Made it to Hattiesburg,Mississippi (Okatoma RV Resort) and it was quite beautiful....... Several ponds about the park, and the office staff was super kind!
I didn't even unhook......just plugged in the electric, putzted about for awhile, and slept. Ever have a dream that felt so real, that your wee little tummy was wigglin about with butterflies?
I had a dream that someone had stolen my extend-mirrors, my generators, my hitch, and an old propane tank.
In my dream, I even calculated my financial losses. Weird, hey?.Oh and by the way, I recalculated my losses when I woke up and I was WAY ahead in my dream!!!
Needless to say, all possessions were intact in the morning.
Got up..and after a shower, hit the road.
Spent the following night in Shreveport at a kind of funky park. Absolutely nothing to report on this park other than that it was close to the Interstate and muddy and there were some kind of shady characters next to me.
Several of the 'RV's' had blue tarps on the roof held securely in place with duct tape.
Quite resourceful!
Of note, my car alarm went off at about 230am, affording me quite the restful 'remainder' to my evening! (My dream was a day early!!!!)
Hey, there has to be at lease one 'unsavory' park, right?
I did want to comment on road conditions.
I-20 West leaves much to be desired to this beginning traveler.
Coming into big cities the roads are so rough.. you and your rig are bouncing around so much you get the feeling that you are 'comin round the mountain' in a stagecoach.........OR you are getting an itsy bitsy taste of what the TAYLOR HIGHWAY in Alaska will be like.
Good Glory! I bounced so high and hard, my bones rattled........(and that is kinda hard to do, considering all the 'fluffy stuff' I have coating my bones!!!!) (FAT JOKE!!)
Other than coming into the cities, I-20 was OK.
I did enjoy 'crossing' into Mississippi! The view from the bridge over the Mississippi River was spectacular! (these are not my pics....I kinda couldn't stop to take any pics, so I stole some from the internet.........)
I leave for DALLAS in the morning. The weather forecast is for 100% chance of rain and thundershowers tonight and tomorrow, then decreasing to 80% on Monday.
I will be there 4 days visiting friends. YUCK.........(on the weather, not my friends!)
Constant rain!
AND another plus........the site was level. Made me tickled pink with HAPPY, Got set up in no time at all.
In the setting up process, lookie what I discovered!!!
In case you cannot see it, it is the breakaway cable for the RV brakes! Remember I told you about those bumpy I-20 west highways? Well, NOW I can remember it happening, however at the time I couldn't figure out what the heck had happened. My camper wouldn't move after pulling into an equally bumpy gas station..........so being the brilliant technician that I am, I forced it to move.......and move it did.
Due to the smell of what I thought was burning rubber, I checked to see if something had lodged itself between the tires.......nothing.......I checked the engine belts........from what I could tell......nadda.
So, I continued on my merry little way!
For a few hundred miles with seemingly NO RV EMERGENCY BRAKES.....unbeknowst to me!
Doofus me.
So, I have calls into some mobile RV techs, and my fingers and toes are crossed that this can be repaired in the next day of so, allowing me to stay on schedule with travel plans.
CHARLES LAWHON TRAILER SERVICE came to the rescue. As we speak, my RV is with them. Everywhere else I called there was at least a one week wait to get it worked on, and several places that I called never even got back to me.
Evada Cooper was kind enough to give me a referral to a place that they trust,but apparently they were one of those back logged places, as they did not get back to me.
(Me thinks RV MAINTENANCE would be a great career choice to those that can do it.....Kat from Bay Bayou comes to mind!)
Initially LAWHON'S told me that it would take them 3 days to complete the job with their back log, however, he must have felt sympathy for me because he said he would try to get me back on the road by tomorrow!!!
YIPPEE!!!
Damp eyes and pathetic story of woe were indeed in my favor.
This will be a fairly costly 'lesson'. But, it could have been a much worse scenario! (No brakes, rainy weather, bumpy, irregular roads......you get the picture! Can't believe I drove so long without brakes, but SUPER glad, I had had work done on my truck including brake maintenance!)
NOW I know what to do when the RV won't move!!! The RV was definitely trying to tell me something but I missed the message.
I have had an AWESOME visit with my long time friends, Michael and Russell. I met Michael 27 years ago when we worked together in Tampa at University Community Hospital. He was a true mentor to me.
His adorable partner, (recently betrothed) Russell, of many years,.... and their poochie, Dallas are great fun to hang with. They have been awesome hosts....they keep my happy......They all have been
Russell and Dallas
Russell, Dallas and Lilly bonding!
Dallas hiding under a chair during and thunderstorm!
Dallas getting her feet trimmed up
Michael
Fajitas for dinner!
Mimosas with our lunch!
Micheal and Russell are raising chickens as you can see in the next picture below.
Their names are Rose, Dorothy and Blanche..........'Golden Girls'?
They have not started 'laying' yet, but,after all, they still are kinda little.
There was a tiny 'incident' when the boys wanted to let the chickens out.
Lilly was, as usual, minding her own business, ;-) when the chickens taunted her into a chase....(they do sound like squeaky toys, don't ya think?).......the chase was on, and Lilly was able to grab Dorothy....or was it Blanche?....who the heck knows...chickens all look alike if you ask me..........inside the chicken coop!!!.
There ensued much yelling and many human hands grabbing at my poor little innocent canine.
See pic below.
There was no denying the evidence.
It was touch and go there for awhile......will I still have friends in Dallas?
Will we have chicken for dinner?
will I and my pooch be booted out on our hind ends????
The chicken lived.....we did have chicken for dinner, but it was of the frozen variety, and my friends still love us.
WHEW! is all I have to say.
Please note feather to left of tongue. YIKES!!
The lawn's around Dallas are saturated and the rivers are flooding. It is crazy!
It rains so much that there is no time for the earth to absorb it. Makes for very unhappy people and puppy feet. We, fortunately are not located near any of the flooding or tornadoes. We are safe from that prospective.
At the moment, the sun is kinda shining.......I say 'kinda' cause, if I look at the sky every 5 minutes, it alternates between sun and clouds. (OOPS! I looked away,and now it is cloudy!)
WEDNESDAY, May 27th ...wait a minute, it stopped raining ...guys are swimming, boats are sailing!!
IT IS SUNNY with blue skies!!!
They just called about my RV and he said the brakes were totally 'scattered about' !
Need EVERYTHING replaced!
Drums, pads, everything.
Isn't going to be as pricey as I thought and it IS a very valuable lesson.
YIPPEE.....I will remain on schedule for the rest of my trip.
It is FRIDAY, the 29th! They are still waiting for UPS to deliver my parts! Supposed to come today, and if so, I will be on the road today. Am kinda cutting things close for my arrival date in Great Falls Montana, but things are out of my hands.
Friday....3pm........RV done, but no desire to face rush hour Dallas traffic.
will be the road to Phoenix tomorrow!
Catch up with you all in a week or so!
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