My brag rag
from this campground is a glow in the dark Swamp Thing t-shirt. I fell in love with the thing when I first
saw the campground, with its low hanging Spanish Moth, walking trails and
beautiful laid back atmosphere. It is a
good thing we liked the campground, because we ended up staying there much
longer than planned because Murphy called in recruits for his next bit of
mischief. More on this in a bit.
Our first day
there we popped into the truck and headed to the Alamo 55 miles away in San
Antonio, Texas. If we had known how the
day would turn out, we would have never gone.
As it was we will always “remember the Alamo” for certain.
We had found
a city parking lot on the web within a decent walking distance of the Alamo and
River Walk, our plans for the day, and at a reasonable parking price. When we arrived there it was a clean, well
lit parking lot under an underpass with a self pay box.
Something
about the place didn’t feel quite right to me and we should have listened to my
instincts, but hey, it was a city lot right?
I mentioned to Gary a pickup and white car whose occupants were watching
us as we left, saying they made me uneasy.
At the last
minute he took our camper keys out of the truck and stuck them in his pocket
jokingly saying “Just in case the truck gets stolen”.
We had been
to the Alamo once nearly 30 years earlier, but we both wanted to see it
again. The story of the Alamo is still
very moving and the historic spot reminds us of how our ancestors fought so
hard to gain freedom in all areas.
We wandered
the grounds for about an hour then went over to the River Walk, ate a good meal
at Waxy O'Connors then rode the boat through the river before going back to the truck.
It had been
a very pleasant day, but it was starting to get dark and we wanted out of town
and back to the campground as early as possible.
Only there
was no truck. Our feelings had been
right, we should have listened to them.
But it was a good clean well lit parking lot. Besides who would take a 12 year old truck
with nearly 250,000 miles on it?
According to
the officer dispatched to help us all it had to be was a diesel dually, or
simply even a dually. We had been gone
less than three hours and were told it was probably already in Mexico (In fact
that is where it was found 4 months later, in a river).
I am certain
Murphy was having a pain in his side from laughing so hard at us at this
point. It was now full blown dark, we
were 55 miles from our camper in a strange city, with no transportation and to
say I was not amused would be an understatement and neither was Gary.
I called
both AAA and our insurance agent immediately.
While we have AAA RV that supposedly has trip continuance insurance on
it a rental car was not included. Remind
me to discuss this contradiction of terms on trip continuance insurance if a
rental isn’t included with my local office.
Nor did our
truck insurance have rental car insurance on it, we both thought it did under
our complete coverage umbrella, but noooooo.
This meant
we needed to pay for a rental, only how to get a rental. The wonderful police officer volunteered to
take us to the airport where all the rental car companies were. Bless him.
No where on
my bucket list did it ever list “ride in the back of a police car”, but there I
was scrunched up in the back of one as Gary rode up front with the officer. Trust me they do NOT make it comfortable for
“passengers” in the back of police vehicles.
I am only 5’1” tall and the leg room was too short for me. Having the “cage” around me was also a bit
unnerving.
Luckily it
wasn’t that far to the airport. The
officer walked us in told the clerk behind the desk what we needed and why then
left.
Murphy started laughing right
away.
You see we
don’t use credit cards, haven’t for years.
National Car rental will not accept debit cards. So now we were further away from the
campground, still no transportation. One
of the clerks suggested we take their shuttle to the main airport and try
Dollar Car Rental. Bless them.
As we
approached the Dollar desk the first thing we saw was a big sign that both them
and Hertz take debit cards! Take that
Murphy!
The clerk
was very helpful and apologized for what the thieves of San Antonio had done to
us. She upgraded us from the cheapest
car possible to a full size for free and sent us on our way. We finally got back to the campground about
midnight.
We stayed up
until nearly dawn searching for used trucks on the web, as well as dealerships
for used ones. We had to be out of the
campground by Friday and this was Wednesday, I swear I heard Murphy snicker.
We soon
found there were ZERO trucks within a 200 mile radius of where we were at that
could handle the fifth wheel to be purchased for used. One place even joked they had all been
stolen.
In fact
EVERYONE we talked with were some body, or knew somebody that had their truck
stolen in San Antonio. The bigger the
truck, the faster it disappeared and they all went straight across the border.
We finally
found a single one ton dually truck in Luling, TX at the GMC dealership and it
was brand new with far more whistles and bells than we ever wanted in a
truck. We ended up buying that truck and
I have to say the Luling Chevy and GMC dealership went above and beyond the
call of duty working with us and our insurance company to get us back on the
road. After all we not only needed a
truck, we needed a hitch.
Then there
was the matter of registration, insurance and on and on. Every roadblock Murphy through up we climbed
over. Some were harder than others, but
all were surmounted. The dealership even had us return our rental car early and
gave us a brand new loaner for free for the 10 days it took to get all the
details worked out.
The
folks at Palmetto State Park came to our rescue. When our time was up at the campground the
first time the volunteers moved our fifth wheel from the state campground to
the Elks campground nearby and then back on Monday for us.
The rangers
honored our state park pass free nights not once, but twice so of the ten
nights we were there two of them were free instead of just one, even though the
free nights were suppose to be at different parks. They said it was the least they could do to
help make up for the theft.
When we
finally got our truck, paperwork, and hitch all taken care of on that final
Friday it was well past check out time.
The camp host told us they had a cancellation and we would not have to
move back to the Elks campground but could stay that final night. It was such a relief.
The next
morning we paid our fee and then discovered that Murphy was not waving the
white flag yet. One of our landing gear legs on the fifth wheel would not retract.
Gary,
finally hammered it into submission and we pulled out around noon.
We headed
back toward Galveston because we had both lost the desire to travel the
southern border anywhere near Mexico. We
were headed back to Florida.
Murphy went
out with a bang, just as we crossed the Galveston bridge AGAIN—I was beginning
to hate that bridge. This time it was
our final trailer tire and this time there was no warning. The tire minder went off at the same time the
tire did.
By the time
we found a parking lot to pull off into safely the tire pieces had fully wedged
themselves in the brakes and done minor damage to the trailer fender.
As Gary
worked to change the tire himself an angel of mercy and his son appeared. The gentleman took over changing the tire,
sawed and tugged with more strength than Gary and I would have had together to
get the jammed pieces loose. Checked the
brakes for us and absolutely refused to let us pay him anything. All he ask was that we would pray for
him. And we did.
Once we were
back to the Bay campground at the state park there at Galveston we were
seriously in need of some down time. We
had the spare on the trailer and knew we needed a new tire. We couldn’t disconnect because of the landing
gear being broken and the tornado sirens were going off.
We walked
over to the shower house and waited to see if Murphy would take the brand
spanking new truck and limping fifth wheel.
Luckily Murphy was done for. To be continued on the Galveston post for
campground #32
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