Onward toward Florida... again.

May 15 - June 1, 2016


Truck and Tracks released us Friday afternoon after they tested the coach to make sure everything worked as it should.  We planned to go through Houston the next morning, but decided upon the advice of well, everyone, to go through in the middle of the night.  So after a quick bite, we hooked up the car, faced the entrance, and after a few winks we were off at 2am in the morning...

We sailed right through Houston! No traffic, lots of light and all 65 feet of us breezed right through.  They were right, all of them...

Not the most perfect pictures 
but you get the idea...

We parked at Deisi's Lucky Capital in Breaux Bridge LA for the night, a little truck stop that has the best burgers and a casino.  It's located in just before the Calcasieu Bridge over Lake Charles and then the bridge over the Atchafalaya Swamp.  We were pretty tired by the time we got to Diesi's so we just chilled and went to bed early. 

We left Diesi's first thing Sunday morning. The Calcasieu Bridge is on I-10 over Lake Charles and has been deemed unsafe since at least 2009.

http://www.americanpress.com/Magazine-names-Calcasieu-River-bridge-one-of-most-dangerous

  

  

We took the bypass of course but someone passing us POINTED TO OUR TOAD which was smoking. SMOKING!  We pulled off I-10 right away. So 65 feet of us on a busy 2-lane did I say BUSY highway on a Sunday?

We unhooked the car and waited in the rain for the tow truck to come and take our car to the nearest Ford dealership.  

The car was towed to Hollingsworth Richard Ford http://www.hollingsworthrichardsford.com/ and were up bright and early when the workers came in Monday morning. We are self-contained so we made ourselves at home for the night, running the generator for electric and air conditioning. 

We slept very well that night.

so here we are..

 

We woke up bright and early Monday morning to workers wondering who this big bus is in their parking lot! I admit that a motor home is a bit of an anomaly sitting in a dealer parking lot.

They were gracious and willing to help us out.  Lou was our service adviser and point of contact.  At first he didn't think it was very serious and we dry camp ed in the lot around back.  When we found out it would take a lot longer, we booked a site at Lakeview RV Park in Livingston LA.

All was not roses though.  Once we parked at the RV Park, the slides wouldn't go all the way out.  So once again we called CoachNet and asked them to send someone out.  By this time, they're pretty tired of us but they were as professional and kept in touch with us the entire time.

The man who came was an RVer himself and he checked all circuits and fuses and finally determined our problem was the hydraulic fluid.  He listened carefully and finally found the tank under the front step. After he dismantled the step, he added 1 gallon of hydraulic fluid and we were good to go!

Here we are, settled in for the night 
with our rental car and coach.

That's all for now.  

Stay tuned for the diagnosis, how we coped.  

And the turn of events.