Slide-out goes out while driving, YIKES!!!

While we are still a bit behind in our blogging I thought I should share a recent incident while driving north from the Rio Grand Valley. We left Casa de Valle RV park in Alamo Texas arriving at Choke Canyon State Park near Three Rivers Texas.

Upon leaving our site at Choke Canyon SP our bedroom slide-out failed to come in. I manually pushed it in and secured it from the inside so it would stay in. Or so I thought…

We intentionally took some back roads on our way to Canyon Lake to ensure my temporary “fix” of our slide-out would hold. When I said I manually pushed the slide-out back in I mean this literally. You could simply push the slide in or out with no resistance whatsoever. My solution was to brace the inside of the slide-out with 2x4’s to secure it in place.

As we ambled along the back roads the slide-out remained in place and all was good, that is, until one of our bay doors sprung open. We pulled over and I relatched the bay door. This door has sprung open before so I guess I need to check how well the latch actually secures it.

We continued on but both of us were thinking what else can go wrong? I mean “things happen in threes” right? We finally merged onto Interstate 37 and nothing else was going wrong, that is, until we got to San Antonio Texas. Our route was taking us north on Interstate 37 through the center of San Antonio and where did the slideout decide to pop out?! Yep, right in the center of downtown San Antonio on a very busy and congested highway. The power of threes continued…

Fortunately we were in the right lane and I immediately pulled off on the bit of road between an exit ramp and the highway with cars buzzing past us us. I checked my “fix” which had shifted allowing the slideout to go out. I went back outside trying to avoid being hit by a car on the highway or exit ramp and pushed the slide back in.

Inside I discovered the slideout trim which was securing the previous fix had detached so I had to come up with another plan. I used those adjustable spring rods we purchased for our shelves to keep things from falling out while traveling to secure the slide from the top. I adjusted four of them to hold the slide inside its frame and hoped for the best.

Merging back on the highway was a major feat in itself. With cars zooming by at 65 mph, maneuvering the RV back on the highway wasn’t easy but after a sizable wait I saw a large enough gap  where I was able to ease us back on the interstate and  back up to speed. Hoping the worst was behind us and feeling confident the rule of threes had been completed we continued northward.

About then the GPS warned us of a wreck on US 281 which is under heavy construction. GPS suggested an alternate route but not knowing if those small roads were suitable for a large RV we resigned ourselves to suffering through the traffic jam. After more than an hour of inching we finally made it to Canyon Lake. Fortunately our second”fix” held up until we arrived. I hope to be able to really fix the slide before moving from here but that will be blogged about at a later date…

Boy we really needed our happy hour after this ordeal!! But such is life driving an RV On the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are currently at Canyon Lake in Central Texas…

What a Horrifying Experience…

We were only in Missouri for one night and the next morning we continued on northeastward. Our route leaving Missouri into Illinois was crossing the Cairo Bridge on highway 62. What a mistake this was!

We crossed that bridge into Illinois which we soon realized no one driving a large RV or fifth wheel should ever drive across! I mean NEVER EVER!!! This cantilevered through truss bridge over the Mississippi River on U. S. Highway 60 / 62 between Birds Point, MO, and Cairo, IL is not meant for large rigs yet truckers cross it daily.

Each lane of the bridge is 10 feet wide but with the bridge trusses straight up from its edge it really leaves each lane with about 9 feet to work with. As we approached this white-knuckler bridge we prayed we see no Semi Trucks on the nearly mile long length. 

Well we had no such luck and as we approached the truck I squeezed as far right as I thought humanly possible and when we passed the truck I’d be surprised if one could  fit a thin dollar bill between our two mirrors. We are still shocked we didn’t lose a mirror on that bridge.

Now you think we would relax after crossing that bridge but noooooo… there is another bridge just like it crossing over the Ohio River leaving Illinois just a few miles after crossing the first one. The second was a clone of the first bridge but was even longer and the first half of it was under construction forcing us into a single lane!!!

Again we prayed to see no trucks but yet again we were denied our prayers. The first truck we passed we were again greatly relieved not to have hit mirrors with and then just before we were exiting the bridge another Semi-Truck was coming onto it it. There is a slight turn off the highway onto the bridge so when this truck came on its tail end was across the middle line in our lane.

I have absolutely no idea how we didn’t get side swiped only to surmise that we must have had our prayers answered after all. It took a good while after crossing these bridges before either of us could calm down. Be advised - DO NOT EVER CROSS THESE BRIDGES… I can’t even imagine what it would have been like if we didn’t have 10 years of RV driving experience behind us!

A few hours later we pulled into our next site at the KY Corps of Engineer Canal Campground in Grand Rivers, KY. We will be staying for three days and hopefully by the end of our stay we will forget about this horrifying experience…

NOTE: We are currently in the Shenandoah Valley near Woodstock Virginia until who knows when…

Why is that Policeman pulling us over???

Our stay in Utah ended and this morning we began our journey over to the CasaBlanca Resort & Casino in Mesquite Nevada. The trip started out grand as we made our way through a very beautiful canyon but we hit some construction and the traffic came to a halt.

We continued to crawl out of the construction and were about 20 miles from our destination in Mesquite Nevada when I noticed a police officer with his lights on right behind me. I couldn’t figure out what we had done but pulled over anyhow just before getting to a gas station where I was going to stop at to check on tire on the CRV I was a bit worried about.

The officer explained that he was driving behind me when my rear tire on our SUV blew out so he pulled us over. I apparently had good reason to worry about that tire and we had planned to have it checked out while in Mesquite Nevada.

We drove very slowly over to the same gas station I had intended to stop at  less than 1/4 mile down the road to change out the blown tire. As I was using our dinky tire jack and tools a fellow named Dale pulled up beside us saying he had a hydraulic jack and better tools than I was using. He then proceeded to take over my tire changing task.

With the doughnut tire in place and the blown tire tossed in the back of the CRV we thanked Dale for his help and drove on to Mesquite. Once set up at the Casablanca Resort we drove back over to Washington Utah to the nearest Costco since the tire was still under warranty.

Of course our warrantied tire was discontinued but with Costco generous warranty program we were able to replace all four tires for under $400 so we now have four new tires!

Not the best start to our stay in Mesquite Nevada but it is part of this lifestyle! It didn’t stop us from enjoying our stay in Mesquite …

NOTE: We are leaving Yuma AZ this morning and moving over to El Centro CA for a few nights… DONE

You’re Not Going to Believe What Happened to us…

The time came for us to leave our sunset paradise in Keaton Beach so we readied the RV and hit the road about 10:00 am. All was going well on the drive as we passed through the town of Perry Florida. However, heading west on a nice two lane road,something caught my eye.

NOTE: What occurred next  felt like it happened in slow motion –  almost as if I was in a Sam Peckinpah slow motion movie scene.

So what was it that caught my eye? It soon became obvious what it was… a wild turkey! How cool was that? As it started in flight I could see it was a large,beautiful wild bird. Its wings were beating slowly as it lifted its mass off the ground and became airborne. Oddly this turkey was flying toward the road instead of toward the woods as most do. I was watching it take flight and was in wonder of it when I suddenly realized that if the turkey didn’t fly a bit higher I might hit it. With no time for action (only thoughts) the bird suddenly struck the top of our RV on the windshield !

Back at real time…. we heard a BOOOM! The loud noise startled Sharon as she was looking down at her phone. The sound was similar to hearing two cars hitting each other. A shower of very small glass particles littered our dash board and the windshield itself was shattered with cracks going from the top tot the bottom. Less than 40% of the windshield had no cracks after striking the bird.

Being on a two-lane road gave us no choice but to continue down the road until we could find a suitable space to pull over. Before pulling over we called our insurance company to start a claim. Sharon searched the internet to see if we should worry about the windshield caving in on us if we drove any further with it as cracked as it was. Feeling as if we could safely drive it I put duct tape over the cracks on the top and bottom of the glass to hopefully secure it. We also put in a call to Tiffin Motorhomes who suggested we use clear packing tape to tape all the cracks as soon as we could.

We drove slowly over to Mexico Beach and checked into our park. I immediately went and bought a roll of packing tape to tape all the cracks to keep it intact in case we had to drive any further. It took the whole roll! Meanwhile, we have heard tentatively from the insurance company and it looks like we will have to drive on down the road to have it repaired.

It certainly was not an exiting way to spend the day but alas, it is all part of the experience of life. We aren’t particular happy about this event and its future inconvenience.  The thousand dollar deductible will hurt the budget a bit but we came out unharmed so we have simply chalked this one up to bad luck. However, we both can’t help but wonder if this was an omen and if it was we have no idea what it means…

In the meantime life goes on and we have spent our time here in Mexico Beach solving insurance and logistics stuff. Each afternoon we took a walk to the beach and would end the day at our favorite local hangout (Lookout Bar) where there is always another stunning sunset over the ocean for us to forget about that eventful day…

NOTE: We will leave Mexico Beach Florida today and head east to Robertsdale Alabama for a night before continuing on towards Louisiana in hopes of getting our windshield repaired...

An Unpleasant Experience Going Back Into the USA…

After our ten days were up in Puerto Penasco Mexico it was time to head back to the good old USA. As I mentioned earlier the sites are tight and there are no paved roads making getting out of there a bit of challenge. As I scoped out how we were going to leave there was only one area where I saw there would be be a bit of a tight turn. Fortunately our 44 foot neighbor left the day before proving it could be done. Check out the photo below left and see how tight the turn to the right was for the 44 footer in the middle driving slowly past the two parked rigs. He had to back up once to get around those two rigs!

As our time approached to leave we put everything away and fired up the RV.  Sharon walked down to that turn and getting around that turn wasn’t too bad so before long our three RV caravan was back on the road. We sure had a blast visiting Puerto Penasco having had a lot of fun with our caravan buddies and all the new friends we made as well. Many photos in this blog document our fun times (some pictures were taken by MonaLiza as well).

We had no problem leaving town and and everyone was able to stay together traveling through the busy town of Soyonita. Next up was the border crossing which I had read was a bit challenging to maneuver as it  is tight and has a turn or two in it. We were the middle rig and we were all the same height. Steve and MonaLiza were leading and as they entered the custom’s lane to enter the USA I noticed the hanging barrier above their RV said “Clearance 12’ 3”. Yikes! We are 12’ 8” and even though I was assured we would fit,  hearing that soft hanging barrier rolling over the top while driving through was still disconcerting.

The lanes were indeed tight but we managed and pulled up alongside an ICE agent (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Steve and MonaLiza were moving into the next series of lanes at the same time. After answering all the agent’s questions we were asked to move on to a lane two lanes over from Steve’s RV. About the time we made a wide turn to navigate into the lane we saw Steve’s RV already leaving and entering the USA. One down and two RV’s to go.

Well, when we pulled into a very tight lane two the ICE agent there told us to turn of the engine and that they were going to search the RV. We were told to leave our cell phones and the keys to the RV on the dash.  One of the two guards said we could stay on board but the other said to the other guard “no, this is a 107”. We were then told to go have a seat in the waiting room around the corner. We had no idea why we were selected to be searched. Either I answered a question suspiciously, looked suspicious or it was simply random.

While they were going through our rig  we saw our third RV in our caravan easily clear customs so now 2 out of the 3 of us were in the USA… but we were not!!! We sat for about 20 minutes not being told anything by anyone as our RV was being searched. Then, to our astonishment, an ICE agent drove our RV off around the building where we couldn’t see it at all! I had no idea they were allowed to do that (still not sure that they are). Again no one told us anything…

Ten minutes later we saw our RV on the the other side of the building and they were moving it into what appeared to be a large x-ray machine for trucks and large vehicles. Five to ten minutes later our RV was sitting back in front of the building we were in. Still no one telling us anything… Another five minutes passed when an ICE agent at last walked up to us and handed me my keys saying we were free to go.

We still had to maneuver back through the 3 last lanes to enter into the USA but when we did our friends were waiting for us, curious as to why we were delayed. We still have no idea what they were looking for (drugs we assume) but there were a few things disheveled from their search. So despite all the efforts undertook to ensure we followed all instructions for a smooth crossing into the USA from Mexico we still were detained for 30 to 45 minutes.

This whole experience was very unnerving and  I hope no other RVer has to endure it. Watching our RV drive off without us while we are still technically in Mexico did not sit well with me. I mean what if someone in Mexico had stashed some drugs under the RV to be picked up by an unscrupulous character in the USA. Our RV (our HOME) and all earthly possessions could have been confiscated by our own government. NOPE, we don't want to ever experience that again so future trips into Mexico may not happen again for us, at least not in our RV, our home…

NOTE: Again, with her permission I used a few pictures taken by MonaLiza of Lowes Travels blogger fame. We don’t often get many pictures with both of us in the photo so it was fun that she shared her photos… Thanks MonaLiza! We are now in Why Arizona for three nights and then will be moving over to Tucson AZ…

Invite us to your next blow-out…

We were not able to celebrate our 2 1/2 year anniversary very long… As we were leaving the Hollywood Casino RV Park near the town of Joliet, Illinois I stopped to dump at the dump station and to check out the motorhome for the day's travel. Earlier that morning we called our next planned stop only to discover what I had read on the internet was wrong (Geeesh and I thought everything on the world wide web was true) The campground had no hookups so we found our alternative, a state park nearby.  So instead of driving our typical 80 miles in a day we would be driving about 35 miles.

So with plan B in hand we finished dumping and started south down the road.About five miles or so down the road I heard an unfamiliar noise as did Sharon. I was worried we had developed another leaking wheel seal and since we only heard the sound while driving slowly we pushed on... after all we only had 35 miles to go…

Every time we slowed the disconcerting noise would reappear but there was nowhere on our two lane Illinois highway to pull over. I asked Sharon if she could tell if the sound was forward or near the back of the coach. When she said it sounded like it was coming from the rear I became a bit more concerned since our problem wheel seal was in the front. When we entered the park and slowed down, we again we again heard the noise..

So I had Sharon drive the motorhome very slowly as I walked all along the coach and discovered the sound was coming from the rear tire area. I had her stop and when I checked it was obvious that we had had a blowout on the inner rear passenger side tire. Odd to have a blowout and not even know it while driving down the road. Odd yes… but also we were lucky that no damage was caused and that the other tire held up  to carry the load until we got settled into our site here at the Kankakee River State Park in Illinois.

We made our second call to Good Sam’s Roadside assistance and quickly arranged to have a service rep come out to check out our situation. About 80 minutes later our service guy, Donovan, pulled up and in less than an hour had our tire replaced and properly inflated. I had a nice chat with Donovan as he replaced our tire and he told me his uncle had taught at nearby Chanute Air Force Base where I went to training school in the mid 70’s. It seems as if there was a good chance his uncle was one of my instructors… small world once again…

At least when the tire was fixed we were able to enjoy ourselves here at Kankakee River State Park. Although our site is electricity only (50 amp) the sites are very spacious and we practically have the park to ourselves.

They have an excellent 10 mile hike and bike trail that we were able to ride our bikes on. We rode nearly the full length of the bike trail which took us along the very scenic Kankakee River. There were lots of turnouts where we stopped to take in the views…

We enjoyed our nice and peaceful bike ride immensely and as we reflected back we are sure glad we had the tire repaired and were glad it was no worse an event than it was. Good Sam’s did a great job getting us taken care of once again and as much as we were happy about that we sure hope we never need them again…

What was that nasty crunching sound?

We left the KOA later than normal since we only had about a 100 mile drive . We plotted a route across the southern farmland of Ontario as we find this part of the Province rather scenic with its mixture of rolling hills and bright green recently planted farmlands dotted with dairy farms each with fun striped colors on their silos. Most were either green and white striped or red and white striped and we wondered if there was any significance to the colors or if it was just a bit of frivolity the farmers had when painting their barns and silos.

Well it wasn’t long and the signs in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada started directing all cars and RVs to the left lane as we were about to enter the USA on the Blue Water Bridge. As we crossed the last bridge leaving Canada they fleeced us for one more $10.50 toll. Then as we got to the US customs they had all RV’s going into only two lanes with cars. I thought this was odd since it makes more sense for RV’s to go in with trucks due to their size. Then it was our turn so we started forward into our lane hoping the customs folks would not take any of our goods.

The lane I was in had a traffic cone just below the officer’s window and as I tried to maneuver in such a way as to not hit it I heard that nasty crunching sound that RV’ers never want to hear. Then it suddenly dawned on me that I had just lost my passenger side mirror… sigh…now I know how Vic and Pam felt and worse, knew what it was going to cost me after reading about their encounter. The custom’s guy was as rude as most of them always seem to be and simply said “Well aren't you going to get out and pick up the broken pieces of mirror?” “Pull forward and pick it up.” … and  Sharon jumped out to quickly retrieve the pieces.

A uniformed officer directed over to the lanes on the left since the terse fellow said he wanted the “State” to look over their building to see if we had damaged it. I assumed he figured they wanted to make a claim on our insurance but as I noticed and the”State” also found, there was no significant damage to their building. In fact the “State” lady was just the opposite of Mr. Custom’s guy as she was kind and understanding even sharing a few stories about how she hoped that one day she wanted to do what we were doing in eight years after she retires. She also told us that although the signage doesn't say so, lane ten is for wider RV's...I guess we know that for next time.....

After chatting awhile with the nice lady, she gave us the go ahead to drive on out. We couldn't believe it...no inspection?  I can only assume they felt we had enough issues for one day and just let us through.  I used the passenger side camera in lieu of a mirror and merged on into traffic.  We talked about the accident and could not believe that neither one of us noticed the tight space but the lady explained that the outside is wide and that the inside narrowed after they added another inside wall for their equipment.  I was focused on the cone and Sharon on our passports so stuff just happens... at least we ate a homemade pizza that day…

Well there you have it.  It took a bit over two years before we incurred our first costly damage to the the RV. An estimate from the maker of the mirror said it will cost us about $600 shipped to where we are in Michigan. We will be here at a Thousand Trails Encore Park called St Clair RV Resort where we will stay till July 3rd. Then we will head southwest a bit over to the Wayne County Fairgrounds & RV Park near Bellville, Michigan where we will visit with one of Sharon’s cousins.Thankfully her cousin consented to our shipping the mirror to his house so I can hopefully install it by myself while at the fairgrounds… all in the life of a fulltimer…