Day 2 (and 3...)

All was well as we pulled out of the campsite at the Sundowner West RV park near Salina, KS. The first leg went well, and after covering the first hundred miles or so we ran through the same silly cold front, complete with the rapid warming, an instantly fogged windshield and shifty winds. It rained again for most of the morning but cleard out about 1:00 P.M. and we thought we night even get some sunshine.
We took a short break at a rest stop and Robin drove the next leg. About 70 miles later we both jumped hard when we heard this huge "BANG!" from under the hood and the truck (Fordzilla) lost pretty much all power. We pulled off to the side of the freeay and I gave a quick look under the hood but couldn't see any obvious damage or leaks. None of the tires had blown, and there wasn't any debris on the freeway that we might've either hit or left behind so we deemed it best to try to drive off the freeway to a safer place.
The truck was making almost no power, and the boost gague would not budge off of zero, so I presumed we'd blown a turbocharger. There was no rattling and the engine sounded OK, so we began to move. Fortunately there was an off-ramp less than a mile away and a motel parking lot allowed us to pull out of any traffic.

I googled on my phone (oh, the benefits of geekdom) and called a local Ford dealership. After speaking with the service manager we concurred that the turbo may have blown and we shouldn't drive it any more. He gave me the Ford Roadside Assistance number, they called a towing company and we were handled well at every step of the way.
Ford paid for a towing company to come get us, take us and the fifth-wheel to a nearby campground and haul the truck off to the dealer. By the time it was all said and done it was after 7:00 P.M. but nonetheless we were safe and sound, and everything was in order and under warranty. now all we had to do was wait for a diagnosis and estimate on the repair time.

So...find Jonesburg, Missouri on your map :) .. (hint ... it's just down the road from High Hill). We had no idea how long we'd be stranded here, or exactly what the damage would be, but we were content that we were safe and that we had enough extra time built in to the schedule to be ok if we got delayed a few days. Robin had also stocked us up with provisions and we would be fine with the food we had on board for the stay.

The next morning (Wednesday now) I called the dealer and they said that they were just pulling it in to the shop. I gave them the contact numbers and we waited for them to call. We spent the day waiting for a call, and went through some boxes of 'stuff' we had thrown in during the last moments of packing. Finally we got a call late in the afternoon and (of course) told me that they'd called about 3 hours earlier and left a message (which I never received).
he good news was that it was simply a matter of a rather large (and very important) hose blowing off it's fitting (Charged Air Cooling hose) and it'd be a simple matter to put it back together. If I wanted a replacement item it'd be another day for parts.
I asked if this was a field-replaceable item and was told yes, so we opted to have them replace and re-torque the original one and I will have to come up with a new one as soon as I can get to a big-city dealership.
Kudos to Ford, Zweiser Ford of Warrenton, MO, Skyline Towing, and the Jonesburg Gardens RV Park (thanks, Bob!) for all the help and the up-front manner with which this was all handled.
It could've been much, much worse, but with this level of help it went very well indeed.

We got the truck back, and it works fine. We fueled up and took a short tour of downton Jonesburg then settled in for the evening.

If you ever pass just east of St. Louis, do stop at that campground. It was as friendly and helpful as they get; and the camp ducks were just ... fun :)