitting her on the bone right above it. We're still completely freaking out, it blows up to the size of a golf ball, and is dark dark purple. I find an urgent care center 2 towns away and we spend the next couple hours there getting 8 x-rays and doing tests to make sure she doesn't have a concussion. At this point, we're like, this whole trip is cursed. We'll be lucky to make it home alive.
So we spend the night in Reading at some dumpy hotel downtown, then the next day we go to Kuttzville to the big flea market/farmer's market, which was pretty cool, had some great food & scored an old Woolrich hunting coat for $25. Then we saw some hex signs on barns and did a tour at Crystal Caves which was also neat, but everywhere we go EVERYbody is staring at us. Her because of her eye (now a gigantic shiner) and me because they think I'm beating her relentlessly.
So then we start heading home and end up about halfway there, in Cooperstown NY, where we stayed at a really nice place (The Cooper Inn), had some great grilled chicken at this old school place called Brooks BBQ in Oneonta, and went to the Baseball Hall of Fame (which is awesome) on Easter. Ended up spending another night there just for the heck of it, then made it home without incident on monday.
Like I said, things could have been much much worse all around. The roof could've gone right through somebody's windshield and/or caused a huge pile up. The bungee cord could've gone a little lower, and my wife definitely would have lost the eye. In the end, the "free" camper ended up costing $2000 ($1500 worth of work we did, and $500 to scrap it) which adds up to $500 per night we actually spent in it.
We still want to get another (substantially newer & in better shape) TC, but realistically after this fiasco that's probably several years off. We both still like tent camping, so we will go back to that for this summer atleast. I probably won't be on this site much for a while, but want to say thank you to everybody on here, you guys are great with the advice & suggestions for newbies like myself.
I'll be back when & if we get a new set up, but until then take care, happy travels, and be safe!
