Mar 26 - Savoring a Texas Blizzard

Yesterday, Sunday, we sucked in the slides, pulled the jacks, fired up the Cummins, and rolled out of Rockport/Fulton on a generally northeast heading. If you're prone to anthropomorphizing about these things, you could feel the raw glee emanating from the bus-house as it stretched it's atrophied muscles, flexed it's stiff joints, and swallowed the fresh diesel fuel elixir. For almost three solid months the rig has been sitting without being run, exercised... the longest period of non-use in five years. It felt good for all of us to be back on the road again.

For 25 miles we rolled through the flat coastal plain of alternating wetlands and cotton fields until we reached the town of Tivoli. And there it was... looming ahead... our objective. A Dairy Queen store with a big gravel truck and RV parking lot right next door. In our experience, almost every town in Texas has a Dairy Queen, and little Tivoli (with perhaps a couple hundred residents) is no exception.

"Two Blizzards please".

In addition to running the bus-house's engine, transmission, and chassis, we were also running the generator to provide the necessary power for the two air refrigeration units on the roof... so we could stay relatively cool on this hot spring coastal bend day. This is the time of year things start to heat up in these parts... when the temperature and relative humidity vie for top spot on the numerical weather score board.

After our refreshment break, Dar took the wheel and drove us back to our campsite at Sandollar. Yes, it was all a drill... a practice run... to make sure all systems were working as they should. But we all got a remedial lesson in the joys of travel that day. And we're now pretty much packed up and ready to head off on our Spring'12 expedition to the Northwest.

Stay tuned, it all starts in just one week.