Postcard from Texas- 5

After a painful thrashing of our checking account in Conroe, TX for repair of the landing gear, we headed for Brookeland, TX. This was our first experience with camping in a rustic setting and were pleasantly surprised with the woodsiness of the surroundings. Nearby was Sam Rayburn Reservoir plus signs announcing there were canoes available somewhere.

But we didn't see much: by this time the colds we had gotten in Conroe were hitting us pretty hard. The Admiral routinely takes Zyrtec for other respiratory issues and ended up not getting hit as hard as I did. Which worked out good for me as I wasn't able to do much once we got unhitched.

Which is when we found a problem with the repairs done in Conroe.

As I mentioned already, the last thing they said was that the 30 Amp fuse had blown and that I needed to buy replacements at a place like Auto Zone. The fuse was blown alright and now the landing gear motor eats fuses if operated for longer than 1-2 seconds at a time under heavy load. Like when trying to lift the front of the trailer to hitch up.

In hindsight I now realize they didn't repair our landing gear but instead they installed rebuilt legs from a different model Montana. That would be fine except the gear ratios seem to be different between our original legs and the rebuilt legs they installed (they extend more rapidly with no load). Our old 2002 electric motor can't seem to handle the extra load caused by the different gear ratio and we're blowing 30 Amp fuses. And Conroe is far enough away to be a different planet.

Anyway, as you can see it was still bloody cold, but the forest of sycamore and pine offered a nice setting and completely different from anything we've seen before. You can also see that the roads and campsites are dirt, so when we heard it was about to rain we headed for Louisiana ASAP.

One good thing, I finally used those 2"x8" boards I've been dragging cross country. The site was just a little off-level so using the 2 of them was just what the doctor (engineer?) ordered.

Btw... notice the light colored mud on the tire? The entire lower part of the truck is covered in the stuff. I thought it was sand when I drove on it, but the little bit that  splattered into the exhaust pipe is still there. Insidious stuff.

When we got up Thursday AM we realized it was a tiny bit warmer. Could it be? Off to Lafayette, LA to find out!