Jan. 13 - ?, 2014
Fort Stockton RV Park, Fort Stockton, TX
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RV LIFE:
Monday 1/13/14:
I am typing this as we are driving. Wish I could say our 320 mile trip to overnight in Ft. Stockton was uneventful. About 200 miles into our trip we were stopped by Texas State Police. In NJ, we are supposed to stay in our car and have our license, registration and insurance ready. In Texas Scott was called over to the police car. Hmmm, what could we have been stopped for? We don't speed in the RV, our vehicles are current on inspections and registrations.
I was able to watch what was going on in the rear view mirror. Scott looked nervous and there were TWO cops. One was talking to Scott and the other about 10 feet away observing. Creepy. 10 minutes later, Scott and Mr. Officer are still conversing. Now they keep looking at the RV? or Truck? Are we towing wrong? Is something flying in the wind? Well, nothing I can do, so I just sit back and TRY to relax. Policemen are our friends, policemen are our friends, policemen are our friends....
Tap, tap, tap, and I jump and the dogs gather to my side of the truck. The cop wants to talk to me. Oh crap! Policemen are our friends. Will we have to stop here? Are they going to take Scott in? What do I do with the dogs if we have to go with the cops? All irrational thinking, of course.
With heart pounding and driver's license ready, I open my door to the nice Officer. Are we carrying any illegal substances? No sir, not even a gun! Why did I even say that???? Mr. Officer goes back to his ve-HIC-le (that's always how they say it on TV), to check my creds. The other cop is watching Scott and asks him to face him and hands out of pocket. Oh crap!
Finally Scott returns without any handcuffs, but a new slip of paper. Phew, only a warning.
For what you want to know???? Maybe taking dogs across the border without a health certificate? Or maybe our RV is overloaded? Nope. It's our diesel truck.....AGAIN! Diesel engines may last a long time, but it seems every couple of months we have to bring our truck in for service (besides oil changes). Our truck was blowing black smoke for an extended period of time. Oh crap! So we were served a warning for bad emissions. Looks like our Ft. Stockton stop will be more than just overnight. A good reason not to make reservations, therefore they don't have to be changed.
Of course we were stopped on the Western part of I-10 which has nothing along the way.
Then, not 10 minutes later, we had to go through a Border Patrol inspection station. Will THEY also stop us for emissions? Nope, just had to wait 10 minutes for the vehicles ahead to get through and we were finally on our way.
Tuesday 1/14/14: Scott mentioned maybe our truck is having these problems because it's NAKED! We usually have a bunch of dog related magnets all over the truck. It's fun to watch people in the park stop to read our truck. I took the magnets off on Sunday, so Scott could get the truck washed. We had red/brown dirt all over the truck from our time in New Mexico. Now we have a nice clean truck, but a broken truck.
Today is "Dress up your Pet Day". I think in our case it will be Dress up your vehicle day.
We call the Ford dealer THREE TIMES and were put on hold two of those three times with no background music, so we don't know if we are holding or cut off. First call 5 minutes, 2nd call 7 minutes, 3rd call we asked if they had background music and that we had been waiting for someone to pick up for a long time. No background music, and we finally got through to the service department. They have only one diesel mechanic and he is booked for three weeks! We do not want stay in Ft. Stockton, TX for 3 weeks.
We are supposed to be looking at property in Tennessee by then. Ford dealer gives us a phone # for a private mechanic. Scott calls and the person doesn't speak English. The Spanish speaking person gives us another #. Ugh, what are we getting ourselves into. Finally, we got a hold of Fernandez Auto. He'll be picking up the truck sometime today. There are decent reviews on Yelp! for them, so I feel ok about this.
Scott has been in a great mood through all of this. I think he is just happy we made it to an RV park and not stranded with no place to settle.
Our neighbor is also having troubles. Misery loves company? They had to get their motorhome towed to fix the transmission
I am typing this as we are driving. Wish I could say our 320 mile trip to overnight in Ft. Stockton was uneventful. About 200 miles into our trip we were stopped by Texas State Police. In NJ, we are supposed to stay in our car and have our license, registration and insurance ready. In Texas Scott was called over to the police car. Hmmm, what could we have been stopped for? We don't speed in the RV, our vehicles are current on inspections and registrations.
I was able to watch what was going on in the rear view mirror. Scott looked nervous and there were TWO cops. One was talking to Scott and the other about 10 feet away observing. Creepy. 10 minutes later, Scott and Mr. Officer are still conversing. Now they keep looking at the RV? or Truck? Are we towing wrong? Is something flying in the wind? Well, nothing I can do, so I just sit back and TRY to relax. Policemen are our friends, policemen are our friends, policemen are our friends....
Tap, tap, tap, and I jump and the dogs gather to my side of the truck. The cop wants to talk to me. Oh crap! Policemen are our friends. Will we have to stop here? Are they going to take Scott in? What do I do with the dogs if we have to go with the cops? All irrational thinking, of course.
With heart pounding and driver's license ready, I open my door to the nice Officer. Are we carrying any illegal substances? No sir, not even a gun! Why did I even say that???? Mr. Officer goes back to his ve-HIC-le (that's always how they say it on TV), to check my creds. The other cop is watching Scott and asks him to face him and hands out of pocket. Oh crap!
 |
| See the black above the exhaust pipe? |
Finally Scott returns without any handcuffs, but a new slip of paper. Phew, only a warning.
For what you want to know???? Maybe taking dogs across the border without a health certificate? Or maybe our RV is overloaded? Nope. It's our diesel truck.....AGAIN! Diesel engines may last a long time, but it seems every couple of months we have to bring our truck in for service (besides oil changes). Our truck was blowing black smoke for an extended period of time. Oh crap! So we were served a warning for bad emissions. Looks like our Ft. Stockton stop will be more than just overnight. A good reason not to make reservations, therefore they don't have to be changed.
Of course we were stopped on the Western part of I-10 which has nothing along the way.
Then, not 10 minutes later, we had to go through a Border Patrol inspection station. Will THEY also stop us for emissions? Nope, just had to wait 10 minutes for the vehicles ahead to get through and we were finally on our way.
Tuesday 1/14/14: Scott mentioned maybe our truck is having these problems because it's NAKED! We usually have a bunch of dog related magnets all over the truck. It's fun to watch people in the park stop to read our truck. I took the magnets off on Sunday, so Scott could get the truck washed. We had red/brown dirt all over the truck from our time in New Mexico. Now we have a nice clean truck, but a broken truck.
Today is "Dress up your Pet Day". I think in our case it will be Dress up your vehicle day.
 |
| Naked |
 |
| Dressed |
We call the Ford dealer THREE TIMES and were put on hold two of those three times with no background music, so we don't know if we are holding or cut off. First call 5 minutes, 2nd call 7 minutes, 3rd call we asked if they had background music and that we had been waiting for someone to pick up for a long time. No background music, and we finally got through to the service department. They have only one diesel mechanic and he is booked for three weeks! We do not want stay in Ft. Stockton, TX for 3 weeks.
We are supposed to be looking at property in Tennessee by then. Ford dealer gives us a phone # for a private mechanic. Scott calls and the person doesn't speak English. The Spanish speaking person gives us another #. Ugh, what are we getting ourselves into. Finally, we got a hold of Fernandez Auto. He'll be picking up the truck sometime today. There are decent reviews on Yelp! for them, so I feel ok about this.
Scott has been in a great mood through all of this. I think he is just happy we made it to an RV park and not stranded with no place to settle.
Our neighbor is also having troubles. Misery loves company? They had to get their motorhome towed to fix the transmission
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| Red tow truck to pick up motorhome. Brown pick up to pick up our pick up. |
Hope your time in Fort Stockton turns out good. The landing gear on our previous 5th-wheel broke there. Other nice folks in the campground helped us. We had to go to Albuquerque to get our repair.
ReplyDeleteHoly moley! Well, at least you could have called us to come bail you out...
ReplyDelete