We forgot to set the alarm last night and slept in until 7:30. It was overcast and 52° with a wind chill of 42° and there was a forecast of rain for today. We plugged in the small electric heater to take some of the chill off while we had breakfast. Just as Mike went out to start breaking camp, it started to sprinkle.
The little bobtail cat showed up this morning and walked with me over to the dumpster and back to the RV. She tried several times to jump into the back of the Pilot while we were putting stuff away.
It was 9:30 and sprinkling when we left Southern Living RV and got back on to I-20 West. It was still 52° but the wind chill was now 47°. A few minutes later we entered Texas and I missed getting a photo of the "Welcome to Texas" sign because I was checking the weather on my phone.
We passed by this picnic area on I-20 and I managed to get a photo. I had forgotten that Texas had picnic areas on highways and this one has oil derricks as covers for the picnic tables.
We stopped at 11:00 at a Pilot station at Tyler, TX to get gas and paid $2.629 a gallon. We stopped at a Rest Area at 11:30 to have lunch. We had sandwiches and potato salad and sat in the trailer to eat lunch since the temperature was still in the low 50's.
Then this pink Bunny caught my eye on I-20 near Canton. It's part of the Yesterland Farm attraction there.
We exited I-20 West east of Dallas and got onto I-635 North that took us around Dallas and to I-35 East which we took north to Denton and to US-380. We stopped for gas at an Exxon station at Alvord and paid $3.199 a gallon.
We took US-380 west to Decatur and then US-287 North to Sunset, Texas. We arrived here at Sunset RV
We're just starting to adjust to being in the Central Time Zone and now Daylight Savings Time starts! We got up at 7:00 this morning and a heavy fog had moved in overnight. By the time we had breakfast, got the trailer ready for travel and hitched up the car it was 8:30 and still extremely foggy.
We got on I-10 West and stopped at a Pilot at Breaux Bridge to get gas and paid $2.619 a gallon for premium. A couple of miles from Pilot, we got on to I-49 and headed north. About an hour later we passed by the exit for Opelousas where Mike's 4th great grandparents Silas and Avis Fletcher lived and where his 3rd great grandfather William Howe Fletcher was born in 1813. We spent a day at the courthouse there doing research on Silas in 2014.
Yesterday Mike had called the campground we're spending tomorrow night at and checked to be sure that they would have a campsite available for us. We decided it might be a good idea to call Southern Living RV Park where we planned on spending tonight. I called the office and had to leave a message. A few minutes later the manager Lisa called me and explained that the campground office was closed on Sunday. She said she would put us in site 22 and said we could pay in the morning and how much it would cost with our Good Sam discount - $36.68.
We stopped for lunch at a Burger King north of Alexandria at 11:30 and at 12:30 we stopped to get gas at Natchitoches ($2.679 a gallon). At Shreveport we took LA-3132 (Inner Loop Expressway) West around the south side of the city to connect with I-20 West. We exited I-20 at Exit 5 and took US-79 south to Southern Living RV Park.
Some of our friends have asked how Tinker does with all this traveling, I'll let this picture I took this afternoon speak for itself
We arrived here at the campground at 2:00 and easily found site 22 since it was the second one in the row across from the office. The campsite is a 100' concrete pull-through pad with electric, water and sewer hookups. I had read several reviews from previous campers who said that the concrete sites weren't level
We're still adjusting to being in a different time zone, because we both woke up about 6:00 this morning. We tried to get some more sleep, but couldn't so we got up at 6:30. We had breakfast and then started breaking camp and then hitched up the car and trailer. We left Styx River Resort at 8:30. Before getting on to I-10 West, we stopped at Oasis Travel Center to get gas and paid $2.899 a gallon for premium.
We passed by Battleship Row and I was able to get a photo of the USS Alabama.
Then we drove under the Mobile River through the George Wallace Tunnel.
We crossed into Mississippi at 9:45 and then Louisiana at 11:22. We stopped at a RaceTrac at Slidell, LA to get some gas ($2.679 a gallon).
We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's in Covington, LA and then drove over to the nearby WalMart to get a few groceries. I tried to pay with the WalMart Pay app and it wanted me to set up WalMart Pay which I've
We got up this morning at 7:00 and it was sunny and 42°. We had breakfast and while Mike disconnected the trailer from the hookups, I put the Keurig and other stuff that was on the kitchen counter away, put the slideout in and walked over to the dumpster to throw our garbage away. It was 8:35 when we left Madison Campground and headed west on I-10.
Once we got west of Tallahassee we started seeing the remains of the tree damage from Hurricane Michael last October. We had driven to Pensacola in mid-October and saw the damage left by Hurricane Michael. There were so many trees that had come down on I-10, that the trees were trimmed back to just within the lines for the shoulders.
Today we saw several crews cutting and clearing away the trees.
We stopped at a Rest Area that last October was closed because there were so many trees down. While we were at the Rest Area, Mike checked the temperature of the trailer's brake drums with a digital infrared thermometer and showed me how to do it. We had had one tire where the brake drum was hotter than the others, so Mike has been checking them periodically and so far everything's been fine.
We crossed the Apalachicola River
and a minute later we gained an hour in our day when we crossed into the Central Time Zone.
We stopped for gas at a Love's Truck Stop at Defuniak Springs ($3.149 a gallon) and then
We got up this morning at 7:30 and it was 39° and no wind. So it wasn't too cold when I walked Tinker first thing this morning.
Since the campground office was closed when we came in yesterday, Mike walked up there this morning after it opened and paid the $28 we owed for our campsite fee (we had put down a $20 deposit to reserve the site).
Mike then started breaking camp and talked with the couple in the RV next to us. They were from Canada and he and Mike ended up talking about camping and RVs and he even helped Mike break camp.
After I had put things away on the inside, I got Tinker and took our garbage up to the trash cans. Then I walked to the front of the campground office to take a photo,
when a large chicken ran out from the bushes and startled Tinker. This was Tinker's first encounter with a chicken. I was going to take a photo of the chicken with my phone, so I put the handle of the retractable leash between my legs and that's when Tinker took off running
We were up at 7:00 this morning. It was 46° with a wind chill of 40° when I walked Tinker first thing this morning. After breakfast we loaded the last minute items from the frig, our laptops, and bed pillows. We hitched up the car and trailer and then decided to have an early lunch at 11:15.
After lunch Mike drove the trailer off of the leveling blocks and discovered that we had a nail in the back tire on the passenger side of the car. It's now 12:00 and we're all packed with the car and trailer hitched up - and there's a NAIL in the tire! Really?! Mike pulls the nail out of the tire with a pair of pliers and it's a screw about 1/4" long - not long enough to have punctured through the tire tread. Whew!
Mike and I took our showers and then afterwards went over to see our neighbor Barbara to say goodbye and give her a copy of our trip map and a calendar showing where we would be each day.
Then we got put Tinker in the car and we were ready to leave - oops! I forgot to get Tinker's food and water bowls and his favorite toy Bear. Then I realized we hadn't changed the thermostat on the A/C & Mike had forgotten to turn off the water heater. OK - 2 extra trips back in the house and we're ready to go - not! I had left my soda on the kitchen counter, so one more trip in the house.
We are finally on the road at 1:11 and heading north on I-95. We arrived at Exit 311 on I-95 a few minutes after 4:00 and then at St. John's RV Park at 4:22.
The office closed at 4:00, so there was no one there. We had paid a $20 deposit on tonight's camping fee,
We've been planning this trip out to Utah for several months now. Mike made campground reservations months ago for us to stay at Zion National Park, Moab, UT and Monument Valley. But it seems like we've spent the last 2 days rushing to get things done for the trip - it's just all of the last minute stuff that has to be done and packed.
Saturday afternoon I drove over to Kissimmee to visit with my sister-in-law Elaine for a while. Mike stayed home and packed some things in the trailer storage area.
Sunday Fletcher drove up from Ft. Lauderdale for a visit and we went to lunch at Squid Lips here in Sebastian. We all were in the mood for a hamburger and we each had a cheeseburger with fries. Fletcher left to go back home about 6:00.
Yesterday we met our friends at IHOP in Vero Beach for breakfast one last time before our trip. I had printed off a map of our trip and a calendar showing where we would be each day and we gave each of them a copy. Then I spent yesterday doing laundry and Mike loaded the back of the car - the Dish satellite and tripod, a folding table for grilling, the grill, a couple of folding chairs and some other things we'll need on our trip. I also prepared my February Financial Report for the Indian River Genealogical Society and emailed it to each of the Board members yesterday afternoon.
We're having our mail forwarded down to Fletcher's house while we're gone and I've stopped the newspaper delivery.
Today I took Tinker to the groomer's for a bath and cut. Then I did some final shopping at Publix and WalMart Supercenter for some last minute things we needed. After I got home Mike took the car
