After spending for the most part, the last two years in desert country and this past spring in southern Texas, it felt strange to see so much green all around us. We don’t recall Wisconsin ever looking so lush. In fact not much had really changed in Fond du Lac, but all the trees looked greener, bigger and fuller. There wasn’t an August drought this year and can imagine that they are having a beautiful fall right about now. Just glad we no longer have to worry about raking up all those leaves after they fall!!
It was in an odd way, strange to be back in our old home town. It’s hard to explain, but we are so used to traveling to new places and not knowing where things are, that to be in a place we were familiar with, was oddly unfamiliar to us.
However, being somewhere familiar did have it’s advantages, and for those of you who know us well, you know the first thing we did when we got here (well after we let our family know we were here, of course). Yes, we ordered Pizza! We had been craving pizza, GOOD pizza from not just one place but 3 places here in town, and they didn’t disappoint. Joe’s Fox Hut, Bob’s Pizza and Eatons….we won’t tell you exactly how many times we ordered them during our stay, but lets just say, we helped out the local economy plenty!
It was great being able to see the family again, it had been a long time. We were able to celebrate my Dad’s 75th Birthday with my family and spend time with Steve’s family as well. Steve even managed to catch a Packer’s practice when we stayed up in Green Bay for a few days. I will take the blame for the lack of pictures from our visit home. I am usually so good about packing the camera every time we leave the motor home, but for some reason, I really dropped the ball this time!
Sadly, time was flying by quickly and soon it was time to go and say our goodbye’s once again. Never an easy thing to do, but we needed to head out to Indiana. We had some issues that we had been trying to get fixed on the Motorhome since we were in Vegas and no one seemed to want to touch it, so we decided to head to the one place we knew could take care of it, the manufacturer -Fleetwood, in Decatur, IN. The main issue was the overhead cabinet which holds our TV over the dash was coming loose from the ceiling. Every time we hit a bump or traveled a bad road, we prayed it would stay put and not become any looser or for that matter fall on our heads as we were driving! OK, it wasn’t really that bad, but it needed to be fixed!
After spending, I’m sorry – wasting is a better word, almost 30$ in tolls to travel from WI to IN, we found our way to Decatur and parked ourselves in Fleetwoods waiting lot (electric hookups provided for free -NICE!). Not having an appointment, we had to arrive at the office early Monday morning to get a number for a “walk in” appointment, on Thursday we were finally called in. Service was good and they were able to get us fixed up with all our issues, well almost. But for the most part we were good to go and we hit the road on Friday for Texas, time to try to fill up the piggy bank again and time for another gate guarding gig.
This is just one of the service buildings at the Fleetwood Service Center. Not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing that they were so busy. But for the most part everyone who came here that we talked with were happy with the service they received. Boy were there some nice coaches here!!!!
The trip from Indiana to eastern Texas looked a lot like Wisconsin. Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas…we traveled through these states at a pretty quick pace and there wasn’t much to see from the highway. There was the occasional tree turning colors or river we crossed over, but most of the highways took us around the major cities such as Louisville, Nashville, Memphis and Little Rock. Someday it would be nice to come back and explore more.
Our last stop on the way down, we ended up pulling into a Wal-Mart for the night in Round Rock, TX, just north of Austin. It was a nice area and a pretty swanky Wal-Mart, nothing like we’ve seen before. After getting permission to park for the night and doing some shopping, we were all set to get some sleep and get on the road early. Well, it didn’t go down that way exactly. The sun had set and all was quiet. We were on the side parking lot with no one was around us. Then the cars started pouring in and before we knew it, we were surrounded by hundreds of cars and teenagers!! They all were trying to get into Whataburger (a hamburger place) and those who couldn’t, were just hanging around the parking lot. Then the megaphones started…the cops arrived! We got ourselves caught in the football after party for a local high school! We’ve never been in a flash mob, but I imagine this is what it would feel like. It took the cops over 2 hours to clear out that parking lot, but finally it was all quite again and we were able to catch, well a little sleep…did I mention the train whistles around here, they really like to use them A LOT!
Finally, we made it to our destination, Pearsall, TX. Here we would wait until a gate became available for us. The RV park was nice, had a pool, full hook ups and there was grocery store and Wal-Mart in town, so we could get stocked up with what we need and be ready to go. and SUPRISE, there was also a rail road track across the road….once again…blaring it’s whistle at least 5 times every HALF HOUR it went through!
According to this, Pearsall is home to the worlds largest Peanut!
Getting a gate took a little longer that we thought. They had gates available, however many of them are down long and very rough roads. The first one would have been a 9 mile drive down one of these roads, the second about two miles. Now we aren’t difficult people and we really wanted to get to work, however we just spend all that time and money-getting our cabinets re-secured to the motorhome, going down roads like those would have surely defeated that whole purpose. So we declined those two, waited a few more days and finally…we got our new gate.
This gate is close to the major highway in Encinal and there are two major gas stations, a Pizza place, Mexican restaurant, Post Office and yes it’s also next to…wait for it….A %#$%#%# Rail Road track! I kid you not! We are pretty used it now though. This time around they have us hooked up with some serious power, check out the size of our generator!! It’s very quite compared to the smaller units.
Shopping is just 35 minutes away in Laredo, not to far. It’s different from the other gate we had, this one we have to keep the gate closed in between trucks but the traffic is much slower. The rig moved out last weekend and now there is little to no traffic at all. We still have to man it 24/7, but we switch off leaving each other time to sleep, eat and do whatever. People here are nice and we’ve only saw one runner (illegal) cross into the property so far. We are very visible to the main road and there is a lot of traffic around so they most likely won’t be coming to us looking for food or water, plus border patrol is constantly driving by.
There is more dust here than the other gate. Dusting is a daily event, if not twice a day on windy days. Even with everything closed up, it still gets in. There are horses across the way, stray dogs that come around but they don’t bother us. Being dog people, it’s hard for us not to try to care for them, but after watching them for a while, we can see they are some of the happiest dogs we’ve seen. They run, play and look like they are getting plenty to eat. They just aren’t sociable to people. We have Roadrunners and Vultures too. No snakes (yet) and very few spiders here! The nights are getting cooler so we will have to be extra careful with mice and rats now.
Speaking of weather, it’s been nice. It was humid and hot when we arrived, but the humidity has gone away for now. It’s been in the 90’s during the day but should start averaging in the 80’s here soon. No rain other than a sprinkle yet and the sunrises and sunsets are awesome!
Even got to catch the lunar eclipse last week.
Some one told me at our last gate that so many of the Ranchers here in Texas have gotten so wealthy from the oil industry that they don’t know what to do with all that money so they buy one of these! Some folks pull 4 wheelers, some horses and some, well..they have their own personal helicopters!
Not sure how long we will be here, in the oil patch, things change all the time. If all goes well, we are hoping to at least be here through the holidays. Ozzie is good with that, he’s pretty comfy here.
Until next time..
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM & HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
4gslivingthedream 