Fort Stockton

We are at the only Wal-Mart for a hundred miles in any direction, in Fort Stockton (map).  We had hoped to spend tonight at Balmorhea State Park, another hour west of here.  However, last night turned out to be phone-call intensive, and we struggled mightily with marginal cell coverage.  (In fact, I had arranged for the satellite people to call me this morning to change birds, and their call never came through -- I will have to wait until Monday to change satellites.)  We did not want to take the chance that we would again be out of coverage -- the state park is a good distance from the town of Balmorhea.  So we opted to stop here instead.

The state park will have to wait for our next tour through this area -- we want to be in El Paso tomorrow night.  We have several errands to run there before settling in to the RV park in Las Cruces, and we want to be close to an airport, in case Louise needs to hop back to California in the next few days.

We are now just eight days from our grand Mexican adventure.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

"What I did on my summer vacation"

From our time this summer at Red Cross national headquarters in Washington, DC. This cool marble and granite sculpture sits at 2025 E Street and has inspiring quotes engraved on the back.

RTT's tiny command room at the DOC (Disaster Operation Center) in Washington. While we were on relief efforts in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia, this is where we called to get advice, support, and information. Ed, seen here on Sean's right, is usually on the other end of the phone line, the calm voice in the storm. Calling the DOC was a big deal for newbies like us, but now that we have helped out there it feels more like just chatting with old friends.

South Llano River State Park

We are south of I-10 and the town of Junction, Texas, at the South Llano River State Park (map*).  It is a lovely location, with wooded and widely spaced sites with water and 30-amp electric service.  We did not really need the hookups (although it looked, for a while, like we might -- more on this in a moment), but it was a good stopping point, and only $7.50 with one of the handful of half-off-camping coupons that came with our Texas State Park pass.

* Before I go further, a word about the map links.  MapQuest has, once again, changed its site.  I'm guessing that it works OK in Internet Explorer (I'm not bothering to check), but all my map links are now completely broken in FireFox.  So I'm changing back to Google Maps, with whom I flirted briefly earlier this year.  Of course, the last time I changed to Google, it was also because MapQuest stopped working right, just as changes at Google sent me back to MapQuest.  I expect I will have to fiddle with the link format some more to get these new Google links to display as they should, so bear with me.  And, of course, as long as these mapping sites keep "improving," there will always be the risk that, one day, all the links will again stop working.  You can always pluck the coordinates from them and plug them into whatever map system floats your boat.

We had an uneventful and very safe night in Austin.  Apparently, the Austin police have discovered my secret spot, and patrol cars came and went all night, parking for half an hour or so at a stretch while, I assume, reports were being written, etc.  It was just one car for a long time, but, at one point, there were a half dozen of them, parked together.  Sometimes an officer or two would get out and start chatting.  None bothered us, or even came over for a closer look.

Not so with the private security guy, who knocked on the door at 11 this morning (while I was taking advantage of the proximity to Lowe's to get some projects done) to tell us to move along.  Both of these developments (police congregation and private security patrols) are new since my last visit, where I spent a full week in the same spot without seeing a uniform of any sort.  Possibly, the departure of the 24-hour Albertson's has prompted the landlord to step up security.

One of the projects I was working on this morning was the recent death (again) of the generator.  It appeared to be overheating, even when it was cool to the touch.  Of course, by the time I was done fiddling with it, it was too hot to make further diagnosis -- but the big jet of steam coming from the radiator relief was a big clue.  We decided to get on the road, and deal with it in a few hours, when it cooled down.

It turned out, thankfully, to just be low on coolant.  I've been planning on adding an overflow tank to it for over two years -- one of those projects we never seem to get around to finishing.  In any case, a stop at the Wal-Mart in Fredricksburg for coolant got the big diesel back in operation, and we were once again able to run the air conditioning while we drove.  In the meantime, we had already planned our stop for the state park, where we knew we could charge the batteries back up even if the generator problem was more serious.

The generator also needs an oil change, and we want to get that done before Mexico.  Calls yesterday to every Kubota dealer in West Texas came up empty -- no one could squeeze us in for same-day service, so I will be doing it myself.  Not hard, just messy (the drain plug is in a particularly inaccessible spot, and oil will invariably get all over the bottom pan of the hush box).  I picked up three gallons of Rotella oil at Wal-Mart, and we found a NAPA in Junction that had a compatible filter.  Sometime in the next few days I will have to bite the bullet, put some grubby clothes on, and get it done.

Fishes

We have an aquarium in Odyssey now. It is very small, only three gallons, and made of acrylic. It sits on my bedside table inside a 9"x13" baking pan, with a piece of nonskid backing underneath.

The tank has successfully navigated a variety of roads from Pennsylvania to Texas, slopping into the baking pan only about 2 ounces of water a day. I secure the hood with a bungy cord and wrap a towel around the outside just in case. The filter pump operates as we are under way. As far as I can see, the tank hasn't slipped out of position at all.

I think the biggest challenge will be to maintain a fairly consistent water temperature; small tanks are particularly hard to keep consistent. The ambient temperature in the bedroom can vary 30 or 40 degrees, and the water temp changes at least 10 degrees F. It may take some trial and error to find which fish species are less sensitive to that sort of fluctuation. They certainly don't seem to mind the rocking and swaying of the bus; given the strong current from the filtration system, they probably don't even notice.

Austin fly-by

We are in Austin, Texas, parked behind a strip shopping center off I-35 (map).  This is the very same spot in which I spent a week back in March/April, although the Albertson's has since closed, with a Spirit Halloween Superstore temporarily occupying that space.  We walked over to Rockfish for dinner, where we met some Red Cross volunteers from the Response Maintenance Center.  Earlier in the day, we stopped by there just to check in and say hello, and arranged to meet folks here for dinner.

Last night we were in Houston, parked at the church at which Louise's brother, David, is pastor.  We had a nice dinner with him and his family, and stopped by their house again this morning to drop off Penelope, Louise's motorcycle.  Mexican restrictions on vehicle importation limit us to Odyssey and one other vehicle, and we chose to keep Aquarius, my motorcycle, aboard, since Penelope refuses to start, no doubt due to varnish in the carburetor.  At some point after our Mexican journey, we will need to return to Houston to deal with the starting issue, and either retrieve or sell Penelope (Louise is talking about trading her in on a scooter).

While in Houston I also stopped in to Fry's, to try to find (1) a replacement switch for the leveler, (2) some type of mount for the new GPS, and (3) an external CD drive for re-loading Windows on my old Vaio, which I am selling.  I struck out on all counts.  The switch is the big issue -- I will need to scour the Radio Shacks along our route until I find something that will work.  The GPS is safely screwed down to a block of wood, which will suffice until I find something more permanent.  As for the CD drive, I just gave up and listed the thing on eBay "as is" -- whoever buys it will have to find an external drive to re-load the software.

The last-minute eBay spree, incidentally, is due to the fact that the Mexicans look upon computers coming into the country with some suspicion.   Apparently, the idea of a "personal" computer is inconceivable; we have already been advised to have a "business" explanation for our two personal computers (even though we will be traveling on tourist visas -- no business allowed; go figure).  So the fact that we had not only our two computers aboard, but also three other computers in various states of functioning, was cause for some concern.

I have been meaning to erase these machines and sell them for quite some time, and our impending entry to Mexico was the catalyst for actually doing it.  The same impetus has caused me to list a vintage portable B&W TV that was kicking around my folks' house, and I will also be listing our old digital camera, my Sony Clié, and whatever else I can find to get rid of in the next day or so.  Click here to see all my eBay listings.

Tomorrow we will continue west on US290.

One of our three fish, a male Platy. The other two are very small Neon Tetras, barely visible in the back lower left corner. It should not surprise our regular readers that the fish hail from, ahem, Wal-Mart.

Cheapest diesel we've bought in a long time

We are parked at the Wal-Mart in Vidor, Texas (map).  This is a very small store, and Odyssey is very conspicuous here, but we were pretty well done by the time we arrived last night.

Yesterday we fueled up at the Flying-J just east of here, in Orange, TX, and paid $2.329.  I think that's the cheapest fuel we've seen in two years.

Today we will be in Houston, where we have several errands, including a stop at Fry's, a visit to the vet, and a visit with Louise's brother and his family.  We're going to leave one of the two motorcycles with them, since we can only bring one of them into Mexico.

Just like old times...

We are once again in Baton Rouge, at the very same ex-big-box-store that served as Red Cross headquarters after Katrina.  The Red Cross has again leased this building, even though the landlord unceremoniously booted them out last year, due to a pending sale of the building, which apparently fell through.  In any case, there is a small contingent of Red Cross folks here, getting the place in shape as a potential relief operation headquarters for Louisiana.  With nerves still raw from last year's hurricane season, they want to be ready to go in case one hits this year.

We're not working on this visit -- we just happen to know half a dozen or so of the folks here, and we stopped by for a social visit, since we had to drive right through Baton Rouge anyway.  The location makes for a good parking spot, and, unlike our last stay here, we were able to get close enough to the building to snag a 20-amp power outlet for the night.  It was not really necessary, though -- things have cooled down considerably since I arrived in Louisiana, and we did not need any air conditioning last night.  We had a nice dinner with our friends at one of the restaurants we frequented last year.

The spreading of the windshield cracks has finally slowed down.  There are now three major cracks radiating out from the corner, and they are between 18" and two feet in length.  The very corner of the glass has "broken off" from the rest of the glass, and is held together only by the plastic laminate and the tinting film.  With the break extending across the corner in this way, the major stress is now relieved, and one can easily see the change in angle from one piece to the next.

After studying the windshield and the cracks, we have made the decision to proceed to Mexico with the window as-is.  Most likely, the two horizontal cracks will continue to spread slowly across the glass, possibly continuing all the way across to the other side.  However, there seems to be little jeopardy of it caving in, given its shape and placement.  Trying to get it replaced in the next week would also be a daunting proposition.

Today's problem involves the leveling system.  One of the sub-miniature, DPDT, momentary-off-momentary toggle switches that operate the actuators crapped out a couple days ago.  Specifically, the return-to-center spring action is now broken.  At the moment, the switch seems to still be working in both directions, although it takes a great deal of finesse to get it centered and stop the actuator where one wants it.  My experience, though, is that once the spring breaks, it is only a matter of time, sometimes very little, before the switch breaks electrically as well.  I need to find and install a replacement.  Radio Shack used to carry these, and I am hoping they may still have some, otherwise we will need to make a pilgrimage to Fry's in Houston.

We are very happy to be back together, and on the road.

Laissez les bon temps rouler encore

Odyssey is once again in the Big Easy.  I am parked at the French Quarter RV Resort (map), which is a haughty name for what is, essentially, a large lot under a highway billboard off I-10.  I'm paying way too much for the privilege, but it's very hot and humid here, and I wanted just to be able to run all the A/C's without having to think about it.

On my way into town, I was thinking that I would have no problem negotiating a decent rate here, considering tourism, including RV's, is still down, and boondocking, formerly frowned upon by the local constabulary, is de rigeur all over town in the wake of Katrina.  Sure enough, I probably could have paid 70% of the asking price for tonight, and maybe tomorrow.  Sunday night is a different story -- the Saints are playing at home, and the park has pre-sold most of their spaces for a promotion involving all the Saints home games, including transportation to the game.  I considered myself lucky to have negotiated paying the 10%-off FMCA rate for all three nights (they wanted an extra $20 for Sunday), as long as I promised not to need transportation to the football game (I don't) or to eat the barbecue that's included in the football promo.

The place is not bad, all things considered, though overpriced for what it is.  That being said, it is a much better option than the Mardi Gras RV Park, at which we parked last January when it was the closest option to the quarter.  If you want to spend a couple nights in New Orleans, and plan to partake of the Bourbon Street revelry, this is the place to be.

Pros:

1. A six-block walk to Bourbon street.  You can stumble home after partying all night.
2. Beautiful salt-water pool, hot tub, and clubhouse area, with fitness center, guest laundry, barbecue grill, and internet kiosk.
3. Wi-fi and cable included (not that we needed either).
4. Brand-new park, with new pedestals, sewers, etc.
5. 50-amp and 30-amp connections at each site.
6. Nicely groomed sites made of brick-colored pavers.
7. Secure facility with on-site security (not a bad idea in this part of town, see below).
   

Cons:

1. Right next to I-10, which is an elevated freeway here.  The freeway noise is horrendous.  My site is at the extreme opposite end of the park (meaning half a block away), but many sites are right below the freeway.
2. There's a huge billboard installation right in the middle of the park.  (The billboard pre-dates the park, and I'm sure the sign company has maintained a permanent easement.)  Not only is it unsightly, it creates weird shadows in some places, likely interferes with satellite access from some sites, and, no doubt, is brightly lit until the wee hours.
3. The lot lines are perhaps 25'.  Bigger than many parks, but a resort? C'mon.  On top of which, there is no vegetation, fencing, or anything else between sites -- you are cheek-by-jowl with your neighbor.  (I have an end site, adjacent to the entrance, with no neighbor as yet on the other side.  Until the Saints, umm, come marching in.  Oh lordy, I don't want to be in that number.)
4. The rack rate is $69 per night.  That's more than many true motorcoach destination resorts.
5. While the location is convenient to the quarter, it's really a few blocks away, in an industrial neighborhood surrounded by run-down buildings, and a currently-shuttered Winn-Dixie supermarket.
   

Oh, and don't bother if you have a class-C, or a fiver.  It's class-A only here.  (Of course, you'll still see plenty of travel trailers -- there is an encampment of FEMA trailers 150' away.)  Plus, they have, ahem, standards.  My 20-year-old bus conversion did not phase them (even though the manager knew exactly what it was, and about how old, before I even rolled in the gate -- one of the few), but I'd bet that many home-brew MCI's would not pass muster.

No matter.  The lure of 50-amp hookups and staggering distance from Rue Bourbon sucked me in.  Now that I'm here, I'm going to try to relax a bit and enjoy the (cough) "resort" environment.   I've already been in the pool, which was quite nice and very refreshing in the gulf heat and humidity.

Tonight I'll be getting together with our friends Anne and Ben.  These are folks we met while working in Baton Rouge with the Red Cross.  Both volunteers from elsewhere, they decided to stay in New Orleans after the relief operation ended.  Tomorrow, they will help me pick up Louise from the airport (hooray!).  I'm eager to see if they have picked up a local accent (which is kind of a cross between cajun and Brooklyn) in the time they've lived here.

Crimson Tide

I am in Alabama, at a Wal-Mart in Saraland, just north and west of Mobile (map).  I reached my projected stop of Greenville yesterday around 2:15, well ahead of schedule.  I decided it was too early to stop, and, even though the next Wal-Mart was past the Mobile River, that was only two more hours away.  With rest stops, I still made it here by 5.

One of the strategic errors of this plan, however, was that I had to run the A/C all night -- it is much warmer and more humid here than up north.  Thus it will remain now as I proceed through "LA" (that's Lower Alabama, don't you know) and the gulf coast of Mississippi and on to New Orleans.  I am seriously considering an RV park there just to have full-time power for the air conditioning, especially since it will be two or three nights.

The major news I have to report from here is that the upper windshield suffered major cracking last night.  The bad news is that I don't think we have the time or resources to get it replaced before Mexico.  The good news, if you can call it that, is that I definitely know now why it cracked.  As I suspected, it is a stress fracture.

As you recall, the windshield was installed improperly (in fact, I have been speculating for some time that the improper installation has been responsible for the leakage we have been experiencing).  To be more specific, the installers ran a bead of adhesive around the steel window frame, and then glued the window to the frame, filling in the remaining gaps with adhesive sealant.  This is the way most automobile windshields are installed, and these guys had never experienced anything different.

The correct method is to place the glass, dry, onto small rubber blocks that stand the glass off from the frame by about 3/8" on all sides.  A special, flexible urethane adhesive is then injected into the gaps, resulting in a 3/8" cushion of urethane all the way around the glass.  By contrast, with the glass glued directly to the steel, as it is now, any flexion or stress in the steel is transferred directly to the glass.

Last night this fracture mechanism was confirmed in a dramatic way.   After I parked, in a spot that was sloped both to the front and to the right, I set the level controls to get more-or-less level, and went upstairs to prepare the coach for the night and start making dinner.  Now, the leveling valves are very slow to respond, so I am accustomed to setting them by experience to where I think they need to be, then doing something else for five minutes while they settle in to position.  Then I re-check level and adjust as necessary.

While I was going about my business, I heard a popping sound from the front, and the cats were staring in that direction, wide-eyed and alert.  My first thought was that some pranskster was throwing rocks at the windshield -- I ran forward and drew the drapes.  "POP" -- a crack happened right in front of me.  I raced downstairs to put air into the rear leveler as quickly as I could.  Unfortunately, the damage was done -- cracks now extend about a foot from the upper right corner, diagonally down towards the center.  One set of cracks has even made a complete loop, creating a loose piece of glass held in only by the safety laminate.  The cracks are open-ended, and I expect that they will continue to spread across the windshield from wind pressure on the glass.

What happened is this:  The rear suspension is controlled by only one ride-height valve.  This allows the coach to roll left or right as needed and dictated by the front air bags, which are controlled separately.  If, however, one side of the rear suspension "bottoms out" onto the hard stop, then that hard stop, combined with the pressure of the front suspension in the diagonally opposite corner, will impart a twisting stress on the coach -- with the front of the coaching trying to roll left, for example, while the rear is trying to roll right..  Apparently, the left side settled onto this stop last night.  This same sort of stress is induced when the air system empties with the coach on anything but flat ground, or when jacking one corner to remove a wheel, or if the suspension bottoms while driving, due to potholes or whatever.

Putting more air into the rear system, to get it up off the stop, removed the flexing torque.  So things are stable -- for now.  We will see how much spreading occurs in the next few days.  I have a spare windshield standing by in Nashville -- if the problem becomes emergent, I can have FedEx Custom Critical pick it up and bring it to some location along our route, such as Houston or El Paso.  The challenge then will be to find a shop that can remove the damaged glass and properly install the new one.

I'm hoping the thing will just hold together for the Mexico trip.  At least that way I won't be worrying about breaking a brand new windshield, either on the Mexican roads, or on the piggyback train.

Back in Atlanta, or, more precisely, Duluth

I reached my target stopping point of Suwanee yesterday afternoon just before 5.  Unfortunately, the Wal-Mart there was posted "no overnight parking," and I had to regroup.  I should, of course, have been prepared for this possibility with a backup site or two lined up, but I was not.  So I spent half an hour there, deploying the dish and getting on-line to do more research.

I ended up here, at the Wal-Mart in Duluth, just another seven miles down the road (map).  It's a supercenter, so I was able to pick up a few groceries for dinner and breakfast.  I had a quiet and undisturbed night, even though the stripes in this parking lot need refreshing more than the ones in Salisbury did.

Tonight's projected stop is Greenville, Alabama.  If the Wal-Mart there doesn't work out, I'm in a pickle:  there are no more Wal-Marts anywhere near my route until past Mobile.

Deja vu

I am again parked at the Wal-Mart in Salisbury, NC (map).  This is the very same place we spent the night on our way to the FMCA rally in Concord last month.  I even ate at the same restaurant across the street, O'Charley's.

Even dumping the tanks was a deja vu experience: I stopped at the same Flying-J in Haw River where we last dumped on our way north to Richmond, and it was raining just as hard when I did so.  I actually hit driving rain about five miles north of there, so the dump station stop was timely in that it gave me the chance to put out the towels we use to catch all the drips.  Speaking of which, I got a call last week from Infinity Coach -- my last post about the leakage during the storm got them thinking, and they suggested a method for sealing around the windshield with some SikaFlex.  They even sent me some; now all I need is a few days of dry weather and some time to do the masking and sealing.

After dinner I did some shopping, and then settled in for the night.  Sometime after 10 I looked out the window and thought it strange that half the parking lot was empty, and I was all alone here.  When I walked Opal we discovered that the parking lot was now half roped-off, and we were inside the rope.  A quick look around revealed that a crew was in to refresh the striping.  They just had to stripe around Odyssey.  This is the second time this has happened to us, the first being at a Lowe's in Baton Rouge during our ten-week Red Cross deployment there.

Tonight I should be in Suwanee, Georgia, just northeast of Atlanta.

Quick pre-departure update

Well, the relief operation lingered a bit longer than any of us predicted, finally closing Saturday afternoon.  It took three of us all day Sunday to tear down and pack everything up, and the two of us who stayed yesterday spent most of the day getting it all labeled and shipped.  We made the 2:00 FedEx pickup by the skin of our teeth, with 37 cases weighing in at 1,800 pounds.  Right afterward my last staffer bailed, leaving me to clean up -- I wrapped up at 4:30.

Last night's project was bleaching the water system.  The last load of water we took on generated a sulfur dioxide problem, a non-harmful but very smelly condition wherein trace amounts of sulfur, along with sulfur-eating bacteria, both of which are common in well water, combine in the anaerobic and warm environment of the water heater to produce something that smells a lot like sewer gas.  Yuck.

The cure is to let a strong bleach solution sit in the water heater for about four hours.  I have a hose connection near my parking space, so I took the liberty of bleaching the entire fresh water system, as long as I had to get 12 gallons into the water heater anyway.  Then I went out for dinner and shopping, to let the whole thing sit.  Today the problem is gone, but it will come back unless I get some different water -- I'm pretty sure the problem came from water we got right here.

In just a few minutes I will be pulling up stakes and heading out.  Louise has a one-way flight to New Orleans on Saturday, and I have about a thousand solo miles ahead of me.  I'll be doing about 250 miles per day, and sticking to the freeway, so it is an easy schedule, allowing for more stops.  When we drive together, not only can Louise relieve me if needed, it is also unnecessary to pull over for snacks or beverages -- Louise just runs upstairs and gets them.  Plus, navigation questions like where is the next Wal-Mart, or FlyingJ, can be dealt with on the fly, whereas I will need to pull over.

I've tried, therefore, to map out all of my stops ahead of time.  I've even pre-loaded the route into our new Garmin 7200 GPS (which is still screwed down to a block of wood, since I have not yet figured out how to mount the thing).  If all goes as planned, I will stop tonight at the Wal-Mart in Salisbury, NC -- the very same place we stayed on our way to Concord a month ago.

Coming up for air in Richmond

Odyssey is in Richmond, Virgina, at Red Cross relief operation headquarters for Tropical Storm Ernesto.  We arrived on the job last Friday, and immediately settled in to work.

The facility we are in is actually now under long term lease, and will be used as a logistics staging warehouse as well as relief headquarters for this and any future operations in the Richmond area.  As such, it is a large warehouse facility with a dozen or so dock bays.  We are parked at one of the bays, which is otherwise unusable because there is a hard-wall room just inside the dock door that precludes forklift access.  I found a 50-amp, 220-volt welding outlet just inside the door, and I threw together an adapter to get us a full power feed.  Also inside is a slop sink with hose threads, and I was able to tank up on water one evening.

Unfortunately, we arrived here just ahead of the main portion of Ernesto, and Odyssey was drenched in the first 48 hours we were here.  The combination of tropical storm rains and high winds maximized the intrusion through our myriad window leaks, to the point that we had to put pitchers in the worst spots, and empty them every couple hours.  I would estimate that 3-4 gallons of rainwater intruded into the coach.  Things are drying out now, with pleasant warm weather and the ability to run all the air conditioners as needed.

The operation is winding down now, and, as our workload decreases, I have been assigning staff to the ongoing project of installing permanent wiring in the building, to support the warehouse and long-term headquarters facilities, as well as a Continuity-Of-Operations-Plan (COOP) site for the Disaster Operations Center.  The existing COOP site, in Falls Church, is slated to be retired as the Red Cross continues to move out of that building.

Louise is in California, having flown there Thursday to assist with a family emergency.  This is the first time either one of us has had to use the Red Cross travel mechanism.  They processed her off the operation and were able to get her a flight out all in the same afternoon.  We work very well as a team, and I actually had to order another qualified person to come in to replace her on the job.  Interestingly, they sent someone we had trained ourselves in Wilkes-Barre.

All of us here aboard Odyssey miss her greatly, and, as if to underscore that fact, two of the three tropical fish died the very next day.  So we are back down to five souls on board.  The last fish is still hanging in there, and I will let Louise post the whole fish story, as it were.

With Louise gone, I had to cancel my planned day off yesterday, and, instead, took a few hours off yesterday afternoon and again today, giving me a chance to post an update here.  I would have done it yesterday, but I had to run out for some groceries and essentials, and got stuck in the horrendous traffic here in Richmond resulting from the NASCAR race this weekend.  Our facility is very close to the track -- so close that the landlord is providing security to keep the race fans from parking in our lot.  Also, there are no hotel rooms available in town, and most of our staff is sleeping on cots, dormitory-style, in the warehouse.  I have the most luxurious digs on the job, at the moment.

I probably will not get to post again until we wrap up the operation.  I'm guessing that will be sometime mid-week.  From here, I will head towards Houston on the most direct freeway route, until Louise can fly back to join me somewhere along the way.  We have already mapped out the half dozen or so airports along the way that are served by Southwest -- the only airline with decent one-way fares.

Just a quick note about the map page:  I have not posted a map link here, as is my custom when on a Red Cross operation.  Also, the Datastorm map page shows an "approximate" location, rounded to the nearest tenth of a degree -- which is to say, not near at all.  Just an artifact of how the map handles "approximate."  I will start posting accurate map links again once I leave the operation.

En route to Richmond, VA

Very brief update tonight -- it is late, we are tired, and we need to be up bright and early.

We had a relaxing morning, and I was just in the middle of wiring up the new GPS, while Louise was in Wal-Mart adding to her tropical fish collection, when my phone rang around one o'clock.  We had pretty much given up on the Red Cross needing us for this storm, but here they were calling to send us to Richmond, VA to set up a headquarters there ahead of Ernesto.  Most of the folks who had been in Florida were jumped ahead to North and South Carolina to set up for the second landfall there.  As the storm moves north, the Red Cross is rolling ahead of it getting facilities ready to go.

Now you may remember that we were just in Virgina three weeks ago, and worked our way down through North and South Carolina on our way to Atlanta.  Well, today we reversed that route, albeit on the interstate instead of our preferred two-lane blacktop.  It took us two full hours to worm our way out of Atlanta in rain-induced bumper-to-bumper traffic, and the last five hours we've been driving through the outer bands of the storm system, where the driving rain and low visibility have kept our speed down.  We stopped for dinner at the very same Olive Garden from the FMCA rally, at the speedway exit in Concord.

We finally stopped about half past midnight, here at the Wal-Mart in Henderson, NC (map).  We are about 20 miles from the Virginia state line, and 120 miles from Richmond.  We should be there before 11 tomorrow (well, OK, later today, by my watch).

I'll post more once we come up for air in Richmond.