Well, we are on the road again, and you know what Robert Burns said, “…the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley, an’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, for promised joy!” That was true in 1785 when the poem was written, and it still holds true today…unfortunately.
Yes, we are on the road…but just barely. We left Austin on Sunday and soon had problems with the trailer brakes dragging and overheating. We disconnected the air to the brakes and had no more problems after that. We assumed they had overheated because they had been sitting for several months. (The truck is very capable of stopping the fifth wheel, but it’s nice to have the trailer brakes working.) We overnighted in Abilene at the KOA, where we saw a couple of juvenile hawks careening through the mesquite trees. We think they were young Mississippi kites.
We left for Clovis yesterday morning. A few miles short of Snyder we pulled over to check the temperature on the wheels (as we had been doing to make sure they weren’t getting hot). We were very surprised to find that the front trailer wheel on the passenger side was missing! We had checked the tire pressure 10 miles or so before, and that tire was registering a few pounds less than the others. However, our PressurePro tire monitoring system never sounded to indicate a serious pressure loss.
What happened is a mystery. We were on pretty good roads (US Interstate 20) and didn’t hit anything to our knowledge. The bolts holding the wheel just sheared off it it was gone. We went back to look for it, but the roadside grass was shoulder high in many places, and we never saw it.
The brakes were redone about 12,000 miles ago, so we’re getting new ones tomorrow, as well as a new tire and wheel. We are now camped in Snyder and hope to have the work done and be back on the road tomorrow afternoon or Thursday morning, headed for Santa Fe. We’ll stay there a week, then go to the NRA Whittington Center outside Raton for four days. After that (Lord willing and the creek don’t rise!) we’ll visit my cousin in Estes Park, CO, then head north through Wyoming.
In the meantime, we’ve been exploring Snyder, population 11,532. We’ve become very familiar with Val’s Truck & Trailer, as Val and his guys are doing the work on our coach.
There are also interesting old cars, old buildings, etc., to occupy my time while John and Val ponder what needs to be done and where to find the parts.
After seeing this one, it makes me wonder who/what lives in that hole!
Wish us luck with the repairs and check the blog to see how this "adventure" turns out!
May it only get better from here on out.
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