On the Road Again & shit happens

 I have not posted in a very long while simply because I have not traveled for approximately four months, since arriving at my lot in Colorado. Today, after having closed up and locked down everything over the previous two days, I hit the road heading south to a lease lot in NM. I had planned to travel footloose and carefree this winter, but with COVID, I’ll hunker down for the winter and take short trips in the truck camper.

Since the motorhome sat still for the entire summer, I decided to get things ready a couple of days ahead of departure to allow time to make any repairs that might pop up. So much for advanced planning. On October 14th, after dumping the tanks, disconnecting the hoses and power cord, checking all the fluids, tire pressure and even adding 7 psi to the driver’s front tire, I turned the Moho around, backed the truck in to the site and then backed the Moho in. I hooked up the truck, tested all the lights, braking system and everything was fine, I connected the Moho power cord and was done.

When I  decided to do the dishes that evening, the water pump died just as I was filling the sink. I filled up 4 one gallon water containers and went into camping mode. Since the temperature was due to be below freezing, it wasn’t worth connecting the water hose for one night.

Blast off day was October 16th. I awoke at 6am, had breakfast, brought in the slides, stored the jacks and started the moho. While the Moho was airing up, I disconnected the power cord and stored it, then walked around the Moho, the driver’s front tire was completely flat. Evidently, the valve stem extension was about to fail, and when I added the 7 psi, I must have tweaked it just enough to cause it to fail, based on the soapy water test. I removed the extension and the tire held pressure throughout the day with multiple checks. I was able to be on the road by 9:15 am and managed to drive 313 mies to a roadside boon dock just north of Clines Corners, NM.

The moral of the story is that story is………………………… shit happens no matter how much pre-planning and preventative maintenance one does. You just have to roll with it.

I did decide that I would tempt faith and just drive without a firm destination in mind. I knew there was a large rest area just south of the CO-NM border, but I past that at 1pm. I was determined not to pay for a RV site and assumed I would be able to find a boon dock, which I did. Tomorrow, assuming no flat tires, or other mishaps, I will arrive at my winter lot sometime around noon.

The sun has set, the dinner dishes will be left in the sink until I have hookups, I still have plenty of water, but why waste it doing dishes. Time for a drink, a little reading and early to bed, it was a little stressful today, but all things considered, I ended with a smile and a successful day on the road.

By the way, I had a very successful fly fishing summer. To summarize. I caught a 25” Brown Trout the same day I caught 30 Rainbows. My best day was 40 Rainbows in less than 3 hours. I did get skunked a few days, notably, at the Taylor River, Billings Lake and the Dream Stream, but so do many good fly fishers. The Brown was on an Olive Wooley Bugger, but I had some great dry fly days with a small caddis. The days I got skunked, I threw a wide variety with no result.

Tight Lines & Travel Safe