Sunday, April 24, 2011

Quite a windy day

We drove about 230 miles from Amarillo TX yesterday to the KOA west of Oklahoma City. We have seen worse winds but never seen anything like this. In our truck bed we have an auxiliary fuel tank/toolbox combo unit right behind the cab. Since we have a fifth wheel we have a hitch mounted above the axle. Between the hitch and the tank/toolbox we have three plastic storage boxes with lids. We have towed in higher winds but today was disruptive. One of the plastic storage boxes has books, one has some filing and other books, and one, the lighter one, has miscellaneous items.

About 50 miles into the trip Bob looked back and saw the lighter plastic box lifting up. We stopped along the side of the road and adjusted the boxes and started up again. Well that worked for about 10 miles and it happened again so we stopped by the side of the road and Bob added some books and the charcoal bag to weigh it down. Back on the road Bob noticed that the plastic bag around the cardboard box that we use to carry our satellite tripod was ripping off in the wind. At the next rest stop Bob re-taped the bag around the box. Not to be outdone the demonic plastic box was now at it again after about 20 miles from the rest stop, this time one of the latches on the lid came loose and Bob saw it flapping up and down still attached luckily to the other latch. Another stop to adjust the latch figuring he must have hit it with the tripod box and back on the road.

Well you guessed it the latch came loose again and Bob saw it flapping up and down so we pulled off yet again and Bob just put the dang thing in the back seat. So that makes two rest stops and four times on the side of the road on our trip. Once we got to our campground Bob got some tape and taped all four sides of the lid. We'll see how that goes on our next leg to Wichita KS hopefully it won't be the same wind direction and speed that must have been just right to cause such disruption that we have not seen before in all of our towing.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

2 comments:

  1. We've been wondering and worrying about you! Glad to hear that you are "okay" in spite of those pesky containers!!! May you continue to enjoy safe journeys!

    Paws and Friends

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  2. Sorry we missed you all. I'm on a plane headed to DC today :-( third time this month. I got your voice mail a couple of days after you left it! I could tell you some horror stories about the wind between AMA and OKC. Glad you made it safe. See you on the backside.

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