Giving Thanks for Arriving Safely-Praying we Get Back OK

Wow, this has been quite a day. We were up at 6:30 and I got busy loading up. DH headed to the clubhouse to get a donut and coffee and ice! Not sure how the division of labor got so lopsided!!!! I got the cooler loaded up when he got back with ice and sent him for more ice. While he was gone I also got Abbie brushed and her hair put up. Some things just cannot be done until the last minute. I took Abbie to our friends a few minutes before 8 and she was happy to go in but when I left she managed to beat me out the door!!!
We got on the road about 8:15 and things started off with our check engine light coming on before we even made it to the interstate. Dh called the repair shop where we had had it serviced and they had returned it telling us we were good to go! He could not diagnose it without putting it on the computer so we decided to take a chance and head on out and take it in when we returned. Things went along pretty good till we got south of Sarasota. We had stopped at a rest area about 10:30 and got out and stretched our legs-did some good walking for about 20 min and grabbed a piece of cheese and then it was back on the road. About an hour and a half later we decided we needed gas so got off to get that and that is when things started falling apart!! While we were pulling in to fill up, I heard a funny noise-sounded like the tire was rubbing. It stopped so decided I must have heard things but then when we got back on the road I immediately heard the same sound and now it sounded like hissing so we pulled right back off into another gas station.
OMG, the guys opened the hood and the radiator was hot as all get out. They waited a few minutes and then opened it up and WOW, we lost all of our fluid. While we were there, a young man came over and told us there was a Camping World just down the road and they had a service center! We gave that a thought, but the guys decided we would fill up the radiator so DH went in and bought a gallon of antifreeze and that with some water filled things up. At this point we were about 75 miles from our destination so we decided to try to get on down. Things went along ok for about 15 min and then the light came on to tell us we were HOT but the temp guage was not indicating that so we slowed down even more (on the interstate!) and managed to get to the next exit where we found that the fluid level was too low again so we added more water. They guys thought when things were circulating it might have needed more than we origianlly thought as it was not spewing out like before. Vicky realized our fans were not working-light bulb moment. At that point we decided we could motor on without the a/c on and hopefully make it in. The guys did decide to check the fuse but it was fine. We motored on down a little more but light came on a 2nd time indicating we were hot so off at the next stop. This time the guys started wiggling things around under the hood and voila found a loose wire and that got the fans running again! We were afraid to put our a/c on at that point so did most of the last 30 miles with no air but once we were getting close to the campground, we turned it on and things seem to be working ok now.
I knew it was out of our hands so just asked The Lord to get us here safely and back home. He got us here so praying he will also get us home and once there, we will get this things back in to be checked out further.
We were certainly gl;ad we did not have Abbie with all this going on and our generator works, but when we put it under load to run the a/c it can't handle it so going to have to find someone to work on that also. Never a dull moment. This is why we are doing some shorter trips so we can get the bugs out before we take off for 6 - 9 weeks.
We had a little rain off and on on the way down but nothing heavy. It was really dark and poured right after we arrived at the campground, but that passed quickly. However, the sky was dark so we opted to stay around here once we got set up. We did some more walking and then just sat and looked out on the water. I will try for some pics tomorrow.
Ah, the joys of camping!!!