South
Toledo Bend State Park was really nice. We decided to stay
several days. On our departure we damaged a skylight over
our bathroom thus exposing the inside world to the outside
world. Fortunately, the rain we had that night only
dripped into the shower pan rather than over the entire
bathroom. But, independent of the dripping, an immediate
fix was required as much more rain was in the forecast.
The photos below are what we saw.
A
parting shot of Toledo Bend taken from the dock adjacent to our
campsite. The winds were calm and the high clouds presaged
the coming storm. The reflections of the clouds produced a
dreamy pattern on the glass-smooth water. We left Toledo
Bend and headed towards Natchez, MS.
Next
morning we headed toward Hattiesburg, MS and found a campsite
for the night. The following morning, the cleanup from the
rain forced us to find a solution.
As it turns out, our campsite was very close to a large RV
dealership with an extensive parts department. While we
did not find an exact replacement for our Lance camper, we did
find something that would likely work and was good enough.
We rolled from Hattiesburg to Gulfport and found a place to stay
for a couple of days while we executed repairs. As we were
turning into the campsite, we saw another Mercedes expedition
camper coming down the road toward us. This truck is a
1019, while Thor is a 1017A ("A" means 4x4). We did not
meet these people, but concluded they were European.
A photo looking up
from inside the bathroom. We have already removed the
inner skylight dome revealing the extensive damage that the
low-hanging branch did to the plastic dome. Trees with
Spanish Moss are visible through the hole in the roof.
The
chosen replacement for the skylight was an industry-standard
manual vent that has essentially the same form factor as the
skylight and hopefully will be close enough to do the job and
more easily available should more damage happen.
The gal
at the RV place gave us good tips on getting the job done and
one of the most important was the use of a strong solvent to
remove the roof sealer. The sealer, called "Dico" is a
liquid rubber compound that is really strong and has high
adhesion. The roof of the camper has a special waterproof
membrane that cannot be violated unless you want a leak.
So, special care was needed and the solvent helped make a really
nasty job somewhat easier. In this case "somewhat" is
misleading as the repair took 4.5 hours to scrape off the
adhesive from the flanges of a 14"x14" vent. I discovered
that the actual fixture was held on with some kind of hard-core
silicone adhesive UNDER the Dico. I could not find a way
to remove it without damaging the membrane, so I elected to cut
off the remaining plastic with my air-powered die grinder.
The plan was to attach the new fixture on top of the remaining
flange. I was on the roof on my knees for the duration and it
was not fun. It was hard-dark when we completed and rain
was in the forecast for that night so we had the required
urgency to finish the job. The rain came on schedule and
the repair did not leak.
The
following morning, despite breezy conditions, we took the EUCs
to the Gulfport boardwalk for a ride.
The
boardwalk goes for miles in each direction. To the east,
the tall buildings are casinos.
To the
west is the center of Gulfport and the harbor. Kathleen
gives the "lets roll" signal. We rolled the entire length
of the boardwalk and then back to the RV park. We arrived
back at the camper just in time for rain. When the rain
abated, we walked to the nearby marina for dinner and cocktails.
The
following morning, on our way out of Gulfport, we decided to
return to the marina area to ride in Jones Park. There
were many miles of smooth sidewalks and we did them all in
multiple iterations. Around noon, we loaded up and headed
east toward Mobile, AL. We spent the night at a very nice
place called Outback RV. The place was owned by an
Australian couple and was neat and clean.
Kathleen likes caves
and decided that we should visit Florida Caverns as it was on
our way. It was a state park but only moderately
interesting as a cave. It was small with only minimal
"decorations". Above is a "drape", sometimes called
"cave bacon".
My
iPhone did a respectable job of taking photos despite the very
dim conditions.
The
walking surface of the cave showed patterns typical of sea
bottom in shallow areas.
Several
of the formations had varying colors of deposits.
Some of
the alcoves were heavily decorated.
A rather
large formation in one of the bigger rooms in the cave system.
We
finished at the caverns and continued east, then south to Perry,
FL. We stayed at the KOA there and got a nice spot
underneath a huge Live Oak tree dripping with Spanish Moss.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2023, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.