Daily Archives: September 29, 2017

Catfish and Gators . . .

About 2:30 I went outside to start on the rewiring of my toad  taillight system.




Somewhere along the line during our trip back to Houston after our breakdown in Louisiana last month, I think a road gator popped up between the rig and the toad and shredded the wiring harness between the two.

In case you’re wondering what a road gator is, it’s not this.

Road Gator Real

This is a gator in the road.

No, this is a road gator.

Road Gator

It’s a large piece of tire tread spun off a large truck tire, just waiting to leap up and rip into something, kind of like this.

Road Gator Damage

I also heard of rigs getting air,  brake and fuel lines torn out and fuel tanks punctured. So I guess I got off lucky.

First I cut off the old wire and then spliced the new 5 pin connector into the harness, the four light wires, a 12 volt charge wire, and a secondary chassis ground.




The charge wire runs from the rig engine batteries to the truck’s battery, keeping it charged during our trips. This is needed because the Brake Buddy braking system works off the truck battery, and if we’re doing a lot of stop and go driving, sometimes we would arrive at our RV Park to find a dead battery in the truck. But no longer.

So first I cut off the old 4 pin plug and then spliced in the new 5 pin plug and cable.

Toad Tailight Repair 1

Next I worked the wire loom along the cabling and then tied it in place using tywraps.

Toad Tailight Repair 2

Finishing up, I wrapped it around the tow bar connection which is where it stows away when the truck is not being toad.

Toad Tailight Repair 3

Tomorrow I plan on doing the rig end of the cable.



About 4:30 we headed over to Coldspring to meet up again with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at the Paradise Grill.

Paradise Grill Debi and Ed

We were there for their Friday Night Special, All You Can Eat Fried Catfish. And it was well worth the trip.

We all had the Catfish, Jan’s regular and mine crispy.

Paradise Grill Catfish

Both were delicious.

And we wrapped it all up with a piece of their made-in-house pie, Chocolate for Jan and Bread Pudding for me. All very good, and we had enough to bring home.

Paradise Grill Chocolate Pie

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Paradise Grill Bread Pudding

And it sounds like we’ll be coming back here for their Turkey and Dressing on Sunday morning before we head back over to Lake Conroe.

The Word of the Day is:  holus-bolus


Thought for the Day: 

“Nearly all men can stand adversity…to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln 

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