Minor Meltdown

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I like Texas, I love the idea of Cowboys and Indians and days of the old west. There is something inherently special about Texas, perhaps San Antonio didn't want us to leave:.............

We awoke early ready to get going to Sonora for a stop at a park in the middle of nowhere to see some caverns, excited about an off the beaten path to something we hadn't planned and a not too difficult or long drive. Or so we thought.

The Rv was nicely leveled on the concrete slab and the truck was on a decline, nose down. Yes, we had a little difficulty unhooking but nothing we hadn't experienced before. For those of you who don't know much about fifth wheels and hooking up to hitches you only have to imagine big semis or Lorry's and their trailers only a few feet smaller (not by much).

Now the front hydraulic legs to the Rv were up on plastic blocks about 8 inches or more off the ground, I felt we needed them so the legs didn't have to extend too far to make it level. Roy was the one backing onto the hitch and I was directing. I kept going back and forth trying to lower the nose of the fifth wheel enough to get it to when he backs in it just clicks into place, we had, until now, got quite good at it.

For the reason mentioned above the truck just wouldn't catch on the hitch, I was watching and it was just so close. A bit of force should make it latch, "Put your foot down, go on really back up into it....." I watched in slow motion as exactly as I had issued the command, he fired the truck back onto the Hitch and with Wonder Woman strength, (in my mind I had) I tried to hold on to the 15,000 lbs dinosaur as it slid off the blocks and landed with a tremendous bang down onto the rails of the truck. The hitch was bent the nose of the rv's weight weighing down the truck and i quickly jumped to the hydraulic control panel and lowered the legs onto the ground to get the weight off the truck to see how bad it was.

First came disbelief as I stared at the bent hitch, damaged truck and rv. Then came about an hour of uncontrollable crying as I handed the phone to Roy to explain to the lady in the office why we needed to stay a couple of extra nights. I saw $$$ signs flashing through my head and weeks of waiting on parts to get here to get it fixed, would we ever make it out of Texas.

Yes, I tend to go towards the extreme end of the spectrum on things of this nature and as Fear usually is (False Evidence Appearing Real) It was exactly that. The damage wasn't nearly as devastating as first thought and we managed to get the hitch fixed for a nominal amount. The damage to the truck rails and Rv was not as bad as it felt either.

The rest of the day was spent "getting over it" watching Texas Rising and tales of the Alamo. As will would have it, someone had a plan for us to avoid Sonora, whose weather had gone from dry and sunny to Tornado watches through the night. I guess we will relax here at Braunig RV Park for a couple of extra nights and see if we ever get to leave.

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Comments

[Lisa]

Weather
I told you the bad stuff was coming

[Mary]

Love traveling with you. Hope Ivan figure out how to be a follower!