On to Baytown, TX

We drove just over 200 miles today.  There was a lengthy stretch of construction just at and past Beaumont Texas which slowed us down for about 20 minutes.  Other construction areas did not slow us up too much, and traffic as moderate to light for most of the day except in Beaumont.  

Last night (Friday night) it was a bit too humid for my liking, and it was hard to sleep until after midnight.  Still we got on the road, after coffee percolated, by 8:45.

I mentioned before that our Continuous-Duty SPST Series Solenoid Relay  (which are designed with single-pole, single-throw (SPST) circuitry) may be on the brink of going out.  I got one from Amazon just before we left.  So far, when I check if the engine is charging the house batteries, the light has been green.  Today, it was not green.  We drove about 4 hours today, and for half of the drive the light was not green.  Finally, I clicked the storage/use button (again) and this time (after the fourth or fifth time) the light went green.  The only problem is that without it going green, the house batteries do not charge...which means we are limited to how often we can park at a Cracker Barrel, Rest Area, or other place without hooking to electricity, or running the generator.  I have the part...just don't want to put it in while on the road if I can help it.

 

We last stayed at Bayou Bend RV Park in Baytown Texas back in early December 2021.  It is a Passport America park, and is a newer park, cost $25 a night, and is clean, friendly and pet friendly.  Called last night and gave them all the info, and when we pulled up today our info was in a mail box near the door with everything we needed for our stay.  I even used their nice shower in their public bathrooms, and boy, did that feel nice!  

When I pulled into the assigned camping spot, known as a "pad" in some circles, I encountered something strange for the first time ever.  I unhooked the car, backed into the spot, and immediately started to hook up the electricity and power.  Just as I was getting ready to connect the cord to the motorhome, I sense the motorhome is moving backward.  I hurry to the driver door, open it up while yelling "what did you do", and put it in park (I thought Marcia might have been putting up the window covers and accidentally hit the stick shift).  Now both Marcia and I KNOW I had it in park previously...and Marcia was reading the packet of info from the park, and there is Indy with her paws on the steering wheel driving the motorhome!  We guess that when I put it in park and engaged the brake, that it was not fully in park.  Indy must have hit the lever, and pulled it into reverse.  Even with the brake on, it slowly moved the motorhome to move backward.  Luckily I was able to re-put it into park and stop it before it hit the fence behind us.  We always leave the engine going with full AC until I get the power hooked up and get the house AC going...perhaps we should think about that for the future...

To "TOP" matter off, after I get everything hooked up and went inside to put the slide out, I was a bit disoriented, and sat down to enjoy the A/C which was kicked in full blast.  About 30 minutes later I look out my window and what do I see?  Our car, sitting in the street still, waiting to be moved into its parking place!  I have never done that before either.

I KNOW this is April 1st...it is my dad's birthday...he would have been 95 today.  NONE of this was or is an April Fools joke.

Before taking my shower, I went over to the local H.E.B. store to pick up a few things.  WOW, that store is HUGE.  They sell gas there, but I plan on visiting another Buc-ee's tomorrow, but their prices were $3.03 for unleaded, and $3.47 for diesel.  I have seen a few diesel prices as low as $3.35 today.  H.E.B. is HUGE by the way...reminds me of how big Fred Meyer stores are.

Tornado update:  21 dead, dozens injured in 6 states after the Arkansas tornado outbreak.  I think 6 died in Arkansas, perhaps more.  After seeing the damage and the video of the tornado, I would have though it would have been in the hundreds!  It is going to take years to recover from this tornado, and hats off to the authorities in Little Rock (Mayor, Police, Fire Department) and to Governor Sanders for all they are doing to assist those affected.  During the news conference last night that I say, Sarah Huckabee Sanders stood there with all these "guys", most of whom stood a foot higher than her, yet she was not intimidated, and all of those officials who were there were very complimentary of not only the Governor, but all the other officials and how they have been handling this terrible ordeal.  Hats off to them all...and prayers for all those who have been affected.

 

We are at Now...

 

First, recap of yesterdays hard drive through San Antonio and Houston...

Above is one of the first pictures of the day...look at those flags...they show you that we had a strong wind, and it lasted throughout the day, but was not as windy as we got closer to our destination, Baytown.  Now and then the wind was behind us...most of the time it was hitting my side of the motorhome and knocked us about left and right (left is my steering, right is the wind).  We also had a touch of rain throughout the trip.

As we came into San Antonio a decision needed to be made as to using the 1604 loop (bypass) or just stay on I-10 through town.  There is a message board which pretty much said that both routes were within a minute of each other.  I first decided to go I-10, then changed my mind and picked the 1604 loop...and that is what we did.  Immediately we hit stop and go traffic for about 2 miles, then it opened up the entire rest of the way back to I-10.  In total, it took about 35 minutes to travel the 26 mile route.  Most of it is freeway, but the last 8 miles is more a highway with some stoplights which you need to be ready to stop for...one of which made me come to a very hard stop, but we stopped just at the line where you are suppose to stop at.

After we stopped at Love's for fuel and a doggie run, we got back on I-10 and just a few miles later come across a Buc-ee's Gas Station.  This Luling location was built in 2001, Buc-ee's first travel center. Two and a half years ago we came across our first Buc-ee's in Alabama, and you can read that blog posting here.  The COVID era slowed down Buc-ee's growth a bit, but it has still opened a number of stores since my post was written 2 1/2 years ago.  As we got closer to Katy, we saw another Buc-ee's which was three times the size (my estimate) than this one in Luling.

A few miles after passing Buc-ee's we stopped at our first rest area and had breakfast and let Indy out again.  Did not see any ants at this stop...did not get pictures of the rest area later that we did see Fire Ants at...but the mounds were a foot high!

Coming into Katy, Texas, population 21,000.  Its population nearly doubled in the last ten years.  The highway widens, a HOV starts up in the far left lane, and they are ready for another 50,000 in population between Katy and the other feeder cities to the west of Houston.

Here is a picture of what I like when they do it...put the Interstate Embalm on the highway to let you know what lane you are in...if you are smart enough know what Interstate/Highway you are suppose to be on.  Sure helpful for us.

Here is a picture Marcia took of downtown Houston.  I-10 hugs the northern portion of the downtown area.

Well, we are past Houston now.  This Flying J is the first place we fueled our 40' American Eagle way back in November 2011.  We have bought two motorhomes in Houston at a place called PPL, a consignment dealer.  Less pressure, good website, honest folks.  Found the American Eagle to be bit big for my liking, and the cost to fix was going to be too much for our blood.  Traded it in for a 32' Jayco Melbourne in 2013, which burned down in a RV Storage Fire in the early spring of 2014, then bought our 28' Dynamax Isata a couple of months later and we have traveled in it ever since..

Here we are parked at the Bayou Bend RV Resort, $50 per night but only $25 with Passport America with 3 night max at discounted rate.  When I checked in the clerk told me that the park is heavily filled with Oil Industry workers.  Some work four days per week, travel back home for three and come back to work again.  He said that with the current political climate, the industry is in a huge flex...and about 25% of those who stay at the park have gone home through Christmas time...he hopes they will all come back in January.  That building on the other side of our motorhome above is the bathrooms/showers and Laundry...a very modern building.

The park is concrete and grass.  There are few trees within the park.  The Internet is awesome, they must have eight WiFi antennas putting out the signal.  First time I had a park say, "It is ok to hook your TV up to the Internet and stream movies if you wish."

I have noticed that some of the RVs don't have cars in front of them day or night, so some have left and kept their RV here at the park.

Of course, sometimes family is going to come and visit, and there is a nice playground for the kids.

Along with a few areas to have small group gatherings for a BBQ or whatever.

Here is the swimming pool right next to the office.

To compliment the 100+ RV pads, they have 13 cabins at $130 per night (3 night minimum), or $500 per week, or $1,300 per month + electricity.  There is a full kitchen, small living room, a bedroom and a loft.  3 person max with one being a child.  

Near the RV park is a Super Walmart, numerous eating establishments, gas stations, emergency health clinics, etc. etc.

A call to the RV park near our Condo found that the earliest we can get into the park for three nights is Sunday.  Tomorrow we are going to pull out late morning and go around 200 miles to a place in Louisiana that we have parked before, way away from trucks, near the Atchafalaya River Basin (America’s largest freshwater swamp).  Then we will go through Mississippi, enter Alabama and stay at another Passport America park which we have stayed at before, this time for 2 nights.  Not sure what we will do Saturday night, but we will be within an hour or two of our Condo and finally be home.  So that is the situation we are at now...close to home, but a few days delay.

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.