Thursday, April 20 – We snuck (Sneaked was the original past tense and past participle for sneak. Used as early as the late 1800s, snuck has become the standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak….just in case you are interested in a little English history…lol) through downtown Houston bright and early this morning. Traffic was heavy, but we moved right along and had no problems. We arrived at our destination – the Texarkana RV Park in Texarkana, TX, shortly after noon.
Texarkana RV Park is a very nice Passport America park. They have concrete streets and patios, large gravel, full hookup pull-thru sites, laundry, game room, a pond and rental cottages. We have never stayed in an RV park that has better placed sewer, water, and electric hookup locations. We have stayed at this park in the past and recommend it to fellow travelers passing through northeast Texas.
Looking right.
Looking left.
Bella was so happy to get off the road.
Friday, April 21 – Our sprint across the country continued today with an early departure from Texarkana, TX. We had many miles to cover and wanted to get an early start so we could be off the road by mid-afternoon. I suppose you hear God laughing at those plans! Two hours after leaving, just east of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, Paul noticed smoke in his rear-view mirror. He quickly checked our tire monitor. It showed no indication of trouble. He carefully pulled over to the edge of I-30, a VERY busy interstate to investigate.
No flat! Everything looked fine. We waited a while to get our minds together and decided to move on down the freeway. Nope, we didn't get a mile before the smoke returned. After careful thinking, we decided it was either a brake on the 5th wheel was stuck “on”, or we had a bearing seize. Marsha checked on the Internet and found we should NOT drive with a bad bearing. So we called Coach Net, our roadside emergency carrier.
They said help would be quickly sent and even dispatched the Arkansas Highway Patrol to check on us. Officer Church, with the Highway Patrol, was there within minutes. We soon found out that additional help would not follow suit. The Officer lit up the side of the road with his blue lights which was a wonderful relief.
With help supposedly on the way, Officer Church had to move down the road, but he assured us we were safely off the highway, and he would return in about an hour to check on us. Hopefully, we would be gone by then. Unfortunately, we were still waiting for roadside service. Officer Church recommended we head for the next exit and offered to follow us with lights a blazing to keep traffic from rear-ending us. We had to stop twice because our wheel was smoking but at the second stop the roadside repair service caught us with us. Thank you to Officer Church. We have never met a more caring and concerned Officer. He even called us at 6:30 p.m. to be sure we were back on the road and safe. How wonderful was that!
They removed our wheel and chained up the axle so we could drive carefully to their repair facility. Officer Church again escorted us down I-30 until we exited the freeway.
We pulled immediately into the repair shop. The guys started work immediately. We would have been out of there in no time but they had to order parts from a nearby town and wait for over an hour to have them delivered. Not only was a bearing shot but we needed a new brake pad. $$$
It was a huge place.
These guys were so polite and concerned for us. They tried to get us back on the road as soon as possible. Thanks so much to Hartsell Farms & Excavating Co.
Our early departure this morning was destroyed to say the least. We broke down about 8:15 a.m. and did not get back on the road until 2:30 p.m. No way to make our intended destination so we found a stop in Blytheville, AR, where we had stayed previously and called it a day. What a stress filled day!
Grizzly's RV Park is absolutely nothing to write home about. It is good for one night only! PPA, $14.00/day FHUs. That is all we can say about it.
Looking right.
Looking left…isn’t that beautiful.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
We know all about those stressful days. Hope you have safe cruising the rest of the way
ReplyDeletethis delays are no fun, but you are safe, so hopefully you can get back on the road again and continue you travels with out further incident.
ReplyDeleteOh, we hate stressful days like that. Hope the rest of your journey goes smoothly!
ReplyDeleteUgh. Hope you have NO more days like this.
ReplyDeleteGlad you guys are OK and you were able to get back on the road fairly quickly. At least your bearing gave you a warning. Ours just disintegrated and then the wheel fell off.
ReplyDeleteI really really hate days like that. That's the same thing that happened to us coming south out if Flagstaff. But we sat by the road for over six hours waiting for help. The highway patrol couldn't have been nicer. Really good guts. Glad you're safe.
ReplyDeleteLook at your glass as half full. You did not have an accident. You got a police escort. You were back on the road in about 6 hours. You met very nice people, and you found a place to overnight without much cost.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand the danger involved with Roadside Breakdowns. Glad you made it back on the road safely.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time.
Stressful, for sure, but so very glad you had so much help. How nice of Officer Church to stay with you and help! I found the name of the garage interesting...Farm and Excavating...not what I would have expected for a repair facility. That was great service!
ReplyDeleteGrizzly looks good compared to the two parks we stopped at.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness!! That was stressful just reading about it!! I am glad all worked out and what a wonderful help officer Church was. So glad he was there. We had something like that happen to us once in the interstate when we were in the motor home. It was a diesel leak. These moments are scary and stressful. So glad this had a happy ending!!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for those officers. We almost had the same thing except Mike noticed the hub was hot to to touch and had it fixed in Tucson. Who feels their hubs? So glad he is strange. Glad you are safe and sound.
ReplyDeleteGlad it wasn't more serious, but at least you made a new friend in Officer Church. Now back to safe travels.
ReplyDeleteI was stressed just reading your post. So glad that you got through your experience without further damage and that you were both safe.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it always the busiest, narrowest side of the road when you have to pull off.
ReplyDeleteWell, good grief. Just now catching up on blog reading. Sorry you had such a nasty, horrible, horrendous day.
ReplyDeleteThankful Paul is observant, and you were able to have a repair done, rather than a nasty fire. I know you are glad that is over.