I’m “On the road again”…with Waylan, Willie, and The Boys!!  And it has, so far, been nothing to write home about!  Or maybe it’s been a LOT to write home about.  Depends on one’s perspective, I guess.

The snow was pretty much gone when I left Wisconsin, headed once more for Texas, around March 7th.  However, it was still cold, cold, cold!  Hovering around 30 degrees.  I thought, before I left that I had a propane leak. Therefore, I decided to stay at a park where I would have electric, and thus, heat.  Upon arriving, I got my cord out to plug in and discovered that the adapter I’d used at my friend’s house had kind of “fused” to my cord.  I worked and worked to loosen it, and after about twenty minutes in the biting cold finally succeeded in getting it off!  Happy day!  That heat felt SO good once it warmed my little travel trailer.

The next day, as I was tooling down the highway, someone pulled alongside and honked.  A passenger was holding up a sign that said “trailer window open”.  I checked my mirror, and sure enough, a window was flopping in the breeze!  Stopped as soon as I could to check that out.  Made an adjustment and got back on the road.  About thirty minutes later…it’s flopping again!  Stopped, adjusted, and off we go.  Must have made it about forty minutes, and sure enough…there it goes again.  At the next stop, I had no choice but to dig out the duct tape!!!  Low and behold, that dang window stayed shut the rest of the way to Texas! Sorry to report that it is still taped shut.  Stayed at a State Park that night.  Still cold…

 

The next day’s adventure took place in Arkansas…now mind you, I love Arkansas…normally.  This park was only going to cost $15.00 for the night. Oh, my word, there were reasons!  I won’t go into details, but it was a humdinger.  The site I was led to was a very narrow back-in, with a tree at the edge.  SO this nice young man says he’ll back it in for me.  I’m eternally grateful, and allow him to do it.  As he’s backing in,  I notice a lot of branches AND glass in the site…yikes!  The nice young man leaves the truck running, so in a few minutes, I go up and shut it off.  It’s a bit seedy here, so I lock the truck doors and go back to set up.  Needing something from the truck, I look for my keys…you got it…they are in the ignition!  Not only that, but the extra set I normally keep inside the trailer, is in the pocket of the jacket I’d been wearing, and taken off earlier that day because it had warmed up nicely.  That jacket was laying on the passenger seat in the truck!!!  Now I think I’m going to lose it.   Went to find the “nice young man”, found out that he was gone.  His neighbors turned out to be “angels from above”!  Seems their son worked for a towing company.  They called him to see if he could help, and he said he would be shortly.  It took him all of three minutes to unlock my truck, and only charged me $10.00.

I could not possibly remember all the problems that I encountered on this trip to Texas, but needless to say, it was NOT my favorite trip!

Next installment…”More to Come”

 

 

 

It’s going to be difficult to find excitement to compare to my stay at WalMart, and I definitely don’t find it on the next night.

Once again, it is a long day!  Unfortunately, I have been experiencing a lot of sleepiness during my morning drives, and have been needing to stop each day for a little power nap.  Later that afternoon when I stopped to check for a nearby campground, I found nothing within my price range.  So…thinking I would stay away from WalMart this time…I look for something else.  Lo and behold, I look up, and there is a sign for Cracker Barrel right in front of me.  Must be fate!!  When I pull around to the back parking lot, it is empty, and I end up having it to myself all night.

In the morning, since I’ve not eaten very well for a couple of days,  the thought of a big plate of biscuits and gravy sounds very enticing.  And it was delicious!!

Moving right along…next stop…my first time in a National Forest…such fun!!

 

First night of leaving Texas I decide to just stop at a Walmart…somewhere.  I get settled in at the edge of the parking lot.  It was a long, hot day, and I was not prepared for the excitement to come…

As dusk settles in, Coco and I sit out on the steps where it is a bit cooler.  Suddenly I hear screeching wheels of a car coming around the corner.  I look up to see a police car seemingly headed straight for me!  At the last minute he turns into the first lane right next to me, slams to a stop, jumps out of his car while pulling his gun.  Now I am in full panic mode.  The officer yells at a male figure walking up the isle toward him to “Get on the f****** ground”.  “Get on the f****** ground or I’ll shoot your a**.”   Wish I had thought of my camera as this was the stuff of movies!  At this point they were on the other side of the police car, but I see the officer put the man in the backseat of the cruiser, then he walks around the car, looks up, sees me, and in a very calm, quiet voice makes a comment about the weather.  Then he gets in his car and quickly takes off, lights flashing.

So there it is…the most exciting time I’ve ever had at a Walmart!!

 

 

Well, here I am sitting and sitting in Texas, my home state.  Waiting for the results of one final test. Once I get that I’ll be heading north to, hopefully, a little cooler weather.  My stay here has been great for the most part.  I’ve spent time with my beautiful daughters, saw a Grandson graduate from college, a Granddaughter graduate from high school as valedictorian, watched the same Granddaughter sign to play softball for the University of Texas, Dallas, where because of her academics will have her tuition paid for all four years of college.  I attended a graduation party for both of these, celebrated the graduation of  another Granddaughters fiance from college,  ate lots and lots of real Mexican food(sadly not to be found in northern states). In the last game I watched my  Granddaughter play, she fell while delivering a pitch, and tore her ACL.  She will be out of the game for several months after surgery.

I’m staying on the property of some of my dearest friends.  These are but two of their many horses, and I am greeted with a similar view out my door every day.

The above was written two weeks ago, so I’ll add a little update.  I left Texas a couple of days later, headed north.

My Granddaughter had her reconstruction surgery, and is making an amazing recovery!!

My Grandson is off to his first job!

The friend I was staying with took her prize donkey to a show, and he won Reserve Grand Champion!

And I was off to my first trip into a National Forest…I’ll pick up on that in my next post…

 

 

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My trip back to Texas is being made minus FS being towed behind.  So my nights have been spent in hotels, and that has been an experience!  The first night I found a “decent room”, at a decent price, that excepted pets.  However…when we walked in, Coco, (who has never in seven years wet in a house) squated.  I yelled…she stood up…I took her out.  When I came back in, I took a closer look at the carpet, and quite obviously former dog guests has used the carpet as grass!  So disgusting…

The second night, I went to two motels that wanted $25.00 a night for Coco.  The second of those also want a $50.00 deposit for using my Debit Card, which I wouldn’t get back for 2-3 weeks.  What’s with that??  My third attempt ended in about the same price, a $15.00 fee for Coco, and clean floors…yippee!

On the second day I started seeing signs of spring:

The colors were much prettier before I brought the pics here…many, many shades of green…and look how tall the grass is…

And then there were these from a rest area…

 

For tonight I found a nice room, decent price, and vinyl floors.  So Coco and I are both pleased.  And tomorrow we re-unite with our “little home on wheels”!  Soon we’ll be heading for New Mexico…