CRAZY WAYS TO GET THERE!

After about a year on the road my brother asked me how many times I’ve been lost, my response was NONE…I can’t get lost because I really don’t know where I’m going!

Last year after leaving Arizona, my friend Tim and I got ourselves into two interesting situations while traveling through Texas

First situation, we parked our rigs on South Padre Island on the beach.  There was a full moon and heavy winds so we were expecting higher than normal tides but were assured by the rangers that we would be fine.

The second night there Tim knocked on my door around 330am.  He said you better come out here. I stepped out the door into water…that was going under my rig. Oh boy! 

We sat outside for a few minutes trying to decide if we should leave then or wait till sunrise. The tide was heading out so we decided to wait. The drive off the beach was an adventure as we were dodging the waves, logs, and other debris that had blown in over night. It wasn’t really funny at the time because we thought for sure one of us was going to get stuck in the soft sand and were going to need a tow off the beach but alas we made it off the beach. The rigs were caked with sand and saltwater so we got to the truck wash as soon as possible. We can laugh about it now...sort of.

A couple of weeks later I found a nice spot on iOverlander named 'Spot by the River'. The reviews were good and the pictures looked ok so I punched the coordinates into Google Maps and we headed out. As we turned off the highway it should have been a clue as to the condition of the road ahead (more like a hiking trail) that led us to the spot. 

The trail was very rough and the trees were overgrown and were scraping the sides of the rigs. We were bouncing around all over the place. At one point a vine got wrapped around my awning and it sounded like I was pulling down the entire tree. Tim tried to radio me from behind but I think he was laughing too hard to get the word STOP out of his mouth. Plus he was concerned about the vines grabbing his rig. After I broke free of the vines I radioed him asking if my awning and air conditioner were still there…his response was WHAT AIR CONDITIONER? Funny guy!!

      

We made it to the spot and had a nice relaxing overnight stay there. In the morning Tim took Keegan for a walk down the trail in the opposite direction from which we had come in and realized about 100 yards down the trail turned into a residential paved road. 

The third crazy situation happened when I was in Nova Scotia last year. I had reservations at a campground on the Bay of Fundy. I told the owner I would arrive around 2pm. I needed to waste some time so I decided to explore some light houses before heading to the campground. After the last lighthouse, I continued on the road since it looped around to the campground. 

The road got narrower and narrower and turned into a gravel trail and then it turned into a rock/boulder trail. I should have turned around but the campground was only a 1/4 mile ahead. Next thing I realized I was rock crawling up a steep hill in my ‘not built for off-roading RV’.  I got to a point where I couldn’t go forward and couldn’t turn around. I thought for sure I was going to need to abandon my rig. I was stuck. 

After surveying the situation I decided I was able to back up a couple of yards and spent the next 25 minutes executing a textbook 50 point turn. Inch by inch, I was able to get turned around, without rolling into the deep culverts on either side of the ‘trail’.

I arrived at the campground about an hour late and the owner asked if everything was ok. I told him where I had been and his response was obvious to me at that point…that’s not a road, it’s a dry river bed and no one goes up there in any type of vehicle! You’re crazy a** for trying that!!! 

Yup..that about sums it up.

(NOT ACTUAL TRAIL - BUT VERY SIMILAR)

Another fun day happened after I had gone to the Mercedes dealer in Palm Springs for routine service. When everything was completed and paid for, I hit the road back to Quartzsite AZ, 139 miles away. I made it 116 miles before losing all power from the engine. I was able to get off the highway into a parking lot and call Mercedes roadside assistance. They showed up about 3 hours later and loaded me up for a trip back to Palm Springs. It was a Friday evening and the service department was closed. I left the rig and took an Uber to a hotel.

Monday morning I took an Uber back to the dealership and had a talk with the service manager. They took the rig back to the service bay and after about an hour they assured me everything was good to go. The fuel filter had a leak and that caused the engine to lose power. Of course they said there was no charge for the service, but I charged them for 2 nights in the hotel and all my meals. 

I finally made it back to Quartzsite Monday afternoon!

I like a good adventure on the road but these were a bit over the top!