Kathy, Texas

So, did you all enjoy your drive along highway 82 in Creole country? Along the Creole National Highway Byway backroad place? I sure hope YOU all did because we had a hell of a day. It started out innocently enough (and honestly, it was just a PITA; nothing even comparitively like Colorado La Veda pass…) as we headed out highway 82 from Abbeville through rice fields and sporadic cotton plantations. We’ve been having a weird brake controller problem with the trailer; it started in Ft. Davis and then disappeared only to resurface the day before we got to Abbeville. We replaced the breakaway box (when it is disengaged the trailer brakes slam full on), the wiring to the box, took the 7pin connector apart on the back of the trailer (all electrical from the van goes through this to the trailer (brakes, lights, battery charging and 4 other things) and checked all that wiring and found one problem on the charging pin. The problem is so erratic and sporadic that we can’t see immediately if it is fixed; we have to wait to see if it pops up again or not. The scenery was pretty for winter and the plantations were amazing and some were very very sad. The weatherbeaten shacks, still in use we incredibly sad. As we left Vermillion (?) parish (in Louisiana, a county is called a “parish”) and headed onto the Creole Nature Trail we began to see damage. Katrina and Rita damage. Converseley, the road improved immensely; we had a shoulder again and the surface was without constant holes and patched holes. I had downloaded the audio files to listen to while driving but SOMEONE logged me out and they were all lost (without internet). So i tried to recall parts of the commentary that I had listened to and we all looked very forward to the ferry crossing. We tried stopping at the Rockefeller and Sabine wildlife refuges but there was no room for our enormous vehicle. We figured we’d find some place to walk around by the ferry. About 14 miles from the ferry we found that the ferry that would accomodate us was not running and we were forced up to highway 10. We had traveled very far out of our way and were worried we’d get to the state park (our destination that night) late, but we figured we’d be there a while and it wouldn’t be a problem. The Sea Rim State Park is at the end of the road along the gulf and we thought it would be very remote, quiet and pretty. About 25 miles from the park our trailer brakes (the trailer does most of the braking as the van would quickly loose its brakes if it were required to stop the entire rig on its own) and I was forced to drastically cut our speed as my stopping distance was probably increased 200%. We finally, just about sunset, far after the sun had dissappeared under low clouds, found the state park. It was closed, and had been since Hurricane Rita. Or Katrina. One of the two. What was especially disheartening was that there were numerous signs to the park and not one indicated it was closed. We found an RV park about 10 miles back along the road as last night was supposed to be especially cold.

So, this morning, we had only one mission; to get to an RV dealership or Houston (Camping World) to deal with the pesky brakes. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they have been working well all day long. But since we NEED to spend money at Costco and Camping World, we dropped into Houston (instead of Galveston island and another questionable ferry) and dragged the trailer to Costco. Many many jars of organic peanut butter, coffee, and about $200 worth of other crap, we made it to Camping World just in time for it to close. So we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to buy stuff we probably won’t need, but will be desperate for in Mexico should we find we do, in fact, need them. Then we’ll be off to a small town in Texas which shall remain annonymous (to give some privacy to my friend, Jody) and then to South Padre Island where we’ll FINALLY get some Gulf beach time.