Category Archives: F350

Leaving Austin

Posted on by

Finally, after over 3 months, we are close to getting back on the road and leaving Austin. It has been very interesting being here for this amount of time. We have learned the 40-mile radius from our campsite very well, and we know Austin as a whole pretty good also.

As of this writing, Roxie’s procedure has been completed and we just have to return next week for her final programming, then we plan on leaving here Wednesday. Our next stop will be the North Texas Airstream Community that is south of Dallas/Fort Worth. We will spend the Memorial Day weekend there to ensure we have a location for that busy time. Then we head north to Alaska.

While we have been here, we were able to accomplish some things (in addition to what I wrote about in the previous post). Two posts ago I showed some damage we incurred to the rock guard on the front of the trailer. I went to the local Airstream dealer, Camper Clinic II in Buda. The part was relatively cheap but the shipping was horrendous! Airstream, I am told, does not price their shipping, they box it up and call the shippers. The shippers then charge the rates. The shipping on the box was like $90! UPS charges the maximum rate for the box depending upon what can fit in it regardless of the weight. Oh well, we needed the part. Here is the repair:

This is the inside of the rockguard and shows some of the damage to the aluminum also.
One of the supports had pulled out of the skin. Not sure if that was from the pan hitting the guard.
This shows the rub rail (without the trim), it covers where the aluminum and plastic meet. I have to remove that before I can put on the new one.
Here is the aluminum rockguard part with the rub rail and the plastic removed.
The new plastic portion.
The new piece needs to be trimmed to fit.
Here is the completed product with shiny new piece of rub rail trim.
This is the support reattached and holding up its portion.

The repair was not too bad. Initially, I thought that I could just trim it to the same size as the other. But with the curves, it is hard to get it accurate. The best solution was to attach it at one end, work it around, riveting as you go, and then trimming it on the end. It will do the job.

But there was not just one repair, oh no! I was walking back from the park’s restroom and I found Roxie out talking to our neighbors. I walked over to join the conversation. They asked me if I had heard the noise. I did not. It appears that the window in the trailer next to Roxie’s chair slammed shut and shattered! I went back and looked and found this all over the ground:

Shattered window glass!

There was heavy rain forecast so I kicked into repair mode immediately. I contacted the Airstream dealer (again) to get a replacement window. They quoted me about 3-4 days shipping but this was Thursday so I was unsure if they could get it out on Friday. But I had to order it. I went to the local Home Depot to figure out how to close it off to the elements.

I got some bubble insulation, a paint drop cloth and some Gorilla tape. I left it open at the bottom for ventilation. It was not clean or pretty but it worked. After doing this, we went to Austin and got some more ‘insurance’. I got the window dimensions from Airstream, went to a local plastics company and ordered an acrylic window (sans holes). I also ordered an acrylic version of the larger windows on the trailer also. I figured if this happens again, I will have replacement versions with me until I can get the glass.

The glass version came in just under a week later and, ironically, that was the same day the acrylic ones were done. I used the glass one:

This is the small acrylic version of the window.

Thankfully we had an operational window again. But that rain forecast was very true. It was an interesting Friday for us.

We go to a town called Bee Cave to watch movies when we do. They have nice recliners in the theatre. I purchased the tickets online so we can also choose our seats. This time I purchased them for the wrong theatre! I rarely do that but I did today. The manager gave us a pass for the movies there but the movie was on an hour later, so we had to wait.

While we were in the movie I could hear rain on the roof of the theatre. I have heard that before and didn’t think anything about it. When we got out of the theatre there was a tremendous downpour. Of course we didn’t have an umbrella and I didn’t even have any coat. We had less that 100′ to walk to the truck but we were drenched. We also walked through water that was overwhelming the drainage and it was 4″-8″ deep. Wet feet also.

We tried to get back to our trailer in the Dripping Springs area. We tried at least 3 different low crossings but each of them were at least 2 feet deep with running water. I have a little video on Youtube of it:

We eventually decided to take major roads to get back. It added about 30 miles but was safer. I would drive through a foot of water but no more. It appears our local area received 8-9″ of rain in a 3 hour period! Luckily our trailer is almost to the top of a knoll so there is very little surface area for runoff. We survived!

One more thing I worked on for the truck in anticipation for Alaska and their roads:

Rock Tamers!

Now, we just have to GET to those Alaska roads!

…and I will go to Texas

Posted on by

The first part of the above quote is: “You may all go to Hell”, it is attributed to Davy Crockett after he lost a bid to become a congressman from Tennessee. As we are getting back on the road, we are heading to Texas to take care of some medical procedures, since that is our home state. Ironically, as we are also leaving California, I do feel some kinship to Davy and his feelings.

Hold on though, we weren’t leaving California immediately. We headed down to Hemet CA for a few nights. I was hoping to meet with my cousin in the area but schedules did not line up. However, we did meet some very nice neighbors at the Golden Village Palms RV resort. They were fellow Airstreamers and we met them in passing years back at an Alumafandango but we were able to reconnect this time around.

While we were in Hemet we got a phone call from our realtor in AZ that is selling our late mother’s house. She stated there was a water leak in the yard and it appeared to be the water main from the street! We were planning on swinging by the house on our way but this meant we were going to be there a bit longer. Good thing we are retired and had over 2 weeks to get to TX!

We stopped off in Quartzsite for a rainy night.

We took up our normal location in the driveway and coordinated a plumber to repair the water main. We were able to get it done in a very timely manner. We also were able to get a yard service setup. We got moving again after 5 nights.

Our normal parking spot.
Local grocery store ready for customers of a certain age frame.

Last year we stayed for a while at an Escapee’s Co-op park. These are locations where you can purchase an interest in the park which gives you a site to park your RV. You can also augment the site with non-residential buildings to make your life easier. The one we thought we would try is the one in Benson AZ. I was thinking of going to Tucson but this was just a bit south and with their ‘New Visitors’ special, it became very attractive. They also had a place for a week at under $100 (that includes our electrical usage).

The Benson Escapee’s park is very nice. The Co-op portion is very attractive and might be something we look at in the future. We took a few day drives around to Tombstone, Bisbee, etc. One evening we went to see some Airstream friends: Rich, Eleanor, and Emma. The park has a lot of activities to keep their members busy. I went to genealogy talk. They had some outside entertainment one evening and we also attended the weekly music jam:

‘Our’ spot at the Escapees Coop.
Lunar eclipse

Since we spent a well deserved week in AZ it was time to get moving to Texas. We had a bit of ground to cover. We first made to Las Cruces, then into West Texas. This was definitely NOT the beautiful part of the trip. We spent the night in Fort Stockton, TX at a Passport America spot that looks like it caters to the oil industry. It was cold and windy, we even had a few icicles from the water the next morning.

NOT the sign you want to see if you have an Airstream!
Our spot at Fort Stockton, TX
This was the locking system for the door in the restrooms!
However, the paper towels must be GOLD!

We were happy to leave Ft Stockton behind and work our way through West Texas. The next stop was the South Llano River State Park. This was a very nice location. We took a short walk down toward the river, saw numerous birds and where the flooding happened about 6 months ago.

We were able to try out our new fire pit!
Armadillo sighting!

The next stop was Johnson Creek RV park near Kerrville, TX. This time we were there for 2 nights (Passport America) so we could unhook the truck for the first time in 3 nights!

We had made it to our time (Feb 1) to start our month long stay in Henly TX. On the way there, we ran over an oil drip pan on the road and suffered a minor injury to the trailer.

It looks like a simple repair, just have to get the plastic part from Airstream.

Now that we are here, near Austin we get to start our chores!