Happy Canada Day - we’re happy to be back home!
Actually we’ve been back since June 30th, took us a month to drive here from Port O’Connor Texas.
We took our time, after our fishing stop in Matagorda Bay, Texas we stopped again in High Island Texas (close to the Louisiana border) for a few days but our crappy luck continued, no keeper fish.....although Dave did hook a BIG jack cravelle but it broke the leader holding the hook on before we could get it up. Dang it! Would have made an excellent photo op!
From there we spent a few days at the Couchatta Casino RV park in Kinder, Louisiana and then BAKED in Biloxi, Mississippi. Holy crap it was hot and humid, and the heat of summer still hadn’t really hit. Don’t know how people live in the south in the summer, can’t do anything without getting drenched in sweat. Spent one day on Ship Island, a tourist trap for sure but at least we got out for what turned out to be an expensive day at the beach. It came highly rated on Trip Advisor but we disagreed.
On our way further east and north we ended up at my cousin Tom’s place near Montgomery Alabama for a week. That’s the same cousin who took Dave waterskiing on our first road trip and almost severed his hamstring. We went back out on his boat this visit but Dave was forbidden to attempt any water sports. I, on the other hand, was brave enough to try wake surfing and, believe it or not, I managed to get up and go for a decent run without hurting myself! WoHoo!!! The next day though, my 53 year old body reminded me that I’m no spring chicken....ow...ow...ow!
From there we figured we’d get back to Ontario in about 3 days but, barely an hour away from Montgomery, our trailer broke down on I-65 north. Dave noticed smoke coming from the tires on the passenger side, figured we had a flat so he pulled over. On investigation, he saw that it wasn’t a flat, but a broken leaf spring and it caused the tires to rub together. No idea what a leaf spring is? Neither did I but you’ll see it the pictures.
Found out no local places had any spare leaf springs in stock, figures. And more bad news, they can’t get them in for a few days. Now what? Turns out it’s next to impossible to have our trailer towed anywhere....believe me we tried but no luck with CAA/AAA. Thankfully, we managed to track down a mobile mechanic/welder guy who helped Dave jury rig a temporary leaf spring and 7 hours after we broke down, we limped off the interstate to a nearby RV park in Clanton, Alabama. It was a crappy day to say the least and being continually rocked by passing transport trucks was mentally exhausting and scary.
On the plus side, this repair was cheap...compared to a new engine! The guy who helped us the day we broke down only asked for $600 and we were happy to pay him that for all his time and work...he did a lot for us that day. The 4 new leaf springs (we decided to be proactive and replace them all) and bolts were about $200 and Dave’s day of labour to install them all was “FREE”!
Trailer breakdown, Clanton Alabama Album
Finally got back on the road and made it back to Ontario on June 30th...THANK GOD! Never been so happy to return and get the trailer parked at Dave’s brother’s place near Newmarket.
Since returning, we packed up all our possessions and now have the emptied and cleaned out trailer up for sale. We’re hoping it sells fast! While we’re waiting for that to happen, we’re looking for a house to buy, fix up and sell to recoup some of our money. So far Kitchener Waterloo and the Barrie area are our top 2 choices as far as locations go.
Keep you posted on where we end up....Enjoy the summer....the southern heat that followed us home in July (40C with the humidity in the Toronto area) sure didn’t last long. These cooler August nights feel more like September and I’m really not ready for that just yet. Bring back the heat!