“Sometimes it’s okay, sometimes it’s not” was once a Dutch insurance company’s slogan. Last week it unfortunately also applied to me. In the night from Sunday to Monday I had left to finally, after almost half a year of waiting due to covid-19, pick up my bus in Lucca (Italy). The outward journey went almost perfectly with only half an hour delay for the Gotthard tunnel in Switserland.
Once I arrived, transferring and arranging the export papers were also fixed in no time, even though it was expected in advance that this could take up to two days. So, trailer behind the bus, car on the trailer and I was ready for the return journey. I quickly did some shopping at the supermarket where I parked and off I went. At first I was a bit getting used to the bus, but soon I drove as if it were the most natural thing in the world towards the Netherlands.
I would have had to make a stopover somewhere along the journey because of the driving times law but arriving on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning at home would have been easily attainable. The bus, however, thought different about it after just an hour. A forced stop after a message in the display that the motor was overheated. And there I stood, on the hard shoulder just before another tunnel. A quick look at what was going on and before I knew it I was putting out a fire in the engine compartment with a fire extinguisher. All emergency services on the scene and eventually I got towed to the nearest parking lot.
Unfortunately it was then too late to be able to call garages because most of them were already closed. So I had to wait until the next day before I spent the whole day on the phone to get me out of there. Eventually all factors weighed up and I ordered a tow truck from the Netherlands to pick up the bus.
Unfortunately I had to wait more than a day in that parking lot to finally be “rescued” on Thursday evening. Yes, I still had my own car but to leave the bus there … ??? No way!!!
I arrived home on Friday evening and the bus will be delivered to the garage on Monday. As far as I’ve been able to estimate it on location, it all seems to be okay and it has probably been limited to some cabling that was too close to the outlet, causing it to melt.
After the corona and this setback, we will soon continue to create the coolest tour bus in the Netherlands.