Kings Branch

Day Six - An early start today to get the vehicle back in to the Dallas depot to see if anything can be done about the alignment to stop the shaking at certain speeds. Arrived and they treated us superbly, not necessarily with the answers we really wanted to hear, but at least very courteously.

The vehicle was being taken immediately to the truck alignment place for them to start work and hopefully wouldn't need any parts, just an alignment. While we waited they drove us to somewhere to have some breakfast and then came back picked us up and took us to this incredible retailers outlet, the place was massive, everything big in Texas they say, no kidding.

I got some Crocs, much to my daughters dismay, and the girls picked up some shoes and clothes at pretty good prices, although with our Aussie dollar exchange rate probably wasn't that cheap at all. I found a nice air conditioned food court to relax while the girls shopped.

Time flew by as I waited for the call that the RV was ready but alas, it never came. By 11:30 I decided it was time for me to call them just to keep focus on our vehicle being finished and was told it was still at the wheel aligners and they would chase it up and get back to me, sure enough a call back straight away saying it would be about another hour or so. I kept a close eye on the time and did a fast calculation of circumstances.

I called the depot and asked them to collect us and take us straight to the aligners for a quick getaway, and here was my thinking; the mechanics would finish the vehicle and move it outside, probably take another 15 minutes before completing the job sheet, 15 more before they called the depot to say it was ready, 5 for the depot to call us and say it was time to go, but then 10 more before the driver could get away to collect us from the shopping centre, 10 min to reach us and then another 10 to get to the aligners. Now by my calculation that would be an extra 1hr 5 mins before we got away.

Hmmm, was I correct, sure enough the driver collected us straight away, we got to the aligners and the RV was sitting there waiting to go but they hadn't called the depot yet, am I good or what.

Collected the RV and headed off for some quick phone issues to be sorted and then finally out of Dallas on the road by 4:00pm some 10 hours behind schedule. A quick discussion with the passengers and we decided we would drive through the night and catch up time to get back on schedule, agreed. Off we went and instead of Little Rock, Arkansas as our destination we dialled forward to Memphis Tennessee.

The plan was that I would drive for a bit to get out of the big smoke and then Sue would jump in and get a feel for the vehicle while it was still daylight. Now, I am braver than most and prepared to try anything, but placing someone behind the wheel of a 34ft class A Motorhome for the first time in their life having driven nothing bigger than a Ford Fairlane was leaving me rather anxious. Remember this vehicle had some steering issues, which by the way had not been fixed by the wheel alignment, thus the lost day was just that, a needless lost day. Now back to the learner driver, nerves were good, effort was excellent but the over correction of steering was leaving me with heart palpitations. I was just settling when an overtaking manoeuvre was required, holy cow, that was it for me, find the next exit and let me out, lol. I think Sue got about 30 minutes behind the wheel, but I decided I was the worlds worst passenger and had to get back behind the wheel. All said though she did a pretty impressive job for a first timer.

Now here I am at 10:30pm at Macca's for a late dinner some 50 miles outside of Memphis. We'll make our way in closer to Memphis and settle down for the night at a rest stop and then tomorrow we will be ready to visit the fabled Gracelands Mansion, so looking forward to that, so good night for now and check back tomorrow for some snaps of Gracelands.Read more