Saturday April 24, 2010-Travel day, Terre Haute IN to Elkhart IN

Here we sit, broke down on the side of the road. The right rear wheel brake caliper malfunctioned, causing brake fluid to spray on the brake rotor and pads and causing a lot of smoke.

Here is a closer look at the broken caliper. The caliper is the large on the right side of the hub and had to be replaced.

We stood around so long waiting for the mobile repair guy, I took out our lawn chairs and we sat there on the side of the road. If I had some lemonade, I could have opened a stand and made a little money as we waited. :>)

Today is the final day of our journey. We are both getting into this short driving days and slept a little later this morning. We did get up in time to go have breakfast at the park, the first hot breakfast we have had all week. Again, we made good time and stopped at a rest area just before we got to Indianapolis for our break.

We got through Indianapolis and at some point, my brakes on the right rear began to smoke. I stopped as soon as I could and found fluid coming out on the inside of the wheel hub. We called Good Sam road service and they sent a mobile repair guy out to work on the truck. The guy came out, but told me that I had to pay him $90 per hour from the time he left his house until he got through with the work. Since I was broke down on the side of the road, what choice did I have? I told him to get to work. He looked at the damaged wheel and determined that the brake caliper was bad and that he would have to go to a parts store about 20 miles away. Again,no choice, so away he went. It took him an hour and fifteen minutes to go to the store to buy the parts he needed. Then he starts to work and finds that he doesn't have a tool that he needs to take the caliper apart to replace it. He has to go back to the parts store to get this tool, but says he may be able to find someone closer to help him. I questioned him about why I had to pay for him not having the tools to get the job done, but his reply is that if I hadn't broken down, he wouldn't have needed the part. Nothing I can do but let him go and then be prepared to pay him when he gets back. I forgot to tell you that he only takes cash, no checks, no credit cards. Luckily, Stella was able to walk across the highway to the ATM machine and draw out enough cash to pay him. Who carries a large amount of cash with them on the road? We ended up paying him $570 for about 30 minutes of actual work, not including his travel times He charged me $169 for the caliper but I looked on the Auto Zone website and found the exact same caliper for $39. Wow, what a ripoff! You can rest assured that I will be in contact with Good Sam (what's good about this?) to discuss this issue.

We made it into Elkhart and found the Elkhart Campgrounds We pulled in beside our friends JD and CJ Wigley, who are also in Elkhart for work on their trailer. It had started raining on us in South Bend and rained all the way into Elkhart. The weather has been miserable, with rain and cool weather. I hope it clears up later in the week.

So long.