We were driving to Weiser, Idaho, but in the town of Council, 50 miles short of Weiser, we broke down and found a church parking lot to figure out what we were going to do.

Here is the dialogue on the day: (if you what to here our sad, painful story?)

Well, we ran into a snag on our way from Lewiston to Weiser (pronounced Weezer), Idaho. Getting out of the Hells Gate State Park went pretty well; some trees to avoid, but we were able to get out of the campsite and S. Some congestion due to construction, but that is a way of life in this region during the summer months. Then we pulled into the little town of Council, Idaho. We had slowed down to about 30 miles per hour when we felt a strong “shudder” from the truck and trailer. I thought we had blown a tire and thrown the rubber, but that was not the case. We pulled to the side of the road and gave the entire rig a walk-around. We did find that the “tailgator” cooking unit on the back of the trailer was loose, but this would not cause the powerful shudder we felt. We decided to try driving a little further to check it out. The shuddering came back. We pulled into town and I parked at a nice little church parking lot that had just been paved. We decided to disconnect from the trailer and see if the problem was the trailer or the truck. Turned out it was the truck. Lower power, erratic shifting, and constant “cutting out” of the engine. The engine needs service light came on. We went to a NAPA Parts store and they were able to check the codes directing the light. It could have been the EGT and particulate filter causing the problem. It usually cleans itself, but it must have become too dirty and it basically shuts the truck down from any highway driving. Only low speed to allow you to get off the road. This meant a tow for the Ford. There is no Ford dealer in Council; too small. The next town is Weiser, but they could not service us for a week. The next town is Ontario, Oregon, but their diesel mechanic is on vacation; three weeks out there. The next town is Nampa near Boise; 100 miles away. We have a tow truck coming and we are working with Good Sam Towing Service to get them to tow us there. They can look at the truck today. We decided to stay in the parking lot over night and arrange the tow for early in the mornine. So far, Good Sam Roadside Assistance has been pretty good, so we hope they can adapt to the new distance to tow. We talked with the Deacon of the church and he said we can stay until Sunday without any problems. They have been so gracious. Now we have to go to Nampa, over 100 miles away, to get the truck fixed and then get back to tow our trailer before Sunday.

Good Sam turns the towing job over to a company that arranges towing nation-wide. They were nice, but the companies they managed did not want to make the long trip or had other jobs to do. We kept getting set back on the arrival times. First 9:00, then 10:30, then 12:30, and finally 3:00pm. The truck arrived just after 3:00. There were two men with the truck, and one was a trainee. The instructor was terrible as a teacher. He did not help by showing the trainee what to do. Treated the trainee indifferent. I think that they did not realize how heavy our F350 is with the extra fuel tank and all. They finally got the F350 loaded and tied down and Lisa and I jumped into the jump seat right behind the two guys. Looking through the rear window, about 18 inches behind us was the bumper of our 10,000 pound truck. We began the journey. The tow truck was not very stable. It moved around the road quite a bit with what I call “float.” The driver made constant corrections as we moved down the road. The F350 would move a little forward on breaking and back on acceleration. Kind of “off-putting” since we were just inches away.  The driver also did not consider the extra weight of the vehicle when stopping; we rolled through one stop sign and into the middle of the intersection on another. I felt uneasy that I had put Lisa in this situation. About 30 miles from Nampa, there was a major accident on I 84 and the highway was closed down in our direction. Stop and go for one hour before we got off and took some side roads to go around the accident. We finally got to the Ford dealer and the service department had just closed.

There was a lady there named Liz Kimble, and, thankfully, she took mercy on us. She arranged for early morning work on the truck and provided a loaner vehicle for us. We figured we would just walk to a hotel since there were at least five in the vicinity of the Ford dealer. Thank goodness that we had the loaner car, since every hotel within 40 miles was fully booked. Turns our that there was a Garth Brooks concert and the Snake River Stampede rodeo going on at the same time. We finally called a hotel in Ontario, Oregon, 40 miles away and were able to get a room. We got some food and finally arrived at the hotel where we “crashed.” The next morning we drove to the dealer and they were already working on the vehicle to find out what was wrong. They determined that the pollution system had become clogged and that we had likely run over something that dented a pipe under the truck that further impacted the pollution system. They hoped to have the truck fixed by 2:00 pm at a cost of $2,000. We were just happy to be getting it fixed and that the problem had not been the particulate filter that can be $2000 for the part before labor to install. 

While waiting for the repairs, we decided to go for a walk. We came upon a building called the Ford Center where they were holding the Snake River Stampede rodeo. We got tickets and went to the rodeo that began at noon. It was “Kids Day” and there were all sorts of families there. We had a great time with saddle and bareback bronc busting, bull riding, roping, trick riding, and even kids between five and seven riding sheep. It was a great time. We left at 1:30 and walked back to the Ford dealer where our truck was ready to go. We paid our bill and head back to Council to get our trailer; over 100 miles away.

On the way to Council, we stopped at the Monroe River RV Park and made a reservation for two nights. We then drove to Council, hooked up the trailer and left a thank you card and two nice flowers for the people at the church. They were so gracious. We then drove, uneventfully, to the RV park were were are relaxing until Monday when we will head for Mountain Home AFB south of Boise. 

Quite a crazy two days, but we have learned a lot about how to handle a situation like this. If the issue is just the truck, we might be better off using the USAA roadside assistance program. They tend to respond better and I think the companies they use might be less “dangerous.”