Our time in Waco done, we are moving north to the Dallas/Ft Worth suburb of Highland Village. John's brother lives about a half hour south of Highland Village and we'll be visiting him and his family for a few days.
Again, our initial plans for a campground, one we had used in the past, were thwarted by flooding. Lewisville Lake was swollen by months of rain and the campground on the southern end near the dam was mostly underwater. After an extensive search we came upon a little gem of a park operated by the city of Highland Village on the banks of the northern end of Lewisville Lake. The park, Pilot Knoll, was on a little bit higher ground and not flooded by the bereft of rain. However it was flooded by campers. This park being one of few that was not battling flooding had all the campers funneled to it. We were pretty lucky to get a space but it was for fewer days than what we preferred.
We had no more got set up and ready to go see family when Cyndee realized she was not feeling well and that her throat hurt again. In just a few minutes we suspected that her strep throat had returned. So instead of finding our way to family we were hunting for the nearest doc-in-a-box. A quick culture confirmed our suspicion and it was back to the pharmacy for another ten days of antibiotics.
Cyndee retreated to the camper to recuperate and John and his brother hung out off and on for the next few days.
Like everywhere we have been this summer, it was HOT. Luckily our campground was heavily wooded and we were in dense shade. In fact, the first campsite they tried to put us in was so heavily covered with branches arched over the pad we couldn't get in. Most branches were about two feet below the top of our camper. This site was not appropriate for a 5th wheel or motorcoach but would have been perfect for a low travel trailer like an Airstream or pop-up. Even after getting redirected to a "high clearance" site, the branches were still so close to the roof that we could not raise our TV antenna. Same for the satellite dish, but even if it could be raised it would have been of no use because of the dense canopy blocking any signal. This stay would be sans news and weather via TV.
As blog posts go this one is pretty ho-hum, sorry. We're not going to famous places like the national parks of Arizona and Utah or the grand scenic vistas of the continental divide. This is just the daily life of someone who's only home is their RV. We write about our experiences to achieve several goals. The first and originally only reason was at family's request to provide some way for them to keep up with where we were and what we were doing. But we soon found that other RV'ers were using us for reference and in particular those that were contemplating the jump to fulltiming. So that's why we talk about the trials and tribulations of finding medical care, mechanical failures and details,with links to campgrounds. A little something for everyone and hopefully entertaining from time to time.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Waco Here We Come.
We have mixed emotions about getting back on the road. On one hand we are looking forward to what Waco, TX has to offer tourists but on the other hand we are unsettled by our tire problems. We have confirmed that our total load is within limits and that our load balance across each axle and even each individual tire is also within limits. But after more hours than I care to think about researching and getting on forums it is clear that the Goodyear Marathons I am running are a tire with a reputation. And it is not a good reputation.
The number of reported failures of these tires was astounding. It was not possible to read all the search hits about problems with this tire. Of the couple hundred I did read the theme was common, tread separation and blowouts under conditions that these problems should not have happened. One condition that did seem to be an issue in a large number of the failures was hot pavement. Like me, many of the people experiencing catastrophic blowouts did so while traveling in blistering summer heat. Several had said they changed their traveling habits to move only at night! We are not willing to go to that extreme but we are going to start traveling by sunup and be to our next campground by mid-day. That should have us traveling before the pavement gets untouchably hot plus being a time of day that should something happen it will be daylight and businesses that we would need will be open.
With that said, we are up at 5:00 am and getting configured for travel. Even with this being the coolest time of day, it is still 83 degrees. It doesn't sound much like it cooled off during the night but when I got to thinking about it it was almost a 30 degree drop from yesterday's high.
We are pulling out and the sun has not quite come up yet. Our destination is just over three hours away so we will be getting to our new campground in time to park, get set up and fix lunch. But our destination park, Flat Creek Farm RV Resort is not our original choice. We were all set to try out a Corp of Engineers park on Lake Waco. This campground had received great reviews and we were looking forward to being next to the water for a few days. But once we figured out what day we would be leaving Livingston we went online to make reservations and discovered that all the campgrounds on Lake Waco were closed due to flooding. Outside of the COE campgrounds the choices for RV parking got a little sketchy or pricey. We chose to go pricey and reduced the number of days we would have stayed otherwise. We would soon learn that the flooding was not limited to the lake area.
It seems that the strategy of driving slow and during the cool part of the day is working. The move to Waco was uneventful and our little out of the way RV resort is nice. Although their parking layout is a little odd to us. The sites are pull-thru but they alternate the direction you are pointed. The backside of your RV is facing the backside of your neighbor's RV with only a couple of feet between you. We could literally hear our neighbor sneeze or cough. But that's okay, we don't plan on being around much except to sleep anyway.
We picked Waco for pure fun. No chores or things to do like jury duty or going to the tax commissioner. Our satellite feed gives us the HGTV channel and we have become fans of the show Fixer Upper, which is based in Waco. The point of the show is to take you through the process of people buying a house that is need of serious repair in the Waco area and then doing a total overhaul on it to make it livable and updated. But in the course of doing that they show little snippets of sites from around town like the skyline of downtown, the river through town, the sculptures at the historic bridge, and more. We wanted to see more and we wanted to see it in person so here we are.
First thing is the ALICO (Amicable Life Insurance Company) building which is featured at least a couple of times each show. It is the tallest building in town at 22 stories and was completed in 1911 on top of a site that was the location of a run-down, three story First National Bank building.
A big attraction in town is the Brazos River Park and its suspension bridge. In Texas there are many rivers but it is common that many, if not most, only have water flowing in them when it is raining. The Brazos is not one of those. It may get shallow at times of drought but it seems to always have flow. This year has been anything but a drought for Texas. Rains have been so abundant that a large portion of the state has been under flood warning for months. That is pretty much what happened to our first choice campground on Lake Waco. It finally rained enough that the COE had to cut back on flow into the Brazos to minimize its flooding. The most recent rains finally pushed the shore line up into the campgrounds.
The suspension bridge, built in 1870, was a toll bridge. And in an agreement with its builders and local officials, was a monopoly until 1889. The only other way across the river was by ferry, and by the stories told it was a bit of a risky endeavor. From the day the bridge opened it became the de facto crossing point for the Chisholm Trail at 5 cents a head. The $141,000 it took to build the bridge was paid back quickly and many times over. In 1889 the bridge was sold to McClennan County and all tolls were removed.
Roebling Company of Trenton, New Jersey designed the bridge and built the cabling for it. Roebling later used the Waco Bridge as a prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge.
The bridge was built wide enough for stagecoaches to pass each other or for cattle to go down one side and pedestrians the other.
Modern day Waco has built parks along the river on both sides of the bridge. But for the duration of our three-day stay, and well before and after, the parks were submerged under flood waters.
It was a disappointment that we were not able to enjoy the river parks but on the other hand it gives us a reason to go back.
The banks of the river were high and dry, this is where the Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive sculptures reside. The guy(s) that sculpted this scene did not mess around, everything was about double life-size and there were a lot of them. I particularly enjoyed one scene where the cowboy was managing a spirited horse all the while herding longhorns to the entrance of the bridge.
The Fixer Upper TV show is what prompted us to visit Waco so what stay would be complete without visiting the stars of the show's newly finished restoration of a grain silo operation into a home decor store? It may be an old grain silo but that does not mean it is out in the middle of some wheat field. This silo is right downtown alongside an old railroad spur.
We had been hearing about how popular a place this was to visit so we planned to arrive at opening time. It should be cooler (we are still experiencing 100+ degree days) and maybe we will beat the crowds. Cooler happened, beating the crowds didn't.
By opening time the line to get in was a couple hundred people deep but everybody was relaxed and enjoying some bearable weather. The best part was when teenagers appeared out of a side building that had been adapted into a kitchen, with large trays of cupcakes. They started giving them to those of us waiting in line and man oh man were they good. I had never tasted an icing that was even remotely like what they were dishing out.
Well before Waco was known for its TV personalities it was home to the invention of what was to be a famous soft drink, Dr Pepper. It was 1885 when a pharmacist by the name of Charles Alderton concocted a carbonated drink at the pharmacy's soda fountain. It rapidly gained popularity and became too much for the young pharmacist who preferred to focus on his pharmaceutical career. He sold the formula and "business" to a couple of businessmen. These two men were serious about growing the business and showcased the drink at the 1904 Worlds Fair, the same year that hot dogs and hamburgers were served on buns.
Even though the business of Dr Pepper was moved to Dallas in the early 1900's, Waco is recognized as the home of the concoction and has a museum dedicated to all things Dr Pepper.
Waco is also home to Baylor University. Even though Cyndee and I are native Texans we were not really well informed about just how much of a school it is. We drove onto campus and were blown away by its size and beauty. It was an mix of old and new. It was amusing for us to see groups of incoming freshmen doing campus tours. We had flashbacks of our own freshmen orientation forty-some years ago at West Texas State University (now known as West Texas A&M).
Waco is also home to a brand new National Monument. One year ago to the month of our visit, the National Park Service acquired a paleontological dig on an ancient tributary near today's Brazos River. This is an important dig as it is the only one in the world where they have a complete nursery of Columbian Mammoths. Normally the males are solitary and not found in the vicinity of females or calves. In this dig they are all together plus a camel and a couple other yet identified animals, all from around 67,000 years ago.
Since the dig is of a relatively young time, the bones and tusks of the animals are not fully mineralized. They are not yet completely a fossil. In fact the ivory of the tusks has proven very sensitive to environmental conditions and when exposed to moisture and warm temperatures, have literally exploded into small fragments. To protect the dig, a building has been built to encompass the entire site for the purposes of environmental control of humidity and temperature.
The Columbian Mammoth is not the same as the Woolly Mammoth that most of us are familiar with. The Columbians lived in southern climes and were so much bigger that they made other mammoths look petite.
This about wraps up our three day visit to Waco, TX. It will be another early morning tomorrow for our short trip, barely two hours, to Highland Village, TX near John's brother's home.
The number of reported failures of these tires was astounding. It was not possible to read all the search hits about problems with this tire. Of the couple hundred I did read the theme was common, tread separation and blowouts under conditions that these problems should not have happened. One condition that did seem to be an issue in a large number of the failures was hot pavement. Like me, many of the people experiencing catastrophic blowouts did so while traveling in blistering summer heat. Several had said they changed their traveling habits to move only at night! We are not willing to go to that extreme but we are going to start traveling by sunup and be to our next campground by mid-day. That should have us traveling before the pavement gets untouchably hot plus being a time of day that should something happen it will be daylight and businesses that we would need will be open.
With that said, we are up at 5:00 am and getting configured for travel. Even with this being the coolest time of day, it is still 83 degrees. It doesn't sound much like it cooled off during the night but when I got to thinking about it it was almost a 30 degree drop from yesterday's high.
We are pulling out and the sun has not quite come up yet. Our destination is just over three hours away so we will be getting to our new campground in time to park, get set up and fix lunch. But our destination park, Flat Creek Farm RV Resort is not our original choice. We were all set to try out a Corp of Engineers park on Lake Waco. This campground had received great reviews and we were looking forward to being next to the water for a few days. But once we figured out what day we would be leaving Livingston we went online to make reservations and discovered that all the campgrounds on Lake Waco were closed due to flooding. Outside of the COE campgrounds the choices for RV parking got a little sketchy or pricey. We chose to go pricey and reduced the number of days we would have stayed otherwise. We would soon learn that the flooding was not limited to the lake area.
It seems that the strategy of driving slow and during the cool part of the day is working. The move to Waco was uneventful and our little out of the way RV resort is nice. Although their parking layout is a little odd to us. The sites are pull-thru but they alternate the direction you are pointed. The backside of your RV is facing the backside of your neighbor's RV with only a couple of feet between you. We could literally hear our neighbor sneeze or cough. But that's okay, we don't plan on being around much except to sleep anyway.
We picked Waco for pure fun. No chores or things to do like jury duty or going to the tax commissioner. Our satellite feed gives us the HGTV channel and we have become fans of the show Fixer Upper, which is based in Waco. The point of the show is to take you through the process of people buying a house that is need of serious repair in the Waco area and then doing a total overhaul on it to make it livable and updated. But in the course of doing that they show little snippets of sites from around town like the skyline of downtown, the river through town, the sculptures at the historic bridge, and more. We wanted to see more and we wanted to see it in person so here we are.
First thing is the ALICO (Amicable Life Insurance Company) building which is featured at least a couple of times each show. It is the tallest building in town at 22 stories and was completed in 1911 on top of a site that was the location of a run-down, three story First National Bank building.
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| The ALICO building was just as we saw it on TV, iconic flag starched by a stiff breeze and all. |
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| This shot was captured standing on the old suspension bridge looking down the swollen Brazos toward Baylor University's McClane Stadium. |
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| With its 475 foot span, this was Texas' first major suspension bridge and the longest west of the Mississippi. |
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| I was going for an artistic shot of the bridge but got a bonus of a pair of Black Vultures on top of the far tower. |
Modern day Waco has built parks along the river on both sides of the bridge. But for the duration of our three-day stay, and well before and after, the parks were submerged under flood waters.
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| The Brazos is running high. |
The banks of the river were high and dry, this is where the Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive sculptures reside. The guy(s) that sculpted this scene did not mess around, everything was about double life-size and there were a lot of them. I particularly enjoyed one scene where the cowboy was managing a spirited horse all the while herding longhorns to the entrance of the bridge.
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| Lots of drama going on here. |
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| Even arriving well before opening time, cars were parked for blocks around. |
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| We were about sixty or seventy back. The line behind us wrapped around the block. |
Well before Waco was known for its TV personalities it was home to the invention of what was to be a famous soft drink, Dr Pepper. It was 1885 when a pharmacist by the name of Charles Alderton concocted a carbonated drink at the pharmacy's soda fountain. It rapidly gained popularity and became too much for the young pharmacist who preferred to focus on his pharmaceutical career. He sold the formula and "business" to a couple of businessmen. These two men were serious about growing the business and showcased the drink at the 1904 Worlds Fair, the same year that hot dogs and hamburgers were served on buns.
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| Dr Pepper museum, Waco, TX |
Waco is also home to Baylor University. Even though Cyndee and I are native Texans we were not really well informed about just how much of a school it is. We drove onto campus and were blown away by its size and beauty. It was an mix of old and new. It was amusing for us to see groups of incoming freshmen doing campus tours. We had flashbacks of our own freshmen orientation forty-some years ago at West Texas State University (now known as West Texas A&M).
Waco is also home to a brand new National Monument. One year ago to the month of our visit, the National Park Service acquired a paleontological dig on an ancient tributary near today's Brazos River. This is an important dig as it is the only one in the world where they have a complete nursery of Columbian Mammoths. Normally the males are solitary and not found in the vicinity of females or calves. In this dig they are all together plus a camel and a couple other yet identified animals, all from around 67,000 years ago.
Since the dig is of a relatively young time, the bones and tusks of the animals are not fully mineralized. They are not yet completely a fossil. In fact the ivory of the tusks has proven very sensitive to environmental conditions and when exposed to moisture and warm temperatures, have literally exploded into small fragments. To protect the dig, a building has been built to encompass the entire site for the purposes of environmental control of humidity and temperature.
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| Walkway above Columbian Mammoth dig site. |
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| This bull Columbian Mammoth was as much as four feet taller at the shoulders than his Woolly Mammoth cousin. That's fourteen feet! |
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Just a quick blurb.
Being in Livingston, TX puts us close to several of John's cousins. Of course close is a relative term when your talking about Texas. One was two hours away in Sugarland, another one an hour away in Conroe and the third an hour away in Montgomery. By the way, did you know that you could always tell if you were talking to a Texan if they spoke in terms of travel time instead of distance? When we were in high school we made a few trips from our hometown of Borger, TX (up in the panhandle, north of Amarillo) to Galveston Island, TX. To this day I have no idea how many miles that drive was but I know it was a 14 hour trip with 70 mph speed limits. During the oil crisis when speed limits were dropped to 55 mph we quit making long-distance weekend drives. There just was not enough hours in the weekend to do more than make the drive, with no time to spend at the destination.
Before our stay in Livingston was finished we had managed to meet with all three for dinner at restaurants approximately mid-way between us and them. These are some pretty special people in my book and we loved spending time with them. Although Cyndee did miss one dinner due to her strep throat infection. So, where does one meet for a special dinner with family when in Texas, why at BBQ or Mexican food restaurants of course.
One dinner Cyndee didn't miss was a trip to the Humble, TX location of Spring Creek BBQ. This is a chain of restaurants scattered around the Houston area and east Texas. But don't let the chain thing put you off, this is some good BBQ. I got what I call a dinosaur bone (a big ol' beef rib) and was thoroughly satisfied with it and the endless sides that come with it. Plus, the wait staff walks around with a large basket of fresh, hot rolls that just keep coming. Our next stop was on a farm to market road just outside of Conroe, at the foot of the dam of Lake Conroe. El Bosque has two locations, one in Conroe and this one at the lake. They had an extensive menu with several unique offerings. Everything we had was really good. And lastly, the one Cyndee was down and out for, was Los Pericos in Huntsville. Again, a huge menu with many unique house specialties. I did take a desert home for Cyndee.
We'll be getting ready to head north now. We are going to go to Waco and be tourists for a few days and then work our way up to my brother's place near Dallas and then to both my and Cyndee's home town of Borger.
Before our stay in Livingston was finished we had managed to meet with all three for dinner at restaurants approximately mid-way between us and them. These are some pretty special people in my book and we loved spending time with them. Although Cyndee did miss one dinner due to her strep throat infection. So, where does one meet for a special dinner with family when in Texas, why at BBQ or Mexican food restaurants of course.
We'll be getting ready to head north now. We are going to go to Waco and be tourists for a few days and then work our way up to my brother's place near Dallas and then to both my and Cyndee's home town of Borger.
Done, done and done.
The second day of jury duty was a lot like the first, hot and boring. The A/C had not been fixed yet so it was plenty hot. The heat coupled with the not-so-interesting law suit made for drowsiness. One of our jurors, a twenty-something, actually dosed off, but within seconds of the first head-bob the bailiff was all over her letting her know that behavior was unacceptable. That perked everybody in the courtroom up.
By the end of the day we, the jury, had found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded them the $150,000 they had been swindled out of. We had now fulfilled our civil obligations. Mark this one DONE!
It was time to move on to the other objectives we (Cyndee and I) had come to Livingston for. I made an appointment to get our truck and trailer weighed with SmartWeigh and headed to the tax commissioner's office to secure the title to my truck.
It has been three years since we moved from Georgia to Texas. All legal documents have been moved. Driver licenses, bank accounts, wills, etc. have all been converted to our new home state. The exception being the title to the truck. Despite multiple attempts in 2013 when we did everything else, we just couldn't get the title. And trying to do it by mail in the intervening three years was no more fruitful. I was dreading taking on whatever bureaucracy was going to be thrown at me this time. What was different about today I don't know, but ten minutes after walking in the tax commissioners building, I was walking out, title in hand. DONE!
Texas is one of the states that has speed limits for select roads up to 75 mph. These higher speed roads tend to be multi-lane with intersections that are overpasses with ramps, or at least stack lanes for turning. But not always, and that is the case for the road that goes to the Escapees park, Rainbow's End. Coming from Livingston going to the RV park there is a generous stack lane for turning right into the park. But coming from the other direction there is nothing but the single driving lane to make a left turn from. And pulling out from the park, making a left to go into town is a high pucker factor move. PLUS, the entrance to the park is at the top of a rise in the road. Visibility is limited for seeing high speed traffic coming down the only lane you have for going from a dead-stop to highway speed.
This part of Texas is known as the piney woods. There is an abundant amount of logging going on with large, heavy logging trucks blasting up and down roads big and small all around here. The road in front of Escapees has a pretty steady parade of logging trucks moving in both directions all day, every day. It is not unusual to hear the heavy application of jake brakes accompanied by the squalling sound of skidding tires as trucks have to make a panic stop to keep from rear-ending a car trying to make a left turn into the park. Today was a little different as there were multiple crashing sounds to go along with jake brake noise and squalling truck tires.
It would seem that a small car was stopped, waiting for traffic to clear so they could make a left into the Escapees park when they were rear-ended by an SUV. That collision scattered the two small vehicles across all available pavement and a logging truck was only a few seconds behind the SUV. The truck had no room to stop and no alternate pavement to use. The driver had his stuff straight, he was not going to add his considerable mass to the collision so he headed into the ditch alongside the road in full panic-stop mode. The ditch being steeply sloped and the truck being of a high center of gravity resulted in the only thing that could happen, he went over and started plowing the ditch with the side of his cab.
Ambulances took away the injured from the two small vehicles and tow trucks quickly cleared the two wrecked cars but it was a good while before they got a big enough tow truck that could handle the logging truck. And by the way, the picture makes the weather look pleasant, it wasn't. Temperature at the time this shot was taken was 111 degrees.
Distractions aside, it was time to go to our SmartWeigh appointment. To do so means completely packing up the rig and truck just as if you were moving to your next destination. All the sewer connections, shore power cable, water hose, everything put in its storage compartment to get an accurate representation of the load balance. Same for the truck, including both passengers.
Tanks dumped and all buttoned up we hook up the truck and idle our way through the RV park to the SmartWeigh scale pad. SmartWeigh is a service within the park that is manned by trained staff. Our technician today was definitely not new at the job. She was all business, but friendly. She got me square on the scale pad and then went about having me inch forward and backward, getting a weight on each individual wheel for both the truck and trailer. Then we unhitched and weighed the truck by itself. It's necessary to do this to understand what the king pin weight is so that gross axle weights can be calculated.
Sounds like a lot of trouble doesn't it? Well, it is, and not free either, but it is also necessary. This whole SmartWeigh thing came about because of a strong need in the industry. RV's are not like commercial truck and trailers (or buses if you are talking about motor homes). The loads in an RV can get really concentrated if you are not careful. It has always been an issue of not concentrating a lot of weight in the galley what with the refrigerator, microwave, stove and pantry all being in close proximity. Then with the advent of slide-outs, weights took a significant jump in all kinds of ways.
Then you add all your "stuff", with some people packing literally hundreds of pounds of books, DVDs, giant propane grills, metal cutlery and glass dishes (place settings for eight). You can pretty quickly get one side of the trailer, or even a single wheel above its maximum rated capacity. Then there is even the bigger problem where the trailer dealer will tell a potential buyer of a 35' 5th wheel; "Sure, your Chevy S-10 can pull it". Happens all the time, or some variation there-of. The point is, there are a lot of trucks out there that have way more trailer attached to them than the engineers of the truck ever intended.
With my blowout problems I'm thinking I may have a weight distribution problem. I had the shortest trailer built I could get with three axles. As it turned out, to fit all the tanks (fresh water, grey water, black water) and three axles into the same trailer, you need 37' of frame. But I met my goal of having the frame and axles/wheels/tires over-engineered. I shouldn't have had to give it a second thought but the blowouts have me second guessing that now.
The technician finished all her calculations and declared her surprise at the results. In all the weighings that she does, it is a rare occasion that there is not at least one tire or axle or hitch weight over the limit. In our case there was not a single point that was even close to being a problem. Okay, mark another one DONE!
We returned to our campsite comforted in knowing we were below weight limits but left scratching our heads as to what could be causing all the tire problems.
By the end of the day we, the jury, had found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded them the $150,000 they had been swindled out of. We had now fulfilled our civil obligations. Mark this one DONE!
It was time to move on to the other objectives we (Cyndee and I) had come to Livingston for. I made an appointment to get our truck and trailer weighed with SmartWeigh and headed to the tax commissioner's office to secure the title to my truck.
It has been three years since we moved from Georgia to Texas. All legal documents have been moved. Driver licenses, bank accounts, wills, etc. have all been converted to our new home state. The exception being the title to the truck. Despite multiple attempts in 2013 when we did everything else, we just couldn't get the title. And trying to do it by mail in the intervening three years was no more fruitful. I was dreading taking on whatever bureaucracy was going to be thrown at me this time. What was different about today I don't know, but ten minutes after walking in the tax commissioners building, I was walking out, title in hand. DONE!
Texas is one of the states that has speed limits for select roads up to 75 mph. These higher speed roads tend to be multi-lane with intersections that are overpasses with ramps, or at least stack lanes for turning. But not always, and that is the case for the road that goes to the Escapees park, Rainbow's End. Coming from Livingston going to the RV park there is a generous stack lane for turning right into the park. But coming from the other direction there is nothing but the single driving lane to make a left turn from. And pulling out from the park, making a left to go into town is a high pucker factor move. PLUS, the entrance to the park is at the top of a rise in the road. Visibility is limited for seeing high speed traffic coming down the only lane you have for going from a dead-stop to highway speed.
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| Escapees Rainbow's End RV Park Entrance. If you are coming from town (top), you have a turn lane. Coming from the other way or turning out of park towards town you have nothing but the single, 75 mph lane to work with. |
It would seem that a small car was stopped, waiting for traffic to clear so they could make a left into the Escapees park when they were rear-ended by an SUV. That collision scattered the two small vehicles across all available pavement and a logging truck was only a few seconds behind the SUV. The truck had no room to stop and no alternate pavement to use. The driver had his stuff straight, he was not going to add his considerable mass to the collision so he headed into the ditch alongside the road in full panic-stop mode. The ditch being steeply sloped and the truck being of a high center of gravity resulted in the only thing that could happen, he went over and started plowing the ditch with the side of his cab.
 |
| This logging truck driver did an excellent job of not adding to a collision that happened right in front of him. Luckily he had just dropped his load at the lumber mill and was running empty. |
Distractions aside, it was time to go to our SmartWeigh appointment. To do so means completely packing up the rig and truck just as if you were moving to your next destination. All the sewer connections, shore power cable, water hose, everything put in its storage compartment to get an accurate representation of the load balance. Same for the truck, including both passengers.
Sounds like a lot of trouble doesn't it? Well, it is, and not free either, but it is also necessary. This whole SmartWeigh thing came about because of a strong need in the industry. RV's are not like commercial truck and trailers (or buses if you are talking about motor homes). The loads in an RV can get really concentrated if you are not careful. It has always been an issue of not concentrating a lot of weight in the galley what with the refrigerator, microwave, stove and pantry all being in close proximity. Then with the advent of slide-outs, weights took a significant jump in all kinds of ways.
Then you add all your "stuff", with some people packing literally hundreds of pounds of books, DVDs, giant propane grills, metal cutlery and glass dishes (place settings for eight). You can pretty quickly get one side of the trailer, or even a single wheel above its maximum rated capacity. Then there is even the bigger problem where the trailer dealer will tell a potential buyer of a 35' 5th wheel; "Sure, your Chevy S-10 can pull it". Happens all the time, or some variation there-of. The point is, there are a lot of trucks out there that have way more trailer attached to them than the engineers of the truck ever intended.
With my blowout problems I'm thinking I may have a weight distribution problem. I had the shortest trailer built I could get with three axles. As it turned out, to fit all the tanks (fresh water, grey water, black water) and three axles into the same trailer, you need 37' of frame. But I met my goal of having the frame and axles/wheels/tires over-engineered. I shouldn't have had to give it a second thought but the blowouts have me second guessing that now.
The technician finished all her calculations and declared her surprise at the results. In all the weighings that she does, it is a rare occasion that there is not at least one tire or axle or hitch weight over the limit. In our case there was not a single point that was even close to being a problem. Okay, mark another one DONE!
We returned to our campsite comforted in knowing we were below weight limits but left scratching our heads as to what could be causing all the tire problems.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Air You Can Wear
Can it possibly get any hotter! It was really hot coming across Alabama and Mississippi. I about stroked out changing those blowouts in the middle of the day. But since getting to Livingston it has only gotten hotter. In these few days that we have been waiting for jury duty to start, the temperature has reached epic highs. The actual temperature has peaked at 110 several times. And with near biblical rains in this area for the past few months everything is soaking wet, raising the humidity levels to the point that the heat index has been topping out between 115 and 118 degrees. The air is so thick you don't breath it, you wear it.
Our 5th wheel RV has two of the largest air conditioners you can have on an RV at 15,000 BTU's a piece. But they can't begin to keep up with this kind of heat. The temperature in the rig rises steadily with the sun, staying roughly 20 degrees below outside ambient. So when it hits 110 outside we're running almost 90 degrees inside. Not comfortable. We spend our afternoons in the truck running errands for things we don't need at places with good air conditioning.
To top off the heat, Cyndee has come down with strep throat. We located a doc-in-a-box and to our surprise the doctor said that Cyndee was her fourth case of strep that day! Pretty amazing given that it's the middle of summer. What's going on in Livingston?
And we learned something. Shop around for medicine, the differences between pharmacies for the same medicine can be huge. We spent $60 at one national chain and learned later that it would have been only $10 for the same thing at another one.
Jury duty time has arrived. The little burg of Livingston, population 5,335, has a history that dates back to 1835. Despite its diminutive size, it is the county seat of Polk County and had a courthouse built befitting the position.
But oddly enough, no court proceedings are held in the courthouse. Instead, all judicial proceedings are held in the relatively new (built in 2011) Polk County Judicial Center directly behind the old courthouse.
Not being in the old building with questionable environmental control was great as far as we were concerned. We would be happy to be in a modern structure with the latest in air conditioning technology. But were we ever surprised to pass through the metal detectors in the entrance and be greeted by stale hot air being blown around by a hastily assembled conflagration of fans. It seems that one of the thunderstorms that came through over the weekend had knocked out the electronic controllers for the roof top unit that cooled the courtrooms. Ugh.
All the jurors, about 100 of us, were assembled in a single room and given the preliminary rundown, culling out those that were ineligible to serve and hearing the pleas of those wishing to be excused. All were hunting for anything they could find to fan themselves with. There were a lot of red faces and everyone's hair was wet with sweat. We were then divided into two groups, about 40 a piece, and sent to respective courtrooms for further winnowing for the actual trials. Cyndee and I were sent to the same courtroom. Looking like we are going to be co-jurors.
The judge introduced the case to the jury pool, a lawsuit, and then turned the lawyers loose to question each of us for suitability for the job. That's when it got a little strange. The lawyer representing the two gentlemen bringing the lawsuit began, what appeared to us, an argument for the prosecution of the case. Now mind you, the trial had not started, this was just jury selection. And he was not exactly a smooth talker either. Maybe it was the being sick from strep or the heat or a combination of both but this lawyer's approach flew all over Cyndee and when the lawyer made the mistake of asking each of us if we had any problems with anything we had heard, Cyndee let loose and there was no one in the room that didn't know that she had a problem with that lawyer. Guess who got excused from jury duty. Guess who didn't.
A bright spot in the day was lunch. Jury selection ran right up to lunch so Cyndee and I were able to eat together. We chose to try out the Whistle Stop Cafe just across the street from the courthouse.
They had typical Texas home cooking - meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. But I chose the Texasist home cooking of all, chicken fried steak.
Lunch was over too soon. I headed back to the hot courthouse and Cyndee headed for the hot camper. But we were in court only a short time when the judge said it was clear that the trial was going to last more than one day and that we would adjourn and begin again tomorrow. I think he was not too happy with the plaintiff's lawyer either, or the heat. Since we only have one vehicle Cyndee had taken it home so I was afoot. I called Cyndee to come back and get me. If it had not been so hot it would have been nice waiting in the gazebo on the courthouse lawn.
Our 5th wheel RV has two of the largest air conditioners you can have on an RV at 15,000 BTU's a piece. But they can't begin to keep up with this kind of heat. The temperature in the rig rises steadily with the sun, staying roughly 20 degrees below outside ambient. So when it hits 110 outside we're running almost 90 degrees inside. Not comfortable. We spend our afternoons in the truck running errands for things we don't need at places with good air conditioning.
To top off the heat, Cyndee has come down with strep throat. We located a doc-in-a-box and to our surprise the doctor said that Cyndee was her fourth case of strep that day! Pretty amazing given that it's the middle of summer. What's going on in Livingston?
And we learned something. Shop around for medicine, the differences between pharmacies for the same medicine can be huge. We spent $60 at one national chain and learned later that it would have been only $10 for the same thing at another one.
Jury duty time has arrived. The little burg of Livingston, population 5,335, has a history that dates back to 1835. Despite its diminutive size, it is the county seat of Polk County and had a courthouse built befitting the position.
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| Polk County Courthouse. This one built in 1924 |
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| Polk County Judicial Center |
All the jurors, about 100 of us, were assembled in a single room and given the preliminary rundown, culling out those that were ineligible to serve and hearing the pleas of those wishing to be excused. All were hunting for anything they could find to fan themselves with. There were a lot of red faces and everyone's hair was wet with sweat. We were then divided into two groups, about 40 a piece, and sent to respective courtrooms for further winnowing for the actual trials. Cyndee and I were sent to the same courtroom. Looking like we are going to be co-jurors.
The judge introduced the case to the jury pool, a lawsuit, and then turned the lawyers loose to question each of us for suitability for the job. That's when it got a little strange. The lawyer representing the two gentlemen bringing the lawsuit began, what appeared to us, an argument for the prosecution of the case. Now mind you, the trial had not started, this was just jury selection. And he was not exactly a smooth talker either. Maybe it was the being sick from strep or the heat or a combination of both but this lawyer's approach flew all over Cyndee and when the lawyer made the mistake of asking each of us if we had any problems with anything we had heard, Cyndee let loose and there was no one in the room that didn't know that she had a problem with that lawyer. Guess who got excused from jury duty. Guess who didn't.
A bright spot in the day was lunch. Jury selection ran right up to lunch so Cyndee and I were able to eat together. We chose to try out the Whistle Stop Cafe just across the street from the courthouse.
They had typical Texas home cooking - meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. But I chose the Texasist home cooking of all, chicken fried steak.
Lunch was over too soon. I headed back to the hot courthouse and Cyndee headed for the hot camper. But we were in court only a short time when the judge said it was clear that the trial was going to last more than one day and that we would adjourn and begin again tomorrow. I think he was not too happy with the plaintiff's lawyer either, or the heat. Since we only have one vehicle Cyndee had taken it home so I was afoot. I called Cyndee to come back and get me. If it had not been so hot it would have been nice waiting in the gazebo on the courthouse lawn.
Friday, August 26, 2016
Deep Recliner Sitting
You know, sometimes you just don't want to do anything. We had been on duty seven days a week as volunteers for Chattahoochee Bend State Park for 14 months and then nearly a week long, nerve wracking, excruciatingly hot trip from Georgia to Texas. We wanted some down time and decided to take it. Both of us got in our recliners, kicked back and catnapped almost all day.
There were a couple of moments of lucidness where phone calls were made. We inquired about how to volunteer for jury duty and learned to our surprise that they seat juries only on the second Monday of every month, and that was four days ago. But for some strange reason they had a heavy court schedule this June and would be seating a jury on the third Monday also. All we needed to do was to show up.
The Rainbow's End Escapee Park has a lot of amenities and features. There's a clubhouse, pool, onsite insurance agency, and mail service to name a few. They also have a facility called CARE, it's a place you can park your rig while recuperating from surgery or long-term illness. They provide three meals a day, shuttle you to doctors appointments or grocery shopping, do light housekeeping and even walk the dog if you can't.
We are signing up for their SmartWeigh service. It is a precision weighing system that weighs every single wheel position independently. Weighing in this manner lets you determine load balance in the trailer as well as accurate weights on the truck axles plus all the calculated weights for gross vehicle weight and gross combined vehicle weight. With the tire troubles we have had I want to get an accurate weight on each wheel to see if I have a load problem.
Whew, I'm exhausted. It's back to deep recliner sitting for me.
The Rainbow's End Escapee Park has a lot of amenities and features. There's a clubhouse, pool, onsite insurance agency, and mail service to name a few. They also have a facility called CARE, it's a place you can park your rig while recuperating from surgery or long-term illness. They provide three meals a day, shuttle you to doctors appointments or grocery shopping, do light housekeeping and even walk the dog if you can't.
We are signing up for their SmartWeigh service. It is a precision weighing system that weighs every single wheel position independently. Weighing in this manner lets you determine load balance in the trailer as well as accurate weights on the truck axles plus all the calculated weights for gross vehicle weight and gross combined vehicle weight. With the tire troubles we have had I want to get an accurate weight on each wheel to see if I have a load problem.
Whew, I'm exhausted. It's back to deep recliner sitting for me.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Skipping NOLA
Okay, here we go. It's a new day, we have two new tires, new brake lines and all new brake fluid. We are hitched up and about to depart Campgrounds of the South at just a little after 7:00 am. Our destination is not even an hour away but there is a lot of anxiety about getting back on the highway given our break-down history of the last two days. We'll get there way before check-in time but we'll be off the road before the asphalt exceeds 120 degrees. We have learned that our make of tire may be sensitive to hot pavement, hence the comment about asphalt temperature.
Happily the drive is going flawlessly as we approach our exit but as we talk about it neither of us feels much like doing the tourist thing in New Orleans. We've already lost the two days we had planned on spending in NOLA and even though there is no schedule carved in stone for being in Livingston, TX, we would just as soon get there and get on with the things we need to do there. With each mile that passes without issue our anxiety fades a little so we roll on past our planned exit and set our sights on Livingston. Mother nature is helping, we've got cloud cover and intermittent rain so the temperatures are not skyrocketing.
A little after 1:00 in the afternoon we pull into Rainbow's End RV Park, an Escapees member's park. We are Escapees members and this is our home park. It is our legal domicile as well. This is where our mailing address is, our driver licenses issued, registered to vote and serve jury duty.
In fact, jury duty is one of the components of coming home. We have both had multiple jury summons' but we have always been in some remote location. In fact, not a single summons made it to us less than a week past the date we were to show up for jury selection. But Polk county is very familiar with Escapees and each time we have called in they have said ;"No problem, just stop in and volunteer then next time you are in town." And that is just what we are doing.
The office assigned us a site number and we drove around to it to back in. But despite telling the person behind the desk that we would be staying for up to a month and would prefer a site that did not have trees that would block the satellite dish, we found ourselves assigned to a site that was so covered in trees that we could not even get under the branches. So we got out and walked around scouting out sites that would work, found a good one and went back to the office and got reassigned. By this time the skies had cleared and the heat and humidity had come on strong. But this was just a hint of what was to come.
We had made the six hour run between Gulfport, MS and Livingston, TX without any mechanical issues, an encouraging sign but there is still the need to figure out why we are going through tires so fast on the trailer. With these last two blow-outs we have now replaced all six positions in less than four years. Some of them twice! I settled in for some deep research on these Goodyear Marathons.
Happily the drive is going flawlessly as we approach our exit but as we talk about it neither of us feels much like doing the tourist thing in New Orleans. We've already lost the two days we had planned on spending in NOLA and even though there is no schedule carved in stone for being in Livingston, TX, we would just as soon get there and get on with the things we need to do there. With each mile that passes without issue our anxiety fades a little so we roll on past our planned exit and set our sights on Livingston. Mother nature is helping, we've got cloud cover and intermittent rain so the temperatures are not skyrocketing.
A little after 1:00 in the afternoon we pull into Rainbow's End RV Park, an Escapees member's park. We are Escapees members and this is our home park. It is our legal domicile as well. This is where our mailing address is, our driver licenses issued, registered to vote and serve jury duty.
The office assigned us a site number and we drove around to it to back in. But despite telling the person behind the desk that we would be staying for up to a month and would prefer a site that did not have trees that would block the satellite dish, we found ourselves assigned to a site that was so covered in trees that we could not even get under the branches. So we got out and walked around scouting out sites that would work, found a good one and went back to the office and got reassigned. By this time the skies had cleared and the heat and humidity had come on strong. But this was just a hint of what was to come.
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| Escapee Parks are typically grass and gravel operations for the campsites. Some interior roads are paved, but not always. |
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Unscheduled Stop, Gulfport, Mississippi
It has been awhile since my last post, again. Things have been hopping and getting online has been a challenge. But to pick up where I last left off, the people that we engaged to repair the damaged brake lines did a bucks up job.
They showed up the next day as scheduled and got the damaged brake lines removed and off to a local shop that can custom make new lines on the spot. That was the key to success for this job. It would have been easy enough to remove the damaged lines myself and order replacements from the manufacturer. But that would have been days, if not weeks waiting for the parts to get to me. These repair guys shortened the job to a few hours. The hardest part was purging about 25 feet of brake line and six calipers.
It was mid-afternoon by the time everything was buttoned up and ready to go but it was horrible hot, plus we were a little gun-shy about having a problem on the road. That brought us to the decision to stay put until the next morning when it would be cooler, and more importantly, would have access to open businesses if something else did happen.
Well, since we are "stuck" in Gulfport, Mississippi we are obligated to go to the beach aren't we? I think it is a law or something. The sun is not setting until after 8:00pm but shadows are getting long so we hustle out of the campground (which is pressed against I-10) and head south. It is still unbelievably hot and Big Gulp's A/C is going full blast as we approach the beach community.
Like Gulf Shores (see post), Gulfport had been severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but fortunately a number of the old, pre-1900 buildings weren't completely wiped off the face of the earth. Gulfport has also been spending considerable effort restoring and building back their waterfront. It looks great.
We got to the beach just as the light of day was beginning to fail. The crowds had gone and the sand was left to itself to give up the heat it had been absorbing all day. A stiff on-shore breeze was blowing and the warm waters of the gulf were saturating the air.
We are going to get an early start in the morning so after just a little bit of looking around we got back to the RV and got it configured for traveling. The trip should be really short, Mandeville, Louisiana is less than an hour away.
They showed up the next day as scheduled and got the damaged brake lines removed and off to a local shop that can custom make new lines on the spot. That was the key to success for this job. It would have been easy enough to remove the damaged lines myself and order replacements from the manufacturer. But that would have been days, if not weeks waiting for the parts to get to me. These repair guys shortened the job to a few hours. The hardest part was purging about 25 feet of brake line and six calipers.
It was mid-afternoon by the time everything was buttoned up and ready to go but it was horrible hot, plus we were a little gun-shy about having a problem on the road. That brought us to the decision to stay put until the next morning when it would be cooler, and more importantly, would have access to open businesses if something else did happen.
Well, since we are "stuck" in Gulfport, Mississippi we are obligated to go to the beach aren't we? I think it is a law or something. The sun is not setting until after 8:00pm but shadows are getting long so we hustle out of the campground (which is pressed against I-10) and head south. It is still unbelievably hot and Big Gulp's A/C is going full blast as we approach the beach community.
Like Gulf Shores (see post), Gulfport had been severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but fortunately a number of the old, pre-1900 buildings weren't completely wiped off the face of the earth. Gulfport has also been spending considerable effort restoring and building back their waterfront. It looks great.
We got to the beach just as the light of day was beginning to fail. The crowds had gone and the sand was left to itself to give up the heat it had been absorbing all day. A stiff on-shore breeze was blowing and the warm waters of the gulf were saturating the air.
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| It almost got dark before we made it to the beach. We had the last light of day all to ourselves. |
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Not The Day We Planned On
The first part of our day was going great. We locked in a reservation for a place to stay and play for the winter and we only have a two hour drive to get to our next stopover, Mandeville, Louisiana. Mandeville will be our home base for the next two or three days for day-tripping into New Orleans. We want to spend some time exploring the Garden District and the historic cemeteries St. Louis Cemetery No 1 and Lafayette Cemetery No 1.
As a bonus, our drive is along some beautiful Gulf Coast scenery. One of the sights is Mobile Bay. Interstate 10 crosses the bay towards its north end where it is narrower. Still, even at the narrow end the bridge is seven miles long. In addition to being long it is also narrow and crowded. We had just cleared the ground and were fully over water, and that's where our day took an unwanted turn.
We heard a big FOOMP! sound followed by the tire pressure monitor alarming and flashing lights for the left rear tire of the trailer. I looked in the mirror and all I could see was huge hunks of tire being slung off the wheel and cars and trucks directly behind me swerving and dodging those rubber missiles in a place where there was not room to swerve and dodge. I started coasting to a stop (didn't want to use the brakes for fear of locking up the wheel with the blown tire) and easing over into the emergency lane that was wide enough for a compact car, not a dually truck and 8.5' wide trailer.
There would be no getting out and changing the tire, high speed traffic was literally inches away. No choice but to inch forward in search of the nearest exit. In the end that exit was five miles and one hour away. It was an agonizing crawl to the exit, we saw the digital message boards switch to warn drivers of a "disabled vehicle" and for about the last mile an Alabama Service Assistance Patrol (called ASAP) got behind us with all his lights flashing, shielding us from a full-on rear-end collision. But I was still worried about the damage I may be doing to the wheel of the blown tire, hopefully the other two axles are keeping damaging weight off of it.
Now at the bottom of the exit and safely off the road we can get out to assess the situation. Thankfully the wheel was not damaged but I can't say the same for the RV. One end of the fiberglass fender was shattered and the tread had hit so hard up in the fender well that it knocked about six feet of seam bead loose on the outside where the sidewall meets the fender skirts.
But at this point there is nothing to do except change the tire and get back on the road. I cranked the spare down and crawled in the dirt to get under the rig and get the spare off its cable. The ASAP guy stayed with me but he did not have a working compressor for his impact wrench, I used my 4-way and did all ten lug nuts by hand. Normally it's not a big deal but today is wicked hot with a heat index well over 100 degrees.
Having hydraulic leveling jacks are good for more than leveling the rig. I also use them to jack it up for tire changing. The ASAP guy thought that was a pretty handy feature. The spare is on now and the blowout is cranked up into the spare tire well under the back of the trailer. Before letting weight down on the spare I check the pressure and am disappointed to find that it has less than half pressure it needs. Guess I am going to have to be more diligent about manually checking its pressure, or maybe I could add a pressure monitor to it too.
At first it would seem that my situation had not improved. The tire pressure is far too low to drive on and the emergency services truck's compressor was on the fritz. But the next thing I know the ASAP guy is on the radio calling for a truck with a working compressor. In less than 10 minutes I was getting aired up. A great big THANK YOU to ASAP.
Nerves a bit worse for the wear and RV body damage that will have to be addressed in the near future, we are back on the road. The last two miles of Mobile Bay Bridge were done with regular traffic and normal speed (normal speed for us is never above 65 mph with trailer in tow). It is about an hour and a half to our destination. We are hours past when we had expected to be in Mandeville. It is mid-afternoon and we'll be lucky to get to the campground and checked in before the office closes.
It has been nearly an hour, we have passed Biloxi, MS and approaching Gulfport when there is a large FOOMP! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!. Again the tire pressure monitor begins wailing and lights flashing. I look in the mirror and see another blown tire, only this time instead of chunks of rubber flying off I see a fender and body panels ripped loose and flapping in the breeze.
This time the tire on the front axle has blown. We are very close to an exit so again we creep down the emergency lane for about 500 yards to the exit ramp and then onto a large sandy lot at the end of the ramp. Surveying the damage is heart breaking. Our beautiful home took a beating, the fender is hanging on by one screw. That's ten feet of custom molded fiberglass ripped loose from a half dozen anchors and sagging out about three feet from the side. At least three fender skirt panels have been ripped loose and the seam bead damaged earlier is really a mess now.
First things first. It's mid-afternoon, there is no spare, we are going to have to get this second blow-out off and the first blow-out down from the spare mount and find a tire shop pronto. Luckily there was a Goodyear place nearby and they had a match for my tires in stock. We hustled on over and they got to us right away.
Back at the sand lot and we are getting all the new rubber on. We removed the one last screw holding the fender and put it in the only place it would fit, the "hallway" leading from the galley to the bedroom. A liberal amount of duct tape was used to secure the loose fender skirts.
With everything secure it was time to hitch the truck back up and try one more time to get to Mandeville. We have a safety checklist that we follow rigorously when hitching. One of the steps in the checklist is to do a pull test. This is where the hitch is tested to be sure the jaws have closed and fully locked around the kingpin. The landing gear is raised just enough to put the full weight of the trailer on the hitch with about an inch of clearance between the landing gear pads and the ground. The trailer brakes are then locked and an attempt is made to pull the truck forward. If all is good there is no separation between the hitch and kingpin and the truck doesn't/can't move an inch. You then fully retract the landing gear and go on your way.
The pull test is all we have left to do before getting back on I-10 and to our destination that is no more than 30 minutes away. Cyndee is at her position outside where she has a good view of the hitch and I am in the truck. I actuate the brakes, put the truck in gear and let my foot off the brake. To our surprise everything just rolled forward, no resistance at all. That's not normal!
Typically when I actuate the hydraulic trailer brakes the hydraulic pump makes a distinct noise as it pressures up. I did not hear it but being inside the truck with the motor running, I usually don't. So I got out and asked Cyndee if she heard it. The answer was an emphatic No! Uh-oh.
Given that the last blowout had the tread cap still attached and flailing around tearing hell out of the fender and body it may have also damaged a brake line. It was not obvious because I saw nothing with the wheel off so I crawled under and started inspecting all the brake lines on all the axles. Sure enough the brake line on the center axle had been ripped completely out of its fitting where it connects to the caliper. This short day just keeps getting longer and longer.
By now it is way too late to get this kind of repair work done, we have to find a place to stay for the night and get on it first thing in the morning. Our GPS is built by Rand McNally and designed specifically for RVers. We punched up the menu for finding campgrounds near our location and got a hit for a place barely a mile from us. A mile on side streets without trailer brakes is doable.
It has been an unbelievably hot day with tons of stress and a physical endurance test of tire changing. By the time we get registered and in our spot for the night it is all I can do to get unhitched and the power hooked up for the air conditioning. Cyndee found an ad for a mobile RV service and we called and got on their schedule for first thing in the morning. But that's it, we're done. We'll let the A/Cs do their thing while we collapse in our recliners to rest up enough to go get in bed.
As a bonus, our drive is along some beautiful Gulf Coast scenery. One of the sights is Mobile Bay. Interstate 10 crosses the bay towards its north end where it is narrower. Still, even at the narrow end the bridge is seven miles long. In addition to being long it is also narrow and crowded. We had just cleared the ground and were fully over water, and that's where our day took an unwanted turn.
We heard a big FOOMP! sound followed by the tire pressure monitor alarming and flashing lights for the left rear tire of the trailer. I looked in the mirror and all I could see was huge hunks of tire being slung off the wheel and cars and trucks directly behind me swerving and dodging those rubber missiles in a place where there was not room to swerve and dodge. I started coasting to a stop (didn't want to use the brakes for fear of locking up the wheel with the blown tire) and easing over into the emergency lane that was wide enough for a compact car, not a dually truck and 8.5' wide trailer.
There would be no getting out and changing the tire, high speed traffic was literally inches away. No choice but to inch forward in search of the nearest exit. In the end that exit was five miles and one hour away. It was an agonizing crawl to the exit, we saw the digital message boards switch to warn drivers of a "disabled vehicle" and for about the last mile an Alabama Service Assistance Patrol (called ASAP) got behind us with all his lights flashing, shielding us from a full-on rear-end collision. But I was still worried about the damage I may be doing to the wheel of the blown tire, hopefully the other two axles are keeping damaging weight off of it.
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| 5 Tortured Miles |
But at this point there is nothing to do except change the tire and get back on the road. I cranked the spare down and crawled in the dirt to get under the rig and get the spare off its cable. The ASAP guy stayed with me but he did not have a working compressor for his impact wrench, I used my 4-way and did all ten lug nuts by hand. Normally it's not a big deal but today is wicked hot with a heat index well over 100 degrees.
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| Ripped open from rim to rim. The tread cap came completely off in hundreds of pieces. |
At first it would seem that my situation had not improved. The tire pressure is far too low to drive on and the emergency services truck's compressor was on the fritz. But the next thing I know the ASAP guy is on the radio calling for a truck with a working compressor. In less than 10 minutes I was getting aired up. A great big THANK YOU to ASAP.
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| Alabama Service Assistance Program (ASAP) to the rescue. Getting the air that my spare needed. That's the Bay Bridge in the background. |
It has been nearly an hour, we have passed Biloxi, MS and approaching Gulfport when there is a large FOOMP! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!. Again the tire pressure monitor begins wailing and lights flashing. I look in the mirror and see another blown tire, only this time instead of chunks of rubber flying off I see a fender and body panels ripped loose and flapping in the breeze.
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| The tread cap did not come completely off with this blowout. Instead it stayed on and slung around and beat the crap out of everything. |
First things first. It's mid-afternoon, there is no spare, we are going to have to get this second blow-out off and the first blow-out down from the spare mount and find a tire shop pronto. Luckily there was a Goodyear place nearby and they had a match for my tires in stock. We hustled on over and they got to us right away.
Back at the sand lot and we are getting all the new rubber on. We removed the one last screw holding the fender and put it in the only place it would fit, the "hallway" leading from the galley to the bedroom. A liberal amount of duct tape was used to secure the loose fender skirts.
With everything secure it was time to hitch the truck back up and try one more time to get to Mandeville. We have a safety checklist that we follow rigorously when hitching. One of the steps in the checklist is to do a pull test. This is where the hitch is tested to be sure the jaws have closed and fully locked around the kingpin. The landing gear is raised just enough to put the full weight of the trailer on the hitch with about an inch of clearance between the landing gear pads and the ground. The trailer brakes are then locked and an attempt is made to pull the truck forward. If all is good there is no separation between the hitch and kingpin and the truck doesn't/can't move an inch. You then fully retract the landing gear and go on your way.
The pull test is all we have left to do before getting back on I-10 and to our destination that is no more than 30 minutes away. Cyndee is at her position outside where she has a good view of the hitch and I am in the truck. I actuate the brakes, put the truck in gear and let my foot off the brake. To our surprise everything just rolled forward, no resistance at all. That's not normal!
Typically when I actuate the hydraulic trailer brakes the hydraulic pump makes a distinct noise as it pressures up. I did not hear it but being inside the truck with the motor running, I usually don't. So I got out and asked Cyndee if she heard it. The answer was an emphatic No! Uh-oh.
Given that the last blowout had the tread cap still attached and flailing around tearing hell out of the fender and body it may have also damaged a brake line. It was not obvious because I saw nothing with the wheel off so I crawled under and started inspecting all the brake lines on all the axles. Sure enough the brake line on the center axle had been ripped completely out of its fitting where it connects to the caliper. This short day just keeps getting longer and longer.
By now it is way too late to get this kind of repair work done, we have to find a place to stay for the night and get on it first thing in the morning. Our GPS is built by Rand McNally and designed specifically for RVers. We punched up the menu for finding campgrounds near our location and got a hit for a place barely a mile from us. A mile on side streets without trailer brakes is doable.
It has been an unbelievably hot day with tons of stress and a physical endurance test of tire changing. By the time we get registered and in our spot for the night it is all I can do to get unhitched and the power hooked up for the air conditioning. Cyndee found an ad for a mobile RV service and we called and got on their schedule for first thing in the morning. But that's it, we're done. We'll let the A/Cs do their thing while we collapse in our recliners to rest up enough to go get in bed.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Heading West
Our babysitting weekend is done, we are re-engaging our plans for moving west to Texas. First stop, Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale, AL. Rainbow Plantation is an ESCAPEES park in a small town just north of Gulf Shores, AL. We have never been to this park but wanted to give it a try and look at it as a potential place to winter over starting next January.
The drive from Chatt Bend is a bit longer than we like to do at one time, coming in right at seven hours. Our preference is to be done with driving for the day in four or five hours. But having stayed an extra week beyond our planned departure day we opted to skip the short drive. Still, we got in while the office was open, got checked in, set up and drove almost all the way to Gulf Shores for dinner, all before it got dark.
Our dining establishment for the evening (we were looking for seafood) was recommended to us by the camp host. She said Fish River Grill #2 would fix us about anything we want, any way we want it, especially if you like spicy. Say no more, sign me up.
The restaurant wasn't in Gulf Shores proper but rather the community of Foley, on the north border of Gulf Shores. It was a kitschy place and we were there in the late afternoon, middle of the week, Pretty much had the place to ourselves. On their menu they describe themselves as "A Funky, Junky, Redneck Joint".
There were lots and lots of choices on the menu as long as you are okay with fried. Cyndee got the fried shrimp meal and I got one of their "specialties", a little thing they call Cajun crawfish pistols. It was a beniet stuffed with crawfish tails and a roux like you would get with an etouffee. Wow was it good.
A side of Swamp Soup came with both our meals. Doesn't sound too appetizing and when they brought it out it didn't look all that appetizing either, green and opaque like swamp water. But surprise, surprise, it tasted great. After finishing off my cup in a flash I could see why they had it on the take-out menu in gallon size.
After dinner we took a sunset drive along the beach in Gulf Shores. Everybody has been really busy building back what Katrina swept away. The community looked new and fresh. The beaches were spectacular.
The next morning was a good discussion about wintering over in LA (lower Alabama). From just the tiny bit we saw the night before it was clear that there were lots of opportunities to explore and do things in this area. And the park is looking really good, it's a big park, with lots of options. The only downside is that all the sites are on grass. It could get a little dicey on rainy days.
We went to the office and and visited with the host to get an idea of what we would have to do to secure a spot for three months (Jan thru Mar 2017). Especially, when would we need to make our reservation? His immediate response was; "Now, we are already almost completely booked up for this winter and the next". Cyndee and I looked at each other and she gave me the nod so I told him to lock us in. He then asked us how many amps we "needed". I replied that we were a 50 amp rig and would prefer the convenience of not having to shut off one electrical item to run another as is typical on 30 amp service. His reply was; "Sorry but all 50 amp sites were taken a year ago". Okay then, I guess we'll take a 30 amp site. He got on his reservation system and scanned his 109 sites for availability and then with surprise he said a 50 amp site just cancelled, we could have it if we wanted it. Yes!
So, a $100 deposit later and we were set for the winter. Now it was time to hit the road and go just two hours west to Mandeville, Louisiana, our layover park for day-tripping into New Orleans.
The drive from Chatt Bend is a bit longer than we like to do at one time, coming in right at seven hours. Our preference is to be done with driving for the day in four or five hours. But having stayed an extra week beyond our planned departure day we opted to skip the short drive. Still, we got in while the office was open, got checked in, set up and drove almost all the way to Gulf Shores for dinner, all before it got dark.
Our dining establishment for the evening (we were looking for seafood) was recommended to us by the camp host. She said Fish River Grill #2 would fix us about anything we want, any way we want it, especially if you like spicy. Say no more, sign me up.
The restaurant wasn't in Gulf Shores proper but rather the community of Foley, on the north border of Gulf Shores. It was a kitschy place and we were there in the late afternoon, middle of the week, Pretty much had the place to ourselves. On their menu they describe themselves as "A Funky, Junky, Redneck Joint".
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| It was a tourist area seafood restaurant so there was the obligatory fishnet decorations and T-shirt sales. |
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| It was June but they have a year 'round Christmas tree, currently decorated in support of our troups. The place was filling up by the time we left. |
A side of Swamp Soup came with both our meals. Doesn't sound too appetizing and when they brought it out it didn't look all that appetizing either, green and opaque like swamp water. But surprise, surprise, it tasted great. After finishing off my cup in a flash I could see why they had it on the take-out menu in gallon size.
After dinner we took a sunset drive along the beach in Gulf Shores. Everybody has been really busy building back what Katrina swept away. The community looked new and fresh. The beaches were spectacular.
The next morning was a good discussion about wintering over in LA (lower Alabama). From just the tiny bit we saw the night before it was clear that there were lots of opportunities to explore and do things in this area. And the park is looking really good, it's a big park, with lots of options. The only downside is that all the sites are on grass. It could get a little dicey on rainy days.
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| Rainbow Plantation has spacious, shady sites. Almost every site comes with at least two oak trees. |
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| This is just one of the long rows of campsites in the park. The park itself is surrounded by pecan groves, horse ranches and cotton farms. |
So, a $100 deposit later and we were set for the winter. Now it was time to hit the road and go just two hours west to Mandeville, Louisiana, our layover park for day-tripping into New Orleans.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Change of Plans
One thing about being a fulltimer is that you have to be flexible. It is a rare day that you make a hard schedule (regarding where you will stay, when you will get there or when you will leave) because things change. And so it is with our departure from Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Our last day of being volunteer camp hosts is still May 31st but our departure day of June 1st is now history. At nearly the last minute our daughter and son-in-law asked us to keep the grand baby so they could have one last weekend away before we leave. But the weekend in question was a week after we were supposed to be gone. There was no chance that we would say no to having the baby all to ourselves one more time, even if it means changing our plans by a week.
So now we will pull off our camp host site on the first day of June and move a grand total of about 500 yards to campsite #111, a pretty back-in site with great views of the woods and a clear shot at the satellites for our TV. The only drawback is that we lost our sewer connection, camp host sites are the only sites with those.
It's been weird though. We are still in the same park that we have been camp hosts for the past 14 months. The mind has developed a habit/routine and seems to want to keep it up. We both have the urge to do rounds and at mid-morning to head to the bath houses to clean them. And there is the temptation to greet arriving campers after 5pm. We have to think about NOT turning on the porch light and leaving it on until 10:00pm. And we have both felt odd not having to be in uniform until 10:00pm. We can actually go get in bed early and watch TV. Wow!
We didn't do much on the days leading up to the weekend. Made a couple of trips to town to do some grocery shopping (and kill some time). There was some work though, the pre-departure checklist needed to be gone through. Most of it was simple but all was important to do and after such a long time in one spot there was a ton of "stuff" that needed to be taken down from the campsite, cleaned and stowed. The biggest chore was getting the tires, all 12 of them, up to pressure. One of the trips to town took care of the high pressure truck tires. We had found a truck tire shop in Newnan that could inflate to 110psi. The trailer tires required about a dozen trips back and forth to the maintenance barn to fill a portable air tank and bring those tires to 80psi. It would have been nice to just drive the trailer up to the shop on the way out and fill the tires there but there is barely room to turn a pickup around, little alone a 60 foot long truck/trailer combination.
But it is all done, all we have to do now is pack our bags for the weekend for the baby/dog/house sitting extravaganza.
So now we will pull off our camp host site on the first day of June and move a grand total of about 500 yards to campsite #111, a pretty back-in site with great views of the woods and a clear shot at the satellites for our TV. The only drawback is that we lost our sewer connection, camp host sites are the only sites with those.
It's been weird though. We are still in the same park that we have been camp hosts for the past 14 months. The mind has developed a habit/routine and seems to want to keep it up. We both have the urge to do rounds and at mid-morning to head to the bath houses to clean them. And there is the temptation to greet arriving campers after 5pm. We have to think about NOT turning on the porch light and leaving it on until 10:00pm. And we have both felt odd not having to be in uniform until 10:00pm. We can actually go get in bed early and watch TV. Wow!
We didn't do much on the days leading up to the weekend. Made a couple of trips to town to do some grocery shopping (and kill some time). There was some work though, the pre-departure checklist needed to be gone through. Most of it was simple but all was important to do and after such a long time in one spot there was a ton of "stuff" that needed to be taken down from the campsite, cleaned and stowed. The biggest chore was getting the tires, all 12 of them, up to pressure. One of the trips to town took care of the high pressure truck tires. We had found a truck tire shop in Newnan that could inflate to 110psi. The trailer tires required about a dozen trips back and forth to the maintenance barn to fill a portable air tank and bring those tires to 80psi. It would have been nice to just drive the trailer up to the shop on the way out and fill the tires there but there is barely room to turn a pickup around, little alone a 60 foot long truck/trailer combination.
But it is all done, all we have to do now is pack our bags for the weekend for the baby/dog/house sitting extravaganza.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Camp Hosting at Chattahoochee Bend - Same-Same
We have been campground hosts at Chattahoochee Bend State Park (Georgia) going on a year now. For a volunteer position this is a long time, most volunteer host jobs are three months with a long gig maybe stretching to six months. A year is especially long when your hosting duties include daily bath house cleaning. Which in this case means about 2,000 square feet of toilets, showers, sinks and floors that have to be scrubbed, mopped and disinfected every day.
Then there is the seven months of growing season when the campground has to be mowed every week. There is about 11 acres of surface that has to be mowed in campground #1. This is not to say that all of that acreage is vegetated. There is a lot of bare, red Georgia clay between clumps of grass. Chatt Bend is a relatively new park and it has a long way to go before all the bulldozered campsite building is fully revegetated.
But in the mean-time this means "suiting up" to mow with the big zero turn mower. Hard-toe shoes, army fatigue pants with cinches at the ankles, a long-sleeved denim shirt, wide-brimmed hat, wrap-around sunglasses, ear plugs, and dust mask. The mower has to be retrieved from the maintenance barn and driven the one mile to the campground and then you don't stop for the next four to five hours it takes to get the campground groomed.
Then there is the next four hours it takes to use the string trimmer and leaf blower to put the finishing touches on. The combination of heat, humidity, sweat and giant clouds of red dust coats every square inch of you in a cake of powder. You look like a primitive person that has covered themselves in mud for camouflage. Despite all the covering up with clothing, it is still a chore showering out all that clay from the places it manged to creep into.
For a normal volunteer time of three months none of this would have been a big deal but after a full year, it is starting to wear on us. The park has asked us to stay even longer but we're going to pass on the offer and spend the summer of 2016 on "vacation". If you have followed this blog you have seen several times my reasoning for agreeing to such a long stay in one spot in the first place. Our first grandchild was born in Dec of 2014 in Atlanta. Chatt Bend was the closest possible place we could get to be near at just a little over an hours drive. So we have thoroughly enjoyed our time with the grand-baby and being with her through and a little beyond her first birthday.
Our last day will be May 31st, on June 1st we will start a trek west to Texas. We have each had 4 jury summons'. Our home county, Polk, has been great to work with. With each summons (which we received in the mail about a week after we were supposed to appear) we just called the courthouse and told them that we were out of the state. They would immediately ask if we were Escapees and when I told them that we are, they replied; "No problem, just come in and serve the next time you are in town." So that is what we will do. We will get a look at the inside of the legal system of Polk County, hopefully we won't end up on a long, drawn out trial.
We also have family in Conroe, Montgomery and Sugarland, all within an hour or two of Rainbow's End Escapees Park in Livingston, our home park. We hope to get around see as many as we can and then start a migration north that will land us in the panhandle (a little town north of Amarillo) in early July.
Come on June 1st!
Then there is the seven months of growing season when the campground has to be mowed every week. There is about 11 acres of surface that has to be mowed in campground #1. This is not to say that all of that acreage is vegetated. There is a lot of bare, red Georgia clay between clumps of grass. Chatt Bend is a relatively new park and it has a long way to go before all the bulldozered campsite building is fully revegetated.
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| In an attempt to cover some of the bare clay, we put down over 150 lbs of grass seed. Putting down the seed was easy, raking it in was the work. |
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| This guy greeted us on our last trip to the maintenance barn to get the mower. He is using up a little more than half of the ten foot wide lane. |
For a normal volunteer time of three months none of this would have been a big deal but after a full year, it is starting to wear on us. The park has asked us to stay even longer but we're going to pass on the offer and spend the summer of 2016 on "vacation". If you have followed this blog you have seen several times my reasoning for agreeing to such a long stay in one spot in the first place. Our first grandchild was born in Dec of 2014 in Atlanta. Chatt Bend was the closest possible place we could get to be near at just a little over an hours drive. So we have thoroughly enjoyed our time with the grand-baby and being with her through and a little beyond her first birthday.
Our last day will be May 31st, on June 1st we will start a trek west to Texas. We have each had 4 jury summons'. Our home county, Polk, has been great to work with. With each summons (which we received in the mail about a week after we were supposed to appear) we just called the courthouse and told them that we were out of the state. They would immediately ask if we were Escapees and when I told them that we are, they replied; "No problem, just come in and serve the next time you are in town." So that is what we will do. We will get a look at the inside of the legal system of Polk County, hopefully we won't end up on a long, drawn out trial.
We also have family in Conroe, Montgomery and Sugarland, all within an hour or two of Rainbow's End Escapees Park in Livingston, our home park. We hope to get around see as many as we can and then start a migration north that will land us in the panhandle (a little town north of Amarillo) in early July.
Come on June 1st!
Monday, March 28, 2016
Finishing Off Winter at Chattahoochee Bend State Park
DECEMBER 2015 (continued)
As it has been for months, the rain continued. The week preceding Christmas was pretty soggy and the Chattahoochee River was straining to handle the flow. Miles of the river saw levels top out at 15 feet above flood stage. All of Chattahoochee Bend State Park saw every inch of that high water.
Even with the nearly continuous rain we managed to squeeze in a Christmas tradition of a trip to see the lights that Callaway Gardens puts out. They have miles of decorated roads with millions of lights. Actually there are two big decoration displays, the other being at Lake Lanier Islands north of Atlanta. When we lived in the suburbs north of the city that is the one we went to. But now that we are south of the city at the state park, Callaway Gardens was an easy choice.
FEBRUARY and MARCH
Back in October I posted about the return of a Bald Eagle. It has a nest (a huge nest) in a tree along the western edge of the park property and now it has been joined by another eagle. Evidently they are a mated pair as we now have two chicks in the nest. Hikers have reported seeing one or both adults fishing in the river and then dropping their catch in the nest where the chicks squawk and frantically eat, each afraid the other might be getting more.
I visit the nest tree when I can, usually just before sundown. It always looks the same - one bird is sitting in the crooks of some branches with its back to the nest and looking out in the direction of the river.
As it has been for months, the rain continued. The week preceding Christmas was pretty soggy and the Chattahoochee River was straining to handle the flow. Miles of the river saw levels top out at 15 feet above flood stage. All of Chattahoochee Bend State Park saw every inch of that high water.
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| At the boat ramp. River was rising rapidly, in only minutes after this photo everything was submerged. |
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| River rising up to meet the swing which usually sits twelve to fifteen feet above the river. |
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| The river crested and receded quickly but left a mess. Once the waters over-topped the boat ramp they freely flowed into the public use area, flooding the playground and picnic pavilions. |
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| At least six feet below the water is the River Trail and its bridges over multiple creek crossings that are now fused into one single river. |
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| It took more than an hour to snake through the woods and see all the displays. Plus, there was a Christmas Village where we enjoyed spending almost two more hours. |
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| An added bonus is that Callaway Gardens has a superb nature center that includes a multi-level butterfly house. |
Back in October I posted about the return of a Bald Eagle. It has a nest (a huge nest) in a tree along the western edge of the park property and now it has been joined by another eagle. Evidently they are a mated pair as we now have two chicks in the nest. Hikers have reported seeing one or both adults fishing in the river and then dropping their catch in the nest where the chicks squawk and frantically eat, each afraid the other might be getting more.
I visit the nest tree when I can, usually just before sundown. It always looks the same - one bird is sitting in the crooks of some branches with its back to the nest and looking out in the direction of the river.
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| Every visit to the nest tree is the same - always just one bird and always sitting in this exact spot looking west to the river. |
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| That is the nest, well, part of it, in the bottom, left corner. Every so often I will catch a fleeting glimpse of a chick raising up and moving. |
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