Current Location: Fort Toulouse Campground, Wetumpka, Alabama

We were up and pretty much packed up to travel as much as we could without unhooking or pulling in the slides. The Ford dealer called at 10:00 and said the truck was ready. We drove straight over and picked it up. There was no charge for any of the services or repairs (which we expected since it is still under the bumper to bumper warranty). They put a new radiator fan clutch on the truck and it sounds quieter from the front now when it is running. It also seemed to keep cooler when pulling grades today, given that the outside temperature was in the 90’s all day.

We got back to the KOA and immediately started closing up the trailer and hooking up to leave. We were on the road by 11:00 AM (eastern time). It was a fairly smooth drive the whole way. We even thought we might make it without having to stop to fill up the truck (we tried at one truck stop, but it was so busy, we moved on).

While stopped sometime during the day to use the restroom in the trailer, the toilet pedal fell off again leaving the water running. Fortunately, it was running on the pump and Val quickly shut it off. Malcolm worked on putting the pedal back onto the toilet once at the campground. Since it is pretty much messed up, we’ve decided to get a new toilet.

When we got about 15 miles from our exit in Montgomery, traffic ground to a halt. The truck was indicating 48 miles to empty and we had about 30 miles to go. Not knowing how long the traffic backup was going to be, we went ahead and exited and filled up the truck. Once back on the interstate, the backup was only about 1/2 mile more. They were using a crane to lift a crashed semi truck out of a ravine and had one lane closed.

We rolled into Fort Toulouse a little after 5:00 PM (central time) and set up the trailer. After paying the camp host for our night’s stay and getting the air conditioners going, we drove the car over to our storage unit and got some things out that David wanted. From there, we drove over to San Marcos in Wetumpka and had dinner and stopped by Winn Dixie to get some groceries on the way back to the campground.

The plan tomorrow is to drive north to the Camping World in Calera, Alabama (just south of Birmingham) and buy a new toilet and throw it in the trailer. We’ll take I-20 west from Birmingham as far as we feel like traveling tomorrow (probably mid-way across Louisiana) and stop for the night.