Tuesday April 20, 2010-Road trip to Marshall Texas

Today is our first moving day on our trip to Elkhart to have some much-needed work done to the trailer. We woke and got started without much ado, and were able to leave Rayford a few minutes after nine, pretty much a record for us. One thing that helped was that we had said goodbye to everyone yesterday, and we were up and working early, so we made an early exit.

We made good time without incident until we decided to stop at a little convenience store/truck stop near Lufkin. When I pulled over to turn into the parking lot, I hit a bump just as we were turning and the trailer brakes immediately locked up! What the heck? I went back to look at why the safety pin had come out and found that the safety pin cable had somehow gotten between the trailer hitch and the base plate and when I had turned, the cable was pulled. This is a freak accident that could probably not ever be staged. The cable had to be in just the right location to fall into the tiny crack between the hitch and the base that opened when we went over the bump in the road. At least we were turning into the parking lot and not out on the road. We jacked the trailer up to take the weight off the hitch, and I was able to pull the cable out and reattach the safety. It could only happen to me...

We finally got into Marshall and found the Marshall RV park. I don't know how we found this place, but don't worry, we won't be back! It's not a park that I could ever recommend, but it was a place to pull into for the night and feel relatively safe. The sites are very narrow and there are a lot of people that live here full time. The fellow to our right had his dish antenna sitting in our site, but when we pulled in, the dish faced right into our trailer. He seemed mad when he got home from work and couldn't get any TV reception, but we were in our site and can't help where he chose to set his dish. He moved it but never said a word to us, so I guess he realized that he was in the wrong. Also, he knew that we will be leaving tomorrow, so he can put his dish back then. The roads into our area of the park are covered with broken pottery, the brown stuff that you see for planters. I don't suppose the edges are sharp enough to cut a tire, but they sure can't do then any good, and we are glad we only stayed one night there. Early in the morning, a group of the local residents woke very early to go to work. They are very loud and ran their loud trucks for a long time. I'm sure they didn't do anything on purpose, but they are very disruptive to good sleeping. This place isn't listed in RV Park Reviews, so I am not able to let people know about this place but here is your warning.

So long.