From Box Cañon we continued our trek eastbound which included some very short stays along the way, like a Walmart in Trinidad, CO; the Elk’s Lodge in Amarillo, TX; the Grand Casino in Shawnee, OK; a return visit to the Lazy L RV Park in Sherman, TX; and some stops at Elk’s Lodges in Shreveport, LA, Slidell, LA, and Biloxi, MS. The casinos in Shawnee and Biloxi were pretty good to us, Jeanne was having her way with the slots (yeah, so was I…) 

We managed to catch our breath with a longer stay at the Rainbow Plantation Escapees park in Summerdale, AL. However, it was not without a modicum of stress. Upon our arrival I found engine coolant spewed all over the rear cap and grill of the MH. Close inspection showed a horizontal crack just above the seam of the engine coolant surge tank. Our immediate task was to arrange for that particular repair. Wouldn’t you know it, Murphy was still riding with us. After numerous frantic phone calls, we discovered not one Freightliner shop in all of the United States of America had that part in stock. And what further inflamed the issue…nobody had any clue as to when Freightliner would be shipping out any more of that part, the blame falling squarely on the Joe F*ng Biden supply chain issues. I managed to get my name onto several waiting lists for the repair service at various Freightliner shops, so all I could do is roll with it. After some short debates with myself on temporary “fixes”, we made a run to an Auto Zone store and picked up some good ol’ KB Weld rated for high temps and pressures and I smeared it up good over the cracks. I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out…

Being the great makers of lemonade that we are, we marched on. Using Summerdale as our base, we made a few runs into places like the Gulf Shores and Pensacola, FL. The major drawback to Summerdale is it is far away from EVERYWHERE! Pensacola, only 40 miles away was always over an hour’s drive with the thick local traffic. Gulf Shores was only 30 +/- miles away and again, about a 45 minute drive with traffic. Two other little issues we had were the absolute horrendous wifi service we had, and we just happened to be here at the right time to endure the constant onslaught of Love Bugs! 

We were supposed to be here for 2 weeks, but with the variable of my temporary fix hanging over us, we decided to cut out a little early (in the middle of the work week) just in case we had issues. We did not want to get stuck somewhere on a Sunday, when everything closes down back here, with no remedies in sight. So it was off toward Red Bay for now, not knowing when Freightliner will come through but with a set appointment for the other MH fixes at Daniel Humphries’ MS Solutions. Until next post…