Back On The Road Again

December 31, 2016 - Baytown

It started raining during the night and rained hard for a day.  We wound up leaving Baytown, TX bound for Kerrville, TX.  The HWH factory rep said that when I brought up the leveling jacks they should hold and it would be ok to drive.  We decided to hit the road on December 31 and put everything away, brought in the slide out and raised the jacks.  Kerrrbamm!  Oh oh Houston, we have another problem.  The leveling spring on the other front jack broke and now we had two broken jack springs.  

We decided to trust in the factory rep, so we brought up the jacks and started down the road.

I wanted to stop for fuel and take advantage of diesel for $2.07/gallon but on the way there the jack warning alarm started up.  I checked the jacks at the service station and they had fallen down enough to set off the alarm.  No way I could drive 1,100 miles with that beeping all the time.

It was time to find a local mechanic who could tie the jacks up somehow so we could continue on down the road.  We did find a mechanic at a truck stop who said he could fix it, but it would take a couple hours before he could get to it.  Sure enough, he came out to the motorhome and directed me to park in a covered bay.  As you can see the rain was coming down hard and the parking lot was flooding in places.

 The mechanic crawled under the motorhome and said he could fix it in 15 minutes by using coat hangers to hold the jacks in place.  It was a jury rigged solution but the only one available to us at this time.  It was New Years Eve day and everyplace else was closed.  He also gave us two more coat hangers in case the first ones didn't hold and we would have to repeat the process.  He finished the job and was exceptionally reasonable with the bill for the work.  

Finally around 1:00PM we rolled out of the parking lot heading for Kerrville, TX.  It was a 325 mile drive and we had a reservation at the Kerrville-Schreiner Park.  The traffic was light and we made good time driving through Houston and San Antonio and arrived at the park just before sunset.

When we went to park in the campsite, we noticed it was set up backwards.  The sewer hookup was on one side and the water and electric on the other.  The w/e hookups were on the wrong end of the site and we had to move the mh almost into the next site.  We couldn't use the leveling jacks and the campsite had a bad slope to it.  Using wood under the tires on one side, we managed to get it leveled enough that we were able to make do for the night.

As I mentioned earlier, it was New Years Eve and evidently the campers and nearby neighbors like to shoot off fireworks all night to celebrate.  There were a number of gunshots going off also.  It started just after sunset and went on until about 1:00AM.

January 1, 2017 - Kerrville

In the morning it was back on the road time and we continued our drive to Van Horne, TX .  Once again the traffic was light and we made the 375 mile drive without incident.  The wind was blowing hard the whole time.  Some of the gusts slammed us pretty good.  Other than that it is boring out there with nothing interesting to look at with everything being so brown.  

When we were about 25 miles from Van Horn the sky became very dark and full of lighting strikes.  Also the wind picked up and was hitting us on the side and made for some difficult driving.  We pulled into the campground and barely got the motorhome set up for the night when the skies opened up.  We had 30-35 mph winds rocking the side of the motorhome.  It was the roughest ride we have had in this motorhome.  It continued for 30 minutes and then calmed down and the temp dropped about 30 degrees as well.

They have a cafe at the campground and we waited for the rain to stop before we walked over to the cafe for dinner.  We really enjoyed the meals and wound up chatting with a couple who are staying at Voyagers Resort in Tucson.  We exchanged cards and made plans to get together with them when everything is settled down.

January 2, 2017 -  Van Horn

 We had a short drive of 170 miles today to Las Cruces, NM so we  left the park late.  Once again the traffic was light.  I always take I-10 through El Paso and made good time today making the 35 mile drive in 40 minutes.  No slow downs and the people drove like they should.

Our stop for the night was at a Passport America RV park called Coachlight RV park.  It's $18/nite for Passport members and we've stopped here before.  It is a no frills park next to a hotel, but the price is right.

One of our favorite restaurants is called Cattle Baron and we always stop there when we are in the area.  Once again we enjoyed our meals and their super great salad bar.  They even had French Onion soup and I went back for two cups.  The service was great and to top it off they "carded" us.  We had to show identification with our birth dates on it.  I guess we look young for our age.

We plan on stopping here two nights and then on to Tucson, AZ.  Our destination there will be the Pima County Fair grounds campground for two nights and then into La Mesa RV for service on Friday morning.  Hopefully the jack springs repairs will be quick and we can settle into Justin's Diamond J RV park Friday night.

That's what we've been up too lately.  How about you?

Happy New Year