We Are Out of Texas At Last!

Maggie in the clover.  She was such a good dog today
and very happy to be out of the truck!

We have finally seen Texas in our rear view mirrors!  897 miles across on I-10.  It is a forever drive!  We hope we won't be crossing it again any time soon.

Southwestern Louisiana is at least green, but that really is all it's got going for it along the I-10 corridor.  Lake Charles is an industrial city - looks like oil refineries.  We saw lots of rice paddies - miles and miles.  Millions of acres are under water - deliberately - for growing rice between Lake Charles and Lafayette.  The road through Lake Charles was in real disrepair and was bumpy and noisy and had us rocking back and forth and bumping up and down. The only damage inside the RV was CD/DVD/radio player was on the floor with some wires pulled out.  Rog just stuffed it back in its hole and we will let Andy reassemble it! It was enough of a crazy ride that I had to dive into my purse for a dramamine!  Once we got out of the city proper, the highway seemed OK.  Those few miles sure did me in, though.  I was looking a bit green around the gills.  

We did see some flooding - when we crossed rivers we could see that they were over their banks and the nearby forests were pretty deep in water.  I did see a couple of guys standing on the edge of a side road just staring at the water.  I could also see that there were homes and a school bus on the other side of the water at the end of the road.  They didn't look underwater but it looked as though there was no access to them. 

We stopped for lunch in Iowa, Louisiana.  I asked Rog if I could put the Iowa sticker on the map and we wouldn't have to go there.  He said no, it didn't count.  Bummer.  We ended up in another truck stop for lunch, but off by ourselves in the back with some grass for Maggie. We put out our chairs and a table and enjoyed being outside.  There was a Burger King next to the truck stop, so we opted for veggie burgers and fries instead of PB&J today.  Wasn't bad.  Wasn't real good - just different.  

The park we are in tonight is about 30 miles west of Lafayette, LA.  It's called Frog City RV Park.  When I called for reservations a few days ago the lady told me she was glad I didn't need a spot that day because half the place was under water about mid-calf deep.  It's high and dry today but you can see where the water was when you walk around.  I expected the place - by the name and the flooding - to be back in the woods somewhere and very rustic and perhaps even a bit scary.  It's not.  It is just off the interstate and is a pretty nice place.  It's directly behind a Motel 8 (no connection, though) and the sites are regular size with gravel pads that are level and there is grass with small trees at the end of each site.  The place was pretty empty when we pulled in early afternoon.  Maybe a dozen or so trailers look to be pretty permanent or at least long term. A half dozen or so RVs have pulled in since we did.  

Relaxing before we got neighbors

Our immediate neighbor pulled in an hour or so ago while we were sitting outside - it's cooler out there than in the RV and we didn't want to turn on the A/C.  First of all, they have maybe an 18-foot trailer being pulled by a big red Dodge truck with an eagle and flag screen in the back window and a Trump sticker still on the bumper.  He had to circle around and come into the pull through twice before he got it situated.  Once he finally got it where he wanted, he climbed out of the truck - she stayed inside.  He's probably in his 60's, obese, toothless, wearing a camo baseball hat, jeans that barely covered his butt, a white t-shirt, and red suspenders.  Mississippi license plates.  Rog notices right away that the handle for the sewer line is in the open position.  Then the guy tries to hook up his power cord and can't get it into the receptacle on his trailer.  Rog goes over and helps him get connected. He mumbled a "thank you."  He then gets his water and TV hooked up, puts his levelers down while whining the whole time about a bad back and how he "can't hardly do nothing no more." He goes to connect his sewer hose - bare handed - and opens the cap to the black tank to connect the hose and all sorts of crap (literally) comes out onto the ground. That chased us inside and we put the a/c on.  The stench and the thought of it all over his hands was just too much. We had to go in.  In the meantime, she sat in the cab of the truck waiting for him to set up and carry everything, including a large bird cage with a parrot inside.  Once he was finally done, she walked from the truck directly into the trailer and we've not seen either since - thank goodness.  We are still shaking our heads.   Takes all kinds, I guess.

We had intermittent clouds and sun today with a high of about 84 but the humidity is picking up as we head east and towards water.  My weather app says it's about 56% humidity which isn't too awful even for us westerners used to about 10%. Roger did comment, though, "It certainly feels like the Louisiana I remember."  

Tomorrow we will stop in Slidell - old stomping grounds for us. We lived there for three years when Roger was stationed in New Orleans.  We'll get in early and probably go drive around and check things out.   

A Day to Catch Up....

Roger got a nap after he vacuumed the RV for me this afternoon.  I did my best to dust everything and clean the floors.  Hopefully we got all the desert dust/sand out of here.  It was getting pretty gritty on some surfaces!  I got a load of laundry done so we have enough underwear and Rog has short sleeved t-shirts to get us to Pensacola.  It was actually a pretty productive day.  Even though we didn't really rest, it felt restorative to not be able to play tic-tac-toe on the counter top with our fingers!!!  

We did have a bit of an adventure trying to find groceries and a place to have lunch.  I had asked at the office when we checked in yesterday where I could get a few groceries.  I was directed to Walmart.  She gave me some convoluted directions that I only remembered half of.  No, not even half.  We set out looking for Needlepoint Lane but never found it.  We wandered around some back roads and I finally got out the google maps on my phone and asked where the nearest Walmart was.  The directions took us up and down more back roads. (These folks have houses with huge lots!) We got all turned around.  Rog spotted a gas station and decided he should go ahead and fuel the truck as we didn't know where another one was.  We finally got into an area that has lots of gas stations with cheaper fuel, lots of places to eat and a Walmart.  We picked up a few things that we needed for lunches for the next three days on the road and as we were coming out Roger spotted a Lowe's across the street.  "That's funny, I googled Lowe's this morning so I could look for a part for the air compressor and it told me it was 8 miles away in Baytown so I decided to forget it." Apparently we had found Baytown.  There was a fast food Mexican restaurant in the same parking lot, so we ate, went to Lowe's and got the part.  I pulled out SAL (our GPS) and told her to take us back to the RV park.  She did - right out to the interstate and down it about 5 miles, passing a brand new Walmart about half way there.  Crazy morning.    

One thing I will note - this is now two times I've asked for directions to go find groceries and have been told to go to a Walmart.  The first was in a small town with a small local grocery (we discovered later) and today I saw a huge Kroger store on our way back to the RV that I would have preferred for my shopping.  It's no wonder Walmart is taking all the business from local groceries. Or, as Roger said, maybe it's because the people I ask always shop there.  

So, we have food, clean clothes, and fuel.  We've got a fairly clean RV and Rog was able to fix his air compressor so he could air the tires properly before starting out tomorrow.  He's naturally been concerned about that tire we got the nail in so he's been checking the pressure often.  It seems to be OK. 

The weather has been pretty perfect.  Cool nights and about 80 or so during the day with a cool breeze coming from the south (water).  It's gotten a little warm inside the RV but it's been nice sitting outside in the shade.   

It'll be a quiet evening, as usual, and we will be on the way again in the morning.  Destination is a small town outside of Layfayette, LA.  

We Are Almost Out of Texas....

....It's only been five days since we were in El Paso and we still have an hour to go to get to Louisiana!!!   Rog says "five days going on two weeks."   We've gone from the eastern side of Texas at about 4,500ft in elevation to where we are now at -20ft below sea level.  Quite a change.  It's hot here today - mid 80s but fortunately the humidity isn't bad at all.  There's a nice breeze cooling us as we sit in the shade watching a bird build it's nest in the tree next to us.  

We did have a quiet night in that dumpy place last night, so we slept well. We were out of there before 9am.  Rog had to pretty much do a U-turn to get out of the place which is hard on the RV - more on that later...

Saturday morning traffic on the loop road around San Antonio was very busy but no hassles.  We couldn't believe the amount of steady traffic on the road, but at least it was moving.  

Stopped for lunch in a place called Flatonia.  We found a spot to park behind a McDonald's and a Shell station and sat in our chairs outside while we ate.  At the edge of the parking lot was what was once a couple of trees is now just a kudzu blob.  As we were pulling out of the driveway, which was pretty steep, the back bumper scraped on the cement.  Our license plate which was being held on by bungee cords ended up in the street as the bungees broke from being dragged on the cement.  We had to pull into a gas station across the street and Rog had to go back and get the plate and find some new bungees.  (It is attached with bungees because the license plate holder broke last year and this was the only way to attach it.) 

The landscape between San Antonio and Houston is flat and there doesn't seem to be much open space.  There are businesses and some farms all along the highway.  Saw a few cattle but that was about it.  Didn't see anything out of the ordinary. 

About 15 miles east of Houston we ran into some major traffic. It really got bad when a funeral procession came up from behind us with a motorcycle police escort blocking two travel lanes.  The cops would come up behind a car and motion it over or they would slow down so people would move over on their own.  All this in the middle of Houston traffic - which was heavy to start with.  There's several major roads coming and leaving I-10, so merging became an issue - especially those who had to get over and around the funeral procession.  It was pretty ugly. Got slowed down to a crawl in a couple places but never had to stop.  Rog says it was worse than driving through Denver.

After last night's RV park fiasco we were delighted when we pulled into this one.  Grass, trees, a locked gate with a passcode, friendly staff, and we got a super spot on the end of the row with trees on both sides for shade.  We will be quite comfortable here for our rest day tomorrow.  It's super clean and well maintained.  Only negative we can see so far is that it is off the frontage road of I-10 and we can hear traffic noise in the background.  Tomorrow I'll use the laundry room as we've used up our week's worth of underwear and short sleeved t-shirts!  We also need some fresh produce and plan on a stop for lunch at a pizza place advertised in the park's brochure.  

Our site's not level, so we have to put some "legos" under the tires on the driver's side.  I align them, Rog drives up onto them.  Well, I noticed a nail sticking out of one of our brand new tires - they have 2,000 miles on them - which is how far we have come so far.  The head was on the inside and sticking out towards us.  Of course this called for a few ugly words and then some serious thinking about how this could happen and what to do about it.  Rog managed to pull the nail out with some effort and it looked as if it was just in the tread and not into the "air space." He did the bubble test with soap and the tire doesn't seem to be leaking, so we hope we've dodged a bullet here.  Roger figures the only way that could happen was this morning when he did the tight U-turn to get out of the RV park.  The back tires do this weird thing when there's a tight turn - the part that is in contact with the ground pushes out while the top of the tire is pushed in.   It's the only way he can figure a nail would go in sideways instead of into the interior of the tire itself.  He'll monitor the pressure tomorrow and hope we don't have to find a tire store, but at the moment it looks as if it will be OK.  

This park, as the last several have been, seems to be made up of workers.  I keep thinking "working poor" as they are living in trailers and fifth wheels (you don't find any motor homes). I have met and talked to two women - one in Fort Stockton and one here.  Neither have teeth.  They are young and would be pretty otherwise. They have a whole section of trailers lined up on the cement side by side.  There must be jobs here that are being filled by folks who go from job site to job site where ever they can find work.  We live in a working class neighborhood at home, but to see so many people living in travel trailers because they have to is disheartening.   At least, though, it's a nice place with rules about keeping your site clean and we see no indication of "trailer trash."   

More tomorrow on the park. 









    

Not What We Were Looking Forward To

After time in the Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas deserts (do they call it a desert in Texas?), we knew we would be in Hill Country today.  It's a beautiful area - rolling hills, trees, grass.  We thought maybe we would be able to partake of some of it when we stopped for the night.



The reviews for this campground were fairly good. Pictures on the web show grass and big spaces. Didn't exactly work out for us that way.  Maybe because we are only here for one night we were assigned to a cement slab in an asphalt parking lot. 




We aren't the only ones, though.  Imagine owning a mega-dollar fancy motor home and having to park it along a wall at the edge of the parking lot.  Now that would be the ultimate insult.  Not sure of the reasoning behind the logistics, but we won't be stopping here again.

On top of the horrible site, they have the gall to charge $50/night - with our Good Sam discount.  Just unbelievable. I'm assuming it's supply and demand as we are about 30 miles east of San Antonio.  I walked Maggie into the area that is grass and there are larger sites and even some empty ones.  This is what the rest of the park looks like.  Not too bad looking, although it looks like lots of long term folks.  I did see a school bus pull in and drop off a bunch of kids.  When I registered they had us down for a one month stay.  I said, "No, one night."  "Oh, OK, you don't need to fill in the paperwork then."  So, were they going to put us in this spot for a month? Yikes.  Now, that would be ugly.  


Oh, well.  It's one night and I think we've been in worse.  It is infinitely better than having to stay in a motel, though, as we have our own bed.    

We did have an uneventful drive today and stopped in a very nice rest area for lunch. It was in the low 70s with a little breeze, but we put our sweatshirts on and ate outside anyway.  The architecture for the picnic tables were very western.  The trees were filled with all kinds of birds coming and going.  It was a most pleasant break in the day.  


Tomorrow we have to get around San Antonio and through Houston.  We are staying just east of Houston and will sit for an extra day to rest and do some laundry. 

A Very Pleasant Day After a Bad Night

As I mentioned yesterday, the wind was pretty bad all day. Well, it quieted down around dusk and by the time we went to bed it was calm.  It was also hot - mid 80s - and the bedroom was quite warm. Well, I was hot, anyway. I opened the little window on my side and commented to Roger, "Where's the breeze when you need it?"  The wind gods must have heard me because around midnight the wind came back with a vengeance and at 2:30am it was ferocious.  That lasted a couple of hours and, of course, we were wide awake and worrying about whether or not it was going to continue into the day.  The window over the dresser is a push out one with a long handle that sticks inside for opening and closing it.  Well, about 3:30am we heard a loud noise.  The wind had caught the window and lifted it up and pulled the handle through its hole.  Rog had to go outside and push it back in or we would have had a flapping, and perhaps broken, window.  Not much sleep was happening.

Since we had a short distance today, Rog didn't wake me up until 8am.  I was slow getting going and it was almost 10am before we got underway.  

We had wind as we traveled, but it diminished as we went further east. We ate lunch inside the RV, though, as it was also cool around noon - 60s - and there was just enough breeze to be uncomfy.  It was a long sleeves and long pants kinda day.  It is a lovely evening right now with no wind, sunshine, and in the mid 70s.  Couldn't ask for anything nicer. 

The 120 miles or so between Van Horn and Fort Stockton was not quite so desolate as our first day in Texas.  We started seeing ranches, some agriculture, and a few oil or natural gas facilities.  The landscape changed from mostly flat with distant mountains to plateaus.  Something at least to look at. 

There is one of these sculptures at each end of town.

We are staying in the Fort Stockton RV Park about five miles east of town.  We've stayed here before when it was a KOA years ago and once since it became private.  It's a nice place for this area and well maintained with some grass and trees.  There's a huge dog run with grass for running in and tennis balls waiting to be thrown.  Every time we walk by there are several dogs in there running off some energy.  A very nice "perk."

These hombres were here to greet us.

When we pulled in around 2:30pm the campground was empty, but after 3pm there was a constant flow of incoming rigs.  Just about all the spaces for transients are full, but so far no one has parked next to our door side, which is nice.



They have a cafe here and I've seen lots of people going to eat there.  Nothing on the menu for us.  Chicken Fried Steak, Grilled or Fried Catfish, Hamburger, and Meatloaf.  All served with mashed potatoes and "country" green beans and a scoop of Blue Bell ice cream.  I've read reviews of the food when people review the park - everyone says it's the best!!  

There is one large rig here with a good sized pen outside and at one point Roger counted 6 doxies.  The woman was getting ready to take them inside and she picked up each one separately, gave it a hug and lots of loving before she took it into the rig.  Rog wants to know how she decides who is first and who waits til last.  Maybe she rotates?  Those doggies are loved!

Waiting for Maggie and Mary Ann to come back from a walk.

Anyone know what kind of bush/shrub this is?  Those pods become beautiful two- color flowers.  The leaves look a lot like a mimosa.  They are very pretty in full bloom.




Our destination for tomorrow is Boerne, TX.  (Pronounced "Burnie.")   It is east a little ways from San Antonio in the Hill Country.  We are expecting pretty scenery tomorrow.    

We Must Be Getting Old....

A two hour time change in two days pretty much did us in!  How do people who travel internationally do it?  After a restless night, we felt pretty beat up today so it was a good thing we had chosen to stay put.  Hopefully, by tomorrow we will be back in sync.  We were also glad we hung around here as the wind was blowing about 30mph today.  It wouldn't have been a good day on the road.  Several others that pulled in last night stayed as well.  

We did go into town today and eat lunch at the Country Bagel Cafe - recommended by our camp hosts.  It was a good bagel sandwich, but not spectacular.  The restaurant itself was most interesting.  Big sign saying we had entered red neck territory and to expect to see Americans with American flags, meet Christians, and listen to country music.  Well, the music was playing, but not obnoxiously, and the decor of the shop filled in the rest of the criteria.  There must have been 15 crosses on the wall - all decorated differently.  Most had a bullet motif of some sort.  One had the vertical made of bullet caps and the horizontal painted like the flag.  One had whole bullets glued onto it.  I'm sorry, but I find the juxtaposition of bullets and religion just so not right.  Seems "off" somehow.  Some crosses were very pretty/clever - made with horseshoes or spurs, and one from antlers was rather nice.  Lots of guns on the walls between the crosses.  It just seemed a bit over the top to us. We ate quietly and moved on!

Rog got a nap this afternoon after messing about with the tires. The pressure was low in a couple of them but his air compressor was having issues, so he spent a fair amount of time getting things right.  In the end his electronic monitor and his hand held gauge showed different pressures, so which is right?  

I spent the afternoon doing another adjustment of our itinerary.  I thought we had it plotted out perfectly for distances and days of rest.  Well, I discovered the places I had picked didn't have RV parks or they had ones which got ratings in the negatives.  So, it was back to square one.  It took several hours to get it just right, but I finally did it.  Drive three days, rest, drive three days.  We now have reservations in each place so we better not have to deviate.   

One place I called in Louisiana was happy I didn't want a place tonight because half of the campground was flooded mid-calf deep from the storms that hit today.  She was answering the phone from her site (I guess) because she couldn't get to the office.  The extended forecast for the rest of the way shows no storms, but we need to stay away from the big rivers!  I was thinking today of the folks going to New Orleans to follow the Mississippi - If it were us we would be changing to a new itinerary!

We have a very short day tomorrow - 120 miles - to make the rest of the trip work out.  We've stayed in Fort Stockton RV Park before - it's a lot like this one but with a little more decor.  

Our First Day in Texas

First, I apologize for giving incorrect info last night.  Mountain Time Zone ends at Van Horn, Texas (which happens to be where we are tonight) so we are now in Central Time and have lost another hour.  We are right on the edge of the zone, so it will be sort of weird tonight and in the morning adjusting.  But, the good news is we will be in Central Time now for at least a month! 



We stopped for lunch at a roadside rest sitting on a bluff overlooking Las Cruzes, NM. It was a bit breezy, but the picnic tables were set inside stone structures that blocked a lot of the wind but not all. 





We forced ourselves to sit there long enough to eat and walk the dog as we didn't want to eat in the truck again. It was warm - just breezy. The roadrunner was keeping an eye on the rest area!  



We decided we prefer the more northern routes through New Mexico.  There's just not a whole lot to see but scrub and very distant mountains.  Although, just west of the Texas border for about a 5 mile stretch there are hundreds of acres of feed lots. That thrilled us for sure.   We did see miles and miles of empty rail cars along the route - waiting for the engines we saw yesterday? 

OK, I've said it before and I will reiterate here - El Paso, TX is probably the ugliest place in the US.  Rog says it is the worst to drive through of all the cities on our route.  It was awful. Construction, traffic, and just ugliness and it seemed never ending.  We did see the border fence and Juarez, Mexico in the distance.  That didn't look very nice either. 

Just after we got into Texas I spotted a sign on a gas station/food mart - OPEN 25/7.   Interesting, no?  Time warp?

There's not a whole lot to see between El Paso and Van Horn.  The altitude is staying at about 4,500ft, so there is a high desert look - no sagebrush, though.  I think they refer to it as chaparral.  Boring.

The RV park tonight is another former KOA that is now a Good Sam park.  It's typical of what one finds in this neck of the woods.  Not much to it. It's filling up as the day goes on, though.  In fact, our next door neighbor is the same neighbor we had last night in Lordsburg.  Not the friendly type.  Did say hello but then retreated to his huge motorhome.  Coming back from taking Maggie to the doggie park I spotted a truck with UNR Wolfpack decals. The guy was outside working on his rig so I said, "Go Wolfpack!" as I passed and waved.  He is friendly - too much so.  Wouldn't shut up. Seems he lives in Sparks just up the road from us in Spanish Springs.  He also made sure we knew he is a super conservative as are all his friends.  Not sure how that came up, but it did.  Wierd. Anyway, "small world" happens again!  

No drugs for the dog today.  She climbed in the truck and panted for about the first hour and then mellowed out.  Half the day she faced Roger and the other half she had her head in my lap.  The times we stopped for a break, though, and she thought I was going to get back in the truck right away,  she sat down and looked pitiful.  After a few minutes of walking around and having a snack and water she was fine about getting back in. She is being so good when we stop for the day and before we get going in the morning.  I put out a rug and tie her leash to the door handle and she just patiently waits.  We haven't had to use the pen at all.  She has rabbits and chickens to watch here, so she is being entertained again this evening.

We will stay here tomorrow.  Rog needs a day of rest and I am not anxious to get back in the truck for a drive across more of Texas.  I know it's coming but am willing to put it off another day. Van Horn is a small town - the sign said 3,500 population. Not a lot here, but we will go wandering tomorrow - need to get fuel, propane, and the RV park management said there is a place where we can get homemade bagel sandwiches for lunch! Sounds like a plan.

We've done some reconfiguring of the trip going forward.  We have replotted our stopping points and factored in a day of rest after two days of driving.  Barring any weird weather it should work out just right for putting us into P'Cola on the 10th as planned.  

Oh, I hear the train going by blowing it's signal.  I-10 does follow the railroad and I think 99% of RV parks are near the tracks. One of those things that has become associated with RVing for us.  Rog says he hears Johnny Cash singing "I hear the train a comin'" every night.  Lucky him!