Hit the Road Tomorrow

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

I'm ready to pull out tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be camped on the banks of the Arkansas River in an area just east of Little Rock, Arkansas. I'll have to go much farther north to find the 70 degree line that Joe Debusk (RIP) and I joked about before I initially hit the road.  Sadly, even all the way to North Dakota, that 70 degree line may be night time temperatures instead of daytime. Luckily, there are no major storms predicted for the areas I plan to visit. It seems all clear for at least three weeks. I will be in Tornado country and even though the peak tornado season ends in a few weeks, I will stay alert to them. 

It has taken longer than expected to get everything ready to travel. I guess if I hadn't taken so many breaks, it would have been shorter. But, Freedom and Liberty are at the point where they can hit the road in about 20 to 30 minutes after I start the hitch-up process. One of these days I need to document the hitch-up and set-up process for the blog. Some people that are planning to RV may find it interesting.

Liberty's tires did good while being stationary. Over the last 13 months, they have lost less than 5 psi. I aired two of them back up to 70 psi the other day and will top off the other two after bringing the slide in. I have a great Kobalt air compressor. It easily airs up Freedoms rear tires to 80 psi which is the highest amount for all of the tires on Freedom and Liberty. One feature I love on the Kobalt is being able to set the desired psi and walk away while it airs up the tire. This allows me to do other things while it is working. It runs on 120 volt or 12 volts. The Temperature/Pressure Monitoring System on Liberty's tires allows me to check the air pressure by using the wireless monitor. Once I turn it on, it will give me the temperature and pressure of all the tires in about 2 to 3 minutes. Thinking about it, those are two "lazy man" options for sure.

The plastic "squirrel cage" (blower fan) in Liberty's front (bedroom) air conditioner went kaput (another term youngsters may have to ask an older person about) a couple of weeks ago. I got lucky and was able to find a replacement on Amazon and received it in about a week. Many of the web sites I checked said the part was on back order for weeks if not months, so I was really lucky. That's the first time I've been on the roof in a long time. While up there, I checked all the caulked locations and they looked to be doing OK. I cleaned the fins on the A/C I worked on but not on the main A/C. Afterwards I heard about something called "rinse-free cleaning foam" but didn't feel like setting the ladder back up so I'll take care of that chore this fall.

The black plastic is what broke. Oh well, it's fixed now.

I don't like climbing the ladder that came with Liberty so I use my telescoping ladder. It's tied off so it can't slide sideways and the pool noodles work well at protecting the surface. 

Freedom was feeling left out so I bought her some new tires. The existing tires were within one year of expiring and had another 10,000 miles of tread left but I decided to be "safe than sorry". When I was young, dumb and broke I rode tires until they were nearly bald. Since I'm no longer "10 feet tall and bullet-proof", I don't do that anymore.

I'm a little more concerned about violence in the larger cities than I have been in the past. I've driven Freedom and Liberty through many of the largest cities in the country over the years without a problem. I used to joke about the way to drive in big cities was to turn the music up load to drown out the gunshots and check for bullet holes once I got to the campground. The way things are going in the country now-a-days, I think I'll be a little more cautious. I'll revert to my old ways and start carrying something (equalizer) on the floorboard like I used to do. I had become complacent during the last couple of trips and keep it in storage under the bed. Not any more.

Sorry for the rambling, but this helps document the process of getting ready. I promise more pictures of the trip, campground and Arkansas River in the next post.  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.