Wichita Saturday Night

The trip from Jefferson City to Wichita was reasonably uneventful. We had a little rain but it was dry most of the way and we saw the sun in the afternoon.


Once we were in Wichita everything went to pot. We were heading west on US-54 (Kellogg) which turns into a semi-expressway and we were hearing funny squeaks coming from either the trailer or the truck. It was quite noisy and we were worried that something was coming loose. I slowed down and the noise lessened but was still there. We limped along and got to our motel and got out to inspect the truck and trailer. At first everything looked OK but then we saw smoke coming out of the trailer's right hub. The hub seal/cap was missing and there was grease spattered around the wheel.  We figured that that wasn't good.   We also noticed that the wheel was actually sticking out from the body of the trailer more than on the other side.  Once again, we figured that that probably meant there was a problem. Can't fool us.

What to do???  U-haul has a 24/7 emergency road service contractor with a toll free number. I called, and once they were satisfied that we were safe and not standing on the highway, they started working on my problem.  Actually, I'm impressed that their first priority was our safety...even before they heard what was wrong or confirmed who I was.

It took a few return phone calls but now the plan is for someone to come very early tomorrow and flat-bed the trailer to the U-Haul place here in Wichita and unload it and then give me a different trailer and reload my stuff so we can be on our way with a new trailer.    We shall see...stay tuned.

We are staying at the Clarion Suites motel and it seems pretty nice.  Supper tonight was at the Monterrey restaurant located next door. This was one of the best Mexican restaurants I've been in. I had a Yucatan Salad that had grilled shrimp and grilled pineapple with mango vinaigrette.  Donna had a marinated and grilled chicken breast. Both were excellent.  The margaritas were good, too.

We tried the motel bar but that was just not worth the effort. We settled for a couple beers since the bartender couldn't do complicated drinks, like margaritas....and couldn't do basic arithmetic, either.


That was it for today. They might be here pretty early for the trailer....I hope.