The stretch of I-35 from San Antonio to Denton has pretty much become one big city. It starts just south of San Antonio, then... New Braunfuls... San Marcos... Buda... Austin... Round Rock... Georgetown... Waco... I-35W through Ft Worth... and through Denton. There is a bit of open area left between a couple of those cities, but it is quickly turning into a mass of humanity.
Today was our day to make the run through all of that. On a Sunday. Leaving early from south of San Antonio. Traffic in any of those areas can get congested, as in: stop and go. But today, we breezed through most of it. No easy feat. Two slow downs, both due to accidents.
But, let's start with the important stuff: Happy Father's Day! Knowing that we would be driving early, Steph texted me this morning, to tell me what a great Dad I am. My pleasure. I adore my girl. I would die for her... and, I would kill for her. I may have mentioned that to suitors when she was young... but, I digress.
She posted this on Facebook...
That image on the right is, of course, from when she was a wee child and I had a lot more hair; the image on the left is from last December when she and I took the motorhome to Winnebago, and got to spend an extra day in the frozen northland because our flight was canceled due to snow.
Rufus also wished me a Happy Father's Day - here he is in his new harness, looking a bit like a furry James Bond in a tux...
On with the drive: going through San Antonio was slick; we were rolling at 7:00am and the roads were blissfully devoid of traffic. We made our first stop at Buc-ee's (of course)...
This would turn out to be a 2-Buc-ees, nearly $400 gas day. The next stop was at a rest area, where Rufus got a treat, Joan and I got a potty break, and I walked around the rig to check tires, hitch, inside the cargo trailer, etc. All good...
It is rare that we can get through Austin without getting slowed down by bumper-to-bumper traffic, but today was a good day. We breezed through the rest of the cities south of the I-35 split. Light traffic south of Ft Worth...
Then, two separate accidents in that stretch between Ft Worth and the TX/OK border, where traffic slowed to a crawl...
Drivers in Texas get crazy when this happens. As we often see, the start bailing off the Interstate, drive through the grassy area to the right of the highway, through the ditch, up onto the service road, then continue speeding along. Karma worked against them on one of these slowdowns, where the ramp to get back on the Interstate after the accident was closed due to construction. We just chugged along, not playing into the crazy antics.
We rolled into the RV park where we'll spend the next two nights before 3:00 pm. Instead of the pull-through we usually get, we opted for a back-in site... because this place more than doubled their prices for the pull-throughs. It's a nice park, and probably worth what they want, but it pisses me off when the prices go from $30 to $80 overnight. We fit fine in the back-in site, but we have to squeeze in with the Equinox...
Joan was at the back of the site to let me know when the cargo trailer tires were close to the grass, but not on it. The lady in the site next to us said to her, "He sure knows how to handle that rig."
Joan said, "He's been doing it a long time."
Seemed especially long today. Not just the city traffic, but it was another HOT one today... in the 100º area all along our route, and it looks like that will be what we'll have until we get into South Dakota. I tried to keep it to 65mph - the heat is hard on the equipment - but got told a time or two by Joan, "Hey, keep your speed down." Oops.
With the rig parked, I texted Steph to let her know we are down. She called right away, so she could tell me what a great Dad I am. There are a lot of "You are the best Dad ever!" posts on Facebook. We can't all be the best Dad ever, but I know our girl has never had to question how much her Mom and Dad love her. And vice versa. I like being a girl Dad. And, a Rufus Dad... he sat on my lap during most of the drive today.
After talking to Steph, we went to the casino to get a bite to eat and dribble some money around. And back to the coach early... if it cools off before dark, I'll take Ruf for a walk.
Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!
No comments:
Post a Comment