Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Autumn in Vermont!

Morning fog in the RV park in southern Vermont.

The autumn colors are just beginning to show themselves. This photo was taken on September 13th.

Salmond Bridge near Weathersfield, Vermont.

White Rocks National Recreation Area.
Hello from Dorset, Vermont! I've promised myself many times that I'd spend autumn in the northeastern United States and, finally, I'm doing it. I arrived in Dorset in early September and plan to stay until the middle of October. By then, the peak foliage season should be over with cold weather soon to follow and I will hitch up and get the heck outta Dodge! I'm not making any promises but, since I'd love to see this area when it's covered with snow, I'm considering stashing my rig in the south somewhere and heading back this way for a week or so once winter sets in. Only time will tell if I'm brave enough to follow through with that idea.

Things got off to a rocky start here due to a foolish mistake on my part. As I'm traveling, I normally stow things in the bed of my truck pretty securely but I failed to do so this time. As I was passing through the state of New York, one edge of a heavy rubber door mat was apparently blowing in the wind and caught the cable on the breakaway switch on the fifth-wheel. The breakaway switch is a safety device that applies full brakes to the fifth-wheel in the event that it detaches itself from the truck while being towed. Well, the fifth-wheel did not come loose from the truck but since the breakaway switch was pulled accidentally, let's say it "thought it did". So, it applied full brakes to the fifth-wheel and I felt a sudden jolt in the truck. I knew something had happened but just didn't know what. I was wondering if maybe I'd ran over a cow which I did not see. Luckily, that didn't turn out to be the case. My Ram 3500 dually with the Cummins diesel engine is a horse of a truck and said "I'll pull that trailer with the brakes applied, no problem" so we (my truck and I) continued down the interstate. Remember, I still did not know what had happened but since my truck was continuing to pull the trailer with seemingly little effort, I felt it best to find an exit rather than pull over on the side of the interstate. After I'd pulled over and was getting out of the truck, it didn't take long to figure out what had happened. Have you ever enjoyed the smell of burning brakes? It's a distinct odor you won't soon forget and I could smell it as soon as I got out of the cab of the truck. Okay, so at this point, I'll make a long story short. I found the breakaway switch was pulled so I reinserted that. Unfortunately, the brakes on the trailer were toast (literally) so I continued on my way, only with no trailer brakes. I arrived safely in Dorset and immediately arranged for a mobile RV repair service to come fix my rig. I was embarrassed by my mistake and paid dearly to have the damage repaired. Lesson learned.

That's about it for now! Until next time!