It’s Wednesday (2/26/14) and We’re Still at Camping World in New
Braunfels, Texas!
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Google Maps
instructions for getting to this, very visible Camping World just outside of
San Antonio, are convoluted to say the least.
So, after I received my job for the evening and morning of trying out
all my systems while here in the ‘free’ campsite, I decided to just stay here
in the parking lot and not venture out for exploration of the area. Maybe I’ll do a little today; or, maybe I’ll just
head out towards Junction, TX or further.
Of course, the wind came up last evening and the
temperature dropped down into the 30s again.
It’s been howling around the rig all night and doesn’t appear to be
letting up. This morning it’s currently
41F and very windy. It’s supposed to be
windy all day in the range of NNE 15-29mph with up to a 70% chance of rain,
especially later this morning. Wouldn’t
you know? My ‘issues’ with Floribunda seem to be resolved as far as I can tell
now, but the dreaded wind and rain may make traveling a little less enjoyable.
By the way, I’ve had a windshield washing fluid
container with a big hole in it since December.
Yesterday, CW told me I’d have to try to find one at Chevrolet, as CW
doesn’t carry replacements for chassis parts.
That’s great – I already checked with a Chevy
dealer in Louisiana who told me he doesn’t have that part in his
catalogue. I’m assuming that either
means his catalogue is wimpy or I’m not going to find it at any Chevy
dealer. The alternatives are: to go without (not pleasant for driving when
in rain and fog, then dust and wind, etc.), or, buy a generic container and try
to get it to fit – somehow!
It just seems that things are not meant to be
simple in the maintenance and repair of motorhomes! Maybe the powers that be only hand
out so many conveniences and easy solutions; so, when one’s used up his fair
share of easy fixes, things get complicated!
For some reason, I kind of feel I’ve overdone my fair share of complicated
solutions! Hmmm!
Yesterday, when I was ready to leave Seguin, TX, for the relatively short jaunt to New Braunfels, I
decided to try to tow Petunia without the bungee cords holding the steering
wheel in a neutral position. [After all
the problems I had last summer with towing, I’d decided I’d rather be safe than
sorry. In the Smart Car forum, there
were lots of opinions about whether to use steering wheel bungees or not. I’d decided to use them but haven’t really
seen that they actually “do” anything; so this was the first time I was brave
enough to give the non-bungee steering wheel a try]. Almost immediately after I left CW, I pulled
into a gas station to fill Floribunda with gas; and, I had to make a rather
sharp right turn to exit the station.
OMG! The horrific Petunia
clunk-clunk sound was back! I could see
on the monitor of my backup camera that the steering wheel was wildly going to
the left and then to the right, over and over.
I could feel that panic brick falling to the bottom of my stomach. Fortunately, I was able to turn off the main
road in just about 200 feet onto a residential street and pulled to a stop as
soon as I could; where I jumped out, ran back to Petunia, and went through the algorithm
that I would normally do when I prepare her to be unhitched. It went well so I then put her back into towing
mode, with the steering wheel bungees back in place, and all seemed to be
working okay. However, when I did
unhitch her in the afternoon, here at CW, I noticed that hot/burnt rubber smell;
so I’m going to be very careful and watch for any signs of a problem with the
clutch or transmission, or whatever else could be damaged from the spinning out
of control steering wheel around that one corner.
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| A Smart Car in the sales room - check Petunia out, below |
Thursday Evening (2/27/14), Fort Stockton, TX – Hilltop RV
Park
After leaving CW at about noon yesterday, we drove
about 150 miles to Junction, TX where we stayed at River Shade RV Park on the
North Llano River. The drive had been an
easy one and we had no more heart-stopping moments with Petunia.
The RV Park was spotlessly clean and had manicured
grounds. The only issue was that my
Verizon Jet Pak, my iPhone, my iPad, and my laptop were all unusable. It was probably just as well because after a
nice dinner, I turned the light out at 7:30 and didn’t check the time again
until this morning at 6:30! That tells
me that, although I feel 99% better than even earlier this week, I’m still
feeling some effects of this darn flu.
I’ve just never had anything like this before.
We drove out of River Shade RV Park at 11 and,
taking our sweet time, traveled through some of the widest-opened spaces in the
World. Texas is one BIG PLACE. At one of the rest stops I checked on an RV
park in Fort Stockton (Hilltop RV Park); and, it’s a good thing I did because they only had one spot
vacant for tonight.
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| I-10W parking spot - Texas freeways have rest areas, picnic areas, and parking spots. They're few and far between |
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| Not too many of us out here! |
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| Texas seems to go on forever |
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| Between Junction and Fort Stockton, TX |
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| Between Junction and Fort Stockton, TX - such interesting rock striations - I love the continual sameness and changing of the landscape We arrived at Hilltop RV Park outside of Fort Stockton at about 4 in the afternoon. I left Petunia hitched to Floribunda. They both needed a 'rest!' These long stretches of 'clean-appearing' highways hide lots of dirt - see below! |
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| Poor little Petunia, a little the worse for wear this morning (Friday, 2/28/14). She was quite clean two days ago. |
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| Oh my, oh my, it's dirty work being towed |
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| It's dirty work towing, too! Floribunda needs a bath SOON! |
Our plan is to leave here later this morning, and drive to Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory. Then, we'll make the hop to Marfa, Texas. I’ve made a reservation at the Tumble In RV Park in
Marfa for 2 nights. We’ve heard lots of
good things about this special place – in the middle of west Texas desert
country. Hopefully I’ll have some good
photos and stories to tell.
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| Eleanor this morning, "I've had breakfast and life is good!" |