How do you wreck both jacks on your RV? Drive a 40-foot fifth wheel through a mud puddle on your way out of a field. "This is not good, it's bad. Very, very, very bad. It's sideways." That was us, standing next to the RV, looking at a jack buried in the dirt.
Let us back up a little. Last week we found a free spot in the middle of the Texas grassland, at Rita Blanca National Grassland. Cows for neighbors, endless sky, and it was only supposed to be one night. We ended up staying the whole week. Leaving turned out to be the hard part.
Day four on the grass
This was the same day as the cattle drive from part one. The herd went past in the morning, we worked, and after work Fabiola made dinner: chicken with teriyaki, a little ketchup, broccoli and pasta. She put a lot of salt in it and says she destroyed the dish. It wasn't too bad.
It was windy, 38 miles per hour. The day before had been beautiful, and then the remnants of a hurricane came through with the clouds and rain. The fields around us turned out to be some kind of crop, corn or wheat, we couldn't tell which from where we were.
No generator yet
The batteries were at 69%, and Nathan can see that on his watch now. We didn't get a whole lot of solar with the clouds, but there was enough for the night, and we were leaving the next day anyway.
We're almost at two years of having the RV, and we still haven't bought a generator. Nathan wants to see how long we can go without one. The batteries go a long way when we don't need the air conditioning, so if we boondock where it's between about 60 and 70 degrees, we're fine. Too warm, and we open a window or crack the door. Too cold, and the furnace runs on propane, which we don't want to use too much, so we heat the place up, close the windows, and put on a sweatshirt. This time the batteries lasted way longer than we expected. Our solar and battery setup is written up on the site if you want the details.
Showering on a water budget
Water was the other thing we had to manage. We didn't plan very well, because this was going to be a one-night stopover on the way somewhere else. Then the place was cool, so we stayed with the cows.
We were still showering every day, just very fast. Here's how. Keep a bucket in the shower. While the water warms up, it goes into the bucket instead of down the drain. When it's hot, shower quickly. That bucket of clean water then goes into the toilet when you flush, so you don't use fresh water from the tank for that.
Checking the way out
We wanted to show you what the rain did. Right by the gate we came in through in part one, there was the hole Nathan had steered around on the way in, with the truck and the RV straddling it. After the rain it was full of mud, and a little bigger, because the cowboys' truck and horses had been through it with the herd.
The plan was simple: go out the same way we came in, wheels on both sides of the hole. Nathan had a plan, and it would probably work great, unless there was some rock he wasn't expecting.
Leaving on Friday
Friday was the last day. We cleaned the slides, brought them in, and raised the jacks with auto retract. Neither of us had opened the gate. The cowboys left both gates open after they moved the cows. Water pump off, ready to go, faster than we expected.
Nathan's plan was to drive a loop through the field and come at the gap straight, the same way we came in. Fabiola watched from outside, mostly wondering whether a cactus could pop one of our tires.
The jacks went in
The truck went through fine. The RV did not. Its wheels dropped into the puddle, the RV leaned, and we heard a loud noise. One of the jacks was buried in the mud, and a SnapPad had come off and was sitting in the puddle. Then we found the front SnapPad was gone too.
The tricky part: if Nathan went forward, the jack caught. If he backed up, the jack caught. We talked about just going forward and sacrificing the jack, since it had already dragged through the mud and might be broken anyway. Fabiola didn't love either answer, and looking at the RV, sitting sideways in the hole, neither did Nathan.
Plan two
Nathan decided to back up. The front jack would scrape again, but it was mud and dirt, and backing up would get the wheels out of the hole so he could line it up better. Looking back, he had overshot to one side of the puddle by about two feet.
Backing a fifth wheel out of a hole is its own puzzle. There was a little hill next to the puddle, and if he turned too hard on it, the back of the truck would hit the RV. Fabiola guided him from outside while he backed up, turned, backed up a little more, and tried again. There was one moment where she told him "you are right" and he heard "you're all right", which didn't help. Then he did a bigger loop to come in straight, made a big right turn, very slow, and we were out.
"Oh my goodness, we're clear."
The damage
The tires were covered in mud, and one jack had been through a lot. We checked them all, and they looked solid. We were worried about a jack falling off on the highway, but nothing looked loose or bent. They're strong.
The SnapPads came off, but we got them back, and they just snap back on. Nathan was actually glad that's what they did. Instead of fighting the mud, the pad basically gave up and let go. If you haven't seen them, here is our review of the SnapPads on our Brinkley.
What we learned
This boondocking spot broke a lot of rules, starting with arriving after dark. If the rain had come the day before we got there, that mud would have been waiting for us in the dark, and we would have been in trouble all night. Getting stuck in the puddle was more of a driving mistake than a boondocking one. Then again, you don't usually find a giant mud hole at an RV park, and we had just come from a fancy resort.
The lesson Nathan took away: even when the truck makes it over, watch the RV too. The RV takes longer to react than you expect, and the jacks sit low. When the front jacks start dragging, that's your sign the trailer wheels are sinking into the mud. We have the drone footage, so he's going back to see exactly when he turned.
It was too good to be true that nothing would happen in a whole beautiful week on the grass. We're still grateful we stopped here.
Next week
We're heading east. It's three days of travel to the next national park, and we're not saying which one yet. One hint: it's hot, and there's water. Leave your guess in the comments on the video.
If you want to find a free spot like this one, we wrote up how we use Campendium to find free boondocking. We also send a short weekly newsletter, and the signup is on our newsletter page.