FINALLY

Wednesday, May 19

Without an alarm jangling in our ears we woke around eight.

The overhead air conditioners were both running keeping us comfortable while the outside temp was already above eighty.  We had moved into the coach Sunday night so Onie could continue shutting the house down. 

The washer and dryer had run almost constantly as she washed and dried clothes including those the writer was wearing each day.  He and a helper had been trimming shrubs, thinning trees, cutting trees, burning the trimmings and other things to get the place ready for the summer.  The hot humid days soaked him making the dirt and dust stick to him and what he wore.

Yesterday a last run had been made to the compactor, the writer had gotten his ears lowered, visited our pastor, Don Shannon, who is recovering from leukemia and then gone home to get the navigator.  Together they went to Houston to visit our friend, Norman Williams and his wife Kris, where he is in rehab.  Hopefully they will be in Alaska by August.

After the visit Kris and the Blomstroms went to supper at Olive Garden before Kris was taken to her fifth wheel.

The drive home was a shared duty that got us home at midnight.

Outside the gardenias were blooming profusely filling the air with a wonderful aroma that only they can deliver. 

Peaches hung on the branches of the tree promising the largest crop since we had moved to Lake Road. 

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Our neighbors, the Johnsons, should enjoy the ripe fruit as it is delicious when just off the tree.

Sago palms, damaged by several hard freezes this past winter, were recovering nicely and lilies were blooming nearby.

With yard work well in hand the place looked fit to leave.

After breakfast and a shower the driver went out to finish loading the coach, mainly the basement, and the Subaru.  With that done he stored the last of the equipment used in waxing the coach, the week before, the yard tools and put some outdoor furniture in the motor home garage.  Then the locks on the shop and the pump house were snapped shut.

He had taken off the old trim and siding earlier this spring and replaced it with Hardi-Board.

Now it was time to disconnect the land lines on the Marlin, move it into the drive and connect the toad.

The coach was placed in the shade of the large oak tree over the drive and Onie brought the toad into position where it was connected.

Then the driver eased the pair out of the drive and onto Lake Road.  We were ready to head north except for closing and locking the gate.  Onie was taking care of that chore, almost.  She couldn’t find a key.  Half an hour later a key was located, the gate was closed and locked.

With the navigator and driver strapped into their respective seats the rig was easing down the tree canopied road, finally.  It was two thirty.

A few minutes later we were motoring past the San Jacinto county courthouse in downtown Coldspring.

Fifteen miles from the house we made our first stop, in Shepherd, where we bought forty one gallons of diesel for the bargain basement price of two seventy one a gallon.  Most places have it at considerably higher prices.

Then we motored on to Interstate US 59 north and turned toward Livingston and places farther on up the road.  Familiar towns and scenes passed outside our windows.

Soon the thick pine forests of our home environs were left behind and replaced by a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees that covered the rolling hills.  The green pastures of summer fed the horses and cattle that populated them.

At Nacogdoches we left 59 in favor of 259, a good road that led us almost due north.  The hills were a bit steeper but the Cummins and Allison handled them easily.  Scenery here included a rather unique golf course, in my experience, in that interspersed on the fairways were numerous oil wells.  Surely this will only be seen in Texas.

We passed through Pittsburg before turning down a narrow winding lane of a road that led us over Lake Bob Sandlin and to the home of our friends, Jay and Kay Harpel where we arrived at six thirty.

We had driven two hundred eleven miles.

After unhooking the Subaru we parked in their drive, hooked up an electric line to the coach before going inside.

Already it had been a long day.

After resting and visiting for a couple of hours we sat down to a supper of grilled steaks, roasted sweet potatoes and slaw followed by strawberry shortcake.

Locking up the coach for the night one noticed the gathering storm clouds and thought that we might be blessed with rain before dawn.

Back inside we prepared for bed.

It was eleven o’clock and still eighty degrees.

STORMY WEATHER

Thursday, May 20

Wind driven rain slanted down through gray skies and fell into the lake where white caps marched to shore.

Lying in bed we heard the steady drumming of the heavy rain on the roof. 

It was eight o’clock and sixty degrees.

Half and hour later we rose to shower and dress.

Kay had quiche and a fruit bowl waiting on the breakfast table.  The four us sat down, blessed the food and broke our fast.

After breakfast we cleared the table and sat down to visit.  Outside the rain continued to fall and the wind howled around the house and whipped leaves from trees in the yard.

Our plans called for us to be on our way this morning but with the heavy rain and high winds the prospect of driving in same was not particularly inviting.

Using Kay’s computer the driver checked the forecast at the NOAA website.  Today we were under a severe weather alert including straight line winds up to seventy miles an hour and possible tornadoes.  This was not a good day to be on the road in a high profile vehicle.

A movie was selected and put in the VCR.  We settled in to watch what turned out to be a very strange movie.  The writer wondered just what drug or drugs the folks in Hollywood were on when the story was written and then turned into a movie.

The rain continued to be driven by high winds.

Friends of Kay and Jay were having a poolside party at five thirty.  We were invited as well.  By party time the weather had cleared.

The party setting was quite beautiful and the dozen or so people in attendance stood and sat around the pool, visiting about old times and making plans for the future.  A couple of guys who had visited Kay and Jay at Castaway were there and the driver and they recalled fishing on the grate.

Appetizers and snacks were laid out on tables near the pool.  Onie contributed her smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers preparation.  The writer went to get something to drink and when he looked around her contribution was gone.

An hour or so after our arrival the party moved inside where the hostess had laid out the making for a stack up, we knew it as a haystack.  By any name it was a good meal.

With darkness setting in we said our goodbyes and Kay drove us back to their house where we arrived at ten thirty.

Goodnights were exchanged before we went to the guest room where we prepared for bed.

It was eleven.

Outside stars shown down through clear skies and air that had a temperature of sixty eight degrees.

MOVIN’ ON

Friday May 21

The sun was trying to break through the overcast skies when we woke at seven thirty.

The shower beckoned so we left the bed and rinsed the night’s sleep from our eyes before joining Kay and Jay for breakfast.

On the table were quiche and a bowl of fruit.

Talk turned to last night’s party, as we ate, and the guests there.  It had been a fun time and we felt we would like to return to treat them to Onie’s coconut salmon and beer batter halibut as well as appetizers of smoked salmon served on crackers topped with cream cheese and capers, a creation of David Matthew’s.

A quick session at the computer followed, to check the weather and print some crosswords.

Then it was time to get the coach and toad ready to travel again.

It was nine o’clock when Jay and I went out to disconnect the electric line from the coach.  The morning walk around was made with the obligatory thumping of the tires, checking for proper inflation.

Onie appeared and helped the driver negotiate the backing of the coach into the street and getting it headed out before we began the hookup process.  Jay helped make the connections then final farewells were exchanged with bear hugs and promises to see one another soon, at Castaway.

On board a final check was made to be sure doors were secured and cabinets closed then the Allison was engaged and we eased away from our friends and their wonderful lakeside home.  

We were movin’ on.

A short drive took us into Mt. Pleasant where we stopped at Wal-Mart.  We bought a small digital recorder, to help the writer keep notes of the day’s events, when he was occupied as driver, and four movies.

By ten thirty we were looking at Wal-Mart in our rearview mirrors as we turned on to 271N.

Soon we were out of town.  Farms dotted the rolling hills while tall majestic deciduous trees stood guard on the hilltops.  Cattle including some longhorns grazed contently behind barbwire fences, in knee deep grass.  Farther along the cows and barb wire were replaced by fine horses and drill stem fences.  The drill stem may have come from the numerous oil and gas wells that were tucked in the valleys and were even pumping in a well manicured golf course.

As the odometer recorded the first two hundred fifty miles of our trip we slowed to a halt for our first construction delay, in Johntown, knowing it was but the first of many that would follow.

The road varied from smooth four lane divided with broad shoulders to rough two lane with no shoulders.  Overhead the sky darkened threatening rain and perhaps wind.  We hoped neither would materialize.

A little after noon, in Paris, we turned west on Hiway 82 and headed toward Interstate 35 and Gainesville.  This road was better and the oil wells and horse farms more numerous.  Horses are not always a profitable business but when one has black gold coming out of Texas soil, horses may be profitable or not but a good tax shelter they will always be as long as they are called “a business”.

A turn north on Interstate 35 soon had us crossing the Red River which was boiling and churning eastward carrying a lot of red mud and sand which had earned it its name.

One mile north of the Red River we turned off the highway and drove to the RV park at the Winstar Casino.  The park is new, huge, extremely clean, has full hookups, concrete paved pull thrus and is very reasonably priced.

Once ensconced in our site for the night we leveled up and began hooking up.  When the driver had the navigator cooling under the two roof air conditioning units he set about flushing the holding tanks.  Alas, a leak was discovered in the drain hose and that necessitated bringing out the tool boxes to effect a repair before the flushing could be completed.

With repairs completed and all shore lines connected the driver went inside, wringing wet with sweat, it was almost ninety degrees then, two thirty, and took another shower.  Then it was time to lay on the bed and cool off under the a/c.

Cool and refreshed Onie and Pawpaw dressed and rode the shuttle to the casino.  While Onie sought out a table game Pawpaw walked from one end of the place to the other, a chore that took at least half an hour as the building is absolutely ginormous, to use a word coined by our teenagers.  Later he joined Onie for a little game playing before they returned to the coach.

Now it was approaching nine but the temp still hovered around seventy seven.

Inside the coach Onie served up a tomato and avocado salad along with a cold pasta dish, a perfect supper for a hot night.

The park has an open wi-fi system so Onie signed on to check her email as well as the news while Pawpaw settled in to begin writing this story.

Later while Onie slept he checked his email and finished this story before he retired at midnight.

Outside it was overcast and seventy five degrees.  The wind and rain had never come.

Tomorrow the coach would carry us farther north and hopefully into cooler climes.     

Saturday, May 22

The air conditioners ran all night.  After all it is May in Oklahoma.

We rose around eight thirty and Onie made tea and coffee.

She sat down to watch Fox News and play Bookworm while the driver sat down to write.

Later, after breakfast, we showered and readied the coach for travel.

Out of the park at twenty minutes to twelve we stopped at the Indian run Phillips station for fuel.  We didn’t need that much but couldn’t pass up the chance to buy diesel at 2.71 per gallon.

Getting onto the feeder road was a challenge as there was a steady stream of traffic headed for the casino.  There is a very large antique/custom auto show there, today, on the parking lot as well as a big concert inside the casino and then it is Saturday and all the Texans are coming up to make their donations to the Indian tribe.

At last some timid soul was slow on the accelerator and we were able to sneak between cars and get onto the feeder.  Moments later we were motoring north, once again.

This part of Oklahoma is rolling hills with red creeks running through the bottoms.  This year an abundance of rain has filled all the stock tanks to over flowing and turned the normally short grass into lush pastures, belly deep on the cows.

Half an hour out of camp Onie cut an apple for us to share.

The driver was concentrating on the road while the navigator worked crosswords.  Her job will require more attention later but right now all the driver needs to know is “don’t turn, stay on 35”.

Thirty or forty miles from camp we were being pushed along by the south wind.  In the un-mowed median and the bar ditches grew Indian paint brush, buttercups and a yellow flower that might be wild mustard as well as red clover.

Pawpaw made phone calls to friends and family.  Kurt, in Iowa, was interested in knowing where we were and when we expect to be at Liard Hot Springs.  He and his bride, Becky, would like to meet us there for a soak.  The navigator began calculating times and distances.  She announced we are too far away to have an accurate estimate.  A few days from now she will be able to make a better projection.

The hills that had been somewhat steep now became more rolling as we approached our second construction site, of the day.

In Oklahoma City we stopped at Flying J for fuel.

While we were there we checked out her Keurig coffee maker.  It had fallen off its shelf a little way back after we had experienced some unusually rough roads.  Fortunately the only thing that had happened was it had spilled water on the floor.  We will keep a much closer eye on it from now on and perhaps it will ride on the floor when we get to the Yukon and its very rough roads.

While the driver replenished the fuel Onie prepared lunch, salmon salad.

Thirty miles down the road from Flying J we pulled over to eat lunch.  The navigator had added hot pickles, a boiled egg and sliced tomato.

High winds are blowing out the flame on the refrigerator so that keeps Onie getting up and down to check it.

We are nearing Kansas where we will get on a toll road but one where we don’t mind paying.  It is a great divided highway with super smooth surface and very few entries and exits.  All in all it is a great road and one that is extremely easy to drive.

As we moved into Kansas we exchanged cows in the fields for wheat.  Where terrain permits it seems some enterprising farmer has planted a crop.

We exited Interstate 35 in Wichita and continued north on 135. 

Now we were off a controlled access highway and the small towns came frequently necessitating our slowing as we passed through.  Apparently the economic times have persuaded the city fathers that all sources of income need to be maximized for even in towns with only one traffic light the local gendarmes were out, watching for the unwary, hoping to be able to give a driving award and raise money.  Perhaps theirs is now a pay as you go job.

Farther along we got to McPherson, our stopping place for the night.

We had called ahead to reserve our place and a good thing it was. All spaces were full, except ours, when we pulled in about seven.

The park was an old one with locations of land connections placed for trailers so we only connected to the electricity. 

After supper we watched a movie, “Breaking Up”.  After seeing the ending the writer decided he should take up a new profession, screen writing.  Any Pollyanna could write better stories.

After the movie we tried to sleep.

The coach rocked in the wind and the slide covers flapped.