Four days early...

...we made it to Red Bay, where nothing happens unrelated to RVs. But what a day! It started when closing up. The gray water valve refuses to close fully, remaining 1/2 way open. (Gray water is water from sinks, black water is from toilets.) I'll have to replace that valve on Friday, as we're expecting rain here all day tomorrow.

Next up, or not, was our levelers. Three of them raised, but not the fourth. In the last post I mentioned how uneven our site was, remember (if you read it)? The weight of the RV came to rest on that one leveler in such a way that the leg, which rises up into a housing tube, was jammed at an angle against the housing with such pressure that it could not raise. For the next hour and a half I was under the RV, trying to raise it with a 4 ton bottle jack, then moving the RV forward to relieve the pressure, and using a drill manually to raise the leg. Once it was up the weight of the RV pressed down on the bottle jack so it couldn't be removed. We had to move the RV backwards this time to force the jack free. Then we had to reset all four levelers as they were out of sync.Thank goodness they all work. It would have been a big expense to have to buy a new one. I couldn't have done all of this without the assistance of my better half Nancy.

Next we had to fill up with fuel. When we finally got going, I missed a turn because the GPS had not caught up to where we were so we had to detour around. Not so easy, we got stopped at a RR crossing while a long arsed train took its time crossing.

The entire 263 miles from Jackson to Red Bay was fraught with high winds and gusts as a remnant of winter storm Ulmer, which although it died early created high winds across Mississippi and Alabama.

The nice part of the trip was that the GPS routed us on 59 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Tombigbee National Forest. Although the speed limit was 50 mph, it allowed us to look around and see things we might have passed at a higher speed. We saw three young turkey hens and about four redtail hawks. Even better we were at the front of the line, with multiple cars behind us. At one point on the two lane road we saw a tractor trailer that missed its exit and went into a ditch blocking the southbound lane. The driver was alright, attempting to back the rig out of the ditch. As soon as we had cell service we called 911 to get him assistance.

So here we are, where we will be for at least a week or two as we get things on our list repaired or replaced. At least we have phone service.