Saturday, February 25, 2012

Okay now for the ugly...

The previous post from Stacey may make it appear that this has been "smooth" sailing.... Well, just because we are traveling doesn't exempt us.  LOL!!  Well...
While in TN we received a bunch of rain and experienced some hail for the first time while "camping".  I must say, hail on the roof of our motor home is not comforting!!  Anyway, evidently West TN had experienced a lot of rain lately and this latest downpour really saturated the ground.  The ground has a consistency of thick brown clay.  Think pottery and you get the idea.  While I was breaking camp, Stacey took our Saturn (towed vehicle) to see Mrs. Barbara.  The girls and I packed up and I was maneuvering our "Big ol' Bessie" as the girls call the motor home.  I affectionately refer to our 26,000lb; 37.5' motor home as the "Urban Assault Vehicle (UAV)".  I emphasis the word "Urban" here because it became very evident that taking her too far off the beaten path can lead to potential disaster!  
I was attempting to turn the UAV around in a gravel turn around near the lodge and realized that the turn was too tight to avoid a neaby shed so I had to cut across the center grass area of the gravel turn around....then disaster struck as the rear wheels sunk up to the rims...uggh!  Donkey ears sprouted from my head as I realized my mistake!
Luckily, Mr. Dan, the owner of the Getaway Lodge ranch property was there and proved to be of great assistance.  We attempted in vain to wedge wood and lynx levers under the tires to get traction. We could not get them far enough under the wheels.  I wrestled for quite some time and proceed to get mud all over me.  Oh, did I mention it was freezing cold too!  Good times, good times...  Mr. Dan and I contemplate using his tractor to pull the UAV from behind using the tow hitch, however, his battery was dead and I was not sure the hitch could handle the 26Klb motor home being towed in reverse.  Then it hit me.  I stacked up lynx levelers under the rear hydraulic leveling jacks and used the manual settings to raise up just the rear tires out of the mire.  I thought I'd pressed the bottom levelers into China!  But it worked.  Mr. Dan took his pick up down to the lower pasture and retrieved some wood which we put under the tires.  Free at last!  Thank you Mr. Dan!  I'm not sure how much West TN mud I'm hauling around on the UAV now but, Ol' Bessie is gonna need a bath!  If you are ever in Gibson county, I recommend the Getaway Lodge but, probably "in season"!  Check em out here:  The Getaway Lodge

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