Our first Day, July 31st

This is the record of our cross country trip in a 1961 Pink Shasta Compact  - for more pics and info on the restoration of the Shasta go to my other blog:  http://shastapearl.blogspot.com/

We headed out late and drove to Quakertown, PA which is near Gramma and Papa.  But, we had a bit of trouble along the way.  4 hours into the trip we heard a bit of squeal from the brakes so we got off the highway to check on things.  We pulled into and Auto parts store and bottomed out on the driveway.  Yikes!  The Pearl was listing to one side.  We thought we had broken a lief spring.  Big trouble there.  We called the Good Sam Club and while we were waiting for them, we bought a new hitch which was lower so the trailer wouldn't tilt back as much (and hopefully not be so close to the ground and bottom out).

The flat bed tow truck came and said that they thought we could drive it to the station.  Ok, off we headed - bottomed out on the driveway on the way out, again.  When we arrived at the service station, the driver said we could park in the side lot for the night.  Huh?  for the night?  Good Sam said someone was going to look at it today.  Uh No - so we went to the "side lot".  On a good note, there was a Dunkin Donuts across from us.  The tow truck driver took pity on us and told us that he could call Emergency Road Service to look at it today.  Today!  I didn't think that was an option.  Yes! today would be great.  We tanked up on Dunkin Donuts Mocha Ice Coffee's and awaited ERS.

Once we had coffee in us, we were thinking a bit more clearly.  We started looking under the Pearl and we realized that the lief spring was not broken.  There was a thingy (thats the technical term) that is attached to the lief spring that looks like a type of support arm.  One the good side it was at an angle, on the bad side, it was flat.

When the Emergency Road Service came, he was enchanted by Pearl.  He took photos and texted to his Fiance.  Oh we were having a grand time.  Turns out the thingy had "cammed over".  Which isn't all that bad.  Another bump (like the one on the way out of the Auto Parts) made is pop back into place.  We didn't need to sleep in the weed filled "side lot"!  We were back on the road.

Made our first stop in Quakertown, PA at about 11:30