Life Changes in a Heartbeat

We left Lake Conroe, TX today, Monday, March 23. We had a great hookup and no problems as we headed down the road. We were about two hours from our destination in Louisiana when we came upon a construction zone on I-10. 

We saw the construction zone, and got ready to move over a lane to stay on I-10 and BAM! We were sideswiped by a truck. Eldy had to swerve to the right to avoid hitting any cars in the main lanes of traffic and we hit a few upright poles separating the concrete barrier zone from the main highway.  We never saw the truck that hit us, and so we pulled off the road to assess the damage. It was quite a lot. Frame damage to the RV, the propane door ripped off and disappeared, a stabilizer jack destroyed, the truck's bumper destroyed, severe dents and scrapes to both truck and RV, sidewall busted on the RV, and more.

The good news is we are ok, and the other driver is ok. No air bags deployed and nobody hurt. Unfortunately, our truck and RV are not ok....And now begins the insurance go around. We will have to cancel our summer plans but there were a number of great blessings despite today's bad accident. Nobody was hurt....we were able to steer off the road to avoid any other collisions. We are ok, just upset. The truck is drivable. The RV can still be towed. The propane tanks got dented but they didn't catch on fire. We got to our campground and the rig towed just fine and the side that was damaged that holds our biggest slide, still opened. Everything inside was shaken around but no damage on the inside. We couldn't get the bay door open to access water for the night, it was jammed, but together Sparky and Eldo managed to work it open. We have water, we have electric and hopefully good insurance--Progessive and Travelers. A huge thunderstorm came in AFTER we had unhooked and got settled in LA. We were blessed that we didn't have to drive in the deluge, or unhook with major lightning and heavy rain all around. Whew!

We are at a REALLY nice park for one night, Cajun Palms RV resort, in Henderson, LA, which is soon to become Camp Margaritaville, taken over by new owners. Big long site, cement pad, tons of activities planned for the future, lots of music and more. They have beautiful cabins for rental, brand new seasonal park models for sale, as well as over 400 hundred cement pad RV sites. The pool area is amazing! It's under renovation as well. There's a bar and restaurant on site, too.

They are putting in a fun water park on site. 

It's a VERY nice place to stay for more than just an overnight. There are lots of green spaces, ponds and lovely areas to walk. 

The staff was super friendly and helpful, and the man who guided us to our site even tried to help us find a way to get the bumper pulled back closer to the truck, but he wasn't able to.

While we were here for two days at Cajun Palms, we had an RV mobile tech come out and check our damaged rig for propane leaks. Our biggest concern was the lines may have been damaged. Fun in the Sun RV Repair came out, Dane was our technician and he did a terrific job of testing the gas lines, the connections and all things gas related to make sure we were good to continue to travel and even use our propane. He even dropped off some visqueen to cover our open propane tank doorway (the door ripped off in the accident) and didn't charge us.

It looks like we will slowly limp towards Indiana but faster than we had planned. We have a place to stay while the RV gets repaired, Eldy's son has told us we can stay with them, as long as it takes, bless his heart. It will probably take all summer to get the RV and the truck fixed, unless they total the RV. If you don't hear from us for awhile, just know that we are trying to get back to Indiana and get things fixed. We'll keep you posted!