For those who fly, a touchdown is when the plane successfully reaches the ground at your destination. For football fans, a touchdown is achieved when a player succeeds in battling their way to the endzone with the ball. In both cases there is a feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, if not euphoria. This week, Betty & I have achieved touchdown at South Padre Island, with the accompanying feelings of satisfaction and euphoria. Yeah, we made it!!
We left Winnipeg with a certain amount of apprehension over personal health, and the ability of our old motorhome to make the trip. Would we successfully reach the ground at our destination, or would we drop the ball along the way, to mix metaphors. Lol.
Most of our journey was relatively smooth. Even the back roads we drove near the Mississippi River were in better condition than most main Manitoba roads. Our last post saw us at beautiful Magnolia Beach, where we had intended to stay for a week.
Betty and I had a pleasant evening outside in the warm, still air. Then at 10:00 pm the wind began and blew steadily all night long. In the morning most other RVers packed up and left the beach. We contemplated staying, but the forecast was for the wind and rain to continue until 10:00 pm that night.
As we pulled onto the highway, the wind caught our rolled-up awning, even though it was locked down in place on the side of our motorhome. Fortunately traffic was light, and Betty & I were able to get out our ladder and climb up and duct tape it back up. Apparently the lock had broken from the wind catching it just right (or just wrong – depending on how you look at it…)
The nearest town was just a short distance away, but as we approached we heard our retracting steps go out. Oh, oh! The day before we had removed the screen door cover to clean it, and the magnetic sensor had not been repositioned just right. Oops… While Betty held the door closed, I pulled into a nearby Walmart where we were able to quite easily fix the problem. Yeah!
So that’s more or less the extent of our issues to that point. We ended up staying for the next few days at Goliad Texas State Park, roughly half way between Magnolia Beach and Mustang Island.
December 1, 2023 finally arrived, and we were more than ready to bring in our slide-outs, raise our automatic levellers, and hit the road to South Padre Island.
And then the living room slide wouldn’t retract. Now what? We had paid thousands of dollars to have new gears installed on a re-aligned slide mechanism this past summer, after fighting with the slide for almost two years. Fortunately, our kind, young neighbour at Mustang Island came to our rescue, manually cranking it in.
Sierra Mobile RV Repair, in Port Isabelle, has helped us on previous visits, and they have agreed to get the slide working again. We have ordered replacement gears (about $400. USD. for both) and hope to have them installed when they arrive.
Well, in the overall scheme of things, it could be much worse. Our site at Isla Blanca Park (C413) is close to the beach, and we have already met some great neighbours.
Another highlight for me, so far, has been getting our motorhome washed and waxed by Carlos’ crew.
After a long time planning and hoping for a successful touchdown, Betty & I are more than happy to report that we have succeeded in reaching our destination and are experiencing both satisfaction and euphoria. Here’s hoping that you are also able to achieve touchdown at your preferred destination!
Cheers!