The LONGEST 300 miles

 

YES, unleaded gas at under $3!  In fact, the lowest price I saw along our route was at a Valaro for $2.49, but missed the picture!

But as the title of this post says, it was a long day.  We got up and going at 7:30 after a fairly quiet night at Cracker Barrel.  By 10 am we were past San Antonio and stopped at the first rest area between San Antonio and Houston.  By 11 we were pumping gas at the above price at a Love's Gas Station.  Looked in my records and I pumped the exact amount of $105 at Eloy Arizona on our way to Tucson...but I pumped nearly 10 more gallons today at this price!  Indy enjoyed the grass along the front Love's...she even did some running...but she kept stopping to look at the people out in the parking lot.

Another stop before tackling Houston and Indy had grass again...BUT, this grass was totally infected with Fire Ants, so I would not let her out.  Fire Ants are very prevalent in this part of Texas, and I am very familiar with them from my 20+ years living in Southern Arkansas where they also are prevalent.

Houston is a LONG drive, starting with Katy and continuing 45 miles of just pure traffic.  Just for fun, they tossed in about 15 miles of construction just before Katy...oh how fun!  As we neared downtown Houston with five lanes going east, a car just a little in front and to the left of us lost its retread tire...not the hub, just the retread part.  It rolled and bounced all the way to the right wall where it stopped, and the four or five cars and trucks all missed it.  The car pulled all the way to the left where it stopped.  HOW this did not cause a wreck is anyone's guess.  My first impression seeing this tire rolling along/across the Interstate was that someone lost a complete tire, and expected to see a car sparking along the Interstate headed toward someone's car...but it was not the case, just the tread.  Never heard anything like this happening before!  About 2 miles later we come across a car which is parked perpendicular to the left wall, front and rear dented (especially the front since it hit the wall), and no other cars stopped.  OUCH!  By the way it looked, it all happened just a minute or two before we arrived.  I hope no one came along in that left lane and hit them...

Finally we make it to the Bayou Bend RV Resort around 2 pm, in Baytown, Texas.  It is a Passport America park, $25 a night.  It is only 7 years old, and in real great condition.  Nice individual bathrooms, each with private showers.  A large laundry room, nice pool, all concrete pads with room for the car to be parked next to the motorhome.  Grass separates each site.  We are staying two nights to try and rest and recoup for the long haul into Florida.  I will post pictures tomorrow of today's trip and of the park.