For the new year

I'm in Florida now and am clarifying my plans.  I've made 3 lists of things to do: things that need organizing, things that need mending, and overdue blog posts.  I figure each list will take about a week, and I've made a reservation at this campground (with good wifi) for 3 weeks.  That takes me to the middle of January.  I may take a little more time if I have to, because I want to leave here refreshed and ready to enjoy my last 4 states (plus D.C.)

Florida is a big state with a whole lot of things I want to see, and February is a short month.  So my plan now is to begin my "month" in Florida part way through January and continue through February.  I'm sure I'll still miss some things, but the extra time will help.

I'm writing now to wish everyone a safe and peaceful new year.  We've been having a rough time this last year (though nothing like the poor folks in Ukraine, for which I'm unendingly grateful), and I hope things will ease up in the coming months for everyone.  So my very best wishes for a great new year!

Florida - Day 4 - the drive to Starke

Starke/Gainesville NE KOA, Starke

Wednesday, 28 December 2022

David and Anna left about 7:30 this morning and stopped by the RV to say goodbye to Dext and me.  I stayed until after 9:30 to use the wifi signal for a while, and because Google said today's drive wouldn't take any great amount of time.

today's route

I planned several errands in Jax before leaving town.  First was the local recycling center.  Online it looked like they might not let me dump my stuff because of not being a local resident, but when I got there I didn't have any trouble at all.  Always nice to get rid of things.

From there I'd chosen stores that were in the south part of town, because I wanted to go by the naval station where my daddy was stationed during WWII.  I couldn't get a photo of the main gate because of traffic and can't find one online that isn't under copyright.  But it looks like just your basic entry to a military station.  

The facility dates to WWI when it was used by the US Army for training and mobilization.  After the war, it was decommissioned and later the FL National Guard used it.  When WWII was beginning to break out in Europe, the facility was reopened as NAS Jacksonville (Jax), runways were built, and the buildings multiplied as the US entered WWII.  It's still a heavily used military facility.  Momma and Daddy got married in Rhode Island where they met when he was stationed at Quonset Point NAS; later he was transferred down here (and I'm sure was thrilled about the climate change because he hated cold weather) and Momma moved down to join him; he was discharged from here at the end of the war.  I think I still have old photos from when they were stationed here.  Seems odd to me now.  (And I'm just going to say how worried I've been that Russia's invasion of Ukraine might morph into WWIII; it still looks possible to me.)

Across the road from the NAS I saw a billboard sponsored by The Fire Watch (thefirewatch.org) with a photo of someone called a Watch Stander.  I was curious and looked it up and learned this is a program here in Florida that aims to reduce the number of suicides by veterans through the use of volunteer "Watch Standers."  Sadly, this program seems seriously needed, with the rate of suicide in veterans 1.5 times higher than in the general population, and 2.5 times higher in female veterans than in female non-veterans.  I'm glad to hear of this program and that there are other programs with a similar goal.

Farther along that same road, Roosevelt Avenue, I came to an ABC Liquor (large chain in Florida) and then a Winn-Dixie.  From there I turned onto Timuquana Road (named for an early Native American tribe that lived around here) and crossed town, stopping for gasoline on the way.  Eventually I met with US-301, and from there it was only about 20 miles to Starke.  Somewhat unusually, the KOA is actually in town.

I checked us in for a 3-week stay and hoped this campground would be comfortable for us for such a long time.

Florida - Day 3 - in Jacksonville, the campground, and Glen St. Mary

Flamingo Lake RV Resort, Jacksonville

Friday, 23 through Tuesday, 27 December 2022

The critters

David and Anna came in mid-day on Friday, and Dexter was as usual beside himself to see Anna.  Well, I was glad to see her too, but he was shaking with delight.

These are photos from when we visited them in Dallas a couple of weeks ago.

One happy puppy.  And one generous sister-in-law.

They'd both seen the kittens during the 2 days we stayed at their house a couple of weeks before, but just barely because they didn't want to come out of hiding.

Now I saw once again that the kittens refused to show themselves when David and Anna first visited the RV.  They ran and hid.  And I realized for the first time that they've spent most of their lives (all 3½ months of them) having only me and Dexter and Lily around.  Sure, we've made a few forays to vets' offices, but they were short trips and the kitties mostly stayed in their carrying case.  Yet here were these 2 adult people invading their small home territory, and it apparently filled them with fear.

Lily, on the other hand, knew them well and came out of wherever she was hiding from the kittens to welcome them.  Her example may have been the reason that after a little while, Bucky showed himself, though at a distance.

I have a couple of photos I took during that time.  You can see they're getting bigger, but they still act like kittens.

Bucky especially (he's the one close to Lily) always drinks
water from the far side of the bowl, draped over it like this.
Though Lily's bigger and older, she never tries to horn in
on situations like this - I don't know why not.

That's my jacket they're lying on, which teaches me a 
lesson not to leave my stuff lying around, because I
may have trouble getting it back.  That's Bucky in the
foreground.

Jacksonville

One day I went with David and Anna on a small tour of downtown Jacksonville, specifically aiming for an old tree that's been protected there.  It was called the Treaty Oak, but that name turned out to be a ploy by a journalist to gain public support to protect this very old tree that developers were planning to cut down.  Here's what the tree looks like today.

All of that is one tree - I couldn't even get it all in the photo.

Here's more of it.

This is how one side of it spread out.

A view of how the branches spread out from the trunk.

I'm including this one for perspective - that's my brother 
on one side of the boardwalk underneath the tree.

Here's the story of how the tree came to be protected.

And this is a plug for Jacksonville's commitment to trees, a cause I'm glad to support.

And finally, there's this inspiring message from one of the city's activists.

We had some trouble finding the tree, first, and then finding a place to park, even though we were in an actual car - David's that they drove from their home.  But he found a couple of spots at the park's entrance, where a homeless person sat, entirely covered in blankets.  It was really cold that day and the wind was blowing, so the wind chill was surely hovering around freezing.  Just as we were leaving, someone pulled up to deliver a meal to that person - and to other street people we saw about a block away.  What a hard life that must be.

We were driving around that area looking for something that I can't remember what now, and we happened on a sculpture that Anna took a photo of for me.

"Stilt Walkers"

For some reason, I can't find anything more online about it than the name.  But it looks really happy, I think.

We drove back north of town to a Winn-Dixie not too far from the RV park - as David explained, it was a day ending with "y" so he needed to get groceries.  

The campground

The cabin they rented at the RV park was almost a tiny house, with a living room/kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom.  They brought inside the table that had been outside on the porch/deck, because it wasn't exactly sitting-outside weather and there wasn't any other table there.  Unlike some of the cabins there, the one my family had was right on the lake - Flamingo Lake - so they had a nice view after dark of the Christmas lights the RV park and various RVers had put up.

Dext and I walked around the lake twice - the first time with Anna and David, and the second time by ourselves when they were spending the day at the beach.  It's not large - .7 miles around - but when we made the walk we found the one dog park they had.  We found several dogs that were willing to make friends with Dext, so he got to run around a little with them and sniff some new things.

I hated to miss the trip to the beach, but I'm still feeling under the weather, not getting enough sleep and having digestive trouble.  Instead, I filled up with propane which we were running low on because of the cold weather, drove the RV around the little lake (to shake up the contents of my waste tanks), and then dumped the waste tanks.  And I cleaned the windows so Lily and the kitties could have a better view.

Anna brought back an amazing assortment of sea shells from their trip to Atlantic Beach - shells that we don't see on Texas beaches.  Which makes sense, I guess, since Atlantic Beach is on the Atlantic Ocean, while Texas beaches are on the much less volatile (except during hurricane season) Gulf of Mexico.  There are something like 5 separate beaches near Jacksonville, and I'll have to plan to visit one of them before I leave the state.

We had a nice little Christmas - David, Anna, Dexter and I.  Anna had brought lots of Christmas decorations and put up a little tree decorated with lots and lots of flamingo ornaments.  She really has a knack for transforming a space.  David cooked a ham and Anna brought some great side dishes and her mincemeat pie, which she and I like a lot.  For breakfast Christmas morning I made Momma's coffee cake, as I do every year because she did every year and it tastes like Christmas to me.  In the afternoon I brought Lily over to the cabin for a while to give her a break from the relentlessness of the kittens.  They're fine when they're asleep, but when they wake up it's just nonstop energy.  Lily's 15, and while she seems to be getting used to them and even watches their antics sometimes, I'm sure she often finds them overwhelming.

Extended family

One afternoon, David (at my urging) drove us all in the RV out to our cousin Karen's house in the country.  I knew we'd be gone for some hours and needed to have the RV with me so I'd be able to feed all the critters at dinnertime - not to mention my fear that if I'd just left them at the RV park Dext would end up barking a lot.  He does that sometimes in parking lots when he doesn't want me to leave him behind.  I wanted David to drive because I knew it'd be dark before we came back and I really didn't want to drive the RV in Florida's traffic at night, and he agreed to do it.

Interestingly, with this extended contact, the kittens were somewhat willing to come out of hiding.  Not to the extent of asking to be patted or anything that close up, but during the drive Jimmy slept in the open space in the console between the front seats, where David and Anna were sitting.

Karen and her husband Bobby were teachers for decades, and have only just this year retired.  One of their sons told Karen he figured he'd retire himself before she did.  I think it was an adjustment for them, but now they're discovering some of the joys of free time that others of us retirees have found.  I loved my job and wish I could have kept doing it, but I like being able to make my own decisions for how I spend my time.

Anyway, we had a nice dinner with them and their 2 sons and their wives and children.  Karen's told me she's glad when people from her side of the family visit because her kids had known only Bobby's side the whole time they were growing up.  And we enjoy seeing how the family genes play out in new generations.  Aside from the fact that they're all really nice people and a pleasure to spend time with - I'm glad to be related to people like that.

In sum

This was a nice campground, and it had its share of oddities (e.g. only one dog park for hundreds of RVers, and it's way out of the way for most), it was comfortable.  I was very glad for the chance to spend time with my family, though it was a shame that the temperature stayed low for most of the time, compounded with a strong breeze much of the time.  Winter, after all, but we'd hoped for a more tropical version of it.

Having this period of non-travel actually confirmed my need to take the rest period I've booked after this in Starke, north of Gainesville.  My body is being slow to get well and my brain seems to have become just about as dysfunctional as my body.  I need some rest-and-regroup time for sure, and I'm glad I decided to give it to myself.

Florida - Day 2 - to Jacksonville

Flamingo Lake RV Resort, Jacksonville

Thursday, 22 December 2022

Before we left that odd campground this morning, I was walking Dexter around the area, not bothering to take him to that dinky dog park.  On our walk he met several dogs and stopped to sniff in a very polite way.  Suddenly a dog that had been in the dog park got out of the gate before its owners - a couple - could get a leash on it, and it came running over to meet Dexter with the woman running along behind calling for it and trying to catch it.  Then the man fumbled the leash on the 2nd dog which got out of the dog park and started running for Dexter too, which left both the man and woman to try to catch these guys.  

The owners were both somewhat overweight and both the dogs were small ones and hard for the owners to reach down and get a hold of, though they were making a valiant effort.  And at that point someone who was unloading a car by the alleged rec center (just a gathering place, actually) started yelling at them to put those dogs on a leash, which I thought was really unfair.  So I called to that person that they were trying to do that, but she just started yelling at me too.  Meanwhile, Dexter never stopped being anything but well-behaved and I was very proud of him.  

I never did figure out who that person was that was yelling at us, not ever having seen anyone in charge here.  It looked to me like she hadn't realized the dogs being loose was an accident, though I didn't see why she had to yell at me like it was all my fault.  Very strange place and I was glad we were leaving.

today's route

I'd originally planned to take the interstate to Jacksonville, but last night I did a rethink and instead insisted Google let me take a road less traveled - i.e. US-90.  And after all, it was a US highway, so not exactly some dinky backroad, I thought.

The road between the campground and Monticello - US-19 - was called the Florida-Georgia Parkway.  That road circled the county courthouse, and I took an offshoot from there which was US-90, aka the Florida Arts Trail.  Actually, I tried hard to find out why this road is designated an arts trail and came up against a complete dearth of information  Nobody wanted to admit this road had that name, though I swear I saw the sign.

US-90 is definitely not in the fast lane; it's almost always a 2-lane country road between Monticello and Jacksonville.  But it's much more interesting than the interstate.

I saw signs to watch for logging trucks.

I saw shreds of cotton all along the roadside.

At Greenville, a sign told me to turn for the Ray Charles Memorial.  I didn't because wasn't prepared for it and didn't know how far they'd make me drive.  But I was curious and looked it up.  This link has photos of the memorial and some information.   https://www.atlasobscura.com/ray-charles-statue  They say he was born in Georgia but moved to Greenville at the age of one month and grew up here.  Although it sounds like he didn't grow up here because at age 7 he was sent to the state blind school and only came back to Greenville for visits to his mother until she died when he was 15.  Anyway, the memorial looks pretty nice.

In the town of Madison, I passed another county courthouse.  Actually, I learned that US-90 passes through the county seats of each of Florida's counties it hits, and actually past the county courthouses of several.  Here's the one at Madison - and pretty fancy, too, for a town with fewer than 3,000 residents.

Madison County Courthouse

At the town of Lee, I learned it's "Little But Proud."  The little part is right because it had 375 residents in the last census, so I'm guessing the proud part is right too.

The road took me past a lot more farmland than I expected, and I was surprised so much of it had been replanted after the fall harvest.  Though I guess Florida's climate allows for winter crops better than most states.

I crossed the Suwannee River, which I think flows from the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia.  It's the one that Stephen Foster's famous song refers to - "Way down upon the Swanee River . . . .".  Actually, that song is Florida's state song, and there's a state park that focuses on the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center not far from the interstate.  I didn't bother to visit, though I may if I have extra time when I come back.

I passed a huge facility labeled for Pilgrim's chicken.

At the town of Falmouth I saw a bumper sticker that said, "Stupid People Vote - What's Your Excuse."  I still can't figure out the point it's trying to make.

I passed through Live Oak and yet another county courthouse.

Suwannee County Courthouse

I saw quilt squares all over town, including on official buildings (though not the courthouse).

At Lake City I passed the Columbia County Courthouse, and for some reason there aren't any photos online that aren't copyrighted.

Then a sign told me I was traveling through the Osceola National Forest, though I couldn't tell much difference because this whole route was heavily populated with trees.  Very attractive drive, if you don't mind going slowly - the speed limit was usually 55 mph, which was reasonable given the number of turns the road took and the number of residences and businesses along the way.

And I came to a sign that said I was on the Great Florida Birding Trail.  It looks like this trail consists of the southern part of the state plus the section in the north that abuts the Atlantic Ocean - from not far west of Jacksonville south past Orlando, and over to the east coast.  While this leaves off maybe half the state, which undoubtedly has lots of birds in it, it still includes a whole lot of interesting bird habitat.

I passed the town of Olustee and the Olustee Battlefield State Park.  Apparently I'm not alone in not having heard of this Civil War battle; it was in 1864, was the largest Civil War battle fought in Florida, and the Confederate victory ensured that Florida and all its resources stayed in Confederate hands until the end of the war.

At Sanderson I saw a B&B named "Bed, Bath and Biscuits."

The road took me through the tiny town of Glen St. Mary, where my cousin lives, across the South Prong of the St. Mary River, and through the nearby town of Macclenny (or MacClenny - I saw it both ways).  Macclenny is the Baker County seat, though I didn't see the courthouse.

It was just past here that I saw a sign for the Jacksonville city limits, which I thought was a ways too far out of town, though I see from the map that the city has technically spread that far.

At Baldwin, I got stopped for a train and realized it had been a while since I last got stopped.

I wanted to run some errands in Jacksonville before going to the campground, and that turned out to be impossible.  The directions Google gave me included nonexistent streets, and I wandered around Jacksonville for quite a while before finally, in desperation, pulling into an empty church parking lot to turn on my laptop and hotspot for directions.

Armed with this new route, I turned left out of the church, moving about as fast I safely could because of oncoming traffic, and saw a red sports car stopped in the almost nonexistent median.  I pulled over to pass him when he suddenly, without any signal or warning, reversed into a driveway, going right in front of me and giving me almost no time at all to avoid a collision.  When I honked at him, he gave a sort of half-hearted little wave.  This did not give me a lot of confidence in the safety consciousness of Florida's drivers, though I was willing to hold off on my judgement.

From there it was easy to get to the campground, where I discovered that they'd given away the campsite they'd promised me.  Actually, they didn't just promise it - they made me pay extra money in order to hold that site for me.  After that strange driving experience I was pretty upset.  To make up for it, they gave me my choice of all the available spaces, and I picked one that was much closer to the cabin David and Anna were going to stay in.  So that ended up okay.  But what a strange day.

Now I've tried to go back over the route Google gave me to figure out where it or I went wrong, and I can't find any of the places I'd planned to go at all.  It's like they don't exist.  I know I didn't imagine these very detailed directions so I can't figure out what happened.

Florida - Day 1 - Niceville to Monticello

A Stone's Throw RV Park, Monticello

Wednesday, 21 December 2022

The rain picked back up again last night, and we all enjoyed the thunder-and-lightning show (I say with some sarcasm).

I remembered that the time zone changes somewhere around Tallahassee, which we'll pass during today's drive, so I left before 8:00 central time, but it was just before 9:00 eastern time.

today's route

I see now that I should have studied the map a little more before settling on today's route.  I'd been thinking that I had only 2 real choices: the interstate or the road along the Gulf of Mexico.  But I hadn't noticed that there's a third route - I could have picked up FL-20 from last night's state park and run all the way to Tallahassee on it.  It couldn't possibly have been as featureless as that awful I-10 drive, which is what I took for more than 3 hours today.  But I'll be coming back this way before I leave Florida, because I can't leave an entire section of the state completely unexplored (not to mention seeing the state capitol).

I paid more attention this morning to Niceville as I was driving through, and honestly, it didn't seem to live up to its name.  Which I was curious about and looked it up and learned that the 1915 postmaster's daughter named it.  No word on how old she was at the time.  On the other hand, one of my mother's best friends was from here and she really was a very nice person.

On the highway I saw a billboard that said, "Not all victims of violent crimes can call 911."  And the photo was of a dog.  Good reminder.

I was surprised not to see a sign telling me I crossed the time zone line - or else I was so stupefied with boredom that I just missed it.

I keep talking about how boring this drive is, though if you were to see it for the first time you might not understand, because it's really pretty.  The interstate has a large median between the different directions of travel, and the median and both sides of the roadway are thick with trees - mostly pines, but lots of palms and magnolias and other trees.  It's just that that's all there is, for mile after mile after mile.  In that part of the state, towns don't seem to have ranged themselves along the highway and there's just nothing else to look at but the trees.

Actually, I've learned now that the time zone boundary is marked by the Apalachicola River, which runs nearly straight south from that corner of northern Florida that's sunk a little south, where Georgia gets chunked in.  You can see it on the route map above.  I was surprised to learn also that the Apalachicola begins right there near the state line with Georgia, where 2 rivers coming from Georgia - the Flint and the Chattahoochee - meet to become the Apalachicola.  I'm sure I'll see this river again when I come back this way, because it runs in a vaguely straight path down to the Gulf of Mexico, ending near the town of Apalachicola, named for the people who once lived along the river.

Tonight's campground wasn't all that much of drive past Tallahassee, and before checking in I drove into the town of Monticello to find a grocery store.  The town's only got one, but at least I got a few things I needed.

But that main road to town from the highway leads straight to the Jefferson County Courthouse.  I confess to being a little slow on this question and had to have Wikipedia point out to me that Jefferson County was named for Thomas Jefferson, and the town of Monticello was named for Jefferson's home, and the courthouse was modeled after the home as well.  Or so they say.  I have trouble seeing much resemblance myself.  The county courthouse was almost impossible for me to take a photo of, because of the traffic pattern, so I've downloaded photos of the courthouse as well as the original Monticello so you can see for yourselves.

Jefferson County Courthouse

Jefferson's Monticello

Tonight's campground probably got its name from being "a stone's throw" from the highway, which it was.  Which meant a fair amount of noise, though not as bad as I would have expected from the location.  

This was another strange campground: all reservations were made online, except I called to talk to the owner for mine, and she told me how to find my campsite - just as well because there was no office that I could find and no campground maps.  The only bathroom I could find was just a bathroom - no showers.  It was nice they had a dog park, but it wasn't more than 10' wide so it almost wasn't worth fencing in, except maybe for small dogs.  There were lots of trees, which was really nice except the roots made it almost impossible for me to find a level spot for the RV.  Just a strange place.

Getting to Florida - Texas to the FL Panhandle

Stage 1: Mt. Pleasant, TX, to Wagon Wheel RV Park, Rayville, LA

Sunday, 18 December 2022

today's route -
the orange line on the upper left that runs into the blue line
that runs into the orange line on the right
(got that?)

Google said today's drive would take about 4 hours, so we left the campground about an hour after sunrise.  It was pleasant to drive through the east Texas pines in the early morning.

I'd been expecting a river to mark the boundary between Texas and Louisiana, and the Sabine River does that farther south.  But in this northern section, there's nothing but a straight surveyor's line for the boundary.  Still, I got welcomed in 2 languages: "Welcome to Louisiana" and "Bienvenue én Louisiane."  For all the French I found in northern Maine and along the border regions of other northern states, Louisiana is the only state that based its system of law on the Napoleonic Code rather than on English law.

At one point during the drive I got really lucky.  I noticed the small car in front of me encounter some serious bumps as it crossed a railroad track, so I slowed way down for it.  Turned out there were big lumps of asphalt next to the tracks, and if I hadn't slowed down I might have lost a major auto part.

I was very low on propane and hadn't wanted to wait until the office at last night's campground opened to get it there.  I found a U-Haul dealer in Shreveport that sold it and stopped there and that worked out fine.

I saw a strange billboard that read: "There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous people.  Louisiana law helps keep firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers."  And it was sponsored, apparently, by the state attorney general and law enforcement officers.  Online reaction was about as mixed as this message.

Four times I saw police cars parked along the road.  Seemed like a serious effort, though I wasn't sure what precipitated it.

As I passed through the town of Ruston, I noticed both the Methodist and Baptist churches were absolutely huge.  Surprising because Ruston didn't seem very big - and I now know it had 22,166 residents at the 2020 census.  I can't imagine who's supporting those two really super-large churches.

Not far from tonight's campground, I stopped for gas at a Love's truck stop and paid $2.49/gallon.  I really appreciate these lower prices.

The only reason I was able to find tonight's campground was because I'd looked at Google's street view so I could tell where I was supposed to turn, as it wasn't clear on the mapping program.  Later, when I was walking Dexter, I found the campground's sign - a banner - that had come partly detached and was folded over itself.  I don't know why the campground wouldn't have fixed it before now.

This campground was truly weird.  It's owned by an older couple (who are trying to sell it, according to the "for sale" sign at the entrance).  When I made the reservation, the woman told me to call when I got in the vicinity and they'd come check me in.  Which I did, and the husband met me.  They had exactly one space available, because all the others were filled with long-term stays.  That one, that they gave me, was supposed to be "full hook-ups" which I was looking forward to so I could dump my waste tanks after driving all day.  

Instead, the hookups for this space were at the base of the wall of the office and I couldn't reach them because there were big old trees with branches that reached as far down as my RV (and I'd already lost my TV antenna and didn't want to lose anything else), so I couldn't drive very close to the building.  Also there was a line of shrubs on either side of the hookups, a line that broke only enough to sort of gain access to the electricity and water outlets.  

The man wanted me to drive head-in to the area, to put the connections on the correct side of my RV, but I didn't want to do that because then I'd be stuck with trying to back out in the morning without having anyone to help, whereas the man could (and did) help me back in tonight.  But backing in put everything out of my reach except the electricity.  

But when I went over to plug my cord in, I found the electrical box wasn't attached to anything except the power cord; it was lying upside down on the ground propped against the wall.  I couldn't turn it right side up because of the way it was connected, so I didn't dare plug in my surge protector, which needs to be right-side up to stay waterproof and rain was forecast.  I had to take a great leap of faith to plug my RV straight into that box without the surge protection.  Plus, it had a plug only for 50 amp, which meant I had to use an adapter, so I couldn't have used the surge protector even if the box hadn't been upside down.  I never did find the dumpster in this place.  So much for full hook-ups.

Stage 2: Rayville, LA, to Hattiesburg KOA, MS

Monday, 19 December 2022

today's route -
the blue line

The day didn't start out auspiciously: one of the drawer latches decided this was a good day to break, and it was raining before I got on the road.

And it kept raining - often pouring - all day long without even much of a slight let-up.

I saw the Oscar Mayer Weiner car going in the other direction.  If you haven't seen this thing, it's a sight to see, and unmistakable.

Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile

Today's state boundary was on a river - the mighty Mississippi River.  "Welcome to Mississippi - Birthplace of America's Music."

For some reason I saw a lot of dead deer today.

MS had an unusual take on a common problem: "Y'all STOP Littering."

And then there was this: "Drink and Drive and Yule Be Sorry."  (Christmas is coming up.)

At Jackson, I was a little surprised to see a Sikh Temple.

I stopped for a break at a funeral home, which I at first thought was closed.  But then I saw signs of life inside and went in to ask permission to stop for a bit.  And they almost said no, which surprised me.  But then they agreed to let us stay.  I didn't see that any funeral event was coming up, but we still didn't stay very long, just in case.

I'd planned to bypass the campground and go down the road to the other side of Hattiesburg to a place I'd gotten bbq and some really wonderful side dishes when I was passing through this area during my month in MS.  But it was still absolutely pouring rain and I was tired from driving so many miles in it (well, it was just under 200 miles, but it felt longer because of the heavy rain).  So I decided to stop at the campground, figuring I'd either go later today or tomorrow on my way out of town, depending on the weather.

At my campsite, I tried to fill my freshwater tank, but I couldn't get the water hose to thread onto the spigot; I'd have to kneel down to get the right angle but I didn't want to kneel on the wet ground, and anyway I was trying to balance the umbrella while I was maneuvering, and that wasn't working any better than the hose.  So that was something else I decided to wait and see if the rain would let up for.  (It didn't.)

But the gauge for my water supply showed the tank was pretty much empty.  So I turned off the water pump which meant no water would pump into the toilet and I used the extra supply of water I always carry now in the bathroom for just this kind of water-nonavailability problem, and I didn't wash the dishes tonight.

And with all that, I didn't want to try to dump my tanks either, though I was getting worried.  I called tomorrow night's campground, and it took ages for them to answer the phone, but they assured me that not only did they have a dump station, but also that it was dry and somewhat warm there.

So I had electricity (protected with my surge protector), but I was almost out of water and nearly as full as I dared to get on my waste tanks, and the rain just kept coming.  Dexter hates to walk when there's that much rain.  He doesn't have an umbrella.  With all that, I just found it hard to work up any enthusiasm for doing anything constructive with my evening.  Strange day.

Stage 3: Hattiesburg, MS, to Rocky Bayou State Park, Niceville, FL

Tuesday, 20 December 2022

today's route -
the blue line and the orange line

It was still raining this morning.  I'm sure this is part of that massive storm system that hit much of the rest of the country as snow and ice.  And if that was the choice, I'll stick with the rain.  But it meant I wasn't interested in taking the side trip to get to the bbq place.  I was really sorry to miss it.

Once again we left fairly early (sunrise was hard to see) because Google said the drive would take 4 hours (which meant at least 6 hours for me).

The sign said, "Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama."

A bit of study of Google's favored route through Mobile a few days ago reminded me that it includes a tunnel.  I don't like tunnels much in this RV.  So I decided to follow the route I'd taken on my earlier trip through here, which you can see on the map is marked in blue, with today's orange overlay.  This route took me past historic Africatown and across the New Bay Bridge - a fearsome bridge coming from the other direction but not so bad from this direction.

Fortunately by this point the rain had stopped, or this whole area would have been tough to cope with.

The route put me right back on I-10 just past the tunnel - I saw the entrance/exit when I was waiting to turn onto the highway.  And from there onto the ultra-long bridge across Mobile Bay.  I looked it up: it's 7½ miles long.  But there's not really a sensible alternative, so I just did it.

I always think the Florida state line is just beyond Mobile and am always surprised to find that there're still quite a few miles to go before that point.  This is another state border that follows a river - Perdido Bay and Perdido River.

And then the sign: "Florida Welcomes You."

Florida - my 45th state

A little way past the rest stop at the border I came upon a horrendous 2-car accident that had obviously happened just a couple of minutes before I got there.  There weren't any first responders anywhere in sight, and regular folks were still stopping their cars and hopping out to help.  The 2 vehicles were on the other side of the road, smoke was coming from at least one of them, and wreckage was spread all over.  I didn't want to gawk and besides had to pay attention to the traffic to avoid being involved in a 2nd accident.  But it looked like one of the 2 vehicles was missing its front half and the other one was missing its back half.  I saw someone open the door of that front-intact vehicle to help the driver, but I couldn't tell what was going on with that mutilated 2nd vehicle.  Very unnerving just to see the aftermath, let alone the accident itself.

For about an hour I was driving along Florida's Panhandle and having a hard time staying awake.  I find this section of interstate to be among the most boring in the country (and having driven in west Texas, I know that's saying something).  But I made the turn that took me down to the town of Niceville, and then on to tonight's state park.

I stayed here when I went through Florida almost 5 years ago on my way up to Pennsylvania, and I remembered parts of it very well.  Other parts were completely not in my memory, which seemed odd.  Nonetheless, I found the place to dump my waste tanks, which was the same place to dump my trash, and then I filled my water tank at the campsite and took Dexter for a walk, and we settled in for the night.  Thank goodness for a place that could let me take care of my chores.

Getting to Florida - 2 weeks in Texas

Stage 1: Plano, TX, medical appointment
Tuesday, 6 December 2022

When the eye doctor fixed the bleeding that was blinding me in my left eye, he told me to get a checkup in a year.  He knew I might be in some other state and just said to find a doctor who could be sure it was all still okay.  So when I knew I'd be going from Iowa to Florida, I made an appointment with this same doctor - after all, who better to see how things were.

Dr. Musa, the staff calls him, his name being Dr. Musa Abdelaziz.  I really appreciate his willingness to ask questions and listen to my answers, which not every doctor does.  And I appreciate him being good at his job - my eyesight is now pretty much back to normal, when I'd been afraid of going blind in one eye.

We'd gotten my errands done yesterday so I mostly spent the day waiting for my dilated eyes to get back to normal and enjoyed the company of my family.  Dexter got to be in a house again and be in a back yard (without a leash!).  And for a few hours I brought Lily into the house to give her a break from being with the kittens - Dexter gets breaks when we go for walks but Lily never does.


Stage 2: Dallas area to McKinney Falls State Park, Austin
Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Pearl Harbor Day

today's route -
the orange line

I hated to make Dexter leave Anna behind, but she kept telling him that she'd see him in a few weeks for Christmas in Florida.

For the life of me, I can't see why gasoline is 40¢ to 50¢ more here than it was in Oklahoma.

On my way out of town, I stopped at the local recycling center and got rid of everything I'd saved during the last few weeks.  I always feel lighter after I dump that stuff - and my bathroom looks much bigger.

I noticed that I lost another hubcap - likely in that messy road construction area at Sherman a couple of days ago.  That makes 2 I've lost.

When the highway passed the small town of Italy, I noticed a little neighborhood of round buildings.  It turns out they're rental units built by a local business called Monolithic Constructors.  They're basically tiny homes, 210 square foot domes, and the company has built several of these little neighborhoods in other communities in Texas.  Who knew?

I heard on the radio that Forbes magazine has listed H-E-B Groceries (Texas-based chain) as the 6th largest private company in the US.  Which is saying something since I think their stores are only in Texas.

David had warned me that the bathrooms at the rest area near Hillsboro were closed (though that's not a problem for me since I carry my own).  But I was interested to see the port-a-potties being serviced by the Stool Bus (painted school bus yellow, of course).

This rest area had a display about something Lady Bird Johnson started that's become "The Longest Garden."  It includes gardens planted at rest areas in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota.

Another garden at this rest area was devoted to native Texas plants that support Monarch butterflies.  I understand some people don't realize that modern, hybridized versions of important butterfly plants (like milkweed) aren't a help to the critters - they need the original native species.

Anna had told me that Texas is the center of a fake temporary license plate scheme.  I was curious and looked it up and learned that, although it's Texas tags that are used in the scam, they're sold (illegally) all over the US.  They're in demand because using a fake tag lets someone drive without paying on toll roads and helps people dodge arrest warrants, as just 2 examples.  Here's the most recent explanation for the situation that I could find.   https://www.capitalone.com/tx-fighting-a-wave-of-fake-paper-license-plates

I saw a billboard that said: "Biden: Buy Oil From Texas - Not Terrorists!"

I managed to negotiate Austin's increasingly terrible traffic to get to the southeast side of town to tonight's campground.  I've stayed at this state park several times before and have found it to be the best option for RVers in the Austin area.  The KOAs are wildly expensive and too far out, other private campgrounds are pretty iffy, and no other state park is this close to town (between downtown and the airport).

Stage 2: medical appointments in Austin, TX

Thursday, 8 December 2022

I had 2 appointments today - the first with my regular doctor who I haven't seen in a while.  I'm pretty sure my file was in her archives because it's been so long, but since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd get myself back on her current list.  She laughed at the idea that Austin was in the neighborhood of Dallas, but I pointed out that I'd been in Iowa when I made the appointment, and from there it looked pretty local.

I really like her and would move back to central Texas just to keep her if I could afford it and if I could bring myself to live in this strange state again.  She's good at her job, she's thorough, and she listens carefully to what I say.  All traits that don't grow on every bush where doctors are concerned, I'm sorry to say.

Later in the day we went to our second appointment - with my regular vet.  The kittens needed their monthly checkup, and it was time for them to have more shots.  My huge mistake was in forgetting to ask them to clip the kittens' claws, which I didn't remember till the evening when it was too late.  But they keep gaining weight and keep growing - and they keep being healthy, which is the important thing.

I'd intended to do some errands while we were in town but was just too tired to fight Austin traffic any more than I had to.  I figured I'd do them on my way out of town tomorrow.

I did get gas though, and was interested to find that it was somewhat cheaper here than in the Dallas area.

Stage 3: Austin to Fairfield Lake State Park, Fairfield

Friday, 9 December 2022

today's route -
the orange line

On the way out of town, I stopped first at an H-E-B (groceries), then at Twin Liquor (local chain), and then at a Target to get more clear plastic storage boxes.  What David got for me out of my storage unit were 2 boxes of those notebooks I made for each state.  I'm planning to stay in the Washington, DC, area after I finish my last 4 states; I want to visit the nation's capital and I want to spend time reflecting on where I've been during this trip and where I might want to live.  I figured those notebooks might come in handy because I've got a lot of information in them that I didn't put anywhere else.  The plastic storage boxes make them much easier to access than in big cardboard cartons.

The sensible route to get to tonight's state park was to go back north through Waco.  I usually hate to retrace my route, but any other way would have taken much more time.

I heard on the radio about a program called Inside Books Project, which seems to be an Austin-based program that sends books to prison inmates.  I wish I'd known about it when I was trying to figure out what to do with all Momma's books.  

Bucky felt punk all day.  I've noticed he has that reaction to injections, which is what he got yesterday, so that's probably what was wrong with him.  I've never had a pet that had such a clear reaction to vaccinations.  It usually takes him about a day to get back to his usual marauder persona.

When we got to the state park, I spent an hour or so trying to fit the notebooks in the storage boxes.  I thought the boxes I'd gotten were the same kind I was already using, but it turned out the new ones were a little smaller.  Too small for the notebooks.  So instead of a straightforward move-them-from-the-cardboard-box-to-the-plastic-box plan, I had to come up with a Plan B.  Which was to take all my books and clothes and other things in the right-sized plastic boxes and move them into the smaller plastic boxes, which left the right-sized ones empty to take the notebooks.  

I did all this on the campsite's picnic table, which was up a slight hill and somewhat removed from the RV's parking space.  Lugging the boxes uphill, changing the contents, lugging them all downhill, stowing them in the basement.  I was pretty dadgum tired by the time I got done.  But it is done.

My doctor's office called to let me know that my sodium level is normal, which it isn't always, and that they sent a referral to a place in Mt. Pleasant (my next stop) to get a mammogram.  Like I said, she's thorough.  I've been putting off that mammogram because they're incredibly uncomfortable and because I'm not usually anywhere that I can get them set up.  But my wonderful doctor made it easy for me.

Stage 4: Fairfield to Mt. Pleasant KOA

Saturday, 10 December 2022

today's route -
the orange line

I heard on the radio that the enigmatic street artist known as Banksy went to Ukraine to create several of his unique murals.  He said he did 7 of them, and the article at this link shows 5.   https://www.cnn.com/banksy-ukraine-murals  I would think these would be a morale booster for Ukrainians.

I also heard that Pres. Zelenskyy was named Time Magazine's "Person of the Year."  I'd say he deserves it.

I passed a geodesic dome that was built with 4 offshoots that were shaped like dormer windows but were on the 1st floor and looked like they were the size of rooms.  One might have been the entryway, another maybe the dining room.

I passed a sign telling me that the town of Gladewater is the Antique Capital of East Texas.  News to me.

And I started seeing a lot of the pines that are still left in east Texas - they give this part of the state its unique atmosphere.

We left last night's campground early enough that I had time to do laundry and take a shower when we got to the KOA here.  I've stayed here quite a few times and have always been comfortable.  The folks are really accommodating and the campground's pretty good.

Stage 5: Mt. Pleasant environs

Saturday, 10 through Saturday, 17 December 2022

Early Sunday morning we got a bit of thunder but it didn't seem to bother any of the critters much.  At the first sound, Dext came to get a CBD treat (which I got out of bed to give him) so he was okay.  Lily was startled but settled down just fine when nobody else reacted.

I finally decided to diagnose what ails me as diarrhea, only to discover I don't have any medicine for it.  I'll have to get some when I go do errands tomorrow.

At least as important as that is that I'm now out of any kind of milk except powdered milk.  Makes my coffee taste a little funny but I can't drink coffee without it and I have to have my coffee.

I had a grooming appointment for Dext at 7:45 Monday morning, so we left the campground pretty early.  Fortunately, nothing's very far apart in Mt. Pleasant.

As I was driving to the grocery store I passed a sign that said, "NATO is not a defense alliance - it's a war machine founded by the Nazis in WWII."  If you look up that phrase you'll find articles by people who think NATO is "a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CIA," among other very strange (and anti-semitic) beliefs.

On a lighter note, I saw another sign that said, "Instead of presents, I'm giving everyone my opinion."

After the grocery store I went to an outlet store I'd shopped at the last time I was here.  Back then I found 2 pairs of jeans that have been the only pants I still have that fit me, and they're starting to wear out so I was hoping to find more.  This time around I found a completely different selection and absolutely nothing I even wanted to touch, let alone buy.  Too bad.

On the way back to the grooming place I stopped at a jewelry store to get my watchband fixed; they said they didn't do repairs and sent me to an antique store, where the owner fixed it right up.

When I got Dext, I discovered I'd forgotten to tell them not to use scented products - the RV is a very very small space for strong scents to be in.  But they told me he'd behaved beautifully, which was a relief.  You never know when you ask someone to trim your dog's toenails.

I got some Kaopectate, which is what we took when I was a kid, though all they had was vanilla flavor and I'd have preferred the old chalky stuff (a taste I relate to getting well).  Then later in the day I vomited - not for the first time.  I just don't know what's wrong with me but I sure wish it'd go away.

One morning the kittens went on an absolute tear right from the get-go, harassing everybody.  It went on for hours and drove us crazy.

Maybe it was caused by an atmospheric change, because we started getting rain and some thunder - Dext came asking for his CBD treat.  Then about an hour later a HUGE clap of thunder actually made me scream.  After which I tried to calm everybody down.  Jimmy went racing for the protection of the driver's seat; Bucky sat at the end of the bed with big eyes.

I spent a lot of time trying to make reservations for my drive over to Florida and had a terrible problem with them.  The state parks in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida all fought me over it.  Very frustrating.  I changed my planned route 3 times to accommodate the problems, though I finally cobbled something together after devoting hours to it.

I got an appointment at a clinic because of being tired of having something wrong with me for so long.  The doctor there decided to go along with my self-diagnosis of diarrhea and wrote a prescription for Lomotil.  Anyone who's spent any time in Mexico should be familiar with this drug, which most tourists have bought over-the-counter in Mexican farmacias for many years.  I remember it as being an immediate plug - which is a relief for those who have a bad case of tourist's tummy - but not necessarily something I wanted now.  But they called it into the local CVS for me.

As I was leaving the clinic's parking lot, I discovered the large oak I'd been forced to park partly underneath (by space restrictions) had a very sturdy, low-hanging branch I didn't see.  As I started to drive out, it sounded just like my TV antenna was getting scraped off my roof.  I went outside to take a look, and though I couldn't find the antenna on the ground, I could still see where it should have been and wasn't any more.

Then I called the CVS who told me they don't stock Lomotil and were having to order it and it wouldn't be available for more than another 24 hours.  Very discouraging.

Back at the campground I got there just as the whole place lost electricity, which also lost them the wifi system.  And they'd already lost their water, which was actually a planned outage.  But losing power was something else and the owner was on the phone to the power provider sounding pretty worried.

After I waited for her to get that situation dealt with, I told her about my own particular problem, and she suggested I try the pharmacy at the local hospital, which she'd switched to herself because they were easier to work with.  So I called them, they said they did have Lomotil in stock, I called the clinic and asked to have the prescription changed to this pharmacy, and then made another trip into town to pick it up.  So Dexter got an extra walk out of the day and I got my medicine.  The pharmacist was very helpful when I told him my concern about that drug, and he suggested just taking one and seeing how things went before taking a 2nd one.  Good advice.  And by the time I got back to the campground, power had been restored.

I finally finished my posts for Iowa, and I wrote out driving directions that would get me all the way to Jacksonville, FL.

A German shepherd joined us in the dog park one day and Dexter got to play with him.  He's still following his new pattern of never playing for long, and spending most of his time sniffing around.  But it's good for him to at least have the chance to play.

Another day Dext had diarrhea beginning in the afternoon - and the next morning he woke me at 2 AM so he could go outside.  Poor little guy.  He's acting like he ate a bone, but for a change I don't know when he ate anything besides his food.  It usually takes about 36 hours for it to run its course for him.

The kittens, on the other hand, are blazingly healthy and act like the Flying Wallendas sometimes - you know, daredevil stuff without a net.

The campground gave me one of their best sites since the site I usually get wasn't available.  But I was next door to a woman who spent all her daytimes with her husband in an assisted living center.  She left at 7:00 every morning and got back about 5:00 in the afternoon, and I was sure she was wiped out by the time she got back.  Providing care for someone is an enormous drain on a person in a lot of unexpected ways.

Besides my other health problem, I was still coughing a lot.  I'd hoped when I got down to a warmer and more humid climate it might ease up, but so far it hasn't.  Anyway, I was feeling bad that my neighbor was having to listen to me cough so much, so I moved to another site, not as nice but also not as guilt inducing for me so it was worth it.

I started trying to plan my visit to Florida and had an odd thing happen.  First, I was worried about competition for camping spots at this time of year - with the snowbirds coming down from the northern winter.  So for a place to go after our Christmas gathering in Jacksonville, I found an inexpensive KOA near Gainesville, less than 2 hours south of Jax and made a reservation there for 2 weeks, to give me a chance to look around the area and reset for Florida.

But when I started to think beyond that I started to shake, as if at the start of a nervous breakdown.  Which is ludicrous in a way, because this entire trip is a choice, and all my plans are self-imposed.  And when I realized that, I called that KOA back and upped my stay to 3 weeks.

I'm still not feeling really healthy and am too low on energy.  Not only have I not been able to summon up the will to do much of anything but I also keep losing things - once or twice a day now.  That means to me that it's not just my body that needs a rest but also my mind.  I need time to get healthy again and regain the curiosity to learn about each state that has kept me going all this time.

So I'll stick with my travel plans that get me to Jacksonville to meet David and Anna and visit with my cousin Karen, and then go on to that KOA and figure out my plans from there.  That decision made me feel so relieved that I suddenly realized what a heavy burden it can be to try to fit yourself into an artificial framework - even one you've created - because people aren't robots and don't always fit into structures.  (Some who know me would argue that I've never been really good at fitting into structures, and I guess it's high time I realized that about myself.)

So despite taking time to read and watch videos, I got a lot done while I was here.  The weather was mostly the typical Texas-yucky for this time of year, but it was a good excuse to relax.

Getting to Florida - Iowa to Texas

Stage 1: Des Moines, IA, to Lawrence KOA, KS

Thursday, 1 December 2022

It was so cold during the night that by morning, either my water tank or my water lines or the water pump had frozen.  So we didn't have any water.  The expected low last night was 17°.  Good thing we leave today for warmer weather.

When I got back from walking Dext, I found the kitties had knocked stuff off the table.  One was playing with the cord attached to my camera, I almost stepped on my glasses on the floor, their earpieces were chewed, and I couldn't really clean them because there wasn't any water.  Aaughh!

today's route -
it's the yellow line/pink line

Today's drive was almost entirely on an interstate because I was just trying to get from one place to another.  But there was a very strong wind and I had a hard time keeping us in the lane.

A sign told me "Missouri Welcomes You."  And I saw a Bald Eagle soaring on our left side.

On NPR, I heard about a book called Saved By Schindler: The Life of Celina Karp Biniaz.  She and her parents survived being Jewish in Nazi Germany by having the good fortune to be placed on Oskar Schindler's list - the list that eventually saved 1,100 Jews by the end of the war.  She said she didn't talk about those experiences for many years because she didn't think anyone could understand them without the context.  What changed things for her was Steven Spielberg's 1993 movie Schindler's List, which helped educate Americans about the circumstances of the Holocaust which she'd survived.  She says a 2020 survey showed 10% of adults under age 40 hadn't even heard of the the Holocaust, and with antisemitism on the rise, it's especially important that the dwindling number of survivors make their voice heard.

A sign told me Missouri has had 926 road deaths this year, with 59% of them unbuckled.

The farther south I drove, the less I worried about finding ice on the bridges, but I was still having to deal with a very strong wind.

I managed to navigate around Kansas City, MO, and finally we crossed the Missouri River and a sign said "Kansas Welcomes You!  Home State of Dwight D. Eisenhower."

We switched to another interstate, then onto a series of US highways that eventually got us to Lawrence.

I'd planned to get propane at this KOA, but then learned they charge for a minimum of 7 gallons of propane, whether you actually buy that much or not.  It's a complete rip-off because my tank holds 7 gallons only if it's completely empty - same for a 30-lb propane tank.  The 20-lb tanks that people use for bbq pits only hold 4.7 gallons.  So it's a rip-off.  And I decided I could hold out until I got to my next campground.  But that fact colored my attitude about this campground.

Stage 2: Lawrence, KS, to Wellington KOA, KS

Friday, 2 December 2022

The kitties have learned the phrase "What do you think you're doing?"  Which gives you an idea of the mayhem around here.

today's route -
the pink line running down to include the blue line

I thought it would be easy to find a gas station in a populated area traveling on a US highway.  But I was wrong.  I had to drive for miles and was getting worried when I finally saw a Love's truck stop that offered unleaded for $2.94.

Twice I saw an electronic highway sigh that said: "Tune to Local Media - High Winds Expected."  I didn't bother because I'd already found out for myself that the winds were really strong.

I saw a license plate that said SH33SH.

We got off the road at Emporia because I'd found a park that was close to the exit.  It was a nice park but a little odd because of being mostly on the side of a steep hill.  But Dext and I had a chance to stretch our legs, so that was good.  The wind was so strong I'd been thinking we wouldn't see anybody on the disk golf course in the park - when we ran into 2 people playing disk golf.  So I said something to them about being surprised they could play in that wind and they said they'd come all the way from Iowa to play there.  Each to his own, I guess.

Emporia has a National Memorial to Fallen Educators.  It's part of the National Teacher Hall of Fame.  These things weren't where I was - I saw a sign about them - but some time I'd like to go back and visit.

Back on the road, I passed two signs that warned of a Range Burning Area and told me Do Not Drive Into Dense Smoke but instead Park on Right Shoulder.  Of course, with today's wind it wasn't something to worry about.

That wind likely caused me to scare other drivers, because when they passed me I couldn't always stay strictly in my lane.  It was really something and I was glad to get to tonight's campground.  Where we got propane no problem.  This is the KOA I came to a couple of weeks ago when my graywater tank froze and I needed to thaw out.

Stage 3: Wellington, KS, to Oklahoma City East KOA, OK

Saturday, 3 December 2022

today's route -
the orange line in Kansas and the pink line in Oklahoma

Before I left Wellington, I stopped for gas ($2.75/gallon - and if Biden was responsible for the earlier high gas prices then I'm grateful to him for lowering them so much) and for groceries.  Google said today's drive would only take 2 hours, so I didn't hurry out of town and it was 10:45 when we got on the road.

The sign said: "Leaving Kansas - Come Again."

And the next sign said: "Welcome to Oklahoma!"

I thought it was nice of Kansas to invite me back - and I liked the exclamation mark for Oklahoma.

When I passed through Missouri a couple of days ago, almost all I could find were religious radio stations; in Oklahoma it's almost all country/western.

We stopped at a rest area that had nice dog parks, which they aren't usually in the various rest areas we've seen.

A license plate said "9TNGALE."

At one point I had to brake to give a hawk extra time to get high enough to not hit me.

I think Oklahoma may be the only state that has highway signs that say "State Law: Do Not Impede Left Lane."  They also have the usual "Slower Traffic Keep Right" that everybody has, but I don't remember that other one elsewhere.

We made it through Oklahoma City traffic, and we found tonight's campground another 10 miles along the road.

I hadn't stayed at this KOA before and found the layout very confusing.  So did other campers and several times I saw people driving v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y trying to figure out where their space was supposed to be.  In fact, one camper passed our site 3 times while they tried to figure this place out.  Lots of trees, lots of winding roads, serious lack of directional signs - a pleasant place to walk Dexter but not so much for orienting yourself.

Stage 4: Oklahoma City, OK, to Durant KOA, OK

Sunday, 4 December 2022

I'm still putting the kitties into their crate/carrying case each night and leave it on my bed during the daytime.  No point in folding it up each day, and anyway they like to play in it.  This morning they turned it on its side while they were playing with it, and then one fell asleep inside it while the other went to sleep on the side that was now the top.  So I had a kitty condo.  I couldn't get a photo though, because every time I turn my camera on, they hear the little beep and start moving around.  I've missed a lot of good pictures because of that.

today's route -
the pink line (that shades into the blue line)

We passed a house that had a huge (like 10' tall) sculpture of a hand in the front yard.  The index finger of the hand was pointing straight up - and it had a hawk sitting on the tip of the finger.  I had to look hard but I'm sure the hawk was part of the sculpture and not a real bird that decided to touch down on that finger.  Very odd-looking.

I passed a field with dozens of white calves grazing with a herd of black cows.  Another odd-looking sight.

In the town of Madik I saw a billboard for a dentist.  The headline was: "Best Time To Get Braces" and the photo showed a young woman wearing a standard covid face mask.  I thought that was really clever.

In the town of Kingston I passed a business called "Liquorty Split."

I crossed Lake Texoma, one of the largest reservoirs in the country, that extends quite a way south into Texas, which is where I know it from.  So I found it a little disorienting to come across it so far from the state boundary.  Actually, I didn't just come across it - I crossed it - on the Roosevelt Bridge.  That bridge was nearly a mile long and it's just as well I didn't know about it in advance, or know that it's eligible for the National Historic Register.  As it was, I just gritted my teeth and got across.

The lake wasn't very far from US-75, which I'll be taking down to Dallas tomorrow and which tonight's campground is on.  I stayed at this KOA - part of a casino - a couple of years ago and thought I remembered where it was.  But Google's directions were really wrong and confused me, and I ended up driving around quite a bit and finally asking at the casino for directions.  Actually, his directions weren't much better than Google's, but I finally found the place.

What I remembered clearly about this campground was a large resident population of Canada geese, and those geese were still there.  It was almost impossible for me to let Dexter out of the RV because goose poop was everywhere.  Too bad because otherwise it's a nice place.

Stage 5: Durant, OK, to the Dallas, TX, area

Monday, 6 December 2022

I've been continuing to feel the effects of whatever digestive problem I acquired in Iowa, with symptoms that seem similar to morning sickness.  Just as well that's not an option for me to worry about.  But I've started giving myself a chance to rest a bit after a bout with it, instead of trying to power through it, and that seems to help.

Several times early this morning I heard rain passing over, but fortunately we didn't get rained on during our first walk.  But the radio was giving frequent alerts of a "dense fog advisory" which I didn't really need, because dense fog was about all I could see.  Our campsite was in the middle of the campground and I couldn't even see to any of the edges.  

So instead of an early departure, I decided to wait for the fog to lift.  Oklahoma drivers aren't any better than Texas drivers and parts of today's route are heavily traveled.  If I went slowly enough for the low visibility level, I'd be going dangerously slowly for the typical traffic.  So we stayed and didn't hit the road until 10:00.

I'd intended to run some errands before going to David and Anna's house.  I wanted to stop at the storage unit and spent time yesterday rearranging the contents of the basement so I could easily take out what I wouldn't be wanting for the next 6 months.  I had also planned to stop at a PetsMart, the bank and the grocery store.

But not knowing what the road would be like once I got on it, I decided to skip the errands and called David to let him know I'd be arriving earlier than I'd planned.  He warned me that I'd come to a large section of road construction around Sherman.  And he was right.  It's good to be forewarned.

today's route -
the orange line

I stopped in Oklahoma for gas and paid $2.49/gallon at a Love's truck stop.

At the Red River, signs told me "Welcome to Texas" and "Drive Friendly - The Texas Way."  (Hah!)

And what I found when I hit Texas was that the road surface was in terrible shape.  I had to slow down because it was so rough.  And I was really glad David had warned me about the road construction, though after that section the road surface was vastly improved.

A very large and very dirty dump truck type vehicle passed me at one point, and I noticed a large doll attached to the rear panel.  The doll was about 15" tall, a Cabbage Patch type doll with blond hair, gingham shirt, blue jeans.  And it was so dirty I could barely distinguish it from its dirty background.  Very strange, I thought.

Later today, David went with me over to the storage unit and that turned out to be a very good thing.  The boxes I'd wanted to take from the storage unit weren't at the front, as I'd expected, but instead had been stuck all the way in the back.  And they were really heavy which would have made it almost impossible for me to have gotten them on my own.

I parked for the next 2 nights in their driveway, which is against the homeowners association rules, but since I was there for a medical appointment and leaving soon, David and Anna figured there wouldn't be any trouble over it.  If there was any, they didn't mention it to me.