Monday, January 14, 2013

Leaving Texas

We are at Rudy's Truck Stop in Tenaha, Texas (map), where US-84 crosses US-59/US-96.  We had hoped to stay at a lovely picnic area a few miles west of town, but trees to the south would have blocked our satellite shot, and there is no 3G coverage here. We are nothing if not Internet junkies.  Our map shows another picnic area closer to Joaquin, but it was past sundown and we were pretty much done when we arrived here, and there was no guarantee we would get on-line there, either.  I did go into the C-store last night for snacks, making us legitimate customers.

One consequence of taking this somewhat more northerly route is that it has been cold at night, and sometimes during the day.  We've had the heat on all morning, and we ran it most of the evening as well.  Fortunately, our heater is very efficient, and even in this near-freezing weather, we get about five hours of heat from a single gallon of diesel fuel.

Our route yesterday did take us along the route of the historic Texas State Railroad, now a tourist attraction running steam excursions.  We passed the terminus in Palestine without stopping, but my curiosity got the better of me and we pulled in to the eastern terminus at Rusk.  The trains do not start running until March, but the campgrounds are open.  It was too early to stop, neither did we want to spend $32 for power for the night.  But it was a nice campground, and it would be a great stop when the train is running.

Today we will cross the Sabine River into Louisiana, leaving Texas behind.  We should end the day somewhere near the Mississippi, though it's hard to tell right now on which side we'll be.



4 comments:

  1. Sean do you know yet what type of Internet connection you will be using aboard the boat.

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    1. Yes. We have a cellular amplifier wired to an antenna on the top of the boat which will boost the 3G signal to my Sprint smartphone, which has unlimited Internet access and can produce a WiFi hot spot for our laptops.

      We also have a WiFi booster system that I will install on the top of the boat. This device, a Ubiquiti Bullet, is configured to connect to distant hot spots by way of a directly attached hi-gain omni-directional antenna (by Engenius). It, in turn, produces a wired Ethernet connection that will come down into the boat and be connected to a wireless access point, thus repeating the distant hot spot inside the boat. We have been using this setup here on the bus (I am using it right now) to get it tested and dialed in, and we will simply move it to the boat.

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  2. Betty and I just love the rails and crosstie monument at the entrance to the Rusk Terminus of the rail line !

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  3. If you ever get back down by Tenaha, go south s short bit to the Fortravel factory and they have a free dump and I am sure you can take on water. There has to be some cheap part you need at the parts counter. They service all makes and models of RVs ? With your boat purchase I doubt you will be ere as often but this way you will have it for your records.
    John

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