We left the farm on Labor Day morning. It was 15 miles before we got to the first paved road. I was pleasantly surprised at the good conditions of the back roads and lack of Covid checkpoints going past the Rosebud reservation. Got to Grand Island NE in plenty of time to find an empty site in the country park. We spent a very relaxing 2 days there and even found a Chinese buffet in town that was open.
On to our next stop in Peculiar MO. That was a nice park, also a 2 day stay. On the drive there, I noticed some errors on my brake controller for an open short, resulting in no trailer brakes. I looked at a few different things and found a broken wire at the rear driver side brake. Checked with a local auto parts store and an RV dealer and neither carried the connector used by the factory, so I just used a wire nut to reconnect the 3 wires. Jean sat in the driver’s seat and tested the brakes and everything looked good. Right up until we drove out. The first time I applied the brakes it showed the short again. At various points of that day’s drive, I got intermittent results from the brakes and definitely wanted to get a technician to look at it.
Fortunately, our next stop, in Alma AR, was a campground attached to an RV service center (Crabtree Service Center). The campground part was less than impressive but the service center was able to look at the rig bright and early the next morning. During the course of troubleshooting, the tech tried to activate the breakaway switch. It was extremely difficult to pull out but when it finally came out the 2 wires coming out of it started smoking. Then the wires in the junction box started smoking. So, the next order of business was to replace the breakaway switch and do some rewiring in the junction box. After taking care of that, the tech moved under the RV to check the wiring at the axles. He noted my repair, then happened to catch a glint of more bare copper. After fixing that part of the wiring, we were on our way again, heading for Crater of Diamonds State Park.
For about 25 miles. 2 truckers beeped at us and signaled to pull over. I really wasn’t sure about the first one but after the second I pulled onto the shoulder just before an exit. Walked around the RV and smelled burning rubber on the curb side. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the rear axle had broken a weld and moved just enough for those 2 tires to make contact. They had both lost tread (which I imagine the truckers saw). A few more miles at highway speed and they might have both blown out at the same time. While I was crawling around under the RV, Jean was checking her phone and found a Love’s truck stop at the very exit we stopped at. I slowly limped off the interstate and around the back of the Love’s. It was NOT one of the larger ones with their own mechanics but there was a local truck repair shop (https://exit-37-truck-services.business.site/)just behind them. We pulled next to the building and the owner said he could probably get somebody on it within the hour. He was true to his word and had a welder underneath the RV (after I turned off the propane and purged the line). 2 new tires later and we were back on the road. We didn’t make it as far as planned and stopped at a former KOA in Morrilton AR. If you have any other choices, do NOT stop there.
The next morning we drove to an RV park just south of Little Rock. I wanted to stay close to the city because I needed a new toilet seal set and they had a Camping World. We drove in, armed with a Thetford part number, but Camping World couldn’t find it in their computer system. I knew something was wrong because I’d seen it online. I called another RV service center from their parking lot and provided the make and model of the toilet to see if they had the seals. The response was that they probably had it but I should bring in the old one for them to find it. Thanks, but no thanks. I went back into Camping World with their item number on my phone. They could find that. Back to the campground for a quick toilet repair. Turned out it wasn’t the exact part I needed but was close enough for government work.
The following morning, we’re getting ready to leave, bringing in slides and heard some terrible noises while bringing in the large living room slide. Lucky for us it came all the way in. On the drive to Crater of Diamonds, I decided that we would NOT try to use that slide until we figured out what the problem was. We got to the state park (very nice campground) and quickly discovered the problem with the slide. A corner bracket for the cables had lost the heads for most of the bolts holding it to the wall. Needless to say, we didn’t use that slide at the park. We did, however, try our hands at diamond mining. To be truthful, the park should probably not allow mining by tourists during the pandemic. They would not rent any equipment, or even show the videos on how to do it properly. There were a number of people who do this as a part time job or hobby. They showed up equipped with their own shovels, buckets and screens. Buying all that for ourselves for one day would’ve been a terrible waste of money. We did buy 1 screen downtown and used 1 of our own buckets and a claw hammer. The odds of finding a decent diamond are right up there with winning the lottery. The trails were enjoyable and they even had WiFi in the campground.
On to our next leg, a campground in Yuma TN (https://www.pcrvpark.com/) that also provided repair services. We arrived about 2 in the afternoon. The owner (who does the repairs) was available right away and the bracket was reattached before 5 PM. Oh! While he was inspecting the damage, he found a wasp nest in the upper corner of the slide, which would explain the number of wasps I’ve seen inside over the last few weeks. This place was also very nice. We wanted to stay another night but they were booked solid, only able to offer us an overflow site next to the maintenance shed.
Our final leg was a relatively short drive to Campbellsville KY for my Amazon Camperforce gig. This leg featured absolutely zero mechanical problems but Google took us on some country backroads that were barely able to accommodate us, especially when passing a semi in the opposite direction. Our site was ready when we arrived and big enough to put the deck out. Now it’s just a matter of making some money to pay for the repairs and sock some away for the coming months.
