Leaving Minnesota in the snowstorm had a downside in that my RV and car were a mess.
So first up was a wash. There is a company called Blue Beacon which is a truck wash company. There happened to be one located just twenty minutes down the road from the Best Western. I get to the place and get in line with all the big trucks. It is a long line, but I just pull out my Ipad and read for an hour and a half – creeping along every now and then. When it is finally my turn, I pull into a bay, RV and car and about 6 guys start washing the salt and yuck off of the vehicles. Miko hides under the bed while all this is happening. I got out of the RV, went inside and paid and then used the restroom. When I came out, the vehicles were done and all shiny and beautiful. I'm so happy – I was almost embarrassed driving down the road with them in their Minnesota condition.
Next on the stop was to get some propane. I had left Minnesota with a full tank but after two nights of subzero weather, I needed to get a refill. I looked ahead down the road and found a U-Haul place that sold propane. I looked it up on Google maps to make sure that I could get in and out of their parking lot and it looked like there was plenty of room. Well, evidently that Google maps satellite picture was done before they had any of their U-Haul trucks there. It was tight, but I soldier on. It was not pretty and my poor RV took a hit. My back end swung out and clipped the tail end of a truck. And I was being so careful too. I hate to think how much this is going to cost to get fixed. Poor RV.
Ok, vehicles washed, got LP. On the road again. Our stop for the next few days is Ray Roberts State Park – Isle du Bois Unit. Somebody told me that most of the lakes in Texas are man made and this is one of them. Ray Roberts Lake supplies water to Dallas and is about an hour north of Dallas. The plan is to stay here a few days – de-winterize, rest up, lay low. Both Miko and I can use the break.
I decide to buy a Texas park pass for $70. It gets me four nights of half price camping plus I don't have to pay those pesky day fees that they charge everybody coming and going. Those fees irritate me – I'm already paying to camp and then you are going to charge me entrance fees also. Urg.
So I pick a camping spot and pull into the parking lot close to my assigned spot. I have to unhook my car because I have to back into the camping spot. Everything is going swimmingly and quickly. I'm thinking to myself – boy, you have this unhooking stuff down – piece of cake. I go to start my car and it is deader than a door knob. I don't have a clue why. Seems to me I've hauled the car for three days before and this didn't happen. Maybe it was the cold weather or maybe there was something left on. Who knows – I was in such a rush to leave Minnesota that first day I could have missed something. I called up to the office and some nice young guy came down, had me sign some waivers and then jumped the car. I ran the car for a half hour and everything seems to be ok now.
I then went to hook up my electricity and water. Electricity, check – water – we have an issue. I have a two way spigot that hooks into my water pressure regulator. Somehow the spigot end broke off inside of the regulator making it impossible to use the regulator. Nothing to be done but hook up the hose directly to the faucet. This is life on the edge folks. I've heard tons of stories about water pressure gone wild and destroying the plumbing in Rvs. Ok, that seems to be working. Let's go inside and start de-winterizing which is basically just running the water through all the plumbing to flush out the antifreeze. What? Why is there no hot water? What is going on here? Went outside and looked at the water heater. Evidently somebody (or perhaps me?) had turned off the water heater last fall when we winterized. Turned it on and we have hot water. Life is good. Showers all around tonight.
It was interesting – some challenges happened today, but I found I would just go into “how do we get this fixed” as opposed to “Holy Cow, we are all going to die” mode. I'm pleased.
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