Back in Texas

We had a nice overnight stay in Duson, LA at Frog City RV Park. We really did enjoy this park and would certainly return for an even longer stay. Part of that enjoyment was the visits we had with our next door neighbors, a part-timing couple from PA and their 14-year-old dog.

Rolling out of the park just shy of 11:30 AM, we hopped on I-10 to continue our journey westward. We planned to make a pit stop at about 50 miles at a Love’s Travel Center; however, there was no convenient truck parking and we had a bit of a tight squeeze getting through the travel plaza pump area after deciding this was not a practical stop. Whew. We did it, though, with no harm/no foul. That’s the last time I try that, I tell ya. RV parking my ptooie.

I do dig my Pilot truck stops and hanging with the big dawgs. It’s easy. We’re courteous – pull forward to the line after fueling, don’t leave our rig unattended – and we’ve never had an issue; in fact, all drivers we have interacted with have been courteous and friendly, if not downright helpful.

Good thing I wasn’t desperate for a pit stop, as the Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles was definitely kinda skeery. Well, not really. Well, maybe just a wee bit. Gee, that was steep. Dave did the sightseeing. I didn’t want to look down and I was focused on getting us up, over and down again safely. That sucker is steep! Did you know that the Department of Transportation has declared it structurally deficient? The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development says it’s fine and dandy. That’s according to Wikipedia.

A tad over 91 miles from our start, we rolled into the Texas Welcome Center. I think that’s a record for yours truly without a pit stop. The traffic on I-10 just whizzed (no pun intended), by while we took our stretch break.

Texas Welcome Center I-10 West

This wasn’t too far from Beaumont and Gulf Coast RV Resort, our home until Sunday.  This is a big place with paved roads and sites, Wi-Fi that is nonexistent (and we’re even in the first row by the office) and minimal TV stations, about 13 with really nothing to watch. Oh well. The park is well-lit and a combination of long-term workers, short-terms and overnighters. It is well maintained. The restrooms are clean, individual units with toilet and shower. There’s a free breakfast consisting of Texas waffles, biscuits and gravy, muffins, cereal, coffee, juice. Don’t know if we’ll make it for that, as it is served from 7 AM to 9 AM. There’s a pool, exercise room, playground and dog park.  Our site is concrete and plenty long with ample room between us and the site. We are on an end, so we do not have a neighbor site on our driver side.

We are in Site #77, convenient to restrooms and laundry. We also have a lovely power station in our site and a useless patio. Other than that, it’s cool. Well, only if the trains don’t blow their horns all night.

Guess the only thing I’d say on the down side is that the utilities are at the rear of the site. The pavement is only wide enough for the rig, so you step down into grass. There is a concrete patio with picnic table; however, it is at the front end of the site and essentially useless. Makes you wonder if whoever designed the place had ever set foot in an RV. All the sites are set up this way.

Maggie is feeling much, much better and is chillaxin’ here. She totally rearranged the daybed to suit her comfort.

We were walking Maggie in the doggie walk area earlier and about jumped out of our skins when the train blew its horn. Yes, the tracks are pretty dang close. I’ll let you know if this goes on all night.

Traffic was heavy coming through Beaumont, so I didn’t get to look around too much, but I did recognize some landmarks such as the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and I certainly recognized names of the streets on freeway exits. We are on the western outskirts of town, and it’s nice not to be smack dab in the middle of things. We plan to go out tomorrow for a few provisions; not sure how much wandering around we’ll do. We’ll see. The washers and dryers in the laundry room are only a buck each, so I may do a load of laundry during our stay. Or not. Ha!

We’ve had a few strolls around the park, both before and after our dinner of burgers and steak fries here at home.

Again I am grateful for the 123.6 miles traveled safely and without incident today. It was in the low 90s here in Beaumont when we arrived but has cooled down nicely. Not a cloud in the sky all day.

We’re here for the weekend. Where are you spending your weekend?

Hope your Thursday was a good one. Stay safe out there, would ya?

Thanks for stopping by!

Spending the Night in Duson, LA

We both woke up before 8 AM this morning and got away from Indian Point RV Resort just before 11 AM.

Remember the dog I mentioned in yesterday’s post? Well, sure enough, poor doggie spent the night in the cage crate under the overhang of their 5th wheel.  Keep in mind that we had curtains open around 7:30 this morning. This is what we saw . . .

Animal abuse takes all forms. This is one of them.

Okay, so they had a fan heater of some sort sitting there; however, this poor soul was obviously miserable, shivering with every breath. It was chilly and damp out overnight. Doggie is not sleeping, but is hunched down shivering, being uncomfortable and plain miserable.

Time passes. We do our morning stuff, walk Maggie, have breakfast and start our leisurely prep for departure.

These jokers finally emerged (well, at least the guy did) at about 10:30 AM to get the dog. This soul was in the crate for a bit over 12 hours. Yeah. Doggie got out of the crate and was chained to a tree to have his breakfast outside.

This sweet soul made nary a sound overnight. Even when seeing me out with Maggie, no bark, growl or whimper was heard from the cage.

Here’s the rig of these idiots. Truck front plate is an LSU tag (not a regular license plate). The truck is a white dually. That’s a new-looking Blue Ridge 5th wheel. They had 2 bikes on a rack in the back.

We stopped at the check-in station (which is a bit of a ways away from the RV sites and is not visible from the main campground) on our way out. I showed the photo of the dog in the crate to the gal on duty and explained what had taken place, beginning with their arrival and the dog in the open bed of the truck. She thought that was pretty awful, and assured me she would advise the owner of the park.

A few stops today to break up the trip . . .

At the Atchafalaya Welcome Center

There sure were some long bridges heading west on I-10 in Louisiana! Whew! We stopped at a couple of Pilot truck stops; they weren’t busy, so it was a breeze in and out, and relaxing pit/fueling stops. I-10 wasn’t too bad, but a bit whump-a-whump over the segmented part in Louisiana.

We have landed here in Duson, LA at Frog City RV Park, cozied up in site #15 for tonight.

It was too dark when I got around to taking a photo of our rig in our site, but here’s a shot of the entrance sign.

This is not a bad little park at all.  The sites are neat, the park is well lit, the roads are paved and sites are gravel with a picnic table and of nice size. There are quite a few cable TV channels and free Tengo WiFi, but we are using my hotspot.  It’s a mix of long-term workers, short-term rigs and overnighters like us. There’s a hotel next door and a gas station/truck stop/convenience store on another side, but the park is fenced and these are not annoyances. You can hear some highway sounds from I-10 when outside, but not really when indoors. Restrooms are the individual kind with toilet, sink and shower; they are cute and clean. Dave is using these facilities tonight for his shower. The laundry room is clean and functional. There is a small swimming pool and a book exchange. Seems to be quite a few cats – young and older – around the office area. There was a raccoon washing its hands in a basin near the office; it scooted away under the office building when we went strolling by! Access is easy from I-10. Yep, we’d stay here again.

We have strolled the park and then had a nice dinner here at home of fettuccini alfredo and a chopped veggie salad.

We traveled 232.3 miles today – another long one for us. I am once again very grateful that our trip was uneventful and safe.

Tomorrow we head on to Beaumont, TX, where we will be for 3 glorious nights! It will be good to stop for a while!

Have a great evening and be safe out there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Landed in Gautier, MS for One Night

We departed Hope Hull, AL at about 11:15 this morning, in that time range that we seem to get going naturally.

We cruised south on I-65, stopping at a rest area and then a Pilot just north of Mobile to fuel up the truck. At Exit 0 in Mobile, we hooked up with I-10 West and headed towards Mississippi.

Mississippi Welcome Center on I-10 West

A little bit later, we rolled into Indian Point RV Resort in Gautier, MS. This is a huge place with hundreds of RVs in here and quite a few cabins and cottages for rent. There are long-term workers, folks with apparently seasonal sites (and boats) and then some overnight spots such as ours towards the front of the sites. We have a concrete pad and patio, although the pad at this particular site really is not quite long enough for our rig still hitched up.

We are in Site PA2. That empty site next to us is no longer empty.

We were originally assigned to site PA1, the empty one in the above photo. Not sure why they gave us PA2 on arrival and I wish they had not. On this row of overnight sites, we have the most cramped and the trickiest to exit. Oh well. It’s only one night. There’s a small tree towards the front that is not in the photo; I’ll have to swing reaaaaally wide in the morning to get out. This site really is too close to the next one on the door side. Ugh. Oh well. One night.

One of two lakes here

Impressions so far suggest this is fine for an overnight stop, but it’s just not my kind of place. There are just too many people here and too many trees . . . We are bypassing the free WiFi, as it is not secured with a password; we’re using my hotspot instead. The restrooms/showers are okay, but Dave opted to shower at home tonight; he will often use the facility showers if they are nice, enjoying a larger shower stall. There is cable TV; it is very basic cable, but we are able to tune into CNN and have the Democratic debate on right now. There is a clubhouse, pavilion for gatherings, café (apparently only open in the mornings), swimming pool, pier and boat launch. Quite a few of the roads are sand/dirt. The sites that are not concrete are more grass than gravel; perhaps they were nice gravel at one time, but the grass has pretty much taken over. Even though it has the word “resort” in its name, it has more of the feel of a campground and/or fishing camp.

Again, fine for one night.

Moving along . . .

Since the above photo was taken, a dually with a pretty and big 5th wheel pulled in. Why am I mentioning this? Because . . . their rather large dog (not a pit bull but some breed that sort of looks a bit like that) was riding in the open bed of the truck when they arrived. I really cannot even imagine my dog riding in an open truck bed, much less with a 5th wheel hooked up to the truck. Sheesh. Any bump or turn of the RV and . . . it could result in a not-so-happy ending for the dog.

Then . . .

They chained the dog to a tree and put its food and water bowl outside. They have a cage for it placed under the front overhang of their RV. Yes, they have been inside with the dog chained to the tree outside. Yes, I’m guessing the dog will be sleeping in the cage outside tonight.

What the hell is wrong with dog owners in the South?

Now back to our regular programming . . .

Interstate 65 South is actually a nice highway and an enjoyable drive. I-10 hasn’t been bad so far. We’ll see how tomorrow shapes up as we head on into Louisiana for tomorrow night’s stop in Duson.

I am grateful that the 203.3 miles we traveled today were done safely and without incident.

Maggie is pretty much back to her usual self and made today’s journey very well.  The weather was gorgeous with a high in the low 80s.

Have a great evening and be safe out there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Travel Days 10 and 11 - Shreveport, LA to Texarkana, TX

We spent last night in Shreveport, and I really don’t have anything to say about that.  It rained.  That was travel day #10.

Today was day #11, and we were away from the Shreveport/Bossier City KOA at our usual departure time of around 11 AM.  Yes, it was raining.

Yes, we traveled in rain.  It wasn’t a heavy downpour, just a steady rain under leaden skies with no wind.  I’m grateful for that.

You know, I think that’s my first time towing in prolonged rain.  Easy peasy.

We took I-20 East to I-220 North and then connected with the new I-49 North out of Shreveport.

Man!  What a sweet highway is that I-49!  There are no amenities along the way, but the road is absolutely lovely.

We needed to connect with Loop 151 on crossing into Arkansas at exit 29-B, but there was no indication of it being 151.  Oh well, I knew we needed to head west into Texas, so we took the left fork.  A little ways along there was a sign by the side of the road indicating it was Loop 151.

Yay me!

We are now at Shady Pines RV Park in Texarkana, Texas.  It is associated with Shady Pines RV Center next door.  This is a really nice park with paved streets and paved, level sites.  Paved!  Level!  Hook-up pads in the middle of the site pad so our sewer reaches! 

Yay us!

It is by far the nicest park we have stayed at on this trip and the least expensive with our Good Sam discount.  I’ll try to get photos of the clubhouse and wee lake while we’re here. 

Unhitched and settled in at Site B6.  I could stay here for a long time.  It’s a very comfortable, pleasant and small park.

We arrived midafternoon and, after setting up, scooted back into town to Albertson’s for a few groceries.  We will be here until Friday, at which time we will roll on down the highway to Mt. Pleasant and our new home at the KOA there.

My plants fared well in the cab of the truck, nestled in a box next to Maggie’s crate.  They are enjoying their first Texas evening outside right now.

Haven’t seen this in a store in . . . well, quite a while.  Yes, we’re back in Texas!

Shiner Bock is in the house in honor of our return for Dave’s last vacation weekend

While here in Texarkana, we are having a minor repair done on the rig, hopefully having it professionally washed and waxed and taking care of some personal business.  I need to get our truck inspected.  These roads are true Texas roads with wide shoulders, so Dave is ready to get out there and clock some bike miles.  I have laundry to do and am looking forward to doing some cooking for a change.  Working night shift in South Carolina pretty much prohibited that on any regular basis.  We also plan to relax and rest from the road – recuperate from all the lousy, rainy weather – and thereby be refreshed and energized for heading into our job as campground managers.

We have already visited with a couple of folks here in the park when walking around this afternoon/evening.  We are looking at more rain tonight and tomorrow but . . . I don’t care!  Bwahaha!  We’re off the road, set up nicely and we’re on concrete!

I am, folks, in heaven.

We are a bit under 60 miles to our final destination.  I am so grateful that we have had a safe and uneventful journey this far.  “Thanks, Dad, for watching over us and for imparting so much knowledge – both practical and intuitive – to me throughout the years.”

The first rig I remember as a child. We lived in the house that had this backyard until the summer before I entered second grade in school.

Maggie and I  had a prolonged, enjoyable walk earlier.  This has been the best place for walking her and she certainly deserved some fun time outdoors after all the traveling and the bad weather.  She is  crashed on the bed, happy and relaxed.  She is such a great traveler and has seen quite a few states now.

Speaking of states, I hope to get our state map up on the window while we’re here.

Okay, I need to get this posted.  In spite of a yummy cup of coffee a bit ago, I bet I’ll sleep tonight!

“The Kiowa braves have grown up from childhood, obtaining their medicine from the earth.”

- Satank, Kiowa, c, 1810-1871

365 Days of Walking the Red Road

Thanks for stopping by!

I am a Warrior

The above bracelet is a Toby and Max design

 

 

 

Travel Day 9 - Vicksburg, MS to Shreveport, LA

I guess we must have needed some sleep, because we didn’t wake up until well after 8 AM this morning.  Yoinks!  The official checkout time at Ameristar Casino Hotel RV Park is 11 AM, but Kimberly in the office assured us there was no hurry and we should just stop in the office to let her know when we were leaving.  We did just that, taking our time but not loitering and I said our good-byes to Kimberly at about noon.

Hanging a left on Washington Street and then a right onto I-20 West, we cruised across the Mississippi River . . . via the traffic bridge, of course.  What a view!  The river was somewhat swollen with snow melt from up North and from recent heavy rains.  It was pretty muddy looking and we had noticed trees and large branches floating downstream the other day. 

We rolled down the road 52 miles to a Pilot, where we fueled up.  We are grateful this was another uneventful trip with no rain, although leaden skies and quite a bit of haze all day.  We never really saw Mr. Sun.  We stopped at a rest area just east of Ruston, LA.

The parking area for the big rigs at this rest stop was parallel parking on either side of the roadway and it was pretty full when we pulled in.  That truck to the right of our rig is passing us.

Looking forward from our rig

That truck with the blue tarp pulled forward a bit after a few minutes, so I got in and moved up to give room for another rig behind us.  Crazy busy.

Ah . . . that’s better!  A bit more breathing room!

We hit another Pilot about 60 more miles down the road to top off the truck’s tank and take a pit stops for us and Maggie before hitting Shreveport.  Interstate 20 had been pretty nice all the way from South Carolina but I tell ya what . . . going through Shreveport it was absolutely shocking.  I slowed us down to 50 MPH because the condition of the road was so bad.  We made it through unscathed and said goodbye to I-20 West at exit #10. 

We are at the Shreveport/Bossier City KOA for two nights, staying hitched up to the truck and connected only to electric and . . . cable TV!  I wasn’t going to bother with the cable, but Dave found the post connection and voila!  We have honest-to-goodness cable including . . . Turner Classic Movies!  Hot diggity dog.  It’s Bert I. Gordon Night; we were treated, if you will, to The Cyclops while we ate our homemade burgers and steak fries.  Right now we’re watching The Attack of the Puppet People. 

Dave has really become proficient in guiding me to position our rig well wherever we are, getting us level and all that good stuff

We were originally assigned site #28, but the entrance and exit from it was terrifically muddy, so we have ended up with site #26.  Sweet.  This is a fairly new KOA, having been the Tall Pines RV Park in a previous life.  It’s just fine here!  The restrooms are quite nice; Dave went up there for a shower since we’re not  hooked up to sewer.  Another couple with a fifth wheel pulled in not long after us, and the gentleman came over for a wee visit.  We sat at our table and chairs and had a delightful chat.  Quite the character is Mr. “Tired Old Man.” 

You know, if there is some way I could earn a living online that would support us both, I would be so very content living this simple life . . . sitting in an RV park for extended periods and then moving on to someplace new and different.  That’s actually what I originally envisioned back in 2002 when I started thinking about this lifestyle.  I was a home-based medical transcriptionist and single, and planned to take my work on the road with me.

Ah well, the next best thing is managing an RV park and working my part-time virtual assistant job, eh?  Speaking of that, I was thrilled to get a raise recently on my virtual assistant job!  Woot!  I did manage to work a bit last night, actually, and hoping I can do the same tomorrow while we’re just hanging out here.

Maggie is sacked out on the bed after her day of travel.  She is such a great road trekker and I think she really enjoys having all three of us together here in the rig more while we’re on the road.

We traveled 181.1 miles today, and it was an easy day on the road.

We had a late dinner and I had my first cup of coffee in three days, so I’ll be up for a while, but I’d best go ahead and get this posted.

“I am poor and naked  but I am the chief of a nation.  We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right.  Riches would do us  no good.  We could not take them with us to the other world.  We do not want riches.  We want peace and love.”

- Red Cloud (Makhpiya-Luta), Oglala Sioux chief, 1822-1909

365 Days of Walking the Red Road

Thanks for stopping by!

I am a Warrior

The above bracelet is a Toby and Max design