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.

A Fiery Start to Our Day

Frankly, our day rarely starts out with the ability to capture a fiery sunrise.  We had just entered Central Time Zone before our stay last night at the Balmorhea Saddleback Mountain RV Park.  With the time being 7 am, and the first hint of light starting on the horizon, I started the coffee pot, and nearly climbed back in bed.  Ten minutes later as I sat at the foot of the bed, Marcia says, "Time to get up!", and so we did.  The park was fairly quiet considering it is so close to the Interstate, and also that trucks park behind the Valero Gas Station where a few had refrigerator trailers which kick on and off all night long.  But it really did not bother either of us...we noticed the noise when we needed to use the facilities, and especially when super bladder doggie needed to go out at 2:30 am.  (quick scan for snakes and I let her out)

We were about half way to Fort Stockton when we noticed a black smokey cloud trail headed from the south to the north over the highway.  Five minutes later as we made a few minor turns with the road, and we see this.  Hmmmm....what is going on up there?

YIKES!  Now that is a Fiery Start to ones day!  The driver was off to the side with some trucker who had stopped short of his burning rig.  Knowing that Diesel does not explode, I felt it was better to go through, on the far left side, instead of stopping and taking space where fire trucks will need to do their work from.  Still a bit scary for a few seconds...  Credit to Marcia for getting this shot of the burning truck. A good 5 minutes later we see the first of what was 7 fire trucks headed west on I-10 from Fort Stockton.  Nothing about it in the news as I write this, and who knows if the trailer ended going up in smoke too???  If so, that toy that made it off the ship coming over from China just went up in smoke!

We pulled into Fort Stockton 15 minutes later, and there was not a fire truck in sight...sure hope nothing catches on fire around here.  Fill up with gas at $3.059 per gallon, the cheapest we have paid in a LONG LONG time!  There was no where to park for breakfast, so we continued to the first picnic rest area (no toilets, although there were signs all over the lawn and walls of picnic facilities that it was being used as such.)  After a quick breakfast, we headed on and about 25 minutes later we came to a real rest area.  It was there that Indy enjoyed the little red leaves from that beautiful tree.

Another 30 minutes or so and we pull into another rest area and what do we see????  GRASS!  Real green grass that is soft to the footsies of poor deprived Indy who has not seen real grass for days!

From there on it was much the same, mixed with a bit of a rain shower here and there, and temps that never climbed above the low 70's, mostly in the higher 60's.  Stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Kerrville, which is where we are now.  We both had a chicken meal, and we are tucked in the back parking lot for the night, no other RV's in sight.  Tomorrow is the big challenge...driving through San Antonio AND Houston all in the same day, and on a Monday.  Wish us luck (although we have done it before...)