I waited two full weeks before heading back to Liberty Trailer. It was too soon.
Buddy looked at Sprocket again and it was determined after the requisite disclaimer, "Now, we didn't put this in here so, we think new air bags would be the way to go", and that's the way we went. Having air bags of unknown origin and age was a non plussing thought. I had planned another camping trip much closer to home in the Spring to go Trout fishing. We would travel to Mountainview, AR once home to my Great Grandmother. Did I tell you I'm a Hillbilly? I come by it honestly not by choice.
I spent the time leading up to the trip finishing up the interior decor.
This was the campground spread ...
Almost immediately upon setting up, two large Class A motor home buses towing full size vehicles pulled in next to us. Within 10 minutes they were all over marveling at our little tin tenement. "Can you SLEEP in there?!", was the first comment. "Of course, you can", I said. "OMG! You have a bathroom with a Shower!", was the next retort. "And I feel air conditioning!", was another. People can be amazed so much fits into such a tiny package. I've learned to be patient.
The next day the air conditioner died. Dead as a door nail. Kaput. Finis.
This was another piece of inherited hardware ..... 😕
Being that we were in Arkansas, you can throw a rock and hit a half dozen Walmarts with one shot. Even with bad aim and not really trying. So, off to the Walmart we went. The replacement 110v a/c unit was easy to find and cheap. Apparently, other things were on sale, including me. I caught the eye of a Genuine Hillbilly who sidled up to me and said ala Goofy from Disney *if I'm lying I'm dying*, "Gosh, ur shur purty!"
OHGOODLORDINHEAVENDELIVERMENOW
I turned, walked away, and he followed. What was it? Was I clean and had on makeup? What was the criteria here? I had on a wedding ring. Whose brother cousin uncle daddy was this? Not mine! Dave rounded the corner, and walking toward him, I did the bug eyed side glance thing....
"Oh Honey, Did you find what you were looking for!?", Dave greeting me a little too loudly. Hillbilly stopped with the expression of pondering his next move, pause, pause, then turned and shuffled off.
"Thanks Sweetheart", I said. "Anything for you, Sweet Cheeks", Dave said.
Back to the trailer with the new a/c. It was too small so, we had to stuff towels around the opening. It would do. I resolved to get a better unit when we got home.
We were happy and enjoyed a tour of Blanchard Springs Caverns and the Reptiles at the campground office. Oh yes, you never know what you'll find.....
And, Winner, Winner, Trout Dinner!
Funny, when only one thing goes wrong you brush it off. In many ways, the abnormal becomes normal, and it tends to skew your reality. You keep hoping all will go well, maybe this would be The Day.
It was not The Day.
On the way home, going around a mountain curve, the trailer leaned again and did not straighten up.
*HEAVY SIGH*
Here we go, again........🙄
Back to Liberty Trailer. Buddy scratched his head. What was determined this time was we had the water balloon affect. Squeeze one end and the other pooches out. Okay. They would abandon the nitrogen canister altogether and install two 12v pumps with each one dedicated to one air bag. Independent air bag suspension. Sounded good...... but would it WORK?!
The time to test it came in September of that year attending our first Vintage Trailer Rally in Stephensville, TX. I hoped for better weather than we got. It was hot. Still well into the 90's. We would take the scenic route through eastern Oklahoma and down into north Texas. The curvy roads would test the new undercarriage work. Paris, TX was on our list of places nearby to see, this would turn out to be providential..... but much later.....
Lo and Behold the trailer seemed to do well, suspension wise.
VICTORY!
But my pop sickles melted before we stopped for gas. Sticks in bags of liquid. As in, all the way! This had been an intermittent problem that we hadn't quite figured out, "Why would the refrigerator stop working at random?" After all, it was new!
Wouldn't it be nice to have a trip, just once, without a PROBLEM!? Ha, ha. A problem. Just one. Hahahahaha!
We were taking back roads coming into northern Texas when workers had spilled paint while striping the highway. Yellow paint was strewn on the underneath of the truck and up into the tongue of the camper. It dried to a rubbery consistency that we had to peel off. Gee whiz..... what next?
I had to ask..... why did I ask? I really did not want to know......
As is our custom when passing through Dallas, one must stop at Neiman's. Now, we are from The South, so quite naturally, we had no compunction leaving our truck and trailer in the Neiman Marcus parking lot whilst we perused the merchandise.
We left at twilight, pulling onto the freeway and turned on our lights. Happy we're we tooling down the freeway with a straight up and down trailer for a change! The sun set and all of the sudden this trucker pulls along side of us honking his horn and flashing his lights. What the heck was he doing?! We pulled off the freeway just to check things. Everything looked ok but when Dave took his foot off the brake there were no lights lit on the trailer. NO RUNNING LIGHTS! ?!##%*!!!! They worked when we left.......
You get used to abnormal being normal a little too easily. But this was bad.
I remembered how we got home from the west coast, emergency lights. So, *blink, blink*, *blink , blink* all the way to Stephensville, TX.
The next morning we pow wowed with some other campers trying to figure out the running lights issue. The circuit was grounding and the fuse in the truck was blowing. It blew alright. Off to the nearest Nissan dealer and they showed us the bad fuse and how to replace it plus gave us some extras.
BUTGROUNDINGWHERE........???
The Tin Can Tourists Texas Fall Rally was a smallish affair but very fun and we met some great people. I was introduced to my first Crock Pot Luck. It's a camping thing. People cook outside in the heat as to not heat up their trailer interiors. I made a chicken casserole so dear Dave would have something to eat. Even at church Pot Luck, we have to cook something, as Hubs will not eat other people's food. He didn't eat my cooking the whole first year we were married. The first thing I cooked for him he didn't like and it made me mad. A year later, I cooked something for myself, and he wanted to tell me what to substitute, "I'm not making this FOR YOU, I'm making this FOR ME...... if you like it, eat it. If not, don't ! He liked it and has been eating my cooking ever since.
We brought waaaaaaay too much stuff and our setup looked a lot like a vintage market!
There was also costume theme so , we dressed up as Sonny and Cher.....
There really is a trailer in there, somewhere.......
We won best costumes and best decorated trailer.
After dinner and awards, we went back to the trailer to cool off. Enjoying the Air Conditioning was interrupted by, .......wait for it..........wait for it.......the trailer being SHOOK VIOLENTLY and we heard what could only be described as a very, VERY LIKE INDUSTRIAL, large Kazoo! YES. YOU HEARD RIGHT!
"What in The heck was that?!" I shrieked about the same second it stopped. We slowly opened the door......👀
Campers from the pavilion were running towards us, hollering, "Are you ok!?" Our camp site was a shambles. The big awning was torn half off the trailer, chairs, tables, and decorative items were strewned everywhere. Seeing our bewilderment someone explained, "IT was a BIG Dust Devil! It hit the gazebo first throwing plates and dishes all over and we saw it was going toward you and we all hollered OH NO NOT THEM!"
Since we were already picking up, we decided to pack up. We also tried the new fuse and that one got fried, too. I was fighting back tears.
*SIGH* *sniff* *SOB*
We drove home during the day to avoid needing running lights AGAIN! I'd call Buddy and we would try to fix the problem. A NEW PROBLEM. WHEN WOULD THIS END? It's so small, how could this go on and on? I was hot and tired. The drive home felt like failure, even though we won.....
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