Thursday, October 8, 2015

So, how's that workin' out for ya??


We drove an extra 200 miles yesterday to get out of the nasty weather.  Middle of the night, we heard the rain pounding on the roof.  I knew it was going to be a muddy mess when we're ready to roll... but, nothing I can do about that right now, so I rolled over and went back to sleep.

When it was time to unhook and get on down the road, we waited for a lull in the rain.  I put on an old pair of Crocs - I was standing ankle-deep in muddy water while unhooking water, cable, and electric (yeah, that probably isn't the smartest move).

We got a few miles down the road before the rain started again...


Not as ominous looking as yesterday.  Turns out, it was a good thing that we went further - the area we were going to stop in had severe thunderstorms and flash flood warnings.

Moving east across West Texas, we got to see the other big energy source for this area...


How's that for productive - wind generators and cotton fields...


Since we drove further yesterday, we called ahead to see if we could get into the resort where the wedding will be a day ahead of our scheduled arrival.  Yep.

At Exit 402, we turned off I-20, heading north on two lane roads.  Two lane roads with a speed limit of 70 mph.  Two lane rough roads - Joan said, "I wouldn't drive 70 on this road with a car, much less our motorhome."

Can't argue with that... but other drivers blew past us any spot there was even half a chance to pass.

A bit off the beaten path, we rolled into the resort area.  Beautiful homes on the road to the resort.  Definitely has an upscale feel to it.  We turned into the resort area - a very nice building (looks like some kind of a reception hall) - and... scraaaaaaaaaaape!  An ugly slope to the driveway had us dragging the bottom of the RV.  (The downside of a low profile motorhome.)  Signs pointed us to the resort... down a rough gravel road.  Not the kind of gravel folks in the midwest are used to - this is the white powdery gravel that kicks up a cloud of powdery dust.  I drove very slow so not to envelope ourselves in the dust.

As instructed, we went to the Lodge Building.  No one there.  We called the number... apparently they missed us coming in... in a cloud of dust.  I was in "stealth mode."  Eventually, a young lady showed up and checked us in.  We drove further down the road where the sign said "RV Parking"...



There are 3 RV sites here.  Two of them already had RVs in them, but appear to be unoccupied.  We took the road as the sign said and... a gate so narrow, that our little Winnebago barely fit in there... Joan had to get out and hold off branches that would have gouged our paint.  I inched my way through the gate.

It took us a while to figure out how to position the motorhome.  No doubt, we have to park the trailer first.  No road, so we are driving across the prairie... hard to find a place level enough so we can get the wheel on the trailer.  I had to pull the RV and trailer completely out and come in from the other direction.  No, not fun at the end of a driving day.

With the trailer parked and the RV leveled (we had to stack blocks to keep our front wheels from dangling on the leveling jacks), I plugged in electric, then looked for the water spigot to hook up water.  I couldn't find it.  Joan went to the site next to ours to see where their water is located.  Oh, there it is - in the ground under a mound of dirt.  Yes, I am serious.

Seeing that I was getting peeved, Joan said, "I have gloves on, I'll dig it out."  She got about 4 double handfuls of dirt out, then screamed and threw another big handful of dirt... on me.  No, I don't think it was deliberately AT me, I just happened to be in the general direction... when two big toads came leaping out of the dirt that was still covering the water spigot!  Yes, RVing is very relaxing.
 

A young lady who works at the resort asked if there was anything we needed.  Bad timing.  "Yeah, a real RV site would be nice..."  She sent a maintenance guy our way.  My buddy, Ben, said he'd dig out the water spigot... "Hey, we can dig it out - just never had to do that at ANY other RV park, campground, or gravel pit we've stayed at in all the years we've been RVing.  Oh, and while we're talking, you might want to see this...


That's the sewer connection.  Yeah, we positioned the motorhome so we'd be reasonably close to the sewer - easier to reach for the water and electric.  Oh, look: the stand pipe for the sewer connection is broken off... that blue stuff you see is PVC glue, where someone tried to fix it.  But, didn't.


Joan, always looking on the bright side, said, "Well, that will actually be better for our sewer connection, since it is now right at ground level."

Yes, I can take the rubber connection off our sewer hose, but there is no positive connection holding our sewer hose to the broken pipe.  No threads, no rubber "donut."  I will not be responsible when the shit starts squirting out the sides of that ragged pipe.

Ben looked at the broken pipe and said, "What happened?"

"Well, it sure as hell wasn't anything we did - look at the blue glue on there; this is obviously not a new situation."

Well, at least Izzy will have some grass to walk in...



Yep.  Looks like it should be good.  While I was getting the water hose hooked up...


Nasty sand burrs.  Little Izzy has that especially cute fur between her paw pads - that would be very painful for my little furry girl.  She is not going to be happy if she has to be carried to the gravel so she can walk.

Looks to me like this whole "RV site situation" here was an after-thought.

On the bright side, the B&B and Lodge part of this resort is very nice.  We saw where Steph and Dan will be staying.  I like my RV accommodations, but you do tend to be somewhat dependent on others when getting an RV site at a family function.  Had I known what the situation would be here, I could have saved myself a bunch of time and hassle with getting set up in this site, and just stayed at a gravel RV park in one of the nearby towns.

But, we are set up and will be here for the next 4 nights.  We are happy to see family, and that is the important thing.  Oh, and they have a hot tub... we'll go check that out soon.


3 comments:

MarkJ said...

And I'm going to have FUN DAMMIT!!!!

Hudson River Boater said...

As long as Izzie's Ok-- All will be well..

Captain Jim and the Blonde said...

Yeah, Izzy is fine. Joan carried her to some grass for a walk. And we will have fun, dammit! ;-)