Nov 10th arrived in Mission TX

The weather was cloudy and cool when we left the Dallas area on Monday, November 9th at 8:45 am -- about 9C -- but by the time we reached Fentress, TX at 2:30 pm it was a sunny 22C.  So nice to be back into a t-shirt and shorts!

We were delayed about an hour on our trip down I-35 today first due to a long stretch of construction and then to volume of traffic going through Austin. Believe it or not the traffic through Austin was worse than Toronto!

 All along the route there is evidence of flooding from the storm that came through on Halloween.  The rivers are still running high and fast.   A good note:  we saw a flock of Sandhill Cranes flying south -- a beautiful sight! 

We camped at Leisure Resort in Fentress which is 45 miles north east of San Antonio. The interior roads of the campground were broken in places where the floodwaters damaged the pavement and deposited it elsewhere.  Their bathhouse/shower building is still not operational since the flood. 

our site at Leisure Resort

San Marcos river running through the campground

The campground staff told us the San Marcos River had crested at 42' on October 31st.  The second highest in 100 yrs!

Leisure Resort is a lovely little campground -- very quiet and peaceful nestled in the trees beside the San Marcos River. Visitors tube down the river in the summer time.  This is a Passport American campground so we got 50% off the regular rate.

We chose to stay in Fentress as it close to Black's Restaurant in the town of Lockhart which is known in this area for it's Barbecue food.  We ate there in the spring and especially loved their BBQ brisket and smoked sausages so decided to repeat the experience.

On Tuesday, November 10th the temperature was 19C when we left Fentress at 9:20 am.  The gas prices were even cheaper along Highway TX-80.  We stopped at Karnes City to fuel up at the Chevron for $1.74/gal.

We spotted 2 unusual birds on our travels toward Mission.  They are Crested Caracara and are about the size of a Falcon.

Crested Caracara

We arrived in Mission TX around 3:30 in the afternoon to temperature of 30C.  We checked out 2 campgrounds and chose Lemon Tree RV Inn.  A welcoming park.  The rate is $310 per month which includes WiFi at your site.  Electricity is extra (as is usual) at cost of 15 cents/kwh.  We will stay here until we cross the border into Mexico later in November or early Dec.  We have traveled 2,072 miles since Oct 31st.

we picked a site at Lemon Tree where the tree provides shade from the afternoon sun

Wed November 11th:  We are already involved in the park activities.  We attended the weekly residents meeting this morning, Bev played a couple of games of Shuffleboard while Vic was busy helping another couple set up their satellite dish. Tonight we will be attending the Veterans' Day dinner.

Thurs November 12th: We swam in the pool as the high yesterday was 33C (91F).  The weather has really cooled off today in is now currently overcast and 72F (22C). Vic was just about to start washing the motorhome and a crew of young Mexicans just showed up and offered to wash the rig for $37. What a deal! There will be a good tip for a job well done.

Enjoying being  Winter Texans even if only for part of the winter.

 

Sat Nov 7th Dallas

We've traveled over 1,550 miles to date and are now at Traders Village RV Park in Grand Prairie, a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas.

The previous 2 days we traveled through periods of rain but the weather has been mild.  We stayed overnight at Walmarts at Sikeston, Missouri and New Boston, Texas.  Both offered free wifi that reached out to the edge of the parking lot which was something new this year.

On our way south from Sikeston we noticed many cotton fields had been harvested with the bales of cotton waiting to be picked up. Actually, they were big rolls just like you now see hay rolled up.

Friday night after arriving in New Boston we discovered that our rear panel window on the driver's side of our tow car (our Chevy HHR) had shattered in the last few hours of our trip.

Vic taped the window on the outside to hold it together until we could have it replaced.

 Luckily we found a place in Grand Prairie that was able to replace the window in about 30 minutes this afternoon. But another US$150 down the drain.

Gas has been getting cheaper as we drive south.  Our last fill-up at Sulphur Springs TX (about 80 miles east of Dallas) cost $1.84/gallon (about 65cents CAD per liter).

It is so nice to be back in an area where all the trees are leafy green and the grass is lush. We are sited under some kind of oak tree and we often get them pinging off our roof. Luckily, they usually come of during the day and we can sleep OK thru the night.

our site at Traders Village

Tomorrow we head for Lockhart Texas and their world famous BBQ dinner.

On the road Oct 31, 2015

We left a little earlier this year.  By 8 pm on Oct 31st we ran out of candy to hand out to the children for Halloween so we shut off the water, etc for the house and were on the road in our motorhome by 8:30 pm, after a ten minute delay due to basically destroying our motorized steps. We drove through patches of rain all the way to London.

Gas in our area was 101 per liter so we waited until we reached Ayr to fill up at the Flying J for 95/liter.

At 11 pm we reached our stop for the night at the Flying J in London to discover we were parked next to our friend John Butts from Penetanguishene!  There were fewer RVs stopped to overnight at the Flying J than previous years.  The temperature was about 7C overnight.

That night the gas was 92/liter at the London Flying J and with our discount we could have filled up for 91.  But in the morning the gas had jumped overnight by 11 cents to 103!  So we just topped up our propane and headed for the border.

After crossing into the US at Sarnia/Port Huron, we stopped for fuel at the Pilot Travel Center for $2.40/gallon.  Cheaper than the $2.76 we paid the previous year. We also fueled up with Cinnabon rolls. YUMMY!

We had rainy weather off and on that day and it was windy for our drive but at least it was mild weather.

Our first stop on our trip south most years is La Porte, Indiana to spend a few days with family and pick up a new set of motorized steps in Elkhart, IN. 

Here's a photo of our parking spot in La Porte:

The weather has been warm while we've been here in La Porte (about 20C each day) and will continue to be so for the next couple of days so there is no push for a long day of driving to get out of cold weather when we leave here.  We plan to head towards Memphis on Thursday, Nov 5th.