Completing trip #1!

Well, we survived the drive through Shreveport, LA, and the roads were no problem at all. Sure wish they would fix I-10 on their south edge though -- at least before we drive it again this December!  We even survived our first drive past the Dallas area, though we did cheat a little and pick roads that skirted east of the city so we could miss the worst of the traffic.  We have also learned to avoid rush hour.

We next enjoyed a fabulous 3+ day visit with friends, Mike & Lori Brindle, who live in Lake Kiowa, TX, which is just south of the Oklahoma border.  Their gated neighborhood even had a small campground with full hookups for Max, so we weren't too far away from them. Unfortunately, we were now fully engulfed in the dry Texas heat, so enjoying their golf course was not a good option.  We did, however, venture away from their little paradise to check out a nearby zoo and amazing casino right over the Oklahoma border.

Unfortunately, Max took issue with the heat (or maybe it was the huge power requirements to almost constantly run his 3 air conditioners) and started to suffer some mysterious power outages. It didn't take long to spot an unhappy breaker in his power panel.  The bad luck is that it was one of the uncommon ones and had to be ordered, so we were forced to limp back to our Georgetown RV park with only 1 A/C in order to get to a service place that could patch us up. We will now add an extra $40 breaker to our "spare parts" box :-)

In the end, we got back and organized in time for the annual SEC Picnic where our beloved Lone Star Gator Club gathers with the other alumni clubs to kick off the upcoming college football season (in the picture below, we are the ones in the funny tan hats on the right next to the blow-up "Albert" mascot). We sure had a lot to share and catch up on with them! It was great being back to our "Fall" home where we can enjoy our Austin friends and eat some truly wonderful BBQ and Tex-mex food for a few months!

Westward bound

After spending a final week near Gainesville seeing Jeffrey's parents, we began our trek westbound -- the goal being  to get back to Texas in time for the SEC picnic mid-August with our beloved Lone Star Gator Club.  Lucky for us, Jeffrey's brother and sis-in-law Susan live in Pensacola FL, so they are a very nice place to stop and hang out for a few days.  On our drive over, we stopped at a Pilot to fill Max with diesel and found ourselves the lucky recipients of a freezer full of Haagen-Daz ice cream from a trucker who was going to have to throw it away because the outside box was damaged.  Lucky for us, the single-serving containers of chocolate fudge brownie were totally fine!

We also enjoyed our final days on the nice Florida highways as we have found the southern states further west to be BUMPY... at least in a motorhome.  We have learned to "batten down the hatches" on rough roads, including putting rubber bands around the silverware so they don't clink-clink-clink.  As a result of our bumpy trip over I-10 when we came east last December, we decided to detour up to I-20 and see if it was any smoother.  It also gave us a perfect opportunity to visit my cousin Peyton and her family who had just moved to Jackson, Mississippi.  Jackson also has a zoo (see pictures below) and, while it was so-so, we pretty much had it all to ourselves (as well as the planetarium in town).  Found a few more folks in the local art museum, but the real crowds were at one of the local indoor malls keeping cool!

As I write this update, we have plodded further west to Mindon, Louisiana just for a night stop and will do another 1-day drive to Terrell, Texas tomorrow.  As it turns out, the worst of I-20 was at Jackson and it has been better as we go west -- though we have been warned that the road out of Shreveport may be bumpy too.  Guess I better keep the rubber bands on!