Crater of Diamonds, Air Brakes, and Arkansas Towns That Sound Awfully Familiar
We were up early, determined to make it to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. The roads, however, had other plans. At one point, it felt like the fillings in my teeth were being shaken loose. Just before reaching the campground, trouble decided to tag along—again.
As we approached our campground, I noticed something unsettling: if I held the brakes too long, the air pressure would drop, eventually triggering the parking brake. I had to sit and wait for the pressure to build back up before I could release the brake and move again. Not a fun game to play on winding roads. But, in the end, we made it to our campsite and parked for the week.
The next morning, I called a mobile RV tech who, luckily, was just down the road. A couple of hours later he showed up, crawled under the RV, and quickly diagnosed the problem: a damaged master air cylinder. Of course, he didn’t have one on hand—it had to be ordered. But good news! It’d arrive just in time for our Thursday departure. Perfect.
Over the next few days, Jodi and I did what any hopeful visitor does at Crater of Diamonds—we hunted for our fortune. Spoiler: no diamonds for us, though others did have some luck. We explored the charming little town of Murfreesboro and even took the motorcycle out to Nashville… Arkansas. Someone clearly borrowed a naming convention from Tennessee.
Thursday rolled around and we packed up, ready to hit the road as soon as the new part was installed. But—plot twist—the delivery company dropped the ball, and the part didn’t arrive. No fix until Friday. That meant extending our stay and rethinking the next leg of our trip.
We decided to go full-send the following day—skipping the overnight stop and driving straight through to Golden, Colorado to stay on schedule.
Friday morning, right on cue, the mechanic showed up. Thirty minutes later, we were rolling again, ready for the next chapter.
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