First time out - literally a shakedown cruise!

Well after buying my new 179 and then just looking at it for 6 weeks, we finally had our first “shakedown” cruise.  And boy did we shake!  From Dallas we headed to the Conejos River in southern Colorado, one of my favorite places to fly fish.  What used to be a 12 hr drive while tent camping turned into a 14 hr drive given the lower gas mileage and slower traveling speed, not exceeding 75mph.  But we made it into camp Thursday evening without incident (other than having the paper towels come completely unspooled in the camper – pro tip: remove the towels from the holder and stow!).  My wife and I (and Charli the dog) enjoyed the fishing, and since it rained every evening were really grateful for the solid roof over our heads!  The Thule awning was also appreciated as we had plenty of room to sit under it as long as the rain came straight down.  Leaving on Sunday the adventure began.  The Conejos road (FR250) is roughly 30 miles of ungraded washboard.  Just a few miles down the road we heard that dreaded dragging sound.  The ONE bolt that holds the black water pipe to the frame had fallen out and the pipe dropped and started dragging.  No damage to the pipe so a quick fix with duct tape and we were on our way again… for about a mile when the tape slipped off the bracket.  Still no damage done, so after unwinding a section of barbed wire (THANKS Rancher Bob! ) I was able to run the wire through the bracket hole and around the pipe, and it held all the way back to Dallas (via an overnight at Oasis RV Park outside Amarillo, really a nice place!).  This weekend I’ll replace the bolt, locktite that one and also the one holding the gray water pipe, and then wrap baling wire around both as a backup system.  Got another trip somewhere in August so gotta be ready for anything!

It was the 3rd one above the "do not touch" sign!  One strand has the barbs and the other is smooth, so for future reference it unwraps easily and you can use the smooth wire for repairs.  For the record, I didn't remove a section of fence, but if you just walk along the fence you usually find a long strand of wire that either pulled away or is just extra laying around.