Tell us your traveling troubles over your lifetime.

[tynyphil]

OK....I have a Goldwing motorcycle. Have about 78K miles on it now. Purchased an Escapade trailer to pull behind it for some long haul trips. Traveled to California/Oregon twice, KeyWest, FL. , Canada, Kentucky/Tennessee, Missouri, and all around Texas. But the Texas trip takes the cake. Wanted to see the bluebonnets and hill country. That day around 3pm we had a blow out on the trailer. The trailer has a 'cubby' for a spare but I thought....why take up storage for a spare....I don't have a spare for the bike. I DID have roadside assistance. We were in the middle of "NOWHERE" but luckily I had cell service. I called roadside assistance and they were to send a service agent with a spare tire on a wheel that most any Tractor Supply, etc would have. Sat on the side of the road for 6 hours before the dude showed up with just a tire ( said tire/wheel was not available). Tried for a while and could not mount the new tire by hand on the wheel so he left us there again while he traveled to the nearest town to get it mounted. Came back about an hour later with the tire and we were on our way......it's about 11pm now and we have an hour to get to our destination. Good grief.......there were SO many critters on and near the road we could only safely travel 30-40 miles an hour so we could see anything in the roadway. Roadside assistance screwed me over and cost me $160 and should have been only the cost of the $40 tire.>>>I carry as spare now

 

[AlongCameJones]

Is it just "Texas motorcycle roadside assistance" or "motorcycle roadside assistance" in general that sucks? In the summer of 2017, I got some very LOUSY automobile roadside assistance in Boise, Idaho. I got a broke-dic_ tow truck driven by some gypsy with a funny accent. The passenger with me and I were crammed into a very uncomfortable front seat and no a/c on a very hot day. A day later, my car had to be towed from the shop to my home so I could replace the gasoline tank myself and save $400+ doing it myself. The tow truck did not even have working seat belts for me. I called my insurance carrier, Farmers, and told them about the two lousy tow truck experiences and they told me they would drop them from their contracts. Back in the 1980's, AAA sent me a total a$$hole for a tow driver in California. Back in the summer of 2011, I was living in Sacramento County, CA and was sent by my auto policy carrier a real nice guy in an air-conditioned modern truck with a comfy and clean roomy cab and GPS on the dash as well as ice-cold a/c. This was one of the very few tow truck experiences that impressed the devil out of me. After the crappy Boise tow experience, I was told later on that someone actually has to ask for a tow rig with a crew cab, working a/c and even working passenger seat belts in some hillbilly places.

 

[GnometownHero]

Saw one of the amphious cars while out on Ft Gibson lake many years ago. He was coming to a boat ramp at Whitehorn Cove and just drove off down the road. Pretty nifty. I saw an advertisement for a jet boat jeep a while back, but it was almost $70K. Thanks for sharing

My in-laws neighbors at Ft Gibson owned the Aqua car. My kids got to ride in it several times when they went to stay at Granny's house in the summer. Somewhere I have a picture of them in it

 

[Tanis143]

Before all the forums, facebook messenger, etc I used IRC to chat with people around the world. One summer I took a trip from Moore to Phoenix, AZ to meet up with several online friends who lived there and one from Hong Kong who was making a US tour of our mutual friends. Well, my 84 olds cutlass 4 dr had a bad oil pump and once warmed up it would have 5 psi idle and 20 under load. Didn't bother it while driving around town, but while driving to Phoenix I developed a small oil leak. Just a few drips on the ground each night, so thought nothing of it. Driving from Phoenix the plan was to take my Hong Kong friend to El Paso, TX, meet up with some more friends, stay the night then drive back to Moore. Driving on I-10 I blew the engine in Lordsburg, NM. Oil pressure dropped, engine started knocking bad and had a stream of oil out the side of the block. Well, limped into Lordsburg, called around to friends and my wife (was just in a long distance relationship then). Got my HK friend on a bus to Tx, wife got me a one night stay at a hotel with two meals. While eating dinner the waitress made small talk about where I came from, where was I going so I told her my tale. When I was done a guy one table over told me he heard my story and that he had a salvage yard and for $40 bucks a month he could store my car until I could come back for it. So the next day I limped it to his yard, got my suitcase out and walked 3 blocks to the bus terminal. While getting the ticket stuff done the agent asked me how I was doing and the small talk, again, got back to my situation. She wished me luck as I walked outside. I knew buying that ticket was going to put my bank account in the red big time. I had no cash, left my pack of smokes in my car, and was looking at a 10 hour bus ride with just one meal. As I was standing there a guy walked up and gave me a $10 bill, said go get you a pack of smokes, something to eat at McDonalds and you should have a few bucks left for something to drink along the way (yes, it happened in 2000, so 10 bucks then could do all that lol). The kindness and generosity didn't end there. I was finally able to go back and get my car 3 months later. Now when I left I locked the car which had a Sony head unit, a Cobra 25 LTD cb radio, a $100 pool cue (which thankfully didn't warp), about $300 worth of craftsman tools, and my pack of smokes in it. When I got back to my car the driver's door was unlocked and the only thing missing was the smokes.

To this day I still rave about how I was treated there.

 

[golddigger14s]

Back 1980 in college in Idaho myself and a few friends went to do a winter climb in the mountains. We broke down in some tiny town, as we lamented about missing out on our trip some old-timer farmer overheard our problems and piped in. "Boys you don't have to cancel your trip, I have an old car in the the field that runs you can borrow." It was definitely beat up and dirty, but it ran. We did our climb and when we gave the car back we cleaned it and left it with a full tank.

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

Got this in my rear tire on my Road King in Stirling, CO on my way to Sturgis in 2017. Pulled into a abandoned gas station to check the map cause we missed a turn. Wasn’t supposed to be in Stirling. Saw the eyebolt in my tire. Started calling the closest Harley Dealerships, North Platte, Denver, etc… no luck. My buddy walked around the corner and there just so happened to be a motor sports shop that did tires. They had a friend that had another shop in town that had the size of tire I needed. Got pretty lucky. The eye bolt didn’t actually puncture my tire, probably would have been fine to pull it out and ride but would have been risky.

 

[tynyphil]

Is it just "Texas motorcycle roadside assistance" or "motorcycle roadside assistance" in general that sucks? In the summer of 2017, I got some very LOUSY automobile roadside assistance in Boise, Idaho. I got a broke-dic_ tow truck driven by some gypsy with a funny accent. The passenger with me and I were crammed into a very uncomfortable front seat and no a/c on a very hot day. A day later, my car had to be towed from the shop to my home so I could replace the gasoline tank myself and save $400+ doing it myself. The tow truck did not even have working seat belts for me. I called my insurance carrier, Farmers, and told them about the two lousy tow truck experiences and they told me they would drop them from their contracts. Back in the 1980's, AAA sent me a total a$$hole for a tow driver in California. Back in the summer of 2011, I was living in Sacramento County, CA and was sent by my auto policy carrier a real nice guy in an air-conditioned modern truck with a comfy and clean roomy cab and GPS on the dash as well as ice-cold a/c. This was one of the very few tow truck experiences that impressed the devil out of me. After the crappy Boise tow experience, I was told later on that someone actually has to ask for a tow rig with a crew cab, working a/c and even working passenger seat belts in some hillbilly places.

I paid a little extra for the best assistance plan thru Goldwing Riders Organization. Called and complained but got nowhere. I dropped them like a load of bricks. I have another but have yet to have to use it.

 

[Forgalspop]

Off and on throughout my adult life I traveled a great deal for various occupations. I could come up with many travel experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant. Traveling is always an adventure and some adventures are more arduous than others. I'll have to ponder on some of them for a spell and see which ones stand out to the extremes.

 

[AlongCameJones]

Before all the forums, facebook messenger, etc I used IRC to chat with people around the world. One summer I took a trip from Moore to Phoenix, AZ to meet up with several online friends who lived there and one from Hong Kong who was making a US tour of our mutual friends. Well, my 84 olds cutlass 4 dr had a bad oil pump and once warmed up it would have 5 psi idle and 20 under load. Didn't bother it while driving around town, but while driving to Phoenix I developed a small oil leak. Just a few drips on the ground each night, so thought nothing of it. Driving from Phoenix the plan was to take my Hong Kong friend to El Paso, TX, meet up with some more friends, stay the night then drive back to Moore. Driving on I-10 I blew the engine in Lordsburg, NM. Oil pressure dropped, engine started knocking bad and had a stream of oil out the side of the block. Well, limped into Lordsburg, called around to friends and my wife (was just in a long distance relationship then). Got my HK friend on a bus to Tx, wife got me a one night stay at a hotel with two meals. While eating dinner the waitress made small talk about where I came from, where was I going so I told her my tale. When I was done a guy one table over told me he heard my story and that he had a salvage yard and for $40 bucks a month he could store my car until I could come back for it. So the next day I limped it to his yard, got my suitcase out and walked 3 blocks to the bus terminal. While getting the ticket stuff done the agent asked me how I was doing and the small talk, again, got back to my situation. She wished me luck as I walked outside. I knew buying that ticket was going to put my bank account in the red big time. I had no cash, left my pack of smokes in my car, and was looking at a 10 hour bus ride with just one meal. As I was standing there a guy walked up and gave me a $10 bill, said go get you a pack of smokes, something to eat at McDonalds and you should have a few bucks left for something to drink along the way (yes, it happened in 2000, so 10 bucks then could do all that lol). The kindness and generosity didn't end there. I was finally able to go back and get my car 3 months later. Now when I left I locked the car which had a Sony head unit, a Cobra 25 LTD cb radio, a $100 pool cue (which thankfully didn't warp), about $300 worth of craftsman tools, and my pack of smokes in it. When I got back to my car the driver's door was unlocked and the only thing missing was the smokes.

To this day I still rave about how I was treated there.

Your wife and you were separated?

 

[Snattlerake]

I called Delta Airlines and asked them if they could fly me to Boston and my luggage to Chicago. They said no, my luggage will be on the same plane and go with me to Boston. I asked, why not, you did it last week?!?