Travel to Jackson MS, MS State Fair, and Truck Trouble

October 10 - 13, 2014   

We continued on our way further south but, this time, took interstate 55 instead of the Natchez Trace.  The main reason to not take the Natchez was due to us not finding a place to stay until we were on the road and the Trace doesn’t have many exits so we felt safer on the interstate.  We finally got a site just a few miles south of Jackson in Byram MS.

On our way to Jackson, Friday the 10th, about 80 miles out from our site, the truck gave me green wrench warning light. The truck was acting and running just fine.  I pulled over at the next rest area to get the truck's owners manual out of the RV to see what the wrench light was telling me.  The manual told me that I have some sort of drive train problem and that it could also give me reduced engine performance with a limp home mode; we really need that to happen, NOT!  I turned the engine back on and the wrench was gone so we continued on.  About 65 miles later (15 miles to go) the wrench was back on.  This time we just kept on traveling to the RV site without any further issues, except the wrench was still there.

This is an odd RV Park as it is part of a strip mall.  We are in the Swinging Bridge RV Park.  We haven't yet found a swinging bridge or even a bridge at all.

Our site here near Jackson MS.

After we got set up, I made a call to a local Ford service facility to see if they could see me this evening or maybe give me some further information on what the warning light meant. I found out that the wrench light was like an engine service light on a car so it could be anything.  They also couldn’t see me today and that they were closed until Monday morning. Now it looks like we will be here a couple of days longer.  We are not going to pull the RV until we know the truck is in good shape so we will just wait here and enjoy it as best as we can.

Saturday the 11th we found out that the Mississippi State Fair was in Jackson and this was the last weekend for it. So we decided to travel the 15 miles north for the afternoon/evening at the Fair.  

I couldn't find any signs that advertised the State fair.  I took this picture of a t-shirt for sale.

The MS State Fair is a medium sized State fair as far as the State Fairs we have been to.  I got to have my fair favorite, a corn dog and Patty got her favorite, a funnel cake.  We walked the midway and browsed some of the shops along the way.  We spent about 3 hours there and had a good time. We were pretty tired by the time we got back so we just crashed for the night.

A happy guy with his corn dog!

This vendor had 8 topping varieties for their funnel cakes.  Patty picked the bavarian cream.  I had to have some too and it was good.  Funny, Patty didn't want any of my corn dog! 

Fair at night

Sunday the 12th I decided to wash the RV from the roof down.  I hadn’t washed the roof since we left Texas 6 months ago and it really needed it.  I wish I had taken before and after pictures to show how dirty the roof was.  It really is surprising just how dirty the roof gets in a relatively short time!  This time I used Spic and Span to clean the roof and it worked great.  I had always used an RV rubber roof cleaner but I was now out of it.  I bought a gallon of the cleaner 2 years ago when we were in Florida so it lasted a long time.  I don’t particularly like washing the rig from the roof down but I also use it as exercise.  The RV washing took me about 5 hours.  Anyway, glad that it is done for a while!

We made a steak on the grille and cooked, if that is what you call it, some boxed mac and cheese that we had left over from when the grandkids were with us.  The steak was one of the best we have had for a while and the mac and cheese was, well, boxed mac and cheese.  I was bushed from the RV washing so just a little TV and we were both out for the night.

Now it was time to find out what was going on with the truck. The Ford Service at Rogel Ford opened at 8am this morning, Monday the 13th, and I was there at 8:02am.  This is a very small ford dealer about 13 miles south of Jackson MS in Crystal Springs on I 55.  I left Ronnie, the Service manager, with the truck and headed to the service lounge.  This is such a small place that the sales desks are out in the open right next to the lounge.  So, for the next 2 hours I read my e-book and Facebook and listened to sales people selling cars while waiting on an answer on the truck.

You know it’s bad when the service manager comes in and sits down with you and says "it’s bad" first thing.  He tells me that the oil cooler is not working and needs to be replaced. This will require that the cab be taken off of the truck frame. All I can think of is cha-ching!  Well, damn it, I have a service warranty so maybe I’m OK.  Well, wrong, I’m not covered for this.  The oil cooler is not covered and even if it was since it is contaminated the warranty specifically does not cover that. Well, shit!  The cost will be $2,500 and take 3 days to do. Now, this year has officially become an expensive year!

I called Patty and gave her the bad news and then Ford brought me back to the RV Park.  When I arrived back at the RV Patty was crying and I knew right away it was her mother. Her mother was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure a few weeks ago and was admitted to the hospital.  Patty's sister called to tell her that her mother was admitted just a few days ago due to complications from cirrhosis of the liver combined with the CHF and she is dying. All they can do now is make her comfortable.  

The doctors are not sure about the timing, but we are now thinking of heading back to Buffalo after the truck is fixed, this Friday.  We will put the RV in storage for a few weeks and drive up to Buffalo rather than fly.  The cost is about the same but the truck allows us to have a vehicle while we are there and to take some of the food we have in the RV with us.  We are going to wait and see what is happening over the next couple of days before we finalize our plans.  

Some happier stuff, we went out to eat at a local, walk to, Mexican restaurant for dinner.  We thought about eating in but Patty needed to get out after her day and I guess I needed to also.  The place was great!  The food was very good and priced very reasonably and the restaurant was clean and well decorated with real plants everywhere.   The only problem is that they had no customers.  Granted it was a Monday and it was raining, but wow, what a shame. 

Pretty Patty in her pink poncho for our walk to the restaurant.

It's wet and a little cold now.

Inside the Caporales Mexican Restaurant.

That was the end to a long, expensive, and emotional day for us.  We will be here in our Jackson site until at least this Friday Morning.  Most likely we will be driving back up to the Buffalo area and our RV will be in storage someplace here. 

Patty and I were prepared for an unexpected emergency with family and knew we would and could alter our plans.  We had discussed this before we started our full time life adventure and decided that it really isn't any more of a problem than if we were in a house.   The good thing is that we are far enough south right now that we don’t need to worry too much about freezing temperatures for the RV, not yet anyway.

Stay Tuned!