Well after buying my new 179 and then just looking at it for6 weeks, we finally had our first “shakedown” cruise.  And boy did we shake!  From Dallas we headed to the Conejos River insouthern Colorado, one of my favorite places to fly fish.  What used to be a 12 hr drive while tentcamping turned into a 14 hr drive given the lower gas mileage and slowertraveling speed, not exceeding 75mph. But we made it into camp Thursday evening without incident (other thanhaving 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 itrained every evening were really grateful for the solid roof over our heads!  The Thule awning was also appreciated as wehad 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 milesof ungraded washboard.  Just a few milesdown the road we heard that dreaded dragging sound.  The ONE bolt that holds the black water pipeto the frame had fallen out and the pipe dropped and started dragging.  No damage to the pipe so a quick fix withduct tape and we were on our way again… for about a mile when the tape slippedoff the bracket.  Still no damage done,so after unwinding a section of barbed wire (THANKS Rancher Bob! ) I was able torun the wire through the bracket hole and around the pipe, and it held all theway back to Dallas (via an overnight at Oasis RV Park outside Amarillo, reallya nice place!).  This weekend I’llreplace the bolt, locktite that one and also the one holding the gray waterpipe, and then wrap baling wire around both as a backup system.  Got another trip somewhere in August so gottabe ready for anything!