3/27/22 Since we weren’t going to boondock on Padre Island for 7 days we needed to find a location until our next destination/reservation. We found a place called Cove Harbor which was right on the water. Seemed like an ideal place to spend a few days so off we go!
TPMS saved our bacon! We use a device called a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) that has sensors on each of the RV tires. This system is much like the pressure monitoring system on more recent cars except you have temperature and pressure monitors and alarms that you can set. It has a display in the cab of the truck so you can see what the temps and pressures are. About halfway to Rockport I noticed that one of the RV tires was losing pressure, albeit not at a substantial rate. We stopped and inspected the tire and didn’t notice anything unusual. So I put some additional air into the tire and drove on while keeping a closer eye on the tire pressure. Sure enough it continued to drop but fortunately not at a fast rate. We arrived at Cove Harbor, set up the RV for the stay, and then I took off the tire. I wasn’t too surprised to find a screw in the tire. Here’s the thing, the TPMS saved us from a tire going flat and flopping around in the RV wheel well and doing significant damage. See, when a tire goes down in a trailer like ours you will not know it till something bad happens or you happen to stop and notice the tire being low. For me, a TPMS is a required system and if its not working then we fix it right then.
Now about Cove Harbor. When we made the reservation we chose a spot on the harbor side, nice view, plenty of space, etc. When we arrived we were told that those particular spaces are for Class A RVs. Class A,B,C isn’t referring to your social stature, its referring to the type of RV. Although, there are some Class A drivers that have no class, though most do. They gave us a spot on the side of the highway. It sucked. Tight space, lots of road noise, etc. Not pleasant. We made the decision that we would only stay the night, get the tire fixed first thing in the morning and move on. However, despite the crappy spot, the folks at the park were exceptionally nice.
There is an amazing redeeming aspect to the Cove Harbor stay. There were some gastronomical delights awaiting for us at a local restaurant. Read the next post for some mouth watering food descriptions.