Day 9 - Tuesday, December 12th - Riverbend RV Park (Richmond, TX) to Padre Balli Park (North Padre Island/Corpus Christi)

 Today we travelled from Richmond, TX to North Padre Island/Corpus Christi, TX, about 250 miles. It was a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature in the low 70's. Traffic was moderate to light. 

Once again there was a LOT of miles of road construction. Last year when we were down here we chuckled as we say numerous signs on US59 stating "Future I69". When we lived in Michigan and Indiana I69 ran from Indianapolis up through my hometown of Coldwater, Michigan to Lansing, Michigan and then east over to the border with Canada. During the summer of 1967, the year Kathy & I were married, I worked as a "rodman" on an I69 surveying crew as it was under construction in the Marshall, Michigan area. Seeing "Future I69" signs in southern Texas was humorous.

Today we drove along side of miles of US59 that had been torn up so that "Future I69" could be built on the same right of way. I took the photo below, of US59, immediately after we came out of the construction area. Other than putting a lot of contractors to work I'm not sure of who benefits from this expenditure. I did see that this route is also called the NAFTA highway. I guess politicians want to speed up delivery of cheap goods from Mexico.

We topped off our tank with 81 gallons of biodiesel in Beasly, TX, $3.39/gallon. Maybe 50 miles later we saw fuel for $3.17/gal. As we entered the Corpus Christi area it was $3.15/gal at a Walmart, then $2.96/gal at a Sam's. In Corpus Christi regular gas ranges from $2.41-2.55/gal. It will be interesting to see if the biodiesel is noticeable. When we were out west a few years ago, pulling our travel trailer with my Duramax, I kept track of fuel mileage on every tank. Fuel mileage was noticeably worse with tankful's containing mostly biodiesel.

We parked at a rest area to have lunch. There were more wrecks headed south.

The view from the office after checking in at Padre Balli. It was windy. There were no people in the water.

Parked at Padre Balli.

We unhooked the car at the office and as I drove it to our site I noticed a tire thumping. We checked and found that one of the front tires was "flat spotted". Apparently at some time during the trip down here today, or maybe yesterday, the braking unit that sits on the floor of the car and applies the brakes when the coach slows down, malfunctioned and locked up the front tires. I think one of the front tires is down to the cords where it is flat spotted. I paid $921 for these tires when we were in Traverse City, Michigan in August 2022. They have 15,000 miles on them and should have been good for 60,000 miles. https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2022/08/monday-august-29th-new-tires.html

I was not happy with the operation of the Blue Ox brake system but the law treats towed cars like trailers and you must have a system the applies the brakes when you slow down. I have talked to guys who said they just threw theirs on the floor of the car and didn't hook it up. If they were stopped by the police and questioned about the unit they would say they weren't sure how it came unhooked. As a Christian I can't lie about the issue but this thing is obviously dangerous if it can lock up the tires on the car while it is being towed. I may set it in place but make sure it can't apply the brakes. 

Praise God the tire did not blow out when we were doing 65 mph towing the car. 

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours as He has blessed me.