Iowa to Texas... Day 2

I promised awhile back that I would write about our trip from Iowa to Texas I am not writing this as a manual or how-to guide, this is just to document parts of our journey. I can not and/or will not recommend that anyone takes a 35 year old motor home and attempts a trip like this one particularly in the summer months. Whenever Toie and I travel with more than one vehicle, we make use of a pair of 22 channel handi-talkies. We have found that they are easier and safer than fumbling with a cell phone and I highly recommend them when traveling with multiple vehicles

We awoke to a beautiful morning at the Stanton, Missouri KOA. One of the things we really liked was that even though it is situated close to I-44, we couldn't hear the traffic. It hit me like a ton of bricks what we were doing that morning, taking a relatively untested vehicle on a trip that still had about a thousand miles left in it. Toie and I talked about it and i finally calmed my nerves enough to begin the second leg of our journey.

After we broke camp, we made a quick run along the frontage road back to the Flying J in Sullivan to refuel. Once back out on the road we quickly got back into a nice pace moving with traffic quite nicely. When we neared Fort Leonard Wood traffic started to pick up quite a bit and we decided that if we were going to stop, we would wait until we put a few miles between us and the military base.

If you haven't ever driven I-44 through Missouri it really is a beautifully scenic drive, I found myself enjoying the landscape and the easy drive that the highway affords. We ended up making a quick stop near Lebanon, Missouri so that Moe could stretch his legs and Toie wanted to take a break and get herself a fresh fountain soda. The issue I had on our first day with the brakes dragging seemed to have cleared up. Everything was working wonderfully, we continued towards our stop in Joplin.

We reached Joplin early in the day and again our campground of choice was close to the highway,we had decided earlier that we would stay at the KOA just off of I-44 and that decision ended up being quite serendipitous. When I exited the highway and applied the brakes I heard that heart-sickening sound of metal on metal.  I nursed the RV to the campground and then set out to find out what my options were to get us fixed up and back on the road.

I had to let the rv cool for a bit before I could crawl under it and take a look at the front brakes.  It was just as I had feared, the drivers side brake pads were worn to the metal backing on the pads. I had sold the bulk of my tools a few months before leaving Iowa and I was seriously regretting that decision at this moment.  We quickly combed the listings on Google for a mobile mechanic (I did not want to move the rv and risk damaging the front rotors) and found one that did mobile rv repair. A few phone calls back and forth and it was agreed that I would run and get the parts due to the fact that the mechanic thought he may be late arriving and since I have 20+ years automotive parts experience, I could get exactly what I wanted. 

Jeff arrived around 7pm and got right to work.  The left side had completely worn the inner pad and the outer was on its last legs.  If you are ever in the Joplin area and need any kind of repair, I highly recommend Jeff and I am providing his contact information at the end of this post.  Luck would have it that we got away with just hanging a new set of pads, but the next time the front wheels come off I will be replacing the left front caliper and may also do the rotors as well. While not very damaged, the left front rotor did end up with a little scoring on the inside surface.

Parts and labor came to LESS than $160.00 and like I said earlier, Jeff was excellent,  he fit us into his schedule last minute and was friendly and we got extremely lucky by finding him.

JR mobile RV repair.
Phone #

To be continued....