A Long, Long Day Of Driving

Day 6 - Monday: Today was a long day of driving, 730 miles and about 13 hours. We left Memphis at about 7 a.m. and got through town in pretty light traffic. It wasn't long before I could see in my side mirror that my electric cord was popping out of the door that holds it in. I figured I better pull into a rest stop sooner than later to fix that before

Austin Tx Traffic @ 7:30 p.m.

the cord was reaching the road and grinding the plug away. Our friends where a half hour up the road in search of a new toilet. The night before their electric toilet had broke and was no longer in service. I always wondered why they would over complicate an RV toilet. Since this was going to be a long day on the road not having a toilet was not an option otherwise we would have overnighted one from our warehouse to the next destination. His only hope was hitting a Camping World in Little Rock and luckily they did have 1 toilet in stock. It wasn't what he wanted nor did it exactly fit, but it would do the job.

We finally caught up with them at the Texarkana welcome center. Just as I pulled in a big truck loaded with lumber pulled away opening up a spot right next to Joe & Shelly's rig. He loaded the old toilet in the back of the car and we where ready to roll. Just then we saw an ambulance and highway patrol go racing by and could see that same lumber truck had just overturned on an off ramp just up the road. Pretty crazy to see a big truck like that completely upside down. 

The next 6 hours where uneventful other than the occasional driver with a death wish. Weaving in and out of traffic cutting us and big trucks off. It's amazing how brave people become when they jump behind the wheel of a vehicle. We thought we might just make the whole trip without any traffic delays, but as soon as we hit Austin things came to a screeching halt. We spent the next 40 minutes in stop and go traffic and the rest of the ride into Bourne Tx went smoothly. We pulled into the Alamo Fiesta RV Park at 8:30 and the office was closed.  They had a late arrivals box and our sites and info where inside.  We had chosen their premium sites, which are level and long, but sooo close together.  I am thinking most people would be pretty unhappy with the setup if they where staying for an extended period of time.  Once we got setup we walked the puppies and then crashed for the night at about 9:30 p.m.

Although I felt pretty good throughout the entre drive, once you stop is when it hits you and it usually lasts into the next day. This is the second really long run we made this year (the other was the way home from Florida) and we had said then that we would never do that again.  I am hoping we learned our lesson this time and keep the drives under 10 hours in the future.

~Bill