We departed Rebecca, Raymond, & Jaxson’s Sunday morning, 04MAR, for the long drive back to the new house in Sultan, WA. As we were leaving the Houma area on US 90 west we noticed a burning car in the eastbound lanes. It appeared that everyone was safe even though the car was totally engulfed. Since we had the air vents open, the rig soon smelled of burning rubber & electric wiring. Shortly thereafter the smoke alarm in the rear bedroom started sounding; but it wasn’t the loud steady tone alerting you to a fire, & it wasn’t the intermittent beep you get when the battery is weak. It was like a combination of the two?So outside of Morgan City Dan pulled over to check the tires & suspension, no problems found. We then took the smoke detector from the front of the RV & placed it in the bedroom, it did not activate. We were almost to Lafayette when Corrie noticed the rearview camera “fogging” up. Since it was a perfectly clear day, this should not happen. Dan pulled over, climbed the rear ladder to inspect the camera; no problems found. Dan decided to check the tires & suspension one more time & then discovered that the “chrome tip” of the exhaust has fallen off; & that the left rear corner of the rig was slowly “melting” & smoldering!!! THANKFULLY the fiberglass body, or rubber gasket material, in the area had not caught on fire; because once an RV catches fire, they are usually “gone” in less than 15 minutes! Luckily the chrome piece had not fallen out of the rig, & Dan was able to affect temporary repairs. The rest of the day’s drive was made with the left side mirror angled down so Dan could keep an eye on the exhaust pipe.
After our near disaster, we made it safely to Rainbows End RV Park in Livingston, TX. Followers of our BLOG will recognize that we tend to visit this RV park every spring. This is because the RV park is owned by the Escapees RV Club (which we belong to), & the local county will accept membership as residency in the state of Texas. So every spring we pass through to renew our vehicle registrations; & driving licenses if necessary. Monday, 05MAR, we had the Toad re-registered & inspected. That afternoon Dan made a more permanent repair on the RV muffler (ie muffler tape). The next day, 06MAR, it was the RV’s turn for re-registration & inspection.http://www.escapees.com/
07MAR it we continued our westward drive to Kerrville, TX, to visit with Dan’s sister Sharon & husband Tim; also a once a spring happening. But the primary reason for this year’s visit was to get our household goods out of storage & transported to the new house in Sultan, WA. We had gotten bids from three moving companies for them to the moving, & were shocked at the estimates. We naively figured that since everything was still in the original boxes from our “military” move in 2007, that the prices would be reasonable. Not so! So we have elected to rent a truck & to it ourselves.
Thursday, 08MAR, we awoke to a flat on the Toad; thankfully it was not in the sidewall & could be repaired. Most of Thursday & Friday was spent going through our boxes in storage to see if we could throw some stuff away or donate it; along with visiting Tim & Sharon & their new dog Abby (who looks like she has a lot of Jack Russell in her!). We did manage to decrease the number of boxes by 15. We also looked at purchasing a small trailer to give us some flexibility if the rental truck couldn’t hold everything. After Dan researched rental truck fees on line, we decided on a Penske rental truck. They were $150 cheaper than U-haul; their largest truck carries 2000 pounds more than U-haul; & their largest truck is diesel, not gas like U-haul.
Prior to arriving in Kerrville, Dan had asked brother-in-law, Tim, if he knew any reliable “day laborers”. Turns out that one of Tim’s co-workers was willing; & another co-worker had a large extended family in the area & provided two more bodies. The end result was we had three willing & reliable men to assist us with packing the rental truck; which was a good thing because Dan was still suffering with bruised ribs from go-karting back in February. So at 0900 Saturday, 10MAR, we all met at the two storage lockers containing our household goods & commenced loading the truck. The best thing was the brother-in-law, Tim, took charge of loading the truck. Having done this several times in moves from Washington to Montana, & Montana to Texas, Tim did a much better job than Dan would have ever done.
Our intentions after a hard day’s work on Saturday was to have a home cook meal prepared by sister Sharon. Unfortunately she was coming down with something (ie the flu?) & dinner was not an option. We then decided to try for Sunday morning breakfast before we hit the road to Sultan, WA. Unfortunately Sharon was not going to rally by the morning & Corrie was starting to feel ill. So the decision was made to skip one last get together & just get on the road without passing germs back & forth. Hopefully next year we will be able to visit longer, & Tim & Dan can maybe visit Austin for the South by Southwest music festival like last year.http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2011/03/12-20mar11-kerrville-tx-south-by.html
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