we are here

We arrived at the fort on Saturday. Its been an interesting trip. On the way here we broke down in Palm Coast FL. The transmission on my f250 over heated and spit out all of the transmission fluid.
Had it and the camper towed and its at the local dealership being serviced. So I was stuck in Palm Coast 100 plus miles from the Fort. One of the younger service guys offered to tow me to a local camp ground. Since I had aleady paid for the fort I offered him the money it cost me to stay at the local to tow me over and I rented a car. The camper arrived after dark got it setup and Sunday morning discovered a hole in the side, they must have hit something or something hit them. I've decided not to say anything to them he just a young guy trying to make a living, I would feel bad having him pay for the damage
Monday morning the vet call my 4 legged best friend has lime disease. I'm trying to stay upbeat after all I'm here and the kids are safe but its isn't easy. sambuster

Wow! A rough start

Hang in there! You are at Disney and things HAVE to go up from here!

sambuster said:

We arrived at the fort on Saturday. Its been an interesting trip. On the way here we broke down in Palm Coast FL. The transmission on my f250 over heated and spit out all of the transmission fluid.
Had it and the camper towed and its at the local dealership being serviced. So I was stuck in Palm Coast 100 plus miles from the Fort. One of the younger service guys offered to tow me to a local camp ground. Since I had aleady paid for the fort I offered him the money it cost me to stay at the local to tow me over and I rented a car. The camper arrived after dark got it setup and Sunday morning discovered a hole in the side, they must have hit something or something hit them. I've decided not to say anything to them he just a young guy trying to make a living, I would feel bad having him pay for the damage
Monday morning the vet call my 4 legged best friend has lime disease. I'm trying to stay upbeat after all I'm here and the kids are safe but its isn't easy. sambuster

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Oh, my, so sorry! Hope things start looking up! We have had some 'breakdown' experiences in the past and it wasn't fun, but all ended well - had superb service - just seems so 'helpless/hopeless' at the time.

Much to you!

It's just a test of life. You seem to be handling it well. If life always went as we wanted it to, it would never be as fun or interesting. Find strength in adversity and you will be better off.

Good luck and try to enjoy your vacation and know that your vet has things covered on their end.

thanks everyone for the kind words of support, I saved and planned so long for this vacation. i'm determined not to let it get me down...

Absolutely not. My 2012 trip was one bad thing after another. Just had to power through it.
Keep your chin up and later you will look back on this like we do now on our 2012 vacation. Now, no matter how bad it is, we just say "Well, at least it isn't as bad as the Great Vacation of 2012".

Turn off your computer, but your phone away and go have fun. You are on vacation.

A bad day on Vacation is still better than a Good Day at work.

Sorry to read about your troubles. Sounds like your F250 had the 4R100 transmission. They didn't have best of cooling however, many handy owners have retro fitted trans cooler with an aftermarket or with 6.0 PSD trans cooler for better cooling protection. I remember driving down in my F150 with the 4R70W trans with stock cooling. It did pretty well but I kept an eye on the temps. As soon as I was hitting 210+ degrees I was backing off for a bit to cool the trans. Also during fueling stops I waiting 2-3 minutes to let the trans cool off a bit before shutting it down since it was running warm. After my 2012 Fort trip, my wife and I decided to look at getting a new truck when I got a job. With my current truck, 2011 F250 it was a totally different experience. The warmest my trans has gotten in the hills of PA, it was around 210 degrees while towing with the trailer. Otherwise it stays cool in the 190s. one less thing to worry about.

As for the trailer, that sucks. I hope things are looking better and remember it could be worse. The TE's bar will be a welcome sight after all this. I know the feeling since my parents and my family were caravaning to Mrytle Beach, SC in 2013. They got separated from me and the wife for a bit. They got gas at a different location than I did. When they got gas, the starter quit on them. They had to get it towed to a local garage who was able to fix the vehicle but they had to leave it. My wife worked to find them a rental trailer at the campground we were going to stay at. This took many hours for the tow service and such and killed our travel time. It took almost 20 hours instead of 14 to get to MB,SC. On the way back, we dropped my dad off at the repair place to pick up the motorhome. He started it up without a problem. Got it up to 95 and started driving home. We radioed him to let him know there was some blue smoke from the tail pipe. By the time were were back in NJ, we were on the side of the road again this time with a blown engine in the motor home. It was astronomical to have it towed off the turnpike and stored while my parents thought about what to do. It was a very costly vacation for them but I was happy to have my crew cab since i was able to get them around and help make the sitch better. Like I said, it could have been worse.

I hope that I can give you information that will help at least one of your worries. When we adopted our greyhound this January, she had tested positive to one of the things on the SNAP test (which is how they test for Lyme disease and several others). Not Lyme disease, but the vet said the treatment was the same - 4 weeks of antibiotics. She said to expect the antibiotics (people drugs) to run around 300-400 as they are in high demand. We called around and found the cheapest price at our local Rite Aid - $125 for the 4 weeks. We did have her vaccinated for Lyme disease. The one thing that my vet assured me is that Lyme disease is treatable with antibiotics, but we decided not to take the chance. I'm sure your 4 legged friend will make a full recovery.

1) Look at it this way, THE REST OF THE VACATION WILL BE GLORIOUS.
2) After all, you are at The Fort.

I will second the advice about the Lyme's in dogs. I live in a wet, wooded,swampy area, and our vet guesses that over 80% of the local dogs probably have either lyme's, blastomycosis, anaplasmosis, or a similar disease. Three of our four dogs have one of the above, and all live really good lives. Usually the dog will go on a long term antibiotic treatment, and then you will just have to be aware of possible "flares" in the future.

No worries! Have a great rest of your trip!

Terri