As we were riding the
trolley to get to the parking lot, it was bittersweet, to live only 3 hours
away and not be able to visit every weekend.
The lil one’s eyes sparkled at what a day we had just been blessed with;
even said we were the best parents ever, I got that one on video to use later
on.
When we reached the
F350 we had our fingers crossed that the batteries would have enough juice in
them to crank her up. As our luck goes,
they were both dead. The hubby had the foresight to bring the ranger’s battery
along just in case, as we didn’t feel like cranking up the generator to use the
battery charger on ol’ blue’s batteries, way too much trouble. With the
ranger’s battery attached and a shot of ether, we were running and ready for
the long ride home.
We pulled off the
interstate quite a few times on the way home; looking back I wish we had waited
on all those bathroom breaks and cups of coffee, which in turn caused more
stops for the bathrooms. I’ve always
been told that hindsight is 20/20; I’m finally agreeing that they were
right. I think a few times the hubby
mentioned the gas hand draining down to E a lot quicker than we thought, but
him being him, he pushed it as hard and as far as it would go.
It was a very welcome
sight seeing the sign for Jacksonville City limits, knowing we still had about
45 minutes till we got to the other side of town. My fingers were crossed this whole way
because I knew how quickly the 7.3 in ol’ blue could really suck down the diesel. After a quick trip through downtown, loving
the big city lights as we flew past, and all the way to the north side of town,
we got to our exit.
Our
fifth wheel was parked about ½ mile into the park and ol’ blue carried us
almost half way before she started spitting and sputtering. Yep, you guessed
it, we were down below E and she just laid down on us, only ¼ mile or so away
from home, funny how they do that with no fuel in the tanks. I had told the hubby numerous times on the
way up that we needed diesel, but he’s as stubborn as an old mule some days and
this just happened to be one of those days. With the lil one asleep in the
backseat he ran to the camper to get the ranger so we could use it to push the
big beast the rest of the way.
 |
| The Beast I've named Ol'Blue that we decided to push. Why? I'll never know |
I
knew something was wrong when I saw him running back instead of driving; we had
forgotten we had taken the ranger’s battery with us, just in case. After
weighing the options, him carry the battery the ¼ mile to get the smaller truck
or us push the beast the rest of the way; we decided to push. Why we chose this path I’ll never know for
sure. I’m sure it was a very funny sight to see the two of us pushing a F350
through the RV Park; I’m still waiting to find a video someone has posted
online with lots of LMBO’s in the comment section.
We
almost made it to the camper, you would think Florida is all flat, and you
realize it’s not as you have to push a beast like that up some of the small
hills. After what seemed like forever we
made to within sight of our fifth wheel, only about 10 more spots to go, but there
was just no way we could get her up this last incline. Thankfully the hubby decided to carry the
battery to the ranger and use it to push the beast the rest of the way. I think
I would have left her sitting in the middle of the road after feeling the burn
in my calves, grateful I’m semi-athletic still in my older years.
I
still cannot get used to the sound of crunching metal on metal, even when we
are doing it intentionally. After a few minutes of getting the rangers bumper
to somewhat line up with ol’ blue’s we were ready to get it the rest of the way
home. Was a very welcome sight to see our front door, with both trucks parked
in their parking spots, especially after being on the road for 19 hours. I don’t think my legs had hurt like that
since doing squats and sitting on the wall in junior high basketball, but the
hubby heard all about the next day, after he got ol’ blue running again, of
course.
Until next time……
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