Our tale from Thursday

On Thursday, we went up the hill to get phone service and heard from Coach-Net that the same company that had come out on Wednesday had a "low-boy" that they would be sending to pick us up... the company had a couple of calls scheduled ahead of us, but should be there by early afternoon. The fellow who came on the tow truck on Wednesday had told us that the company had a tow truck with "bus grids" but that it was located way up by Oregon and they wouldn't want to send it down this far...

When we got back to the site where Gracie was parked, lo and behold, there was a flatbed trailer there! Didn't look like it could hold Gracie, but what do we know?!?!? (It was the trailer used by the lawn mowing guy to move the lawn mower around, but it was funny to see it there next to Gracie!)

Ultimately... it wasn't a low boy trailer that came, but rather the tow truck with bus grids!

The bus grids get attached to this part -- the tow truck that came yesterday had this too, and Thursday's driver said that the company had discussed him just transferring the bus grids to Wednesday's driver's truck, but they decided that it is such a painstaking operation to hook it up, it would be better for the guy to do it who has done it more times (though he obviously had to concentrate to think through all the tasks and the equipment looked like it was rarely used).

He essentially built the cradles around the front tires.

The bus grids in place and Gracie attached to the back of the tow truck.

What was surprising to me was that the tow truck operator had a remote control that he could use to move Gracie forward and back... so all of a sudden she was backing up and I thought, "What?!?!?" The tow truck operator says that sometimes he does that just to startle folks (I don't think he did it on purpose to startle me, but it did anyway!).

His ability to do that allowed him to run the back axles up on blocks so he had more room under Gracie to remove the drive shaft. The drive shaft has to be removed so the transmission is not damaged during towing.

Gracie finally made it up that fateful hill! Thankful for the power of that tow truck!

It took the tow truck operator 2 hours to get Gracie all hooked up. We were leaving the campground at about 4pm for a ~45 minute drive to Yuba City, hoping to get to North Valley Diesel to get Gracie into their yard before their closing time at 5pm.

We arrived at North Valley Diesel at about 4:55pm... the tow truck operator and Carl quickly ran into the office and got Gracie towed into the back area of shop where she would be in a locked yard.

Gracie, unhooked from the tow truck.

Even though the tow truck operator removed the drive shaft, he said California State Law does not allow him to re-install it (the diesel shop said that other drivers from the same company don't have a problem re-installing... but, whatever!). He disconnected in about 30 minutes and was on his way home, about a 3 hour drive...

Carl finished up with the shop foreman (who was nowhere near as rigid on the "you must be here by 5pm" rule as the guy on the phone), and we headed to the EconoLodge for the night.

We are so thankful that we finally got Gracie towed out of the campground, that it didn't take days or weeks to get a tow truck, that she seems to have been towed with no issues (of course, she doesn't have her drive shaft installed and her engine still has the same stalling issue that started this drama!), that we had a safe spot to spend the night, and that the shop hopes to work on Gracie today. 

Carl was very impressed with the shop foreman, Jeremy - he also has a motorhome, and it happens to have the same engine, and he seems to have lots of parts that we may need. We're praying that they may be able to diagnose and complete the work today, Friday, and we'll be able to get on our way... but, Jeremy indicated that if they cannot complete the work today, they will be able to put Gracie in their front parking area and, if necessary, we'll be able to stay in Gracie for the weekend.