Days of Fun - Overnighting at Seven Points COE Campground in Tennessee

It’s been a grand time. Yesterday, we went into the town of Wynne. I stuck to my diet in spite of the aroma of barbecue lunches the other gals had (I’m just ignoring cheating at all other times). We walked through the town—I don’t think we went by one person who didn’t give us a cheerful hello. First, we went to Walmart and picked up a few necessary items. We hit a few “antique/junk” shops, and I picked up a few things. It seems as though I get things out of one door of the house and bring in things through another door. If I decide to sell the house when I return from the west, the grandkids can have some fun shopping in my house. The rest will be in a very big garage sale. I only need so much for an apartment.

We were lucky. The bad weather we were watching coming closer to us wound up being some rain during one night and bright sunshine the rest of the time I was there. I understand it rained or was supposed to after I left.

Hitching up was difficult this morning, but Wilson and I were able to get it done—mostly Wilson who has a talent for fixing things. I still love the way the hitch works with the trailer. I had one mishap. Fortunately, I had decided to stop at a rest stop to stretch my legs. When I went to turn, the truck shook so hard and steering was so bad that I couldn’t pull in where I was supposed to. The steering wheel just wouldn’t let me so I pulled straight ahead to the car section. As people were yelling at me and waving their arms (and voicing their annoyance) I looked for and found a spot where I was out of their way. I pulled over to check the trailer and hitch. As I walked back to the hitch, one of the people who was yelling the loudest at me stopped and said there was a lot of movement in the trailer. I think he felt badly. He probably just thought I made a mistake and didn’t use the park/trailer section.

The sway bars were very loose. I noticed that though I had the chains underneath every thing I didn’t have them between what I think are the struts so I think the chains got bound up on the turn. I changed that and tightened everything up. I made one more stop to double check that things were okay about 50 miles down the road in another rest stop. Everything was good. It was a scare, but a good way to learn how to figure out what was wrong.

Okay, there was another problem, too. Unfortunately, when I bought this trailer I got no instructions and no walk through hitching and unhitching. You need one if you are going to buy a Hensley. The trailer started to sway—a lot! So, I pulled off the highway and went back to check everything. It turned out that the nuts on the struts were loose. We had tightened them before I left, but I guess I’ll check them more often for a while. Usually, after a long drive (and it was a long drive (I sat in traffic for a total of 3 hours) I come in and relax before unhitching. Traffic was terrible all the way from Nashville and I landed in Atlanta at commute hour. Fortunately, I got off 75 before hitting the perimeter (I85) and took a longer route on side streets for about 20 miles because I heard on the radio that there was trouble at the intersection—that could mean hours.

I am overnighting at Seven Points COE Campground. It’s a beautiful park and a bargain at only $22. Coming down there was a terrible accident going west on I40. A semi hit a DOT truck and killed a man standing in front of it (they had been changing a tire. Two or three others were seriously injured. Traffic was backed up for at leas 25 miles as I40 was closed going west. I saw that they were diverting traffic. I bet some of those people before they diverted sat there 4 or 5 hours.

Both Campgrounds Were Great. Seven Points Near Nashville has huge sites as you can see.

Part of the lake. I took some sunset pictures, but they weren't that great.

There's a Sandy Beach, But I thought these rocks were unusual.

The reason I left early was so I could take flowers to the cemetery so I didn’t follow my regular routine, but something went askew unhitching. It rained, today, so I’m going to see if I can fix things, tomorrow. Hensley isn’t open until Monday. I know I did everything right because I was reading the manual and my notes. I drove away and the hitch spat out my yellow blocks. I hooked up, again, and the same thing happened only this time, I couldn’t hitch back up so I took part of the hitch off and will will try to put “Humpty Dumpty” together again, tomorrow. Since I wrote this, Jim Dixon called me and suggested a great solution. Hensley also contacted me--I'll talk to them tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I can put everything back together BUT I sure wish I had an expert's eyes to tell me I did it all right. The next time I tow, I'll be a bit nervous for a while.

I have come to the conclusion that I need to buy some wood from Home Depot to put under the hitch when parked—maybe square plastic leveling blocks are just too light. I also ordered a torque wrench. I really had no idea what a torque wrench was or did, but Jim explained it to me. I can use it to tighten the lugs on the tires, too. Nothing was mentioned about it when I picked up the trailer and it didn’t come with the hitch. The instructions said to tighten the strut nuts 45 degrees or pounds or whatever. Huh? No sleep last night so I’m forgetting names of things which isn’t out of the ordinary. It’s 5:25 a.m. and I don’t know whether to stay up or try to get a few hours sleep if I can sleep.
Well that’s my story of fun and woe all wrapped into one! Oh, if there’s anyone reading, I’ve forgotten how to get to my dashboard to insert pictures, would you leave a comment, please. Oops. Never mind. I found it.

I'll leave saying I'd still buy a Hensley. It towed that well. I'm in a learning curve and Sandy said she was in tears the first few trips with theirs. So, I feel better. Rained all day to day. I finally went to bed at 8 a.m. and got four hours sleep. It's time, now. Don't let my snoring disturb you.