Current Location: Riverbend RV Park, Luling, Texas

Let’s see, at last count in the blog, we were getting ready to leave our lot in Florida. Today, we’re in Texas. Allow us to recount the last several days for you.

We left Florida on Sunday of this week and traveled the entire distance to Wetumpka to stay at Fort Toulouse. We ran errands there on Monday, including stopping by our storage unit and grabbing about eight totes and a shelving unit. We took those all back to the rig and packed them all into the basement of the trailer.

We will stop back through on the way back to Florida after this current trip and pick up more totes and another shelving unit. We’ll use one of our storage sheds in Florida to put them all in. We’ll eventually release the storage unit we’re renting in Alabama once we clear it out later this year.

We left Wetumpka on Wednesday, which was also our 31st wedding anniversary. Before hitching up the trailer to leave, we stopped by the local Dunkin’ Donuts to grab some breakfast.

Anniversary Breakfast

As we were driving around Montgomery, Alabama, we were passed by a pickup truck carrying a bed full of junk. An aluminum screen door laying on top of the pile blew loose and headed straight for our truck. Malcolm swerved away as much as was safe, but the screen door hit the truck and flew underneath where we ran over it with all the left-hand truck and trailer tires.

We pulled over to assess any damage. The other pickup truck slowed, but went on up the road (they were actually going to the next intersection to turn back around and come back). We didn’t see any damage and headed on up the road, giving the pickup driver a thumbs up as we passed. We didn’t find the damage until we stopped for lunch. It’s pretty minor, just scratched paint on the front bumper. We’ll get some touch-up paint and fix it later on.

Scratches on the Bumper

We stopped for the night in Biloxi, Mississippi. We took care of some laundry but otherwise just relaxed in the trailer for the evening. Malcolm took the truck around the corner and filled the fuel tank.

Our un-scenic site in Biloxi

We left Biloxi on Thursday morning and headed to Westlake, Louisiana (near Lake Charles). On the way, the truck indicated it was time for an oil change and for new fuel filters. We stopped for the evening at Whispering Meadows RV Park, where our friends Andy and Joanna Grimes are currently staying. Andy brought their two dogs – Rowdy and Kaydee – down to our site to visit until Joanna got home from work.

Malcolm’s Two Buddies

We invited Andy and Joanna to share our anniversary meal with us. They drove and picked a great restaurant for us. We had a great time.

Whispering Meadows

This morning, Malcolm headed out early to the Ford dealer to get the oil changed and fuel filters changed. They had him in and out in about an hour. He headed back to the trailer and we hitched up and rolled out by 9:00 in the morning.

Today we drove from Westlake to Luling, Texas where we are currently staying for the night. We have two more days before we arrive in Alpine, Texas where we are meeting several friends for a rally sponsored by the West Texas Chapter of the Heartland Owners Club. We’ll be there all next week.

Current Location: Fort Toulouse Campground, Wetumpka, Alabama

We got busy and had fun traveling and visiting folks and let our blogging lapse once again. We’re sure it won’t be the last time. So, what have we been up to since we left our friends in Burleson, Texas?

From there, we headed back down to Lake Conroe and stayed at the Lake Conroe KOA for an evening. From there, we headed back down to the Houston area then across I-10, stopping in Scott, Louisiana for two nights.

While in Scott, we had dinner out with our friends Nick and Sheila. We dropped by their place and give them some anniversary gifts that we had found through the year while traveling. The next day we drove down to meet Nick and Sheila for lunch near Nick’s office. From there, we headed down to New Iberia and the Conrad Rice Company to pick up some rice and other items. We went to Nick and Sheila’s for dinner before heading back to the trailer to get ready to head out early in the morning.

On Thursday, we were on the road by 7:00 am. We drove the entire 446 miles from Scott, Louisiana to Wetumpka, Alabama, arriving around 4:00 pm. We would have been close to an hour earlier except for a couple of long backups on the interstate.

Our plan was to stay here in Alabama through tonight and head out tomorrow morning towards Clarksville, Indiana to our trailer’s selling dealer. We were scheduled for a wheel bearing and brake check as part of the (free) “Warranty Forever” program included with our trailer. We had also purchased another aftermarket extended warranty when we purchased the trailer, as well.

When Malcolm called our dealer today to verify that we had an appointment on Thursday and that they would be able to get us in and out in a day, he didn’t get any warm fuzzy feelings from the service person on the phone, who indicated they’d “do their best” but he couldn’t guarantee anything since they only had two technicians scheduled to work that day and that they were pretty backed up.

We made the decision to forgo the “free” warranty by not having the service done at the dealer. After looking at the costs to drive up to Clarksville and back, along with campground costs and the cost of the service, we would be out about $700-800. Definitely not a free warranty at that cost. So, we’re staying here in Wetumpka probably until mid-November. Malcolm will do the brake and bearing service on the trailer himself.

So, now that we’re here for a while, we’ll be settling down so that Malcolm can work more or less full-time for most of the rest of the year. We will probably only travel from here to see David around Thanksgiving, then back here for the remainder of the year.