Big Trouble in Foxborough, or is it Foxboro?

From Wikipedia:

"Foxborough" is the official spelling of the town name, although the alternative spelling "Foxboro" is also frequently used. This alternative spelling is used by the United States Postal Service as the correct form by which to address mail to recipients in the town, although both can be processed by their system."

Foxborough is most well known for being the location of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.

In any case on Sunday September 22 we left the Adirondacks and headed to Foxborough, a town about 22 miles southwest of Boston. There we would attend a rally hosted by Country Coach International and the Country Coach Nor'easters.

We headed due south on NY 30 a quaint rural road.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Our route led us through Amish country.

Today must be trash day.  I wonder if they practice mandatory recycling?  No black bags! (see previous post)

After about an hour we arrived at Amsterdam NY and, following a very convoluted route through town, arrived at I-90 and headed east towards Boston.  We passed Schenectady and Albany before crossing the Hudson River into Massachusetts.  Traffic was fairly light, but something seemed terribly wrong.  The highway had some serious bumps, but they seemed to affect the coach much more than they should.  Each bump produced a bone and teeth shattering jolt that seemed particularly bad at the rear of the coach.

Crossing the Hudson River into Massachusetts 

In Massachusetts I-90 is a toll road known as the Mass Turnpike. We stopped at the first service plaza we came to.  Service plazas on the Mass Turnpike are their own form of hell.  Trucks and RVs are directed to an area where there are no lane markings and everyone was parking willy-nilly. It was hard to park without fear of blocking the lot, either for other parked trucks leaving or new trucks pulling in.  It was then that we realized we had a serious list to starboard. There was apparently no air in the right rear air bag, and that corner of the coach was riding seriously low.  For those that don't know, our coach has full air suspension. With no functioning air bag that corner was riding on the frame, much like the bone-on-bone condition in my right knee before surgery last year.  Not good. It was impossible for me to determine the specific problem.  It could be a broken air bag, an air leak from a fitting or air line, a bad ride height valve, a fault in the air suspension control module or any number of other things.  With the noise from all the idling trucks it was difficult to hear an air leak. I was reluctant to crawl under the coach for several reasons, one being the close proximity to moving trucks and the other being I wasn't sure I would be able see or do anything anyway. So we decided to limp on in to camp where there would be about 30 other Country Coach owners and a wealth of knowledge and wisdom.  It is hard to know for sure, but we probably drove this way for between 100 and 200 miles.  We arrived at Normandy Farms Campground mid-afternoon, without further incident but very wary and frazzled.

Our Camp at Normandy Farms

Other Country Coaches

Even more Country Coaches

Another country coach owner had some blocks so we could raise the coach and take a look.  We were trying to identify any leak and did confirm that the air bag itself was leaking.

I determined there was a leak on top of the air bag, but it was impossible to see it directly due to its position and interference from other suspension components.  While blindly taking photos trying to find a part number, the cause of the link became crystal clear. There is an air dryer canister bolted to the frame just above the right rear air bag. A bolt securing the air dryer was protruding into the air bag. Apparently over time the bolt wore a hole in the bag and caused the rupture.

This photo shows both air bags, the one on the left inflated, the one on the right slack

OK, so here we are 800 miles from home and broken down. The good news is we’re in a safe place surrounded by 30 other knowledgeable and supportive Country Coach owners. The bad news is that there was no easy way to determine the part number.  The air bag part number is on the top of the bag, but is covered by a mounting plate, and can only be viewed after the bag is removed.  No one here was willing to remove the bag; it's just too big a job without the right tools and a way to safely properly jack up the coach.  The manufacturer of our coach no longer exists, and the intellectual property for Country Coach was purchased by Winnebago Industries. Calls to Winnebago produced no useful information.  I called several former Country Coach employees who locate and furnish parts and several coach repair facilities that specialize in Country Coach repairs and renovations, but struck out.  No one could provide a part number.

This photo shows the bolt protruding into air bag

I made more than a dozen calls to various truck repair shops in the area, but no one was willing to take on the job.  Finally, I did find a shop just a few miles away that would look at it on Friday, the day we were scheduled to leave, but Thursday night he double-crossed me and said he had changed his mind. DRAT!

During this time Dorcas and I are determined to not let this problem affect our enjoyment of the rally. We had rally activities scheduled for three days and a free day.

Monday - Tour 1  Plimoth Plantation

On Monday we carpooled to Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It replicates the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English colonists known as the Pilgrims. They were among the first people who immigrated to America to seek religious separation from the Church of England.

We first visited the Wampanoag Homesite, a native homesite illustrating the life of the Wampanoag people, the people that helped the Pilgrims survive that hard first year.

Building a big dugout canoe

A smaller finished dugout canoe

Carved canoe paddles. Can you sense my obsession here?

Then we visited the recreated village where the Plymouth Pilgrims built their colony.

Cannon in the fort atop the meeting house

Traditional joinery at the fort/meeting house

The thatch and thatchers came from across the big pond

Hand-making slab siding

The old Grist Mill on Town Creek in Plymouth

Grist mill works

The teeth are lubricated with lard

Corny humor

Dorcas and the "Gov"

Not necessarily so ....

This structure houses the Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock is pretty much a disappointment. It has been moved numerous times, and is much smaller than it once was.  During one relocation the rock was broken and the parts separated, but the parts were subsequently re-joined. Parts of the rock have been removed by tourists, museums and other entities.  At one point entrepreneurs rented chisels to tourists to chip off parts of the rock. It is estimated that only bout 1/3 of the original rock remains at this site.

It is highly unlikely the Pilgrims actually landed at Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower Pilgrims never made any reference to the rock.   From Wikipedia: "Journalist Bill Bryson wrote, "The one thing the Pilgrims certainly did not do was step ashore on Plymouth Rock," arguing that the boulder would have made an impractical landing spot.  Others have taken issue with the significance of the rock based on the fact that the Pilgrims first disembarked from the Mayflower at Provincetown, Massachusetts, to explore Cape Cod, more than a month prior to arriving in Plymouth harbor."

Today many locals jokingly refer to the rock as "Plymouth Pebble".

Plymouth Rock. Note seam where the rock halves were re-joined

This restaurant is directly across the street from the Plymouth Pock. I wonder if this is a reference to the Plymouth Pebble

Tuesday - Tour 2  Boston

On this day we took a trolley tour of Boston.  Except for our first stop, which was for a quick lunch at Quincy Market, we made no stops. Not being able to stop made for difficult photography.  Bear with me, I did the best I could.

Out trolley had open air seating.  Cool!

The motley trolley crew 

Norm, Dorcas and Carla

We cruised by and circled Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox and the Green Monster. It is the oldest ball park in Major League Baseball. 

Old Ironsides is the oldest commissioned vessel in the navy.

A poor view of the USS Constitution.

The Old State House was built in 1713 and is the oldest surviving public building in Boston  It was the seat of the Massachusetts General Court until 1798, and is one of the oldest public buildings in the United States.

The Old State House

This bronze statue of Bobby Orr stands next to Boston's TD Garden, the Bruins' home arena. The statue was modeled after a photograph that depicts him immediately after scoring the winning goal in the Bruins' Stanley Cup victory in 1970.  Orr had been tripped by St. Louis Blues' defenseman Noel Picard after scoring the goal, and has become one of the most famous and recognized hockey images of all time.

Bobby Orr statue at TD Garden

A Flxible motor home was driven by Jeff Daniels and family in the Robin Williams movie "RV". It is also trademark icon for the Family Motor Coach Association, of which we are members.  We drove by a parked Flxible on our tour.

A vintage Flxible Motor Home

Wednesday was a free day at the rally.  The plan was to go back and tour more intimately some of the sights we had whizzed by on our trolley tour the day before.  Unfortunately I spent the day at camp making calls to truck repair shops and Country Coach gurus trying to resolve the issue with our broken air bag.  On Wednesday I did find a truck repair place not far away that agreed to work on it.  I sent him a photo of the bag, not knowing the specific part number, and he said it appeared to be an uncommon size and may be difficult to find.  On Thursday afternoon he called me back and backed out on performing the repair. He said he was unwilling to start the job not knowing if he would be able to locate the part and also claimed he had limited space at his shop.  DANG!  Back to the drawing board. 

Thursday - Tour 3  Lexington and Concord

On Thursday we toured Lexington and Concord in luxury tour buses. The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775 in Middlesex County within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge.  Our first stop was Lexington Battle Green, also known as Lexington Common.  It was at this site that the opening shots of the Battles of Lexington and Concord were fired on April 19, 1775, starting the American Revolutionary War.  Now a public park, the common is a National Historic Landmark.




Some sources say this statue depicts Captain John Parker, the leader of the Lexington militia.  It is also commonly called "The Lexington Minuteman" and claim it was meant to represent the Minutemen generally rather than any individual.  Who do you believe?

There were eight deaths at Battle Green. Seven of those fallen revolutionaries are entombed at this memorial.

The Revolutionary Monument 1799

After lunch we rode the buses to Concord MA and the Minute Man National Historical Park.  A rich literary community developed in Concord during the mid-19th century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson's circle included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. Major works written in Concord during this period include Alcott's novel Little Women, Emerson's essay Self-Reliance, and Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience. On our ride through Concord we rode by the homes of all these famous authors, but there were no stops and no opportunity for photographs. 

The Concord grape was developed in Concord.  It was then introduced to the market in 1854.  Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch developed the first Concord grape juice in his house in 1869.

The Minute Man statue adjacent to the North Bridge at the Minute Man National Historical Park.

See our nifty rally t-shirts?

The Concord River from the North Bridge

Finally, late Thursday night, I contacted Tri State Truck Center, located in Shrewsbury MA about 35 miles west.  They said they could look at the coach on Friday morning.  They keep pretty long hours, open 24 hours Monday through Friday, and until 3:00 on Saturday, but closed on Sunday. With any luck they could identify and acquire the part and get us back on the road before closing time on Saturday. If so, we could drive the 800 miles home and comfortably make my doctor's appointments beginning Wednesday morning.  If the repairs were not completed until Monday or later I might need to cancel the appointments. That would be a real bummer, because I had been waiting to see one particular doctor for almost 5 months.

But at least we had a plan, and there was a light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. For the rest of the story stay tuned for the next post.