Superslab

We are at a rest area on Interstate 10, just a few miles east of Van Horn, Texas (map). Had I realized that the lone business in Kent, maybe 20 minutes east of here, was now defunct, we might well have stopped at that exit instead, but we were already past the ramp when we realized it.

We did pull off at Boracho Station, basically an off-ramp to a set of dirt crossroads at which we've stayed before. But after a quick refresher evaluation, we decided that it was just as close to the freeway as this rest area, equally likely to have a bunch of trucks idling all night nearby, and lacking any other amenities, and so we continued here, thinking that at least we would get free WiFi.

As with the last full-fledged Texas rest area at which we stayed, the WiFi was down when we arrived, with no signal at all from the AP. Oh well -- you get what you pay for, I guess. I did call it in, so perhaps it will be working for some future guest. At least we have a nice grass dog-walking area here as well as a ramada, table, and trash barrel. The idling trucks and even the freeway noise does not really bother us, especially when, as last night, it is cold enough to sleep with the coach completely buttoned up.

The city of Van Horn is just a few miles ahead, and to look at it, you'd think there are dozens of places around town at which to park, including a completely abandoned defunct RV park and hotel across from Chuy's restaurant (of John Madden Haul of Fame fame, though few others who've eaten there can understand why). However, the city has an ordinance against overnight RV parking, which they have begun aggressively enforcing according to many reports around the 'net. There are two truck stops in town, and Chuy's will also let you park in their lot overnight upon request, but we'd really rather not leave any of our money in a town that is so RV-unfriendly.

Too bad, really, because the historic 1930's Hotel El Capitan, complete with bar and restaurant, has recently reopened after a multi-million dollar renovation, and we'd have like to try it for dinner and cocktails, on the condition we could park somewhere in staggering distance. With that option unavailable, we'll have to settle for seeing it on a roll-by today, and the hotel will have to get by without our business.

Tonight we should be in El Paso, most likely at one of the several Walmarts around town. First, though, we will stop at one of a handful of gas stations on the southeastern outskirts of town to fill our fuel tank. Texas has the cheapest diesel from here to the west coast.

Photo by jayRaz, used under a Creative Commons license.

Picture Perfect Picnic Area

We are at a roadside picnic area a few miles west of McCamey, Texas (map). In addition to a fairly large parking area, which we've had to ourselves, this spot sports a genuine windmill-driven irrigation system featuring a canonical Aeromotor-style windmill, ramadas, tables, and a historical marker sign.

This latter item describes Horsehead Crossing, a dozen miles northwest of here on the Pecos River, an important feature in Texas history. We will cross the river ourselves in just a couple miles, making us the rootinest, tootinest Spaceliner west of the Pecos.

The town of McCamey turns out to have a free overnight RV spot, complete with 20-amp power outlet, at the Santa Fe Park which includes the old railroad depot. One need only check in with City Hall to use it; the phone number is posted at the park. We stopped to look at it, but we did not need the power outlet, and the spot was otherwise unappealing, so we continued here.

We had perfect weather when we arrived, and sat outside on our chairs until dinner time, when I grilled up a steak. After dinner I took out the Celestron and we looked at Jupiter -- we could see three moons -- and the moon, with craters along the terminator in sharp relief. Other than the half moon, which provided enough light for movement outside, it was dark here. I could only see the lights from McCamey by climbing the windmill. It was also quiet, with only a handful of vehicles and a single enormous train rumbling by.

Today we will finish up US-67 and merge onto I-10, which unavoidably is the only route west through that part of Texas. Tonight we should be somewhere in the vicinity of Van Horn.

West of Eden

We are at a small rest area in the median of US-87, just west of Eden, Texas (map). In contrast to the more common Picnic Areas, which we actually prefer and which generally consist of nothing more than a trash barrel and a couple of picnic tables, this facility has restrooms with running water, and free wireless Internet which has been off-line since we arrived. It is also somewhat larger, and we ended up with a handful of trucks as neighbors last night.

We had set a minimum goal yesterday of Brady, where we knew there was a Walmart. However at our lunch stop, at the picnic area east of San Saba, we decided to press on just a bit further than that to increase our cushion. Besides that, we would much rather overnight at a picnic area than a Walmart, and so we looked at the map to see what our options would be west of Brady.

On US-190, which is the most direct route, there is but one picnic area between Brady and El Dorado, and it's quite a ways from Brady. We decided instead to take the alternate route, heading a bit north of west from Brady to San Angelo on US-87, then south of west from there on US-67 until it intersects with I-10 east of Fort Stockton. Our map showed two picnic areas plus this rest area between Brady and San Angelo, which would give us more options for last night.

In addition to the three picnic areas, San Angelo also has a Walmart, which we figured to be the backup plan if none of them worked out. On top of all that, we've done US-190 more than once now, and this route is new ground for us, which is always welcome, and only added a dozen miles to the overall trip. Finally, US-67 intersects I-10 34 miles west of US-190, so we get to stay off the Interstate that much longer.

Neither of the picnic areas east of here was appealing for an overnight stop, nor did we feel the need to stop just yet, and so we continued on to this spot. It was quiet when we arrived, which gave us false hope for the night. Even though it was not particularly cold overnight, a least a few of the trucks idled the whole time -- outlawing this wasteful practice nationwide can't come soon enough. The free WiFi sign was also tantalizing; we were able to get on the hot spot but it had no connectivity to the Internet, even though I could ping the router from both sides. When I called support I learned there was already a ticket open; keeping the Internet working at remote rest areas is clearly low priority.

Today we will continue to San Angelo where we will stop at the aforementioned Walmart for supplies. We need to try to be someplace where our cell phones work at 1pm for a Red Cross conference call, and then we will continue west along US-67 to another picnic area. There are good choices near the towns of Rankin and Girvin, depending on how far we get. We are now back on schedule, with a full day buffer before we are due in Phoenix, and we'll try to maintain that buffer all the way there.

Photo by tech no logic, used under a Creative Commons license.

Buffer reduction

We are in the driveway at the home of our friends Don and CC in Killeen, Texas. We arrived mid-day Saturday after an uneventful drive from Austin, including a stop at the Walnut Creek wastewater plant. We did have two brief moments of panic there; one when we encountered a sign saying the facility was for authorized Austin trucks only (the attendant on duty assured us that RVs were also allowed, but they were not listed on the sign), and another when we had to cross the ~10"-high containment hump to access the facility.

We had a nice dinner at Outback, and they took me for a birthday lunch yesterday at Olive Garden. We had figured to get rolling yesterday afternoon around 3ish, which would let us get an hour and a half of driving under our belt, placing us at a lovely picnic area we had remembered from last year.

We had the bus all packed up and ready to go, and were saying our final goodbyes, when Opal slipped off the driver seat, out the open door, and landed hard on the concrete driveway. She is very elderly now, and so we had visions of broken bones, but we walked her around a bit and she seemed to be fine. We gingerly put her back in the bus and finished our preparations; about five minutes later, though, Louise noticed some blood in her mouth around the gums, and we feared she had broken or dislodged a tooth.

Killeen is actually the largest city on our route until El Paso, some four days away, and so we found the local Banfield pet hospital and gave them a call. They take walk-ins until 4pm Sunday and CC drove us over there just in time. We really liked the vet as well as the tech, and we had a very good experience there.

It turned out that Opal had basically bitten herself in the gum, and her extensive periodontal disease caused it to bleed. She also loosened a couple of teeth, either in the fall, or at the vet by biting down on the tongue depressors they were using to keep her mouth open. The speculation was that those teeth were essentially being held in place by calculus to begin with, which she easily broke.

The vet gave her a powerful injectable antibiotic to deal with the ongoing periodontal issues, and otherwise gave her a clean bill of health -- at least, a clean a bill as this old dog can get these days. We are going to monitor her progress, and switch her to wet food if she has trouble eating the dry kibble. She seems no worse for wear, and the bleeding was more of a scare for us than a problem for her. We are always watching her for signs of pain; at her age, it is unlikely that aggressive medical care would make sense. The big decision of when to let her go gently over the Rainbow Bridge is always in the back of our minds. Fortunately, this is not the week for that.

It was well past 5:30 by the time we got back to the bus, and with less than half an hour of daylight left, coupled with not wanting to drive right into the setting sun, we decided to just spend another night. We ended up watching the Pro Bowl with Don and CC last night and turning in right after it ended.

In a few minutes we will head west. Having used up some of our time buffer by staying here another night, we'll have to bypass the nice little picnic area east of San Saba and instead head at least as far as Brady. There is a Walmart there, or perhaps we will find another picnic area that appeals to us.

Red Cross technology update

We are visiting the Disaster Services Maintenance Center (DSMC), in Austin, Texas. We arrived late Thursday afternoon, said hello to the DSMC team, and then had dinner at local icon Trudy's with our friend Paul. Yesterday morning our friend CC drove down from Killeen, and we spent the morning reviewing and practicing the latest server, printer and workstation installation procedures. As a fresh set of eyes, we were able to pick up several issues with the written text, and those were corrected before we finished.

I also got a chance to put my hands on the new MSAT satellite phone equipment, which works on the Lightsquared Skyterra network. Unlike the Iridium units, which use LEO birds that have a nasty habit of passing out of sight before your call is finished, these MSAT units use a geostationary bird, so once they are set up and working in any given location, the calls should not get dropped.

We had a nice lunch at Torchy's with most of the DSMC crew. It's always great to spend time with these folks, whom we see only once a year or so. And being up on the latest that's going on here helps to inform my decision-making in the field. This center is a mostly invisible and often under-appreciated part of our relief operations.

After seeing my last blog post, a local friend from my distant past as a volunteer with DECUS, a user group for a now-defunct computer manufacturer, contacted me to see if we could get together. Clive dropped by yesterday evening and treated us to a nice dinner at Justine's, a very trendy French place oddly located in an industrial part of town. Dinner was tasty and it was great catching up after a decade and a half.

In a few minutes we will head north to Killeen to spend some time with our friends Don and CC. We'll make a brief stop first at the local wastewater treatment plant, though, which has an RV dump station.

Washateria

We are in Bastrop, Texas, at The Wash House coin laundry (map), or as they call 'em in Texas, "washateria". Google seems to think it's called "Spin City Laundry" but that's not how the sign reads. We had not planned on doing laundry today, but George had an accident on the bed sometime yesterday, which we discovered when we turned in, so we spent the night under an afghan, with the bed covers in the shower. She's been drinking tons of water, a side effect of her kidney disease and the special food that goes along with it.

We were at the Walmart in Bryan, Texas (map) at the time, just next door to College Station. It was a quiet and convenient place to spend the night -- we parked in back near some storage containers. And the Bryan drive-through recycling center is conveniently located in the same Walmart parking lot, allowing us to rid ourselves of four large bags of recyclables, many of which we have been hauling around since before Florida.

I spent some time hunting for coin laundries before I hit the hay last night, and while there are perhaps a half dozen or more in the Bryan/College Station area, none was particularly convenient to the route, nor did I find one with a large enough parking lot to accommodate Odyssey. Bastrop was the next town on the route that showed any at all (there are supposedly four here in town), and this one was right on the route and with a large empty spot in the parking lot to boot.

After we wrap up the laundry we will continue west to the Red Cross maintenance facility in Austin, about another half hour or so. We have dinner plans with some friends there, and tomorrow we'll spend the day catching up on some new technology and procedures that are being added to our kit. We expect to leave Austin Saturday morning for Killeen.

Photo by jovike, used under a Creative Commons license.

Winter Texan

We are at the Walmart in Jasper, Texas (map). We got a bit of a late start from Alexandria yesterday after stopping at the mall, but I ended up with a much-needed light jacket to replace the one that I've more or less worn out. We hit the Toledo Bend reservoir late in the afternoon in driving rain, and seriously considered stopping at the South Toledo Bend State Park, on the Louisiana side, which has a campground with electric hookups for $16.

Ultimately we decided to use what was left of the daylight to make a bit more progress, in order to reduce our driving load today and tomorrow somewhat. After crossing the dam we pulled over for a restroom break, and while we were sitting there a truck from the dam operating authority pulled up; we thought he was going to ask us to move along, but instead he asked if we needed a place to park for the night. Apparently there is a small area on the Texas side we could have used if we wanted it; we thanked him and opted to continue to Jasper, but this is good to know, as it was not in my directory.

We pulled in here just before sundown. We had a quiet night in this corner of the lot, and this morning we stocked up on groceries. In a few minutes we will continue west; in order to make Austin tomorrow night, we will need to be somewhere near College Station tonight.

Photo of a Prairie Warbler at the east end of Toledo Bend Dam by jerryoldenettel, used under a Creative Commons license.

One night in LA

We are at a Walmart in Alexandria, Louisiana (map). We've stayed here before; since that visit, Los Portales Mexican restaurant has opened across the street and we shared some tasty fajitas there last night. We also did some shopping in the store, and although they did not have my preferred brand, it's good to be back in the land of 5-liter wine boxes. Louisiana also has drive-through Daiquiri bars, so no surprise there.

We're speeding up our route plan just a bit in order to be in Austin for Friday morning. There have been some significant changes to the way we deploy computers and servers, and this is our opportunity to catch up on those and get trained before we have to use the new procedures in the field. If we didn't make it on Friday we'd have to wait across the weekend to Monday, which would make the schedule for Phoenix a bit tight for comfort.

I spent most of the morning wrapping up curriculum updates for the Disaster Technology Communications class, and in a few minutes we will make a quick visit to the mall next door before heading out. The new schedule will mean four hours of seat time tomorrow and Wednesday; we'll see how far we get today.

I had been toying with the idea of dropping in on the Silver Dollar Pawn shop, just a few blocks away, while we were in town, of "Cajun Pawn Stars" fame (no word on why anything in Alexandria constitutes "Cajun") -- who knows, maybe they'd make a decent offer on Odyssey. But I can't imagine what else we'd do there, and, really, the original "Pawn Stars" shop, in Las Vegas, is probably a more likely venue in which to sell a motor coach.

Photo by Nomad Thru Life., used under a Creative Commons license.

A rough night in a perfect spot

We are at the free Rocky Springs Campground on the Natchez Trace Parkway (map), near Utica, Mississippi. In stark contrast to the last time we were here, November 2008, we have the place nearly to ourselves. When we arrived, only two of the two dozen sites here were occupied, and one of those cleared out first thing this morning -- he had reached his 14-day limit.

This is an idyllic spot, and today we have perfect weather. The last time we had this sort of rustic overnight experience, our preferred mode by far, was a good six months ago, in South Carolina on our way to get batteries last July. And it would have been an absolutely perfect stay had it not been for the tornadoes.

By now you have no doubt heard that there has been a great deal of damage and even a few fatalities from tornadoes in Alabama last night and this morning, eerily reminiscent of the events of last April which propelled me to Birmingham for seven weeks. We were actually parked in the watch area last night, and the storm blew through here in the middle of the night. Of course, as luck would have it, we have zero cell coverage here, and pointing the dish through a narrow slot in the trees to get Internet meant no shot to the TV satellite, so we could not even get the weather channel.

Fortunately, our weather alert radio does have coverage here (and, no, it is not universal -- we've been many places where not a single one of the seven NOAA frequencies comes in), and so we knew we would get an alert if the watch turned into a warning. We made a tornado plan, consisting of scooping up the pets and making haste to the cinder-block restroom building a few hundred feet away. And we stationed a flashlight, shoes, and a cell phone near the door for a quick exit.

The alert warble woke us up perhaps half a dozen times in the middle of the night, but none of the warnings was for our specific location. We only got a small bit of rain and a little wind, but it was a rough night nonetheless. Our hearts go out to the folks who were impacted by this series of storms, highly unusual for January.

I know some folks are wondering, so let me say that, no, we will not be responding to these incidents for the Red Cross. For one thing, none of these events is large enough to merit national-level response -- the chapters and regional offices in Alabama are well prepared to deal with this level of disaster with their own resources, including local personnel. For another, we are not on the availability roster this month, since we have several personal obligations on our calendar. That said, long-time readers will know that we have, in the past, changed our availability status on short notice to respond to major disasters, personal appointments notwithstanding. And if this event had been as devastating as the one in April, that would certainly be something we would consider.

Yesterday we had a very nice drive here from Pearl, after a brief stop in Clinton for fuel and supplies. The Clinton stop was eerie, inasmuch as Louise spent seven weeks there back in May and June under less favorable circumstances. Nevertheless, the Kroger gas station there had the cheapest diesel on our route, at $3.499 with the 3-cent discount for having their loyalty card, so we put in 175 gallons. While the diesel was pumping I ran into Radio Shack for replacement thermal fuses for the FanTastic vent, settling for 128°C models rather than the stock 98° ones, which Radio Shack no longer carries. Louise ran into the Kroger store for a few grocery items.

As idyllic and peaceful as it is here, we must move along to keep to our travel schedule. I know that a target of 2-3 hours per day must sound to many to be either luxurious or wimpy, depending on perspective. One of the things it does for us is to provide a good buffer at the end of the day in the event we have to press on further than planned. Saturday we ended up driving an extra hour due to the two Walmarts being unavailable, and yesterday we were perfectly prepared for this campground to be closed, full, or unreachable from our Internet satellite, any of which would have pushed us all the way to Natchez.

Speaking of which, our route plan for today says we should stop somewhere between Ferriday and Jonesville after crossing the river into Louisiana. Since none of our resources lists anyplace to overnight in either of those towns, it is more likely that we will stop either in Natchez at the visitor center, or in Alexandria at a Walmart. We'll decide when we get to Natchez, which is the nature of this sort of travel schedule.

The Pearl of Mississippi

We are at the Bass Pro Shop in Pearl, Mississippi (map). We had not planned to come this far yesterday, but circumstances conspired against us. Nevertheless, it was a nice and welcoming place to stop. We had dinner at their restaurant, now "Uncle Buck's," a somewhat disappointing change from the Islamorada Fish Company (although the decor, including the enormous fish tank, has not changed).

From where we are parked in the lot, the Holiday Inn is actually closer, and also sports a restaurant, the Alumni House Bar and Grill, which likely would have been a better choice. Unlike Islamorada, which was a fairly upscale seafood venue, Uncle Buck's is basically a glorified burger joint, and I didn't think that the burgers were particularly noteworthy. Since Bass Pro is generous enough to let us park, though, it's probably best that we also patronized their restaurant, since we couldn't find anything else in the store that we needed.

Our original plan yesterday had been to take US-80 all the way to Forest, Mississippi, even though I-20 basically parallels it from Cuba, Alabama, and spend the night at the Walmart there. Unfortunately, even though that store purportedly allows overnight stays, there are 12'0" height restrictors installed at every entrance to the parking lot, to keep the trucks out. There was a small lot just for trucks near the loading dock, with five 70' stalls, but it was entirely full, and not very level. With no way to access the large and inviting parking lot, we headed back out onto westbound I-20.

Our Walmart directory indicated parking was allowed at the store in Pearl, so that's where we headed next. We found fairly new-looking No Overnight Parking signs there, a growing trend. It's possible that the store would have allowed us to stay upon request, but with this Bass Pro just another few miles west, we decided to come here instead. We did call ahead to check first, since we were starting to run out of options. The backup was a pair of truck stops just west of here, in Jackson.

It was a good choice, because it was fairly quiet here last night, and darker than the average Walmart lot. Plus we always enjoy browsing at Bass Pro; I need a new lightweight jacket and we spent close to an hour in the outerwear section. In a few minutes we will roll west to Clinton, where the Walmart has $3.52 diesel, and where we can find a Radio Shack as well as an O'Reilly's -- I need thermal fuses and liftgate struts for the never-ending bus maintenance.