Day 127 - Friday, April 4 - Nasty Travel Day

I wanted to leave early, in an attempt to get on the road during one of the brief intervals between showers. When I tried to start the car to warm up the transmission fluid the battery was dead, same as it was yesterday morning. (I have no idea why.) I jumped it to get it started. A good thing is that the chassis batteries are just inside the back of the coach, convenient for jumper cables when the car is hooked to the back of the coach. We got out around 7:30.

It rained almost the entire way home. In addition it was misty. In general just a NASTY travel day. We arrived home around 1:00. We got set up, in the rain and then I had to fix a water faucet that had froze and broke during the winter. Fortunately Kelsey had a cap so I cut the PEX and put a cap on it. 

When I was getting the car started this morning I noticed that the check engine light stayed on after I got it running. I was thinking about that, and the dead battery, when I noticed that the heater fan was blowing hot air out of the vents even though it looked like it was shut off. The heater controls were totally inoperative. One of the ways to reset the check engine light is to remove the negative battery cable. I took it off and left it off while I dumped our tanks, I had not hooked the sewer at the campground last night. I put the cable back on, started the car and everything seems to be working the way it should. It will be interesting to see if it starts okay in the morning.

By the time I got back into the coach I was soaked to the skin. I don't think the high was above 50 today. Tonight's low is supposed to be 44. Then a low of 40 on Saturday night, 36 on Sunday night & 32 on Monday night. Some year I'm going to get smart enough to stay south until the lows here are above 40. Its interesting that last year we also arrived back home on April 4th. This year we had to get back for a routine Doctor's appointment Kathy has on the 8th. I'm not returning to Missouri until mid April next year, no Doctor's appointment scheduled before April 20th..

Kelsey invited us over for supper so we got to tour their completed new home, Andy was out mushroom hunting in the rain. It was good to visit with her, Lydia and Nolan. Their new home is very nice.

The trip home from Lakewood in Harlingen was 1,076 miles. I will check the odometers on the car and coach and note how fare we drove when I do an end of trip report.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 125 & 126 - Wednesday & Thursday, April 2 & 3 - Travelling North

We left Victoria at 8:30 Wednesday. Kathy drove us 400 miles north during the day. We wanted to get as far north as we could before we had to drive in blowing rain. There were a few time when we needed the wipers but we were never in heavy rain. We were set up at the Choctaw Casino RV Park, in Durant, OK (population 21,000, the population of the entire county is only 49,000), by 5:30. The RV sites are #$62/night which we thought was pretty steep for a casino but we were tired and it had good reviews.

During the drive we stopped at a roadside turnout and had lunch. The other coach was there when we arrived and still there when we left. It had its leveling jacks down and a slide out. I wonder if they maybe spent the night there.

There was a lot of traffic going through Dallas in the midafternoon. PTL that I never had a daily commute in traffic like this. When I took the photo we were moving but there was also a fair amount of stop and go.

The casino facility is huge. 1,700 rooms, 77 RV sites, 7,400 slot machines, a 20 lane bowling facility, a 6 screen movie theater, 16 restaurants, 18 bars, etc. A shuttle runs between the RV Park and the casino. We took it over to the casino to get supper. We were shocked at the restaurant prices. We walked around and looked at the menus posted at the entry of each restaurant. To eat at the buffet place was $30/person. An 8 oz filet mignon at the steakhouse was $67, it was the cheapest steak. At the other end of the steak menu was a 22 oz cowboy ribeye, at $122. At the Salt & Stone the All American Cheeseburger was $20, the pan fried catfish was $22 & the 14 oz ribeye was $60. There were several other restaurants and several "fast food" places in a food court. We ended up eating Smashburgers.

Driving by the main casino building.

Set up at the campground.

A nice place to keep the kids entertained for awhile. The pool is off to the left. I didn't go over to check it out. I did check out the restroom & shower facility. It was quite upscale.

I talked Kathy into getting a macaroon from the casinos sweet shop.

During the night it rained and the wind BLEW. We pulled in 3 of our 4 slides. We heard some decent size hail hit the coach roof but thankfully there was only a little of it.

The rain let up around 8 AM and I went out and unhooked everything except the electrical. I also went to start the car to circulate the transmission fluid and the battery was totally dead. I have no idea why. I dug out my jumper cables, which are "buried" in the back of one of the basement areas, and got the car started. Kathy had been up a lot during the night and she slept in until after 10 AM. The weather forecast looked grim. We consider staying there another night and not fighting the wind and rain. We finally decided to head north and left the campground at noon. I drove the first 200 miles and Kathy took over and drove the last 70 miles. Driving in the wind was a chore but thankfully we didn't have to contend with any significant rain.

Because we got such a late start we only stopped twice, once for fuel and a second time when we changed drivers. Kathy ate a sandwich before she started driving and I had one after I stopped driving. We arrived at Coachlight RV Park in Carthage, MO (just east of Joplin) at 5 PM. It appears to be a pretty nice place for $40/night. We will keep it in mind for future travels.

Parked at Coachlight.

More of the campground.

We are 210 miles from home. Lord willing we should get home mid afternoon tomorrow, Day 127.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 124 - Tuesday, April 1 - Cuero Museum Visits

We went to Mumford's BBQ for an early lunch. The ribs and brisket were good, but a little disappointing, they weren't as good as they were either of the other times we were there.

After lunch I dropped Kathy off at the coach and headed up to Cuero, about 30 miles north of Victoria. The last time we were in Victoria I drove up to the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum and went through it. The lady there told me that there were several other museums in the town that I should check out but I didn't have the time to do it that day.

The first place I went was the Cuero Heritage Museum, there were several different exhibits in what had once been the Post Office. The first exhibit I looked at was about the Cuero Turkey Trot. In the early 1900’s some local small farmers raised turkey’s. Since there were only a few vehicles at the time farmers would “drive” herds of their turkeys to the local processing plant in Cuero. Someone got the idea to turn the Turkey Trot into an event. The first Turkey Trot was held November 25-27, 1912. 30,000 people flocked into Cuero to watch 18,000 turkeys herded down Main Street. There was a carnival, big band dances, a football game (the local team is the Gobblers), a parade, etc. The Governor crowned the first Turkey Queen. The last actual Turkey Trot was in 1972 but I think the festival, now called the Cuero Turkeyfest, still occurs. The festival took on a Turkish theme.

Another couple of rooms were dedicated to Coca Cola memorabilia. Several old Coke machines, lots of old style Coke bottles and this outfit that a local wore, CoCo the Clown, in local parades. When I was driving around town I noted a building was once a Coke building but is now the City Hall.

Upstairs there were several rooms full of juice squeezers. There was a 206 page catalog with photos of all 1,643 squeezers. Each photo had the price the collector had paid for the squeezer. The total cost was $134,983.

Another room was dedicated to the port town of Indianola which had been wiped out by hurricanes many years ago. Reading about the military activities during the Civil War's, and the North's disregard for private property rights, when they took over the town, was interesting. Thankfully it didn't seem to be one of the typical historical revisionist museums that frequent the nation, by claiming getting rid of slavery was the primary reason the righteous northern states refused to let the seceding states for their own nation. (Delaware, a Yankee slave state voted against the 13th Amendment, the abolition of slavery; the 14th Amendment, citizenship rights; & the 15th Amendment, giving blacks the right to vote. In 1901 it finally ratified the 13th Amendment. Slavery was a horrendous, but it wasn't the primary reason for the Civil War.)

Next was the Pharmacy & Medical Museum of Texas.

They have an actual iron lung machine.

Interesting ad.

The old courthouse.

A street in Cuero.

That was enough sightseeing for me for the day. 

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.