Livingston, TX to Vidor, TX

Rainbow’s End at Escapees RV Club Park (Livingston, TX)

March 28^th

Wow, what a day!

The plan today (Friday) was to get the RV inspection about 1 pm.  Then we were going to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) at 2:55 pm for the Truck/RV driving test.

This morning, at about 11 am, we were planning a trip to Lowes to get a few things.  While we were driving there the “check engine” light came on. 

For a little back story, the "check engine" light had come on when we were leaving Alabama a couple weeks ago.  When we were at the Ford dealership last week, we asked them about it. We made an appointment for the next day to have them check it out. The next day as we were getting ready to leave for the appointment the “check engine” light didn’t come on when we started the truck.  We called the Ford dealership and they said that if it comes on again we need should call right away, bring the truck in and they would connect and read the problem.  It was bothering us since we weren’t sure what had caused it to come on in the first place.

It didn’t come on again until this morning (Friday) so we called them.  They said bring it in and they’ll check it out.  OK, cancel the trip to Lowes.  However, this introduced a possible dilemma.  If they found the problem, depending on what was wrong and depending on if they could repair it today, I may have to reschedule the driving test.  Yikes! We were pretty sure that the next appointment would be at the end of next week at the earliest.  We may have to stay another week or even later, in Livingston.

So when we arrived at the Ford dealership they connected the truck to the computer and said the EGT probe was causing a problem and it would take about 1 ½ hours to make the repairs.  This was at 12:45.  1 ½ hours would place us leaving the dealership at 2:15 pm.  We were very concerned that we wouldn’t have enough time to go back to the campground and get the RV hooked up and make it to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) office by 3 pm.  We were going to have to play it by ear concerning cancelling the driving test, etc.

45 minutes later, at 1:30, they said they were all done and we were ready to go.  Great! But it was still going to be close.  We headed back to the campground and hustled around getting ready and hooking up and pulling out.  We weren’t going to be able to get the RV inspected in time so we took our chances on that.

We went on to the DPS office and had to wait a while for the test.  Luckily, the driving instructor didn’t check for the RV inspection.  Everything went fine during the test – well, everything except for the lady that ran across the street in front of us, and the guy who ignored the right-of-way and pulled out in front us.  But it all turned out OK and I didn’t have any deductions.

By 4 o’clock we were finished and heading out.  We decided to go ahead and get the RV inspected.  I imagine if we had gotten pulled over by the cops that would be the first thing for which they would ask.  We knew of the place where we could get the inspection so we went.  They check that all lights are working properly and that we have an approved fire extinguisher on the RV.  That was quick and easy.

At 4:20 pm or so, we pulled out of Livingston heading to Vidor, TX.  We’ll stop for the night, pick up the storage bench (ottoman) and head out on Saturday to Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville, LA.  Time for some real Cajun seafood!

We arrived at Boomtown USA Campground in Vidor right at 6 pm.  We reserved a site for $16.50 for one night with the Passport America discount.  Passport America is a great deal.  For a yearly membership fee of $44 we get 50% off the regular price at 1900+ affiliated campgrounds.  It has already paid for itself several times since we left at the beginning of this month.  If you decide to join, please give them our membership number 638782 as a referral.

When we got to our site we decided to not unhook the truck from the RV.  We hooked up water and electric, extended the slides, and put up the on-air antenna to try and watch the NCAA tournament UK vs. Louisville.  We were able to pick up the local channels well. 

Louisville started the game strong, getting ahead of Kentucky by 13 or more points at times in the first half.  At halftime Kentucky had cut it to a three point lead by Louisville.  In the second half, Louisville maintained the lead until Kentucky finally was able to tie it with about three minutes to go in the game.  Kentucky went ahead and held on for a five point win.  Wow! It was a great game for UK.  Next they will play University of Michigan for the opportunity to move on to the Final Four.  Go Cats!!

I’ll write again soon and let you all know what’s going on.

Thanks for following along!