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.
 |
| 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.
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