Trek Down a Forest Road and the RR Crossing From Heck

This was another little "adventure" we had on this trip. I swear I've never experienced a RR crossing as rough as this one was.

This was on Hwy-361 south of Pocahontas, AR. The speed limit was 45, and we were approaching a pair of BNSF RR tracks crossing the road. I saw the crossing sign and then a "Rough Crossing" sign, and started slowing. I got down to about 30 mph when we went over the tracks. I'm sorry, but the video just doesn't do justice to what we experienced. It's probably a good thing I keep the mic muted on the dashcam. I'd have to delete the audio track in order to post it here.

I'm sure the suspension compressed all the way to the snubbers, I thought I could hear wood cracking, the boss said she saw something fall off the top of the camper (I think it was a tree branch), the camper was thrown up and forward in the bed so hard that it threw our food out of the pantry, most of the clothes came off the closet rod, and the rear tiedowns were now loose.

We stopped and pulled off the road as best I could, and walked back to the crossing to see if we left any parts behind. There was plenty of junk on the road, but none of it was mine. I was walking in the road looking at everything laying there, and saying "That's not mine.........that's not mine.........that's not mine" as I would kick it off the road. Pieces of broken ratchet straps, metal plates, a half of a shock absorber.

When I opened the camper door, I couldn't believe how much stuff was on the floor! I've NEVER had our cabinet doors forced open like that before. Fortunately, none of the food that hit the floor was liquid, but it was still a mess. We got it cleaned up and resumed our trip.

Watch out for those RR crossings!

Rough Crossing

:):)

cewillis wrote:
Nice - my kind of road. You must have been really close to some of those trees.

Yes, that road was little tight at times. Wen we got back on the pavement, there were a few twigs and leaves stuck in various places on the camper. Not a lot of places to turn around either, or even let another car go by on that road.

OBXcamper wrote:
Cool!! I'm guessing there's some new pinstriping? Good on you for fixing the slob's mess.

Yep! The new bed and fenders now match the rest of the truck even better than before. Don't need no stinkin' shiny paint! :B

trail-explorer wrote:
What kind of dash cam is that?

It'a DOD LS430W It records video and sound onto a Micro SD card. It does a good job at night, too. I like the integrated GPS feature. When using the DOD video viewer to view the files on your PC, it opens two windows, one with the video and all it's controls, and a second with your route overlayed on a Google Map. That's the south fork of the Little Black River next to the camp site.



And yes, it's a shame to see such thoughtless behavior like that. There will always be those who don't care, benefiting from those who do. While I admit that there are things I don't care about that some might think I should, I do care about this. So, I do what I can to make it better.

We did enjoy being out with the camper again. It was only for a week, but it was a good time. We went to Hanibal, MO (Mark Twain's boyhood home), went down in what used to be the worlds largest lead mine (Bonne Terre), visited Elephant Rocks State Park, and then visited the Westminster College campus where Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain" speech, and where the National Winston Churchill Museum is located in the "basement" of a Christopher Wren church that was bombed-out in WWII, scheduled for demolition, and was relocated from England to the Westminster College campus to serve as its chapel and the home of the museum.


:):)

Hot diggety! Camping again!

Good to see and good for you! Neatly done on the video!

silversand wrote:
Very nice to ride along with ya! That road looked quite tricky to navigate in many places (your speedometer never exceeded about ~~5 MPH).

We often clean up "messes" left by previous campers. I don't know if this is a product of the 21st Century up-and-coming camping cohort, or, if this was pervasive in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, too (I don't ever recall anecdotally, ever seeing this decades ago)...

Cheers,
Sand & Dunes

This is becoming the norm, especially with the gap between "city bred" people who never step outside concrete jungles unless they want to party and not have the cops come down on them, versus people who actually have respect for the outdoors.

Even the government parks have to adapt to this:


This map is of a part of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument... and it is well laid out for a RV park... but for real camping with stuff like trees and campfires... not so much.

Very nice to ride along with ya! That road looked quite tricky to navigate in many places (your speedometer never exceeded about ~~5 MPH).

We often clean up "messes" left by previous campers. I don't know if this is a product of the 21st Century up-and-coming camping cohort, or, if this was pervasive in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, too (I don't ever recall anecdotally, ever seeing this decades ago)...

Cheers,
Sand & Dunes

Thumbs up on the video, thanks for sharing it.

Cool!! I'm guessing there's some new pinstriping? Good on you for fixing the slob's mess.

What kind of dash cam is that?

Nice - my kind of road. You must have been really close to some of those trees.

NRALIFR wrote:

The site had been used by someone just that night, as the campfire was still warm and trash was strewn about. We fixed it. I'd complain, but the folks who do those things don't join these forums. :M




:):)

Even if they did join the forum, they wouldn't realize who were talking about.
We can't fix rude/stupid. :(