To make some special memories, my friends and I decided to go to Redwood National Park, north of Eureka. We rented a RV from CruiseAmerica and went there on February 18 - we had a great time hiking trails, enjoying campfires and the beautiful views of the Redwoods. Since the weather was a little chilly and rainy, there weren't that many people there so it was a nice trip. However during our drive home on February 21, one of my friends had motion sickness and asked me to stop on the highway near Garberville. When we tried to start the vehicle again, the RV wouldn't move. The engine was fine and the mission showed "P" parking first, but when I moved the mission shifter, it didn't move to the drive "D" position. Looks like the mission cable was broken. A highway patrol officer came and kindly asked what was happening and helped us to contact the RV roadside assistance. Thank you officer! It was almost 200 miles north from San Francisco and 5PM. Over there, cell phone signal quality was so bad and it was so cold. The assistance person said the only way they could help was to have a towing car tow our RV to a nearby campsite and wait until the next morning so a nearby mechanic could check the RV, fix it, or give us a rent car. However, I had to go to work the next day and my friends had to go to an important meeting. It was a very difficult situation and we were all tired and hungry. We felt so miserable on the highway. I'm pretty handy and can usually fix my own cars, so I tried to check all the fuses and any cables under the dashboard and steering wheel, but nothing happened. After 4 hours of waiting, a tow truck finally arrived from Arcata and I explained the problem to the towing driver, Chris. Chris said it could be a mission cable problem and checked the cable near the transmission under the RV. After checking, he said the cable was broken and in order to drive the RV, he needed to set the gear manually from P to D under the RV, by going underneath the car. He was able to move the gear manually, and I drove the RV to a nearby gas station. I turned off the engine, filled up the gas and then Chris set the gear back to P (on D, we can't start the car engine). I started the RV engine, and Chris changed the gear again from P to D, and we drove the RV from the gas station, 200 miles away from SF, to the hotel without stopping and without changing gears. It felt like a movie, because the whole situation was scary and very dangerous... After arriving at the hotel, we stopped the engine at 2:30AM. That morning, the RV was towed to be fixed at the CruiseAmerica office. I felt very frustrated because they clearly didn't properly inspect the RV before renting it out. The cable had evidently been breaking over time - if they had properly inspected the engine, they would have been able to catch the issue. That was one of the most memorable and terrible experiences of my life. I will definitely not be riding a RV again!
The roadside assistance service personnel tried to do their best to help us, so thank you.
But I genuinely would like to say thank you to Chris again. At 5 PM, the assistance person said many tow companies were closed, but Chris drove almost 75 miles from Arcata. Chris had a lot of knowledge on how to fix cars and knew what he was doing. He was so kind and worried about our safety too. He saved our valuable time over there. Without him, we would have spent another miserable day in a campsite. Thank you Chris! Really appreciate your kindness so much. read more