Baton Rouge KOA, Denham Springs, LA
May 03, 04 2007
Everything was fine on the trip toward Baton Rouge until we got to a Rest Area in Mississippi. I happened to notice that the front of the slide was sticking out about an inch. It was fine at the last stop.... I thought that I must have pressed the toggle sw moving the slide out a bit by accident. I never thought about the rear of the slide being in the correct location flush to the trailer wall. As soon as pressed the toggle sw, I heard a loud CLUNK. I knew then that I was in trouble. The slide seemed stable with the poles in holding it, so we continued on to the the Baton Rouge KOA. We got there right after a thunder storm and when I crawled under the trailer to see what the problem was, I got soaked. I found that the front slide rail bolt had snapped off. Apparently the slide rail shifted out of alignment more than they had before. I have no idea what caused them to shift. Now the two rails are bout 3 inches out of alignment. I tried to work the broken bolt stud out of the threads so I could put a new bolt in. No luck. So we called Gauthier's, the local Sunnybrook dealer in Lafayette, LA. It was about 4:30PM when we called and the service guys there told me that they were booked up solid on Friday, Saturday and Monday. I said that I would leave the rig on their lot in case they could get to it. As soon as I mentioned that the slide rails were out of alignment , they said NO. They gave me some numbers of some other places I had never heard about. I called the local RV repairman that comes to the campground. He said he "may" be able to get to me by Tuesday.....
We called Keith... He came by and we started hunting for a hardware store to find some 1/2 -20 bolts. The slide normally takes a 1 inch bolt. Since it is so badly out of alignment, I was looking for a 3 or 4 inch bolt along with some washers to use as spacers. I also had to get a tool to get the broken bolt out. I already had a drill and bits. No luck finding any of the items before most of the stores closed for the day. We stayed at Keith's house for the night....
The next day, we found a local hardware shop and got all the necessary parts/tools. Back to the campground. It had rained heavily all night with thunder storms and tornado warnings. A lot of rain had come down and the site we were on was pretty soaked and muddy. So we moved the trailer to a site that was higher and drier (site 12). Just as we got the trailer moved, another thunder storm moved in. This one dropped 5 inches of rain in an hour or so. Most of the roads were flooded, flash flood warnings had been issued and we gave it up for the day. Back to Keith's house....
May 05, 2007
Today is a beautiful day with the sun shining and drying out everything. We headed off the the campground to start work on the trailer. To get the slide out far enough to get the drill into the broken stud, we had to remove the last bolt on the rear of the slide. After doing this, we pulled out the slide manually until it starting tilting out. We managed to hold it in position and push it in a bit so it was stable. This gave me enough room to get the drill in to the bolt to start drilling a hole in it. After getting the hole drilled, we backed the broken bolt out of the threads. We got the new 3 inch bolt in position on the front slide rail with about 2 1/2 inches of washers in place as spacers. After screwing that one in tight, we replaced the rear bolt that we had removed. Naturally, we could not get the bolt to line up with the hole on the rear slide rail. We had to use a hydraulic jack to lift the slideout a quarter inch to get the slide in alignment with the slide rail. After both bolts were torqued down, we gently ran the slide in. Since the front rail is so far out of alignment, the end of the rail hits the bracket before the slideout is fully against the trailer wall. This is what caused the bolt to break earlier.... So I have to leave the front of the slideout with a slight gap on the front of the slide when it is in the closed position.
Given the unknown nature of the failure that caused to slide to get so far out of alignment, we decided to cancel the rest of the trip and go straight home. There we can get a service appointment at our local dealer and bring the trailer in at that future date. I can still open the slide OK. But I have to be very careful when bringing the slide back in to not go too far.
We
decided to stay at Keith's and go back to the campground on Monday to hit
the road. After lunch, we went to the
LSU Rural Life Museum.
The museum includes more than 25 buildings spread over 5 acres of the
plantation. The Barn contains hundreds of artifacts dealing with
everyday rural life up to the early 20th century. The working
plantation consists of a complex of buildings that are authentically
furnished to reconstruct all the major activities of life on the typical
19th century working plantation. This place was very interesting in
seeing how the slaves and other workers on the plantation lived and worked.
This photo is of the interior of one of the 'real' slave cabins....
May 06, 2007
We drove up to St Francisville today to visit some
plantations. The first one we stopped at was
The Myrtles
Plantation. This is supposed to be the most haunted plantation in the
area. It is a Bed & Breakfast now and only the first floor is
open to the tours. It is only 4-5 rooms but the story the guide told
us was very interesting. There were no photos allowed except in one
location in the hallway. The mirror there has been a known location
where ghosts and spirits have been documented and photographed. One of
my photos showed some hazy area. Is it a ghost?? Who knows???
I did not include it here because when I shrink the photo down to fit here,
you could not see the 'apparition' anyway.
The next place we went to was Rosedown Plantation. This is a State Historical Site and is better maintained that The Myrtles was. It is also bigger and the tour included all the rooms on both floors. There are large gardens to wander through here also. There were no ghosts here though....
Updated: 06/02/2007