The heavy rain in the forecast didn’t happen Sunday afternoon. Instead, weather-wise, it was one of the nicest days we had in Rockport, Texas. I had already loaded the trailer, including the scooter. We thought about unloading the scooter, but decided against it. We didn’t need to go anywhere and I didn’t want to get it out of the trailer when the weather can change in an instant.

Donna took a long morning walk. She went out Copano Ridge Road to Harbor Point on Copano Bay. Her round trip was about five miles. After lunch, we went out and walked together around the park. We went out on the fishing pier – there was no sign of the jellyfish we saw there before. The wind was light and it was getting hot out. The temperature reached the upper 80s.

While it was dry out, I decided to take care of one more maintenance task. I should change the fuel filter for our Cummins ISL diesel engine annually. I had put this off because I couldn’t find my spare fuel filter. I always like to have a spare filter on hand in case I get a load of bad fuel on the road. I ordered a replacement filter when I bought the air filter element. My intention was to install the spare filter I’d had for a year at that time and rotate the new filter into the spare role.

On Sunday, I got serious about finding my spare filter. Normally it would’ve been in a bin in the trailer where I keep things like that, but I remembered putting it into a basement compartment where it would easier to retrieve when were loaded up and traveling. If I could only remember where I put it. Donna suggested that I take everything out of one of the compartments. Way in the back, there was a cardboard box I didn’t recognize. I opened the box and there it was! It was in an Amazon box – I was expecting to find a Cummins Fleetguard box.

Changing the fuel filter is always a messy deal. Fuel drips when the old filter is removed. You have to be sure the rubber seal in the center comes off with the old filter, then install the new seal before screwing the new filter in place. Once the new filter is tightened, the fuel will stop leaking.

I marked the new filter 6-15 so I won’t have to remember when it was changed. The last step in the replacement procedure is to turn on the ignition key for 30 seconds. This activates the lift pump and pumps fuel into the empty filter. I repeated this four times for a total of two minutes fuel pump run time. The next time the engine is started, it will purge the air from the system at low idle, then it will run normally. This procedure works for CAPS injection systems and high-pressure common rail (HPCR) injection systems found on Cummins diesel engines. This is better than pre-filling the filter. Pre-filling the filter with fuel runs the risk of introducing unfiltered contaminants into the injection system. It doesn’t take much to ruin a fuel injector.

Around 5pm, a few clouds were passing overhead. We heard a sudden crack of thunder as lightning struck nearby and the rain began to fall. It rained off and on most of the night. Donna made fish tacos with fresh tilapia for dinner. They are so yummy with blackened tilapia.

On Monday morning, the sun came out and we had mostly clear skies. I dumped and flushed the tanks while Donna finished packing the interior items. When I fired up the Cummins, it stalled the first time. I restarted it and it settled into a normal idle and ran fine. I checked the fuel filter one more time for leaks as I did my walkaround before we hit the road.

Our route took us up TX35 along Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to TX185. We followed TX185 through Victoria, then hit TX77. This took us north through La Grange. I couldn’t help but sing parts of the ZZ Top song about a cat house in La Grange.

 

Further up the road we came to a screeching halt. Many Texas highways have high speed limits even though there are driveways and cars stopping to turn or cars entering the highway without an acceleration lane to allow them to merge with traffic. Apparently some one had pulled out of the gas station on our left and a car coming down the highway collided with it. It looked bad and was obviously a high-speed collision.

It was a reminder to stay alert and ready for cars entering the highway or braking suddenly. In an RV, keeping your distance is imperative. I can’t stop 33,000 pounds in the same distance as a 4,000-pound car.

We made our way to Bryan, Texas. I stopped at Big Gas Travel Center and pumped 60 gallons of fuel to top off our tank. In this humid climate, I like to keep the tank full when we are parked to minimize condensation in the air space of the tank. I also added Biobor JF to the tank.

When I went inside to pay, my Chase credit card was declined! I tried it twice, then I used my debit card to pay the fuel bill. When we arrived at Primrose Lane RV Park, my credit card was declined again. This happened frequently when we first started traveling cross country. The security folks at Chase thought all the charges in different states were suspicious. I talked to them last year and they added notes to my account indicating that frequent travel and large fuel bills were normal.

I called the number on my Chase card and through their automated system, I was able to authorize the charge for two nights at the RV park. I also added travel information. The system only allows me to indicate travel for up to twelve months. So next summer, I’ll have to go through this again. We have a 90-foot long pull-through site on a concrete pad. It easily fits our rig and I didn’t have to drop the trailer. The site is narrow though, only about 12 feet wide.

Once we were set up, I went online to pay my Flying J fuel bill. I charged $534 for fuel at Flying J during the month of May. I have my account set up with Flying J to pay electronically. It wouldn’t go through. I tried a couple of times but kept getting an error message telling me to call customer service.

I called and was put on hold for 15 minutes. When the representative picked up, I could hear some background noise but he didn’t say anything. I said, “Hello?” Then he said, “Hi, how are you?” I said, “Fine, is this Flying J?” He said it was – seemed pretty unprofessional to me. I told him what my issue was and he said the system was down for maintenance and I should try again tomorrow. Really? The system is down for maintenance and you give people an error message telling them to call? Why not have the message say the system is down for maintenance until XX? Or record a message to that effect for incoming calls? End of rant.

We plan to head over to College Station and have a look around today. Donna would like to get a bike ride in, but the roads around here in Bryan don’t have much shoulder and it may be too dangerous. We’ve booked two nights here at $18/night for full hook-ups with 50 amp service with Passport America. Tomorrow we plan to head east to Shreveport, Louisiana.