My letter comes to you a little late today because I needed to spend the first part of my morning watching after my Nephew Joshua while Jannell had her weekly pregnancy visit. Jennifer was planning to meet up with Jannell , who is two weeks away from having Joshua’s little brother, but Hutch isn’t feeling well so she needed to keep him quarantined at home. At 2:30am this morning Hutch woke up with a tummy-ache and ran into our bedroom to tell us he felt like he was going to throw up. He was right. I was awakened to the sound and smell of Hutch’s dinner splattering onto our bed and him crying in the dark. Jennifer got him cleaned up and we changed the sheets, all the while trying not to throw up ourselves. It was a fitting end to our week…
On Friday evening, after what had been a very tiring and stressful seven days for several reasons, Jennifer and I and the kids met our new friends, the Harpers, at Mellow Mushroom for supper. Mellow Mushroom is Hutch’s favorite pizza place but he decided to eat salad and yogurt instead. We should have known something was fishy. When we got home we got a text message from Ryan Simmons of the band Addison Road. They are borrowing our RV/Bus for their tour with Sanctus Real. It worked out really well, or so we thought, since we’re off the road until Easter and don’t currently need it. Ryan’s text was short but informative…
“Call me. 911. RV engulfed in flames.”
I smiled when I saw the text knowing that it was a joke. The guys had been having some minor mechanical issues earlier in the week and we’d been joking about how that always seems to happens to them. Ryan did a really good job of keeping the prank going when I called him, acting somber and trying to convince me that the text was true. I hung up and called Brandon, their driver, just to be sure it was, in fact, a joke. Brandon went along with the prank as well so I did too, but I did get a bit nervous. A minute or two later I received an email from Ryan with this picture attached…
I texted back…
“Ok, so you were NOT JOKING, call me.”
The band was not on the bus when the fire started. The driver was in Kingman Arizona on his way to meet up with them in Las Vegas when he heard the smoke detector in the back bedroom ringing. He couldn’t see or smell smoke when he looked back but pulled over anyway. Once outside he noticed flames and sparks shooting from the engine compartment and immediately he and a stranger that had pulled over behind him tried to put the flames out with fire extinguishers. They couldn’t contain it and after a few minutes they had to abandon it for fear that the fire was going to spread to the fuel lines and explode. They had called the fire department but by the time they arrived they could only contain the blaze. A few hours later only a shell remained and the towing service took over the clean up. The fire was so hot that the rims melted into the highway and it took the wrecker service extra effort to get the Bus free.
The band is understandably shaken but they are continuing on the tour one show at a time. They are traveling in a caravan of rented SUVs for now until they get a plan sorted out. All of their merchandise (CDs, shirts, etc.) burned in the trailer they were towing but their instruments and gear were already at the concert venue so they are intact.
Jennifer and I are beginning the process of filing an insurance report and hoping to get a fair settlement. Even though we’d not owned this RV for a long time we still have many memories in it from last year’s travels and that’s a bit of a bummer, especially for our kids.
I’ve got to get going but I’ll be in touch-
Jeromy
