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.

5 Tortured Miles

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.

Ripped open from rim to rim.  The tread cap came completely off in hundreds of pieces.

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.

Alabama Service Assistance Program (ASAP) to the rescue.  Getting the air
that my spare needed.  That's the Bay Bridge in the background.

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.

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.

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.

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".

It was a tourist area seafood restaurant so there was the obligatory fishnet
decorations and T-shirt sales.

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.

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.

Rainbow Plantation has spacious, shady sites.  Almost every site comes with at least two oak trees.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!