Saturday, April 9, 2011
Legion State Park, Louisville, MS: 3/22-30
We reserved one of our favorite spots for a week-long stay here visiting friends & relatives. We had a pleasant drive continuing up the Trace, with a lunch stop and 20-minute hike through a Cypress Swamp. There were no problems backing in or getting level. When we started sliding out the slide-outs, however, the problematic one started acting up again, went about halfway out, and then stopped completely. No amount of effort could get it to budge in or out, and we finally gave up & stuffed towels & blankets into the open gaps around the slide-out. Needless to say, the cats were enthralled by the latest change in their living environment.
After a little Internet research, we found a RV repair facility in Red Bay, Alabama, less than 10 miles from our planned route. They assured us that if we could manage to get our RV up there, they could fix it. (We have heard this before, but we're trying to believe them!) Then we called the Service Manager of now-defunct Travel Supreme, who Fred Lanoue had managed to track down on the Internet during our stay in Rockport. He said we could physically push the slide-out back in, but first we needed to remove a pin in the drive-train assembly, which is hidden away in a small compartment. We looked in & discovered 4 pins, so we took a picture of the assembly, labelled each of the pins in PhotoShop, and sent it off in an email. Then we talked with Ann Covington to see if she knew of someplace where we could hire a couple of big strong men to push the slide-out back in. She recommended a local auto-repair shop, whose owner couldn't help personally, but remembered his cousin Tim works on RVs. We drove home & less than 30 minutes later Tim drove up. After an unsuccessful half-hour trying to get the drive shaft unstuck, we discussed our options. He removed one of the pins & pushed on the slide-out, and to our delight it moved slightly. Doug went outside, and with the two men pushing & Willie pulling inside, we managed to get the slide-out all the way in.
We are now living in about 2/3 of our "normal" living space. Most of the kitchen cabinets & drawers are blocked by the recalcitrant slide-out, but Willie had the foresight to empty our most vital things from them before Tim showed up. The cats are now even more anxious as we have banana boxes filled with food & cooking implements occupying their precious lounging space. We plan to drive up to Red Bay on Wednesday. where hopefully they won't take one look at our trailer & turn us away -- although that would be preferable to the lying deceivers in Mathis, TX who promised us the stars as a way to con us into spending a month there. If they can work on it, that brings up the problem of where could we live while the trailer is being worked on, including our 3 rather bizarre cats. In the South, cats are not considered "indoor" pets.
After a little Internet research, we found a RV repair facility in Red Bay, Alabama, less than 10 miles from our planned route. They assured us that if we could manage to get our RV up there, they could fix it. (We have heard this before, but we're trying to believe them!) Then we called the Service Manager of now-defunct Travel Supreme, who Fred Lanoue had managed to track down on the Internet during our stay in Rockport. He said we could physically push the slide-out back in, but first we needed to remove a pin in the drive-train assembly, which is hidden away in a small compartment. We looked in & discovered 4 pins, so we took a picture of the assembly, labelled each of the pins in PhotoShop, and sent it off in an email. Then we talked with Ann Covington to see if she knew of someplace where we could hire a couple of big strong men to push the slide-out back in. She recommended a local auto-repair shop, whose owner couldn't help personally, but remembered his cousin Tim works on RVs. We drove home & less than 30 minutes later Tim drove up. After an unsuccessful half-hour trying to get the drive shaft unstuck, we discussed our options. He removed one of the pins & pushed on the slide-out, and to our delight it moved slightly. Doug went outside, and with the two men pushing & Willie pulling inside, we managed to get the slide-out all the way in.
We are now living in about 2/3 of our "normal" living space. Most of the kitchen cabinets & drawers are blocked by the recalcitrant slide-out, but Willie had the foresight to empty our most vital things from them before Tim showed up. The cats are now even more anxious as we have banana boxes filled with food & cooking implements occupying their precious lounging space. We plan to drive up to Red Bay on Wednesday. where hopefully they won't take one look at our trailer & turn us away -- although that would be preferable to the lying deceivers in Mathis, TX who promised us the stars as a way to con us into spending a month there. If they can work on it, that brings up the problem of where could we live while the trailer is being worked on, including our 3 rather bizarre cats. In the South, cats are not considered "indoor" pets.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 11:57 AM 
