Posts Tagged ‘Galveston’

27 Jun

“Your car is on fire.”

Posted by offthegridwithcathyherman in How's the Car?, On the Move, Places, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , .

Driving back to Houston from Galveston without remembering to take the car out of first gear was in retrospect a really stupid thing to do, but I did it anyway.  “Your car is on fire” not words we ever want to hear.  I pulled over to the side of the 610 loop and jumped out.  The car immediately gasped its last breath and spilled it’s oil all over the ground.  I put an engine rod through the oil pan, destroying the engine.

Sabino from the Shell station on the West Road exit off I-45 agreed to put in a new engine for $1,750 and get me going.  BTW, that is after Shalom Car Service, the shop AAA towed me to, quoted $3,959 and said the tranny was blown, it was not.

While the car was being repaired, we decided to take the RV to Dallas.  The RV backfired and stopped in the middle of 7 lanes of traffic on the 610 loop.  When the Houston motorcycle officer pulled up next to my window, I immediately started blabbering incoherently, he looked horrified, and asked me if I could back the RV to the side of the road if he stopped traffic.  After stopping 7 lanes of Houston traffic I backed the rv to the side of the road without power steering, glad I wasn’t towing the car.  A battery cable had shaken loose, we were on our way in minutes after David made the repair.

19 Jun

The Sunday edition…..

Posted by offthegridwithcathyherman in On the Move, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , .

Hold onto your reins folks its going to be a wild ride.  Can you tell I’m in Texas?

Last time I wrote, my car was getting a new set of tires in Albuquerque, NM.  I have been texting and talking to my friend David, who I met in Portland, and he was in Houston, TX.  Come on down to Houston and visit, was the simple request. I checked my iPhone and Houston was only 884 miles and I figured, what the heck.

Well…….David’s dad sells RV’s and he had a 1986 Fleetwood Southwind 26′ fully equipped in his girlfriends driveway. ” I will let her go for $3,000 cash, and your sleeping in a tent, step up to luxury my friend ” David’s dad David, Sr. is truly a salesman who understands the correct buttons to push, I liked him right away.

So……….I now own a 1986 RV.  It did have a few problems and David and his dad agreed to help me work them out and get things in shape so I am safe on the road.  I had to have a tow bar attached to my car so I could bring it with me.  The generator needed repaired, we found some incredibly nice redneck southern guys who put in a whole new generator.  These two fine men made me feel like I was with my Dad and they even took the time to look over the RV to make sure I was safe.  Thanks so much to Mark from North Houston, you truly are a gentleman.

So, our first drive was from Houston to Galveston, about an hour south and a good test drive for me.  I was terrified to be driving a 26′ vehicle towing my car, are you freaking kidding!!  ok, I can do this, old folk do it all the time.  I got us to Galveston, we hooked everything up and turned on the water and the shower started to immediately leak.  Noticing the new handles in the tub, I opened the box and we repaired the shower, which is now working beautifully.

Texas is incredibly hot, humid and everything here sticks ya, stabs ya or grabs ya.  Galveston has lots of drive on beaches and having a rv, with all my stuff, my car and air conditioning, makes life much easier.  I am looking forward to setting it up on a beach in California.

Cathy

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