Mouse Loose in the Motorhome

As we were getting ready to leave this morning around 7:30, Marcia had us looking for a mouse which she swears she had seen.  Of course Bubba is just no help with this at all, but perhaps if Skruffy was still alive she could have smelled it out.  No luck in catching the mouse, and we leave.  But I am so rattled, I take a left out of the RV Park instead of a right.  A mile down the road I find an area to make a U-Turn, and a few minutes later we are entering US 287 headed for Amarillo, Texas.  I HATE it when I make a wrong turn like that, it just isn't me...must have needed more coffee.  Found out later that the GPS would have lead me right to the Highway had I turned left on Highway 101...but I decided to make a U-Turn...but we got to the highway.

I went to left coming out of park...should be a right.

We get down the highway about 3 miles, and come upon a wreck which had just happened.  No emergency vehicles on site as we go through, did not appear anyone was hurt, and until I saw the pickup's front passenger's side all messed up, and debris on the road, I thought it was just someone with a flat tire.  Less than a mile later we see emergency vehicles on the way headed south (we are headed north).  It then dawns on me...  "Marcia, had we not been looking for that mouse, and I had not made the wrong turn, that could have been "US" in that wreck back there!"  What a way to start the day, huh???

Seeing this little beauty driving along the frontage road to our right was a bit of a highlight of our day.  The roads veered off from each other, so we did not get a better picture than this.

About 30 miles down the road we pulled over at a picnic area (Texas has a bunch of these picnic areas) and we grabbed some breakfast...and looked for the mouse a bit more.  In fact, every time we stopped we both instinctively looked for that mouse.

This is much of what we were looking at most of the ride, along with a half dozen little towns that we had to slow down going through.  If you look closely, you can see a few electric producing windmills along this area.

One thing we did see were a number of RVs traveling along the road, most of them 5th Wheels and Trailers, but there was one or two motorhomes.  At our second stop, I found the mouse...

... Yep, the mouse loose in the Motorhome was Marcia's Computer Mouse.  And I DID not find her mouse, I had a spare mouse, brand new, which she is currently using.  The old mouse was still on the loose.

We decided that the 280+ miles we drove to get to Amarillo was enough.  Got gas at a Flying J, and headed over to AOK RV Park, another Passport America park at $14 per night.  Nothing fancy, but have a nice view out our front windows.

Well, ok, it is a golden field with UFO's flying over it.  WELL, ok, not a UFO, but an Airplane.  Good news, I finally found the lost mouse wedged between Marcia's chair and her door jam support.  Had I not used my little flashlight, I would have missed it as it blended in with the door jam area.  It never hit the floor, so when I looked earlier (at a rest stop) I did not see it.

Yep, it looks like a storm is brewing up.  Out here in the upper panhandle of Texas in June means that the Thunder Storm just might include ...

HAIL!!!!

Thought that large one was hail, but it was a rock.

My shoe gives you a better idea of how large the hail was.  It was all over in about 5 minutes.  Until 15 minutes later more hail, along with rain, came...and that hail was even larger, but melted before the rain let up for me to get pictures.  And then, another round of hail came.  The last two storms lasted twice as long as the first.  It was SO LOUD as it hit the roof of the motorhome.  Thank goodness I did not see any damage to the motorhome or the car.  The winds gusts were up to 60 mph, but were short lived.  As a result..the temps dropped from near 90 down to the mid-60's.  I think we will both have a good sleep tonight, no need for running the AC all night long.  Oh, and here comes round four...hope this doesn't have hail.

North Dallas Forty (OVER Forty Minutes of Hell)

I don't know which was worse...driving through Dallas, or driving the crappy roads of Louisiana getting there.  Well, let's see...

We got on the road at 7:30 after getting gas and coffee at Pilot, just across the street from the RV Park.  I did not say much about the RV Park...let's just say, "Stuffed into a can of Sardines".  Headed west on I-20 toward Dallas, and at first, the road is not bad at all.

Then the road changes...I think you can see the ruts, the cracks, the waves in this picture.  Driving over it in a car is probably a little irritating...driving over it in a motorhome is more than irritating. 

And toss the early morning sun shadows in, and well...it is just hard on the nerves.

And as you get closer to Shreveport, it gets worse.  It was truly a nerve-racking adventure.  Reminded us of sections of the Alaska Highway going through the Yukon.

And there is Shreveport in all its glory.  Just a few miles west of Shreveport and the road vastly improves.  It is like Louisiana wants you to have a "Good Last Memory" of the state...sorry Louisiana, it does not work...we will remember you for the bumpy bumpy crappy roads.

The roads in Dallas were better, except for small patches here and there.  Thank goodness we did not hit construction like the eastbound traffic did, I think they had three different stretches of very long lines of cars and trucks going very, very slow.

After taking a side highway northwest, we get onto I-30.  I-30 goes between Dallas and Little Rock, and I have driven that stretch more than I wish to count.  Dallas is not an easy major city to go through, and even with my driving experience in Dallas many, many times...

I still get tricked by the GPS into missing a turn onto I-35 north and head west over this bridge.

One good thing they do in Texas is that they have many easy U-Turns under or over major freeways, and I quickly got turned around and here we are headed east over the same bridge, and take the I-35 north exit and back on track toward Fort Worth.

Our track actually takes up north of DFW (Dallas Fort Worth Airport), and through north Fort Worth.  I look out to the right of the windshield and I think, hmmmm...that looks familiar.

It is the Texas Motor Speedway, a NASCAR track which is similar to Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. 

It is a very large facility, and I had no clue that our route was taking us right by it.

Our route takes up toward Wichita Falls along US Highway 287.  Filled up with gas at another Pilot, and then we stop at a town called Sunset, about 60 miles short of Wichita Falls.  It was about a 350 mile day.  It is a hot day (94 with 50% humidity), and we get to select our own RV Site at Sunset RV Park for $17.50 Passport America price (same price as last night).

I decide on this site and we park backwards.  In the picture you can see the black cord, which is our extension just for this purpose.  Although there is a sewer connection and water connection, we don't hook up either...getting shade in this heat is our number one concern, and it works.  We have been comfortable inside despite the high heat and humidity.  Tomorrow, either Amarillo Texas, at 281 miles, or at 394 miles.  I was hoping to get into a New Mexico State Park for a couple of days to relax a bit...but the Governor has not opened them up yet, although he might open them tomorrow.  I'm thinking that Amarillo might be as far as we get.