April 3rd to April 6th

Chuck and I were so ready to go on April 1st! But bad weather, heavy rains and tornado warnings for 2 days kept us home and still with most of the camper stuff packed and ready to go piled in the living room. Finally, Friday April 3rd, we got a bit of a break in the weather! We

could finally load the Oliver camper and go! Mmmm, but wait.... why is the shower leaking all over??? Call the plumber.... he comes out and says he will have to replace the faucet handles as these are so old, they are not repairable but it would be Monday or Tuesday before parts would be in! EEEEEEK! We wanted to be in Lake Greeson Arkansas by Tuesday with our Oliver and Casita buddies catching catfish and swapping tall tales around the campfire. We said the heck with it, turned the water off to the house, threw all that was left to pack on the bed of the Oliver and left about 3 pm! We were headed out of town! Onward to catfish heaven and camping friends. We drove 2.5 hours or so, pulled into our favorite campground in Fountain FL and finished putting stuff away in the Oliver and readied ourselves for a long journey tomorrow!

We hit the road early, about 9 am headed to highway 84 in Alabama with is our favorite East/West highway! Goes through Alabama, Lousiana and Mississippi and is 4 lane better than good highway most of the way! So many interstate highways have become so ragged and patched from the overabundance of travellers that everything in the trailer gets shook up and messed up. Besides, everybody knows I don't like travelling interstate! So we get to Andalusia Alabama. I had been badgering Chuck about stopping at walmart because I wanted a new Atlas. He finally give in and pulls into Wallyworld to indulge me. While I am in the store, he does his usual walkaround to make sure everything is connected, thumps the tires and feels the hubs to check on the bearings. OWIE! The hub burned the heck out of his hand! Bearings were shot! We had to pull over and get them fixed! Sure, Saturday just a few minutes before noon... right!

We did find one guy in his tire shop getting ready to leave. His mechanic had already left, but he told us we were welcome to dry camp there until Monday AM when his crew returned to work.

Frustrating, but what choice did we have. The bearing seal was noticibly leaking! So we hunkered down. Monday we find out it is much worse. Chuck knows the technical stuff! Our bearings had less than 5,ooo miles on them yet one burned out and fused the castle nut to the ??? axle and we needed a new axle! $200+ later they had us fixed up enough to head up to Hohenwald TN to the Oliver Factory to get a new axle!