JULY 2010

TEXAS

July 2nd we left to pick up the RV. We had about 10 days to get there, prepare the RV for towing and get back to Lake Arrowhead.
And that is exactly what we did. It took us 3 days to follow the 10 through Phoenix, El Paso and finally Forth Worth, Texas.
The weather was sunny but actually on the cool side since there had been a big storm in the south which made it perfect for traveling. Traffic was mostly light since we somehow managed to avoid most rush hours.
There wasn’t much time for site-seeing and the view from our truck was mainly one of endless desert, scraggly vegetation and the dusty outskirts and shopping malls of unattractive looking towns. We did see some nice cloud formations tough.

                                                                       

At arrival in Fort Worth the temperature had risen to around 100 degrees and daily thundershowers made for 80-90% humidity! Boy, were we miserable! We were very happy with our air conditioned hotel not too far from where our RV was stored. After a true Mexican BBQ at a restaurant and a good night rest we thought we were ready for everything and headed to the RV.

Well, to say it nicely, it was a little bit of a shock! James thought it looked fine right away but I only saw a very dirty 5th wheeler, looking old and tired and did I say dirty? And that was actually before we opened her up because the inside was an even worse disaster!


There was stuff laying everywhere, wooden and aluminum trim in different lengths, drawers on the floor, cabinets half open and trash everywhere, the fridge was so dirty it was black and full of mold and the bedroom….. mirrored doors on the floor, a ripped of panel that showed the dry rot underneath and …….WHERE was the bed?
It looked like someone had started to work on it after it had water leaks and was in the process of dismantling in order to reach everything when something happened that made him quit. Either the money ran out or it turned out to be more then he could or wanted to do or the insurance considered it a total loss or whatever.
I was beginning to think we bought a lemon! How could our appraiser have said it was in fine condition? 

                                              

            

James got me to calm down, the poor guy, and while he assessed the outside I brought out some garbage bags and started picking up the trash. I think I ended up with at least 10 or 15 of them!
I also made one neat pile of all the trim and doors in the bedroom and set it upright against the back so you could see the space.
After shutting all the cabinets and replacing the drawers (they were all there!) the place looked so different I actually was able to sit down, enjoy a cup of coffee and started to feel slightly better!
I could see that at least the wood was all undamaged and the carpet was brand new, still covered with protective plastic wrap!
I filled up some buckets with soap and water and proceeded to wipe down the counters and sinks and started to clean some of the cabinets in the kitchen.
After gathering up all my courage I opened the fridge and freezer again and attacked the awful sticky and stinking mess! I got most of it but it certainly needed lots more tender loving care to be back to being clean again.
What was encouraging though was that it all DID clean up!

 

After some tries we got the slides to work (needed new batteries!) and boy, did that make a difference! This thing was huge inside, so much space!
We returned to the hotel that evening in great spirits, knowing we had a lot of work ahead of us but convinced we could do it. We were incredible dirty though!
All the grime and dust that had been on the RV was now on us, add to that the stickiness of lots of sweat and the overall humidity and you will look something like this…

                                                                 

                                                             

James managed to raise the springs with the brackets  6” over the next days by putting the RV on blocks one site at a time and than proceed to weld on the raisers while it was leaning over precariously.

                                                                    

I did a lot more cleaning and on Friday we hooked up and drove to a nearby garage to have the electricity checked out and tested.
We also had the whole shebang weighed!

                                               
In the afternoon we had it inspected by the State of Texas and the next day we were on our way to the Dallas County Tax Assessor to get it registered after which we would start to head home! At least, that’s what we thought!

Much to our dismay we were told we had to register in the county were we were residents, in our case this meant Polk County since we had our mailing address at Escapees in Livingstone, TX. This meant a detour that would cost us at least a day and many more miles. Not something we liked to have to do in this heat and humidity! 
This came on top of another very frustrating problem we’d encountered a couple of days earlier. For some reason I had forgotten to bring James’ social security card and DMV wouldn’t give him a Texas driver’s license because of that. We tried some different DMV’s on the way south, even went into a Soc. Sec. Office somewhere and obtained a signed copy, but none of the DMVs wanted to do it. Turned out they had changed that policy only a couple of months ago, you now have to bring the original. Just our luck!

The journey home went smoothly, the truck did great in pulling and stopping the RV and James did an awesome job driving the whole 65’ ‘train’ safely and without damage to California and all the way up the mountain to Lake Arrowhead at 5700 feet over a narrow 2-lane road! I contributed by worrying the whole way so we each did our share. I was soooooo happy to be home!