We're in Texas!! Rockdale!

We left Baton Rouge this morning in pouring rain.  Not fun for Earl to have to hook up everything in the rain.  He was soaked, so came in and changed into dry clothes before we actually pulled away.   It was raining so hard we decided not to do our usual stop at Cracker Barrell and I just made us a sandwich as we drove down the road.  Drove through rain almost the entire way to TX.  The roads in LA are awful (at least on I-10), big potholes in the roads, large spaces between the road and the bridges which makes the RV lurch – not enjoyable at all.  The DOT needs to allot more money in LA to road maintenance!  Not sure how the economy is in LA, and they didn’t ask my opinion.  Haha

We did stop at the welcome center as we crossed over into the Lone Star State and picked up lots of helpful info.  Texas is a HUGE state!  We may have to be here awhile, as I want to do things all over the place. Lucky I have Earl to keep me straight, or I’d be wasting a lot of miles going here, there and yon.

Earl drinks LOTS of coffee on the road!  One thing he loves most about the motorhome is I can get up and fix him a fresh cup of coffee while we're driving down the road.

Just before we arrived just for an overnight in Baytown, TX, the skies cleared up and we were able to pull in and hook up cable and electricity without any rain falling.  We’re east of Houston, and we’re in a pull through, as we’ll be leaving again in the morning to continue on to Rockdale.

Did half the people in the U.S. head for Texas this month?  First time ever we’ve had so much trouble finding a place to park, and there would seem to be an RV park in every little town, BUT….. we intended to stay in Austin and Earl must have called at least 12-14 places to find they were ALL full!  We could maybe get ONE night but we wanted to stay a week and make it a “hub” for several day trips.  We’re a little more limited as we always try to find parks with wi-fi and cable TV.  Finally he decided to go on an hour past Austin and finally found Shady Grove RV Park in Rockdale, TX.  We might have known when it was only $100 for the WEEK.  In Navarre, we were paying $100 a NIGHT, so this seemed ridiculously cheap, but at least they had wi-fi and cable and full 50 amp hook up, so we came on in.  I really do need to take some photos before we leave here.  Let’s just say it’s an adventure.  Um, I think we might be the talk of the park, and it’s quite a good sized park, considering… and we are the ONLY Class A motor home in here of ANY age – ha. I almost feel embarrassed.  OLD, I repeat OLD trailers and OLD 5^th wheels are all that’s in here and many of them are here permanently, I would assume, judging by the debris in the yards, with old chairs and toys sitting outside, and at least a dozen have big blue tarps over the tops, so they must be leaking.  Not the kind of place we generally stay, but hey, the people we’ve spoken to are really nice and you have to hand it to them, if it’s the best they can do, I hope they work hard at their jobs and can improve their lives soon.  The 5^th wheel parked right beside us is OLD and not very large and we realized last night they have three kids as well as the parents in there!  Whoa…. How easy it is for us to forget how blessed we are and there are many so less fortunate.  I found myself praying for them last night that God would bless and prosper them.  So….. like we say, we’re on an adventure!  One of the neighbors told us they have amazing Mexican food just down the road at Julio’s, so that’s where we ate dinner and it was delicious!  I’m thinking it just might be possible that I get my fill of Mexican food on this trip.  I’ve never thought I could ever tire of it, and still don’t think so, but haven’t ruled out the possibility, haha.  I’ve had enough for a while.  Time to try some Texas barbeque and some great steaks!  We hurried home, having to remember that we’re on central time here and Survivor comes on at 7:00 so we were hustling.  Very nice quiet evening.

Thursday – April 16^th   Rain was predicted today, but when we got up the skies were clear and the temperatures just perfect, so after a relaxing morning we decided to set out for a new adventure.  We went on a Safari!  Just outside Franklin, TX there’s a great place to go and buy food and just drive in your car through the acreage there, and you can feed all the animals.  Quite an experience.  They certainly have no fear of people.  Earl was great at it, but I was a wee bit more skittish, I admit.  Earl had his window completely down feeding the animals and the smaller ones I did as well, but the big ones…yikes.  

 You can see that I have my window about half way down.  A little out of my comfort zone.

The funniest thing that happened, I don’t have any photos of, unfortunately.  I had been feeding some of the smaller animals, goats and small deer, and I had left my window  down.  Earl was feeding a zebra and even he got a bit uneasy with some of the ostriches.  They are super aggressive and would stick their whole head in going after that food!  I was totally absorbed with watching what was happening on his side and forgot I had left my own window  all the way down.  I suddenly felt something wet and realized a water buffalo had his entire head in my window!  Earl said he’d never seem me climb over a console that fast.  I was almost in his lap in a second!  LOL  I was screaming at the water buffalo and he was slobbering all over the inside of my door.  Yuck.  Earl quickly drove away and I got my window back up.  Yikes.  That just about scared the bejeebers out of me. Whew!  We had just had the car washed and now it’s all nasty with animal slobber all over it.  Oh well….it was fun overall, just not the water buffalo part (though extremely fun from Earl’s point of view).

Since the weather was holding up so nicely and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, we decided to go on to Waco to the Dr. Pepper Museum.  As soon as I heard about this place, I knew I needed to go for Lisa.  Dr. Pepper is her most favorite drink on the planet, so this was all for her.  It was quite interesting.   

 This is the artesian well where the purest water was used in the original formula.

 This horse was made entirely from Dr. Pepper cans and bottle caps!

 Close up of the caps in the horse's body.

 The mane made from cut up pieces of the cans.  Pretty creative, huh?

 Dr. Pepper is not MY favorite drink, but how can you leave the museum without having a REAL Dr. Pepper made from the original formula - half a cup of crushed ice, 4 quirts of pure syrup, streams of carbonated water and something "magical" that stirred and fizzed...voila - a soda fountain Dr. Pepper.  Here's to you, Lisa!

While we were in the museum, it started pouring rain, so I returned a bunch of phone calls and talked business with Ryan several times.  Earl checked his weather app and saw we had about a 10 minute pocket of time when it was going to stop, so we hurried to the car, and found water had risen completely over the curb on his side so he jumped in from my side and we laughed our way through that one.  

 We drove by Baylor University, very beautiful campus in Waco.

 We got home and enjoyed a quiet dinner and watched some old episodes of E.R.  Tomorrow we are going hunting bluebonnets.  Have you heard about the famous Texas bluebonnets?  There’s a whole Facebook page devoted to the sightings!  

I am really liking Texas!  What a beautiful state, though wow, SO much land!!!  You can just go miles and miles and see nothing but beautiful green gently rolling hills and gorgeous trees, with occasional glimpses of cattle, but little else.  Then suddenly you’ll come to a sign that says entering a certain little town – population 335 people!  A few scattered homes and businesses and then it’s miles and miles of open land again.  I wonder what people do here if they need to call 911?  Hopefully they’d have helicopter service or something as it would take ambulances way too long in an emergency.   See y'all in a few days with more of our adventure! Good night!