Deja Vu All Over Again

Remember last fall when I was at Rainbow’s End in Livingston, Texas, and I needed to unhook to go to the grocery store. Instead of going back to the park I headed west–all the way to Arizona?

Friday I was at Rainbow’s End, in Livingston, Texas, and I needed to unhook to go to the grocery store. Perfect weather was headed to Livingston so I should have gone back to the park.

But the urge to head home was too strong.

The grocery store I went to was a Walmart in Ennis, Texas. Nearly 4 hours northwest of Livingston.

So I began my northward Spring migration.

The next day I drove on north. As I crossed the border from Texas to Oklahoma, right there at the welcome sign, I was hit by a blast of that famous Oklahoma wind. “Seriously?” I thought, “The wind literally starts right at the border?”

Next I saw a farm tractor. It said to me that I had left ranching country and was now entering farming country. That reminded me of the bumper sticker I love that said, “Farming is everybody’s bread and butter.” Right on. But ranching is where meat comes from and I’m a carnivore. So I’m glad this country is big enough to provide plenty of food of all kinds for all of us to eat.

Then on to Norman, Oklahoma, where I met Tammy, owner of the blog Peanut on the Table, http://peanutonthetable.com. We instantly felt like old friends even though we’d never met face to face before. That’s the result of reading and commenting on each others blogs–we really do know a lot about one another–how could we possibly be strangers?

We had supper together at Cracker Barrel. I was supposed to pay since I invited her. She thought she should pay since she lived there and I was visiting. The server sided with her and I never even saw the check arrive. Thanks Tammy for being a good guest/hostess.

I had called the Cracker Barrel to see if it was OK for me to stay there overnight. It is Cracker Barrel’s company policy to allow this but I was a little concerned about this one. Their RV length spots were near the door instead of around back. And they weren’t marked, “Bus/RV” like most Cracker Barrels do. There were cars in most of them. I usually wait until I’m done eating supper to ask about staying but I needed to know before Tammy and I started talking if I was going to have to move on for the night. So I called them from their parking lot. They said, “Yes, but you HAVE to come in for breakfast.” OK, then. So, I stayed. But I felt like I’d already paid by going in for supper. (Ignore the fact that Tammy paid, she wouldn’t have been there without my invitation.) And their attitude made me feel just a bit rebellious. So I went to Waffle House for breakfast. 🙂

Now the winds are picking up and another front is about to pass through Oklahoma and Kansas bringing storms with it. So I need a place to hole up a couple of days.

Not a problem. I’m only about an hour away from FireLake Casino. I’ve stayed at this casino before and liked it. So I put its address into my GPS and headed out. Down a route that was not familiar to me. But, I wasn’t driving when we went there before. And the GPS doesn’t always take the route I would take. And I was approaching from a different direction.

Guess what? There were two FireLake Casinos. FireLake Grand Casino and FireLake Casino. Before we went to the Grand one. My GPS brought me to the other one. Seems the Grand one has dropped FireLake from its name because it caused too much confusion so my Google search found the other one. And they are only a few miles apart. So I’m at the wrong one. But it has a campground that’s bigger than the other one. And it has sewer hookups instead of a dump that’s uphill. And I’m still backed up to a creek with a picnic table. So it looks like I’ll sit right here until Wednesday when the storm front will have passed and driving is safe once again.

So, I’m headed home. Once I get done waiting for the weather again, that is. It better stop snowing up there now. Although, I guess it’s supposed to do it again tomorrow. But then it better melt by the time I get home. Dave says the drifts are blocking the parking lot right now so I couldn’t even park at home. It just better melt fast because I’m coming anyway. Good thing I only drive four hours a day so it will take me a few more days to get there.

TTYL,

Linda