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There were freeze warnings last night so Dave did a dump and fill then brought in the hose and we ran off our fresh water tank last night.  And dressed in long sleeve shirts this morning before heading south. You guessed it. First I took off my zippered sweat shirt. Then I yanked up the sleeves on my polo shirt. At lunch time I considered changing to a t-shirt but I would have had to open a slide to get to them. So, I decided to just enjoy being warm for a change.

We passed a couple of yard sales. Anyone want to buy a yard? Maybe if it was fabric? Also known as yard goods? Anyone ever heard of yard bads?

In far eastern OK traveling south on US 259 through the Ouichita National Forest I saw the A to Z Guest Ranch, Equestrian resort, followed by the J & D Horse Camp. Both had travel trailer symbols indicating you could camp there. Bet I can guess which would be the more expensive one.

Backwoods Cafe, one of those hole-in-the-wall gas station places not far north of where US 259 crosses I-30, makes wonderful hamburgers and sells sliced meat and cheese by the pound. If we weren’t trying to empty our frig I think we’d have left there with at least some smoked ham. They are not a big place but our rig fit just fine between their two driveways and that’s all we needed.

I saw a billboard that asked, “Would you like to leave a message?” Does that strike anyone besides me as an invitation to mark that sign with graffiti?

“Christmas parade, Monday December 12th”  apparently Lone Star, Texas, wants to give you plenty of notice so you don’t miss it. The town is so small the locals couldn’t possible miss it so they must be hoping travelers will come back for it. Small town parades can be a lot of fun but, honestly, how far would you drive to attend one?

PPL, the RV consignment place where we are taking our RV to sell it, has a list of paperwork you must bring with the rig. Among that list is a Texas safety inspection and a VIN verification. If Texas was our domicile we would have had to do that inspection every year that we entered Texas. But because South Dakota is our domicile we’d never done one so had no idea what to expect. Dave picked a place in Longview, Texas, which would be the first big town we would enter. They said we didn’t need an appointment but to get there at least 15 minutes before closing. We got there more than an hour before closing. But they only had one DOT inspector on duty and he was doing a rush job on another vehicle. No problem. We’re not on anyone’s time clock so we can wait. Wow! Did they ever check out our RV. They had a list of things that included seat belts! And the VIN verification paper is called a green sheet because it used to be green. 🙂 So we now have those papers for PPL when we get there next week. 

In the meantime we’ll head on to the SKP park in Livingston, Texas, for the weekend where we’ll do one last cleaning of the rig and start figuring out how to get the rest of the stuff still in the RV into our car. I wonder if we’ll have to ship some stuff home? If so, where will we ship it since we won’t actually have a home for the next week? Another of life’s little challenges.

TTYL,

Linda

When we pulled into our campsite last Spring our map of states we visited while fulltime RVing looked like this:

No visit to Arkansas. That was one of the things that made it hard for me to accept our fulltime lifestyle being done. Then, when we were planning our trip south, I asked Google Maps to suggest a route and it showed me this:

Do you see it? Here, let me zoom in for you.

That’s right. Our suggested route would take us right through Arkansas! So, that’s where we are tonight. Now our states visited map looks like this:

And I am, once again, a happy camper.

TTYL,

Linda

ps. Yes, we’ve been to Hawaii. No we did not take the RV; that’s an error in my post I chose not to correct. No we haven’t been to Alaska. If we go there someday it will be the same way we went to Hawaii the last time–by cruise ship.

For those of us who like having a dose of reality, this is what the “Occupy Wall Street” movement is all about. Be sure to scroll down and read Tanja’s comment.

http://minimalistpackrat.com/2011/10/16/occupy-daytona-florida-raise-your-voice/

TTYL,

Linda

I recently saw this amazing video on how to quickly make perfect corn-on-the-cob and had to share it. I know, I’m not supposed to eat corn but I am absolutely going to try this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBF6bv4Oe4

TTYL,

Linda

 

Winnebago found a leak! That’s good. Because if they can’t find it they can’t fix it. But find one they did. So they applied some sealant then waited for it to dry so they could test again.

Found another one! So they applied sealant to it. But their work day was ending and the sealant wasn’t dry yet so they came to ask us if we wanted to leave in hopes that it was fixed or stay another night so they could test it tomorrow. We decided to stay.

So the next day they tested that fix and it worked. But, they found a third leak! So they sealed that one, waited for it to dry and tested again. No leak! No more need to put a bowl under the corner of the bedroom slide to catch the rain! Yay!

But, it was once again late afternoon so we stayed one more night then hit the road.

Whoa! Windy! Too windy to be comfortable out here. It was supposed to be mostly a tail wind which we thought might be OK but it was more like passenger-side rear quarter gusts. So, we only drove two hours instead of the four hours we usually do and wound up in Story City, Iowa.

Which turns out to be a good place. Our park is right beside the highway but we picked a spot in it sort of down in a hollow so had very little road noise. Dave said he heard one train during the night but I never heard any. The winds are still blowing but we are not rocking; still we’ll stay here a second night to let the winds die down before getting back on the road south.

We ate a late lunch at the Happy Chef here. They had so many good things on the menu we may go back today. More than once. But, it is not a good stop-on-the-way-with-your-rig place. It has a big sign at the entrance stating the lot’s weight limit. The McDonald’s across the street has truck parking, though, in case you need to stop in this area sometime.

A truck that passed us on the way here said “liquid chicken” on the side of it. Eggs? Chicken broth? What’s your guess?

TTYL,

Linda