Monday, March 10, 2014

DEPARTURE FROM BETTY’S (March 6th, 2014)

Well, our time here at Betty’s has come to an end and, as usual, a good time was had by all.  We had the opportunity to meet some new people who we hope to see again on the road and got reacquainted with some old friends that we had not seen in a number of years.

We had decided that we would go as far as Beaumont, Texas on Thursday, stay a couple of days and then head on to Whittsett, Texas and back to gate guarding.  After giving it some thought, we decided we did not want to take I-10 across again and took LA82 which is more of a scenic route through the crawfish ponds and rice fields. 

All was going well for the first 22 miles…….then Jim looked in the rearview mirror and  all he saw was smoke……lots of smoke!!!!!  Our first thought was that we had blown a tire…..so Jim tired to get us to the edge of the road (now LA82 is a very narrow two lane highway with no shoulder) but could only get the passenger side tires off the road.  He got out and discovered that we had not blown a tire but that something had broke on the suspension and we could not move the trailer at all!  So, a call to our roadside assistance for HELP.  Jim was able to get under the trailer far enough to discover that we had broken a leaf spring.  After a few phone calls back and forth we were told that they had someone on the way and also someone from the Sheriff’s department to divert the traffic as we were blocking most of the westbound lane.

Departure from 001   Departure from 002

Lucky for us the gentleman they sent to do the repair was very good and was able to locate another spring, have it delivered to us on the highway, install it and get us back on the road.  All total, from time of breakdown to getting back on the road was 6 hours,  Needless to say, we did not make it to Beaumont, Texas that night.  We drove to Lake Charles, Louisiana and stayed at the Isle of Capri in their “campground” if you can call it that.

Departure from 006    Departure from 008   Departure from 010

Friday morning we completed our trip and arrived in Beaumont, Texas.

Take care and love to all,

Linda and Jim

3 comments:

  1. We'd heard you broke down, but, didn't know why, now we know. Ron was surprised that from time of breakdown to getting back on the road for that kind of repair is unheard of. A guardian angel was definitely looking out for you!

    Hugs, Sharon & Ron

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  2. We'd heard you broke down, but, didn't know why, now we know. Ron was surprised that from time of breakdown to getting back on the road for that kind of repair is unheard of. A guardian angel was definitely looking out for you!

    Hugs, Sharon & Ron

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! You guys were so lucky as it could have been much worse. Glad you were able to get it fixed so fast!

    ReplyDelete