Day 25 - Problems on the Road

Ted Yates
Oct 2, 2017
2 min read

(Young James replaces Pat's broken spoke as Pat inspects the work.)

We had a great start to the morning. Aaron and Dale made breakfast for everyone and we had a smooth 10 miles out of Del Rio. At mile 11 we again had to traverse a very rough chipped road. Texas has some of the worst roads I've ever been on. We had 70 miles of numb hands and bone rattling road vibration. We made our first rest stop at mile 30 and learned that our larger vehicle that pulls the trailer was in an accident. Kaylyn was driving and an older woman pulled out and smashed into the trailer and did significant damage. Kaylyn was not injured and it was entirely the woman's fault. The trailer had to be towed back to Del Rio to be repaired. All of our camping gear and personal items were on the van.

After learning of this at the first stop our plans for the night were in limbo since we were supposed to camp in Campwood, TX. James, Nick and I made a wrong turn shortly after mile 30 and by the time we corrected our mistake we had added an additional 10 miles to our 78 mile day.

We traveled on a road that was closed to traffic because the stream had come up and over the road. We had the road to ourselves. Crossing the stream was no big deal.

The last 20 miles were relatively easy and we arrived in Campwood with large appetites. All we talked about was the great smoked ribs we were going to get. We were extremely disappointed to learn that all the restaurants in Campwood are closed on Mondays. We also learned that we'd be staying in the cabins at the campground. However, the van with the trailer wouldn't arrive until midnight.

We went to Family Dollar and bought a cheap set of clothes to hang out in and sleep. I bought enough pasta, sauce and bread to feed all 15 of us and we turned a bad situation into a good night. Of course the beer we got at the Family Dollar helped too.