I've seen the ads in the magazines: Mom, Dad, two kids, sitting by a fire, roasting marshmallows, by a lake, with RV in the background. They're all having fun. The weather is perfect: blue sky, no wind. No other RVs anywhere around them.
We've only been doing this RV stuff for 30+ years, but... I have never experienced the above. Well, we only have one kid, and we bought our first motorhome after she went to college. And the people in those ads never seem to have a cat with them.
We stayed just south of San Antonio the last two nights. Of course, that means: when we're ready to roll, we have to drive through San Antonio (the 8th largest city in the country) to go west. We have gotten pretty good at planning our big city transits - knowing what time of day will be best for traffic, and what routes work for us.
I would be full of crap. Barely into San Antonio, the traffic turned into a shit show...
Apparently everyone going this direction wanted off on this single lane exit. Traffic as far as I could see, and absolutely no reason for it. One dumbass who apparently thought it was smart to drive 20mph, then stop instead of merging. It took about 30 seconds for traffic to back up over a mile, and another 15 minutes for it to get going again. I took a deep breath, happy in the knowledge that we aren't on a tight schedule and grateful that we don't have to deal with this kind of traffic on a daily basis.
The traffic eased up for about 3 minutes and then...
Road construction that took 4 lanes into 2, and then those two into one. And the majority of people who never learned to take turns when they were in kindergarten. One nice driver allowed us to merge. That one lane ran for less than a mile, with absolutely no reason why the other lane was blocked off. You don't see that kind of high jinks in the RV ads, either.
When we cleared that one lane blockage, traffic flow went from 4mph to 65mph in a slightly modified form of a LeMans start. And then... yep, back to 4mph again. While people around us were getting agitated, I remained cool. Yes, really. This guy didn't...
He drove off the road with that 18-wheeler, thinking he could get to the frontage road. He is seriously stuck there. We saw the same thing a moment earlier with a 4wd pickup. After yesterday's rain, all that loose dirt from the construction is a muddy mess. Better to sit in the slow-moving traffic than have to get towed out of the mud.
Eventually, the bumper-to-bumper stuff thinned out - just like that...
Once you leave San Antonio, I say you are in west Texas. While we truly enjoy RVing, I find very little to enjoy about west Texas. It may be the fact that we have traveled this route many times... but more likely, it is the fact that there just isn't much out here. Gas stations are over-priced. RV parks are mostly scrufty. The road surface is lousy, but that varies by county. Hills, but straight...
We generally do about 300 miles or so per day when double towing. We planned to do about 450 today, just to get across a good portion of west Texas. After about 5 hours of driving (over an hour of that to go about 10 miles in that road construction), I asked Joan if she'd drive for a while so I could stretch out. She generally doesn't drive when we're double towing, but the weather was good and this is wide open spaces. She drove for an hour or so, and it was a nice break for me.
Rufus was a good boy through this long driving day. I tried to get a photo of him and me together, but couldn't reach out far enough...
He laid on my lap most of the time while Joan drove. I think he was tired, too...
Not his normal regal-looking self. But, he wasn't fussy - I may not have mentioned this before, but... he is a good boy!
Continuing across west Texas...
There is a half hour or so where you can see the silhouettes of the nearby mountains in the afternoon...
Besides the mileage, we blew our usual "off the road early" routine. I had called ahead to make sure we could get an RV site that could accommodate our length. Most of the parks along this route have discontinued their affiliation with Passport America - this place still participates. We have not stayed in it before... easy to see why when we pulled in.
It looked more like a hobo camp. I didn't see an office anywhere, so I asked a lady who was getting her RV set up where I might find the office. She said, "Go past the junk car and turn right just past the chickens. It isn't marked, but you'll see the door."
No, I am not kidding. The lady who runs the place came out and I followed her inside to pay for our site. Nothing resembling an office, but she was very nice (the reviews on this place mostly say how nice she is). It is big, but what it lacks in size, it makes up with... OK, I got nothing. It is a place to park off the road, with electricity and a very modest cable TV offering. It is going to be in the mid-30s tonight, so this will be just fine.
We put down jacks, and while Joan did the slideouts and set us up inside, I plugged in power and cable. No need for water or sewer, since our holding tanks can handle that duty.
We are down for the night. Rufus is a happy boy. Me, too. Joan made us a nice supper and an adult beverage. I have joked before about the Annual Blowing Dirt Festival (Jan 1st through December 31st)... the wind was out of the west today (headwind), but not strong. This RV place (can't bring myself to call it "a park") is mostly dirt and gravel - it would be ugly if the wind was howling. It's not. How's that for looking on the bright side? ;-)
Some days are fun while RVing. Some days, you are just making miles. Today would be the latter. We did about 450 miles today. Had to stop twice for fuel. I-10 is a major east/west coast-to-coast thoroughfare. I would guess about 50% of the traffic is 18-wheelers; 30% is pickup trucks; 10% SUVs; and the last 10% is split between cars and RVs. One couple driving a pickup and pulling a travel trailer waved as they passed us... they looked like they were having fun.
;-)
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