June 28, 2024, was an eventful day full of surprises and miracles. Our day began normally enough, with us leaving Manawa Lake State Park and heading northwest toward the Badlands of South Dakota. There aren’t great camping options in the Badlands, so we made reservations at the Badlands White River KOA for two nights.
While passing through Norfolk, Nebraska, on our way to the Badlands KOA, our truck developed a bad vibration and lacked power. We pulled into a gas station to try and figure out our next steps. We determined it needed serious service and learned that the local GM dealer wouldn’t even look at our truck until July 9th. We didn’t want to and couldn’t stay for nearly two weeks in Nebraska, so we looked for alternatives.
The Norfolk GM dealer pointed us to their sister company, a Dodge dealership in Columbus, Nebraska. We talked to a friendly guy there who was willing to take a look at the truck. However, Columbus was 45 minutes away, so we had to arrange to tow our vehicle. Miraculously, we were right across the street from a Walmart store. We heard that with the permission of Walmart store managers, it was possible to stay the night in their parking lots. We limped the truck and trailer across the street and received permission to leave the trailer overnight. We had never camped at a Walmart before!
We called our roadside assistance—yes, the one that failed to help us with our blowout in Arkansas—to acquire a tow truck. They were willing to tow us to the local GM dealer, where we couldn’t get service, but they wanted $511 to pull us to Columbus. Fortunately, the Dodge dealership had a towing service that only cost us $350. Strike two on our lousy roadside assistance.
The tow truck showed up, and we hauled our vehicle to Columbus. The Dodge folks determined we had a bad fuel injector and associated cable. They also learned that the repairs would be covered under warranty at the Columbus GM dealer, which they weren’t associated with. The Dodge dealership folks were so kind. They made us comfortable, helped us immediately, and even persuaded the Columbus GM dealer to take a look.
We limped down to the GM dealer, and they knew immediately that the Dodge dealership’s diagnosis was correct. They agreed to fix the truck the following morning and sent us on our way with a brand-new truck as a loaner. We drove back to our Walmart camping spot. Kudos to Walmart for providing us with a safe and comfortable place to stay!
The next day, the GM dealer called with the good news. They had repaired the truck, and we could come get it at noon. The injector was covered under warranty, and something that wasn’t was $350. Our total cost for repair and towing was $700. However, given all of the remote places we have driven, breaking down near a Walmart “campground” and having the total cost be less than $1000 and with only a 24-hour delay will be recognized as a miracle in this blog!
We were off to the Badlands a day behind schedule. Of course, after all the goodness expressed by the good people of Nebraska, we lost our $100 per night charge for our KOA. This makes the total cost of the breakdown and subsequent repair $800 and 24 hours, still much better than it could have been.
| Nights | Total Nights | Miles | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 256 | 127 | 24088 |
