Found On Road Dead "F.O.R.D."

Friday March 4.  Yes the FORD let us down!  We left camp at 8:15 this morning and at approximately 8:45 we felt a vibration just as  we crossed a bridge and then the left rear side of the motor home dropped abruptly.  Eugene managed to pull the vehicle off to the side of the road thinking we had blown a tire.  Tracy hopped out to check ..... the whole wheel was gone!!!!!






It's a good thing this did not happen at a higher speed than the 80 kph we were doing on a relatively flat and straight road.    The runaway wheel narrowly missed a construction worker who was walking down the side of the road.  He was a little shaken to say the least.  However, he was kind enough to grab his car and give us a ride to the nearest payphone so we could call Apollo and then he gave us a ride back to the motor home.

As we were waiting for the tow truck we looked for the wheel and spied it through some bushes in an open field next to a barn.  A little while later a nice Aussie drove up with his small pick up truck and presented us with the missing wheel that he found in his yard and asked if it was ours .... LOL.

























Two and a half hours later the two truck arrived.  It was a three and a half hour (210km) drive in the stinky tow truck back north to the Brisbane Apollo depot.  An hour later we were driving back south during rush hour stop and go traffic to a campground about 70km out of the city.  However, on the bright side we were both OK (not dead) and Apollo credited us for the 4 rental days we had left.  The also replaced our three wheeled home with a brand new (only 28km on it), fully loaded, automatic transmission VW motor home (similar to the one we had on the first leg of our trip).  Then we were presented with 2 bottles of wine and clean linens.    Another day of excitement and a day behind schedule but it could have been much, much worse!!