Day 31 - Driving Thru Central and East Texas

Leaving San Antonio today (Sunday). Packed up the car, and then took the camper down. I thought it went pretty well and I got out of there by 10 minutes to 10 am. However, I forgot to put the roof vent down, drove away without my wood blocks, and left my money pouch inside. At the gas station, I lifted the camper just enough to get my arm inside and retrieve the money pouch. But then I forgot to take the wench took out or to lock the side door.

I did not notice this until I was 5 miles away from Wildlife Ranch, and I had promised Dejah a zebra T-shirt. So, I went to Wildlife Ranch, took the wench tool out (it was hanging by a thread), put it in the side door and locked it. Then I bought Dejah a zebra T-shirt, a zebra fedora for me, and a zebra shot glass for Brent. Also stopped to get a peak at the new giraffes.



THEN was on the road to Shreveport. I did notice somewhere north of Waco that the roof vent was still up, so pulled over at a travel center and got into the camper just far enough to dial the roof vent down. When I stop at a travel center or a rest stop, I have to go where the truckers go. I am sure this causes some amusement among the truckers, but I can't fit me and the camper into the little spaces they give for cars to park at those places, and besides the managements insist that campers and RVs have to park with the trucks.

I ran into a traffic jam in Austin on I-35 - at 2 pm - on Sunday. I-35 from San Antonio to about 30 miles north of Austin is one giant suburban strip mall. And then that starts back up again between Waco and Dallas. Stopped at this giant strip mall somewhere in Texas to have a steak and baked sweet potato at Logan's Roadhouse (a family joke). Only took I-35 to I-20, so missed most of the Dallas traffic (they have one 24-hour traffic jam every day). Got lost again where I-20 meets Bert Kouns, but made it to Brent's house just after 9 pm. We put the camper in the back lot after Brent gave me a piece of wood just the perfect size to rest the tongue pole on. Then they fed me fiery apple pork tenderloin and green beans. Nummm. Someone hit my car overnight in the parking lot (hit and run), just when I felt that I had made it safely to a familiar place. It caused some damage to my practically new car.

The car is registering 5,300 miles so far on this trip, and turned over to 30,000 miles total lifetime mileage somewhere just this side of Dallas. You may have noticed that I did not take the route thru Houston and Lafayette that is shown on the map, but rather the route thru Austin and Dallas, which is also shown on the map. Day 31 was long and tiring, but I arrived safe and sound - my car not so much.