Home for the Holidays and Heading West to Texas!

December 19, 2018- January 7, 2019


For the second time in a month we stored the trailer in Florida and drove straight through from Florida to our daughter's house in Maryland. I choose not to share photos and names from our time back home with family and friends. This blog is about our travels and open to the public, so I try to respect the personal lives of those who are not journeying with us. Our visits home are hectic, but so important to our life on the road.


This time we celebrated our daughter's birthday and my mother's 90^th birthday! We attended our granddaughter's holiday program, celebrated Christmas, dined with family and friends, babysat, celebrated New Year's Eve with our three-year-old granddaughter while watching the countdown at 8 pm on Netflix children's programming. Her parents provided the bubbly (sparkling apple juice) which we drank from wineglasses, while she wore her handmade party hat and blew her noisemaker. Then she and her grandfather both declared it bedtime and left grandma to welcome New Year's on her own. We treasured the moment! The rest of the time we caught up on doctor's appointments, truck maintenance, and shopping while we prepared to head out to the Southwest for the rest of the winter.


We said our goodbyes on January 3^rd and left once again for Florida to retrieve the trailer and head west. We stayed overnight again in Brunswick, stopped for a major resupply of groceries at Publix, and hitched up the trailer one more time. Greg had made reservations at A Stones Throw RV park along I-10 east of Tallahassee so we could stop early and get organized again. Groceries needed to be put away, clothes unpacked, and our mindsets adjusted for life back on the road.

Just getting past the DC area traffic seems like half the trip!

Stopping early to dewinterize the rig (flush antifreeze from plumbing)

We were headed for San Antonio, Texas where we were scheduled on January 16^th for major babysitting for a week. Daughter and son-in-law, with our grand daughter, were flying out from Maryland.. They were going to a convention while we were going to have our granddaughter living with us in the trailer. We needed to travel to San Antonio from Florida, but had some time to occupy before then. Originally we planned to travel down the Texas Gulf Coast, stay in some state parks, and visit some wildlife refuges, with the idea that we might find one we liked for volunteering in winter 2020. After discovering that the parks were still recovering from last year's hurricanes, and the government shutdown started and we wouldn't be able to speak with staff at the refuges about volunteering, we looked at making reservations at state parks in Texas Hill Country near Austin and San Antonio.


Saturday, January 5^th, we left A Stone's Throw and eased into the traffic driving west on the interstate. We began to see tree trimming crews blocking lanes and shoulders and realized that they were still clearing the downed tress and debris from Hurricane Michael that had blown through this area, far from the Gulf Coast, three months before. The toppled and sheared-off trees stretched along I-10 for probably 80 miles!

Shredded billboards

Hurricane lawyers were a major industry

Hurricane damaged pines

I-10 cleanup

We continued driving out of Florida, through Alabama until just before Mobile when our tire pressure monitors for the trailer showed us that we were losing pressure in a tire. Driving on the interstate through the city made it impossible to stop until we were farther west. When we were able to, we finally exited off and discovered that we did indeed have a flat. While using our air compressor to pump it up, we called around and tried in vain to find a tire shop or RV dealer open at 4 pm on a Saturday. With the tire refilled with air, we crossed our fingers and got back on the interstate to cross into Mississippi. We drove a short ways, stopped again, saw the tire needed air again, and tried to refill it from our air compressor. It died, so we decided to find the nearest campground and sit for the weekend until we found a place open on Monday that could handle a trailer.

A short drive off the highway was Indian Point RV Resort. We limped in and paid for two nights. It was a nice, quiet park with cement pads to park on and full hook-ups. Greg started examining the tire and found a huge nail in it. After calling to confirm that the nearest Walmart had their tire shop open on Sunday, he managed to remove the wheel from the trailer. Sunday morning, we drove it in the truck to Walmart, got it patched and we were on the road again Monday morning!

The concrete campsite was great for repairs!

January 7^th we were back on I-10 eating up the miles. We finished Mississippi, rolled across Louisiana, finally reached the Texas border on the west bank of the Sabine River, and the information center along its banks in Orange, Texas. Texas allows you to overnight in its rest areas, and we had stayed here twice before, so that was our plan for the night. As we walked into the visitor center we noticed the area under the building on pilings was flooded. There was also a large puddle in the parking lot, which turned out to be the storm drain. The volunteer inside informed us that the Sabine River was flooding and had yet to crest. The parking lot might flood as the water backed up into the drains and the exit out would have to be closed. There were no guarantees. We decided to get back on the highway and drive another hour to the next rest area, where we spent the night instead!

Crossing the Mississippi!

The Texas Welcome Center