Texas!

I made it to Texas yesterday! It feels like I’m finally in the West, and almost there….ha ha! I always forget that Texas just goes on and on and on. I think it’ll take me 2 more days to get to Big Bend!  Last night I parked overnight (free) at Tinkle Park near Carthage, TX. You’d think a place with a name like Tinkle Park would at least have a vault toilet! But no, just picnic tables and trash bins. It was right on a nice lake though, and very quiet. I was the only one there.

Today was the third day of driving in rain. What happened to the nice drought??! I hate driving in the rain! I can’t use my cruise control so it’s much more tiring, not to mention that bit about not being able to see worth a darn. I’m not making very good time; I’m only doing a couple hundred miles a day. I got off I-20 just inside the Texas line and am cutting cross-county down to hit I-10 a little west of San Antonio. This route skips ALL the big cities, and I like traveling the 2-and 4-lane highways. I was on a 2 lane highway today that had a speed limit of an astounding 75 mph!!  Are you KIDDING??!  I still went my usual 60 mph.  Then I ran up on a huge oversized THING that was being moved with a police escort. They were going 2-3 mph and every time they came to an overhead line, a bucket truck had to go ahead of them and lift it up so the THING could get through! I don’t know why they didn’t move over and let some of the traffic pass at some point.

I stopped at Woody’s Smokehouse in Centerville, TX….interesting place that sells all kinds of store-made sausage, jerky, baked goods, candies, jellies and some TX souvenirs. I liked looking at all the “stuff” and I bought a small jar of their cherry preserves.  I like to put preserves on my sourdough pancakes.

And tonight I’ve made my very first Wal-Mart overnight stop. I’m in Rockville? Rockwood? Rock something. There are a couple 18-wheelers plus 3 or 4 other RV’s here and it seems OK if al little noisy. I assume it’ll quiet down later.  I hope tomorrow’s drive will be rain-free!