Our RV Adventures

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Based on the fact that the weather down in the Clear Lake area was forecasted for Severe Thunderstorms and High Winds about the time I would be heading home this afternoon, I decided I didn’t really need to be down there this morning, So I again used TeamViewer to take care of a few things.

About 12:30 Jan went into Hurricane mode and decided we didn’t have enough food in-house, even though we were just at Wal-Mart yesterday, so we headed out for some more shopping.

As we were leaving the park, it was obvious that a lot of people had left.

We’ve never seen the park this empty

Originally we were going back down the Interstate to the Wal-Mart, but the traffic lady on the radio was talking about the heavy traffic on I-45 north all the way up to Willis, so we quickly turned around and headed over to Willis and the Kroger’s there, so we would not have to get on I-45.

And of course, being at the Kroger’s meant a Whataburger was right next door, so we ended up there for lunch. As we got parked we noticed a guy in a pickup truck all ready for the storm, with a new generator and a portable AC in the back. Nothing like preparation.

We did notice that despite what the radio had said, the traffic on I-45 north was moving right along at normal speeds. So much for traffic reporting.

Getting into Kroger’s a little bit later, it was really no busier than a holiday shopping period, except for the empty bread shelves and the almost empty bottled water aisle, probably because they had a guy by the water, restricting how much you could buy.

Jan wanted to know if we should buy some, but I reminded her that we had a 100 gallon tank in the rig, almost full.

“Oh, yeah”

But once again people seemed to have their priorities out of whack. The bread and water aisles were empty, but who wants to live on bread and water?

But what’s with the full wine and beer area?

When I was checking out, the lady in front of me was unloading about 10 boxes of breakfast cereal. When I mentioned that she must be expecting to have her kids home for a while, she rolled her eyes and said she was going to have her sister’s kids too.

Then when I asked where the wine for her was, she grimaced and said that unfortunately she didn’t drink. She has my sympathies.

Coming out to the truck we had our first rain sprinkles, but it died out pretty quickly.

Coming back in to the park, I stopped at the Ranger Station to pick up our updated pass, showing us leaving on the 30th rather than the 27th.

While we were there I asked if the paving was all done, since they had just basically done the entrance and the road past the Activity Center, but not any of the roads among the sites. She said they would be paved eventually, but it was part of a 5 year plan.

When I ask what year they were in, she smiled and said, “Year One.”

So I guess it’s going to be a while.

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And Dressing!

I put in a call to Gary, the service manager at Big Wheel RV. a couple of days ago, but still haven’t heard back from him about our refrigerator problem. I can’t imagine why he doesn’t want to talk to me.

Blog reader Dale Pace and her husband Terry related a very similar encounter at Big Wheel to ours.

Towed in to Big Wheel last year, their Tiffin needed a new serpentine belt. First off Big Wheel told them they also needed a new alternator because of the ‘drag’ when they tried to turn the alternator pulley by hand, and even said it was probably the ‘drag’ that shredded the belt.

When Terry checked with Freightliner, they were told the alternator will not ‘free-wheel’ under any circumstances. so they insisted that Big Wheel just replace the belt. And a year later it’s still doing fine.

And to make matters worse, Big Wheel couldn’t figure out how to replace the belt the right way, so they had to cut a hole in the bedroom closet floor to get to it. And you don’t need to do this to replace the belt.

By then the SM (Gary?) told them they had much bigger problems anyway, since the coach had lost ALL power. When Jerry ask them if they had hit the ‘disconnect’ by the door, he was told they would never fool with any ‘unknown’ switch.

Terry then reached in the doorway, pressed the switch, and what do you know, the coach suddenly had power again.

Then later, Big Wheel dropped the jacks, and hearing a loud hiss, said that the coach had a MASSIVE air leak and needed to be repaired,

Of course every coach I’m aware of dumps the airbags when you drop the jacks, hence the loud hiss of air.

So I guess I should feel better that it wasn’t just me.

About  3pm Jan and I headed out for an early dinner, and since it was Thursday, Cracker Barrel’s Turkey and Dressing was on the menu. For Jan, anyway.

I had planned to have the Beef Pot Roast Campfire Meal again,

but it’s come and gone, so I went with the new Fried Chicken Eggs Benedict dinner.

With Fried Chicken pieces, fried eggs, and topped with a Pimento Cheese Hollandaise sauce, along with a side of red skin potatoes and red peppers casserole, it was really good. Of course we’ve never had anything bad at CB.

Moving on, our next stop was the nearby Sam’s Club for a prescription and a couple of other things. We split our prescriptions between Wal-Mart and Sam’s due to different prices. The prescription we got at Sam’s for $10 with my Business membership card would be $78.42 at the Wal-Mart right next door.

Our next stop was Sam’s gas pumps to fill up our truck. The place was pretty busy, I guess, due to the incoming storm, but we only had to wait for one car to finish up in front of us.

Next up was the next door Wal-Mart for another prescription and some more stuff. Like the Sam’s, the bottled water shelves were stripped, but at the Wal-Mart they emptied the bread shelves too.

What ‘s kind of strange is that the booze shelves were still fully stocked.

Where are these people’s priorities? Don’t they know a storm’s coming?

I want to thank the number of people who have emailed us, concerned that a hurricane is coming our way.

First off, we’re not really worried since we’re 90 miles from the Gulf Coast, and about 250 miles from where Harvey is supposed to come ashore. Now, are we going to get wind and rain? Almost certainly, due to the fact that we will be on the dirty (wet) side of the storm.

But we’re parked in one of the highest points in the park, so I’m not worried about flooding. Although some of the lower areas here may have problems, depending on the amount of rain we actually do get here.

I did however change our upcoming travel schedule. Originally we were supposed to leave here Sunday, in the middle of the high winds and rain, and move over to Colorado River, but I’ve extended our stay here until Wednesday when things should have quieted down.

I’ve got mine. Why don’t you have yours?

Big Lake Tragedy

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