Day Four, Five and Six in Kissimmee

This is the story of a man who thought he did all the right research, knew all the answers and had made the best plans only to find out that hubris is a dangerous thing.

Thursday the 5th

As usual the “Punky” alarm went off at 6:15 AM with several wet kisses so I knew it was time to get up - heh, heh. Once I got my glasses on I managed to fumble around and get dressed while still half asleep, then it was out the door with the kids and around the campground so they could get their morning exercise before breakfast.

By the time we got back Tina was up and had the coffee started. Since we had to be at Camping world by 8:00 AM we decided to have breakfast after getting the work started. With me in the coach and Tina in the car we drove to Camping World which was only about three miles away.
Once there we turned the car over to the mechanic, put the generator and A/C on in the coach, waved to the kids and walked across the seven lane highway to Perkins for breakfast. After breakfast we spent most of the morning reading, walking the dogs and watching the TV in the customer lounge. Around 1:00 PM Tina and I trooped back across the street to Perkins for lunch.

After lunch I asked the mechanic how long it would take to finish getting the tow package hooked up. He thought it would be done around 4:30 PM so I got the Owners Manual out of the glove box to read up on the towing requirements. That’s when the learning experience began.
I spent half an hour trying to find the information on towing the car. The only thing I found is that a 2009 Sonata cant’ be towed “four wheels down” like we did with the Chevy Malibu. Just to make sure I got the laptop out and after connecting to the internet, I went to the 2009 Dinghy Towing Guide. Sure enough, a 2006 automatic could be towed four down but not a 2009.

Imagine what was going through my mind. We were getting a $3,200 tow and brake package installed on a car that can’t be towed. The horror of it all as my world came crashing down around my ears - oh crap! Well I immediately marched up to the service counter and said, “Ooops, I made a mistake. Please, please stop the work.” After I explained the situation all work came to a halt while we tried to figure out how to recover. Next I told Tina the problem and begged for mercy throwing myself at her feet.

Well, everyone at Camping World felt really bad for us and agreed to help come up with a recovery plan. Turns out they had a Roadmaster towing dolly in the back and agreed to remove all the hardware for towing from the Sonata, take back the auxiliary braking system and only charge me for labor. With heartfelt thanks, I nearly wept for joy. In fact, they went so far as to discount the labor charges 50 percent. What great people. Unfortunately, not much more could be done today and the next day, Friday was fully scheduled. So the sent us back to the KOA and said they’d call us when we needed to come back.

FYI… here’s what caused the problem. Originally I was going to buy a 2006 Hyundai Sonata GLS since it could be towed four down. When I originally talked to Camping World to schedule the work and order the base plate, the service tech told me that the base plate was the same for years 2006 to 2009. Since Tina thought we should get a newer car we opted for a 2009 since I new it was the same base plate. BUT, I didn’t re-check the Dinghy Guide to make sure the 2009 was also towable four down. Mea culpa, mea culpa.

Fortunately when we got back to the KOA we had our pick of spots. Once we got all hooked up and settled again, we fed the dogs and took them for a walk. Then we walked over to Applebee’s for a rib dinner and big salad. After dinner we played a couple of games of cribbage then basically crashed for the night. At this point all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and pull it over me - I settled for pulling the covers over my head vowing to learn from my mistake.


Friday the 6th

Up once again at the crack of dawn, I felt chagrinned but ready to face facts, learn from my mistake and move on with life. The morning dragged on as we waited for a call from Camping World. We read, walked the dogs, dumped the holding tanks, had lunch and waited some more. Eventually, around 2:30 PM, we got a call. The car was back to it’s starting point with all the towing gear off. The towing dolly was waiting to be assembled but it looked like we’d have to wait until Saturday to finish getting everything ready to go.

Since we were still in a holding mode, we thought a bike ride would be nice. So we looked up some near by bike path routes and settled on one. I went and got the bikes down and grabbed the pump to pump up the tires. Unfortunately the pump had a malfunction and instead of pumping the tires up I deflated them. Dang! Things were not looking good.

So we canceled the bike ride and decided to wait until we got down to our next stop at Juno Beach to fix that problem. With the bike ride out we went back to relaxing in the sun, reading, eating, playing some more cribbage, walking the kids and waiting for tomorrow.

Saturday the 7th

We woke to a cloudless sky and the threat of a potential hurricane. Fortunately the weather service is expecting the worst for us to be high winds and big surf along the east coast of Florida. So we decided to stop worrying about it and concentrate on having fun.

Our last call from Camping World yesterday said be at their facility by 8:15 AM so after doing our morning thing we closed up and disconnected then drove to Camping World. After giving the keys to the coach to the service manager we walked across the street to Perkins for breakfast. After breakfast we went to the customer waiting area and watched TV, read and visited. Around noon I went to see how things were going. The towing dolly was all set up and connected to the coach - it was time to drive the car onto the dolly and settle up the bill.

Tina got in the car and drove up onto the dolly. Unfortunately, the dolly is supposed to pivot up into the towing position with the car on it - it didn’t. After several re-try’s and much head scratching, Tina and I went back to the lounge while the dolly was given some fine tuning with a bigger hammer. But first it was time to take a break and get some lunch.

Tina and I made the trek back across the highway to Perkins and had a nice lunch. As we were getting ready to leave I got a call. Seems our two attack dogs wouldn’t let the service tech into the rig to move it into the service bay so the trailer break could be installed. I hurried back while Tina paid the bill. With the keys in hand I backed the coach into the service bay and went back to the lounge to wait.

Finally, we tried to get the car on the dolly one more time. Tina drove it up but again, the dolly wouldn’t pivot into it’s proper position for towing. Well at that point I suggested getting a scissors jack and lifting the dolly into position for lockdown. It worked. Next we put the safety chains on the car, set the big nylon tie down straps over the front wheels and secured everything.

Looks like we were almost ready to go. But Wait, there’s more! With a final check of the lights and signals, the technician determined that there was a bad fuse. So he quickly set about finding the source of the trouble. At last he announced we were ready to go. So he spent ten minutes with me explaining the electric brake system then sent us in to settle up while he took the paperwork over to the service manager.

Twenty minutes later at 2:45 PM we rolled out of Camping World and onto US 192 East. YEAAAAA!! Fifty four miles later we merged onto I-95 south for the 100 mile drive to Juno beach. Arriving at our exit we found our way to the Juno Beach RV Resort. We made the turn into the park with inches to spare as we squeeked our way past a huge pickup truck parked in the street.

After getting directions to the office we got the and found our registration packet and sitemap. Unfortunately by now it was dark and we needed to turn around. So we exited the RV Park, went a couple of blocks to a grocery store, cut through the parking lot and onto the main drag. Turning once more into the RV Park (the truck was gone) we got up to our site.
Several neighbors came out to help us get the car off the towing dolly, disconnect the dolly and park the coach. While this is going on Tina finds out about a local Pizza place that delivers and ordered a pizza - great thinking Tina!!! We finally got hooked up to power and water, fed the kids and took them for a walk. We got settled in just as the pizza was delivered. Yipppeee, Dniner!!!

By now we were so bushed it was all we could do to write up the blog and get ready for bed. But at least we think the worst is over. Of course, as I write this, the winds are picking up, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. We're staying here until the 16th when we head across to the west coast and Naples.

Distance traveled today, 159 miles. Total for the trip so far, 3,841 miles.

No photos today.