Homeward Bound - Day 24

Overnight: Pell City, Alabama (near Birmingham)

Today we were on the road at 9 A.M. However, we had to wind ourselves out of the woods and get gas. Next to the gas station, we found a Huddle House and decided that was a great first stop (even if we had only been on the road for 20 minutes). After our breakfast, we only filled the gas tank with $50-worth because we had to pay $3.23 per gallon.

The drive on Hwy 78 is very pleasant. It's the new road where we saw coal-loaded box cars on the way toward Albuquerque. So, it was smooth sailing. We did find a gas station in Birmingham that charged only $3.09, so we filled up. We had mostly used what we filled up with when in Tupelo.

We arrived in Pell City, AL, about 2:30 PM and decided that we'd grab our early dinner as we didn't want to unhook the car from the trailer tonight. We opted for Cracker Barrel. We arrived safe and sound at the Lakeside Landing Campground. Dave hooked up all of our utilities. Tomorrow morning we have to empty all tanks and not add anything other than storage water and cleaners as we will arrive home tomorrow.

After we unpack in the next few days, we will haul Homey-Roamy to Camping World to get some things repaired and get some maintenance done before our next journey in approximately 45 days.

Thanks for joining us on our Albuquerque Trek. We look forward to keeping a blog when we hit the road again. We will leave home sometime between mid-May and the first of June. I'll add one more entry to let you know that we did arrive home safely.

May God bless and keep all of you well and healthy.

Speaking of healthy, I'm off to get a bowl of ice cream.

On the Road to Alburqurque - Day 1

Overnight: Birmingham (area), Alabama
This is our first trip out with Homey-Roamy (our travel trailer) since putting the her in dry-dock for the winter. Dave's mom is not doing very well, so we have taken an unexpected trip to Albuquerque.

We left home at 11 AM. We drove through downtown Atlanta, and that was an adventure in itself. Dave did real well as he navigated to I-20. We arrived at Lakeside Landing Campground on the shores of Logan Martin Lake in Cropwell, Alabama (just east of Birmingham [www.lakeloganmartin.com]). It is a beautiful campground directly on the lake. We set up quickly on a level, pull-through site with a concrete pad upon which sat a picnic table. We were setup right in front of the swimming beach (of course, Dave wouldn't try it out this time of year!--chicken).

After we got all set up, the last check was to turn on the water inside the trailer and make sure all was flowing well. As Dave turned on the water outside and I began to turn on faucets inside, I heard a strange sound--like rushing water--coming from the back of the trailer. I yelled for Dave to turn off the water so he could investigate. Well, there is this water filter that is under the bathroom sink and all the way to the back that had exploded. It obviously had water in it during the winter and we did not drain it--one of those unknown gotcha's. So, now, what to do? With this unit broken, there was no way to use our water system. Fortunately, the campground (CG) knew of a mobile RV repair person. So, we quickly called him (Mike). It's now 3 PM (Alabama time). He said he could come out in about an hour, which he did. He crawled between the toilet and cabinet to disconnect the filter and bypass it by re-routing the pipes. So, next step was to check the rest of the water lines. As, I'm standing by the kitchen sink, the hot-water handle flew north along with a geyser of water all over the ceiling and surrounding area. Quickly got the water turned off and wiped up. Now, we need a new kitchen faucet unit--that froze in the winter, too.

We had not planned to unhook the trailer from the car while staying at Lakeside Landing because we wanted to leave early in the morning, but needing a new faucet and a trip to Home Depot to get it, might have to change that plan. However, Mike said he had to go to Home Depot anyway, so he offered to get one for us. Before he left, we found another gusher out the back end of the trailer where there is an outside shower unit. So, he had to remove that entire encased unit from the side of the trailer and re-route those water pipes as well. No chance to get a new unit while out on the road. And, of course, an outside shower is not needed this time of year anyway.

When Mike returned from Home Depot, he connected the new facet and double-checked all other lines. No leaks. Silence in water lines is a good thing!

Before he left, I mentioned that the water heater took a long time to heat up. He said it should take about 15 minutes--I said, "How about 2 hours?" Well, that prompted him to check our electrical circuit panel, only to find out that our water heater's electrical power was only putting out 0.1 AMPs. So, now Mike has to tear apart the water heater outside. That coil had just disintegrated. So, he replaced the coil. We didn't even know that we had an electric/gas switchable water heater!! We thought we only had a gas controlled unit.

Mike worked about 2.5 hours and did all the repairs including purchasing the new faucet for a total of $287. If we had done all this at the camper repair place, I'm sure it would have been close to $500 and a week to repair. Needless to say, we much preferred the one-on-one fix-it-now service. He also made sure everything in our unit was working efficiently before he left.

We were much relieved that we could take off the next day and not have to delay our trip any longer. We ate sandwiches for dinner and then headed off to snuggle in the warm covers.