I am in the Lake Texana State Park in Edna, Texas. A very nice park with decent size spaces, paved roads, and decent washrooms. I've been here before and knew it would be a good place to stop.

The past few days have been stressful. I wanted to leave the campground in Egan, Louisiana early in the morning. When the alarm woke me I realized I didn't know where my new, expensive hearing aid was. An hour later I found it in the corner of a box of miscellaneous junk. So now I'm leaving an hour later than planned.

A couple of hours on the highway I realize the truck is acting the same way as before I had the new fuel tank installed. I'm most of the way to the new campground in Texas, where I will research my choices. Then I hear a large bang and the sound of metal scraping the pavement. I managed to get to the breakdown lane and stop. I'm on I59 in Houston Texas. It's a four lane highway with 75 mile an hour speed limit. Not a very comfortable place to be. Just to get out to see what is wrong I have to wait many minutes for a small break in traffic to open the door and step out. My exhaust system has broken off on the front and is still fastened in the back. If I try driving it will catch on something and impale the truck bed.

I decide I need to be towed to someplace safe. At this point I am thankful I have kept up my membership in AAA. A call to AAA gets me assurances they will take care of me. After a number of phone calls explaining my situation and the type of vehicle I'm in a towing company is called. That leads to more explaining, where I am, what the vehicle is, and where I want to go.

After an hour of all this and the constant rocking from passing traffic a wonderful helper shows up with a heavy duty tow truck. He slides under the truck and uses some of my paracord to tie the system up away from the road. We then head for the campground eighty miles away. We stop on the way and I treat for supper. He didn't even argue over the bill, which made me feel good. We get to the campground at nine in the evening. He parks me in my spot. Wishes me good luck and heads home.
I collapse and go to bed.

The next day I look at the situation and realize the truck is driveable if you don't mind waking everyone within a quarter mile. I check-in with the park and get a couple of recommendations for a place that can weld the system back together. I head out for Edna Texas about six miles away. Half way there the exhaust hits the pavement again. The heat of the exhaust has gotten to the paracord. This time I am on a back road with very little traffic. I get under the truck and tie things up again with heavier stuff. When I get into Edna, which is a very small town, I find Crossroads Collision Repair is willing to do the job. Three hours later the truck is whole again.

The whole experience just illustrates how good things really are. AAA was very competent and concerned about my safety. I'm very happen I've kept up my membership for 61 years. Kevin the tow truck driver was extremely competent and went well beyond what he had to do to get me safe and in a place I could catch up to what I needed to do. Adrian at Crossroads in Edna made sure the truck was repaired and the charge was very reasonable.

Today I went back into Edna and bought a couple of bottles of dry-gas as I thought maybe I just had water in the gas and that was causing the uneven running. Then I drove twenty miles to test the theory and buy a couple of things for my bicycle. Problem is still there.

I have an appointment for Tuesday morning to get things checked out. This trip has not been much fun, but has made me so appreciative of the goodness of people.