We decided to see if we could push through the nearly 500 miles from New Orleans to Lockhart, Texas (my birthplace and home of my aunt, uncle, and cousins) in a single day. Lex did it, though it was exhausting for her. The trip, however, was not without incident.
There is a tremendously long stretch of elevated highway leading out of New Orleans over Lake Pontchartrain and the surrounding wetlands. Somewhere in the middle of it, we lost half of our underbelly pan and had to drive another five miles or so to exit the highway so we could survey the damage underneath the rig. From what I can tell, damage is minimal. There are some wires I need to tape up until we can get to a shop and have the pan replaced, and the insulation had to be stripped away when the pan fell off, but I think that’s it thus far. We’ll know more when we get parked at a campground and can take a closer look. I’m not crawling around under the rig on the asphalt of the Wal Mart parking lot where we’re staying until our park opens tomorrow.
The underbelly pan is a huge sheet of rigid ABS plastic that covers our holding and fresh water tanks on the bottom of the RV. It’s lined with insulation and helps keep everything from freezing up in the winter. It also help to prevent debris on the road from kicking up and damaging the tanks or anything else under the rig. In other words, it’s REALLY helpful, and now it’s really gone. I’m not sure how much it will cost to replace, but I’m really hoping our warranty will cover it.
At some point outside of Lafayette, Louisiana, there was a traffic slowdown, and a couple of vehicles slammed on their brakes right in front of us. Not good. Though we have good brakes plus trailer brakes, it’s not a great idea for 22,000 of vehicle to try to stop abruptly. We didn’t hit anyone and no one hit us, but when we began moving again, there was this horrible grinding, screaming sound of metal against metal coming from our hitch. We pulled over, and it turns out that the trailer brakes had just locked up momentarily causing the truck and the trailer to pull in opposite directions, but that problem righted itself almost immediately. Thank goodness. I can just imagine the hitch getting ripped out of the bed of the truck!
We had been eating snacks I’d packed all day long, but we hadn’t had a substantial meal since breakfast. Finally, about 7 p.m., we stopped at a Flying J in Baytown, and I got some chicken. This made Lex feel a lot better (she had been getting VERY sleepy), and we were able to keep driving. We stopped shortly after entering Texas just so we could walk around the visitor’s center. It’s not one I’d ever been in before because I’d never been east of Houston. The visitor’s center is situated directly over a swamp that feeds into the Sabine River near Orange, Texas. The swamp is called the Blue Elbow Swamp, and it’s really interesting. They’ve built a boardwalk that’s maybe a .1 of a mile long with informational plaques all along it explaining the ecology of the swamp, identifying plant and animal life. I spotted an alligator in the water, too! It hardly looked alive at all. In fact, it resembled a floating log, but I think you can see the distinctive shape of the head and the scales in the photo even if it’s a bit fuzzy.
Alligator in Blue Elbow Swamp in Orange, Texas
We made it all the way to our exit off IH10 before we needed to fuel again, and then we stopped at a Love’s only 20 miles from Lockhart. We got here around 11:30 p.m., parked, walked and fed the dogs, and Lex went to bed while I went to Wal Mart to buy a second battery-powered fan. If we have to boondock tonight, we didn’t want to be miserable. Once we got the bedroom doors open and the fans on, it actually became very pleasant with a nice cross breeze.
I made reservations at the state park here in Lockhart, but I think Lex isn’t too keen on the place. It’s lovely, has full-hookups, is close to town, and it’s cheap as can be, but it doesn’t have pull-through sites. Well, it does, but the pull-throughs don’t have full hookups, which we need if we’re going to be anywhere several days. Backing is the one thing Lex hasn’t quite gotten the hang of yet, so the idea of trying to fit this monster into a small campsite while in reverse is not one she relishes. I’m going to do some checking and see if I can cancel the reservation on the same day I’m due to arrive without actually having to pay the whole week’s fee. If I can, I may see if I can find another park here in the area that has pull-through sites. If it makes the lady happy, I’ll do it. God knows she’s done the hardest part of this whole trip, the driving. I’m just navigation, logistics, and maintenance.
Bad news about the belly pan! You guys keep safe and enjoy as much of the trip as you can. I’ll be heading home myself in a couple of weeks.
[...] happier note, I scored some RV discussion boards until I found a novel (and cheap) solution to our missing underbelly pan. Turns out there’s this stuff called Coroplast. You’ve seen it. It’s what [...]