Unexpected Upgrade

We finally found somewhere to store trailer during our trip to England, and thought we were all set for the trip down to Port Charlotte in November. An unexpected obstacle of our move has been that Nationwide doesn't sell insurance in Florida, so we've had to get a new policy. Last Saturday we were going to post our new insurance forms, when we stopped at the traffic lights on Hwy 192.  The next thing we knew we were in the center of the intersection having been hit from behind by a Lincoln Town Car. Witnesses said he was doing 45 - 50 miles an hour when he hit us and never applied his brakes.

It broke our seat backs and raised John's seat enough that he had difficulty reaching the brake and accelerator pedals. He managed to get us through the intersection and to the side of the road. Our truck didn't seem that bad, but the car that hit us was totaled and man inside had to be taken to hospital by helicopter. We managed to drive the truck back to our campsite where we phoned the insurance company. They told us not to drive it again; they would have it towed to a repair place and rent us a car on the Monday.

Tuesday we drove down to Harbor Lakes, looking for someone to tow our trailer down on the 12th of November as we didn't think the repairs could be completed in that time. Along the way we called in at a couple of Dodge dealerships to see if they had any trucks on the lot that would work for us, as we thought we might trade ours in once it was repaired. We didn't find a truck, but we found someone who would tow us down to Harbor Lakes.

On Wednesday morning John phoned the adjuster and found out the truck was a write off. So he went up to a dealership in Ocala, after a bit of searching they found a 3500 Dodge Laramie, a 100 miles away, that they said they could get for us by Thursday. So Thursday we drove up in the rental car and picked it up and now we have a nice new 2012 upgraded truck with engine braking for our trip through the mountains when we go out west, it even has heated seats. Something I'm hoping we never need to use although since I'm always hot and John is always cold maybe he can use his heated seat and I can have the air conditioning on. This time we bought an automatic so that I can drive it when John is away. I'm not going to be pulling the trailer though.

Now the only thing left to do is to get a fifth wheel hitch fitted in the bed of the truck which we have scheduled for Tuesday at Camping World. Then John is leaving for St Louis on November 6th until the 10th so unless something else goes wrong we should be back in business and ready to move on the 12th.