2015 - CONNECTICUT TO TEXAS

CONNECTICUT to TEXAS

Saturday, November 14, 2015 - Westbrook, CT, to Hamburg, PA

The plan in this, my second year of RV traveling, is to head to the southwest, both for the warmth and because I've never been to New Mexico or Arizona.

Although this departure day dawned bright and sunny, it was rather too cold and windy for a run and I still had plenty to do to get the RV "road ready", including some final gear stowage and making a stop for a propane refill at the small RV dealership half a mile down the road from the marina.

After these RV "housekeeping" items, I got onto I-95 shortly after 9:30am for the run down to Darien, CT, where I stopped to have coffee and a catch-up chat with an old colleague from my corporate days.

Then it was off across the Tappan Zee Bridge to skirt around the north of New York City and head west across the southern part of Pennsylvania, sticking to the interstates in order to get some miles under the wheels.

All went well until close to the end of the afternoon's drive, when everything ground to a halt on I-87 (rather eerily echoing the first day's run out of CT last year, when we were stopped on the freeway for 2 hours...).

After a 30-minute standstill, the traffic was fed slowly on one lane past a fairly dramatic wreck of a semi that had somehow gone over the fast lane barrier and was now facing backwards, mostly on the wrong side of the barrier, and with the trailer turned onto its side.

So the day's run ended later than planned - though after a reasonable after 230 miles - with the sun blindingly low on the horizon, eventually pulling off the highway at a town called Hamburg to stay overnight in the RV parking section of Cabela's - the huntin'/shootin'/fishin' superstore chain.

Checked with the store customer service staff that staying overnight was OK, as I customarily do...

And then took a tour of the store, amazed at all the gear available in these country pursuits, the number of people thronging the store - most of them with some piece of camouflage-print clothing or footwear - and the elaborate centerpiece display.

Back to the RV for what will be a chilly night - temperatures forecast to drop to only a degree or two above freezing.

Sunday, November 15, 2015 - Hamburg, PA, to Canaan Valley State Park, Davis, WV

The weather forecast was right... 36 degrees outside at dawn, 39 degrees inside the RV - until I fired up the heating and hot water for 10 minutes to take the chill off both, hopping back inside my toasty doubled-up sleeping bag meanwhile.

Although overdue, I decided it was too chilly for a run (despite masochistic runs in comparable conditions in the past) and also not the right surroundings.

Without blowing through excessive amounts of propane, my 10-minute RV warm-up routine was really only enough to make it bearable to get ready for the day, get last night's route planning into the GPS and head out.

Stopped shortly after 10:00am at a rest stop on I-76 (with my military friends alongside) for coffee and WiFi, and a call home courtesy of Skype.

I-76 had little traffic, being a PA turnpike toll road, but I had chosen this route not so much for light traffic as the scenery, undulating as it does through southern Pennsylvania farmland and heading up into the mountains through several tunnels.

With mainly clear skies, the day warmed appreciably and I saw 68 degrees as the high on the dash readout.

As so often, my route review over coffee popped up another option for the day's destination, as my original overnight spot (Creek Lake State Park, MD, where I stayed last year) was a little too close to make a good day's run and the alternative (and ideal) destination at the end of a scenic drive just a little too far.

Fortunately, research turned up a state park in WV that was just right, so after turning off I-76, and paying a $14.75 toll it was a final run south down pleasantly rolling state road 220, reaching the park just before 4:00pm.

Out of season sign-in was at the Canaan Valley Resort Lodge, which was surrounded by tame, and inquisitive, deer.

All set up in my campground spot with power (so unlimited overnight heat...) by 4:30pm, shortly before the early winter sunset. Only one distant neighbor.

And what a bargain... Now that I'm a "senior" (over 60 in this particular park's definition) I get a discount on the rates so this overnight will only cost $16.50, including electrical hook-up.

6 hours in the saddle, 260 miles covered.

So after just a couple of days on the road, I'm 500 miles into the drive southwest and will now slow down a little and start to take some scenic routes.

Monday, November 16, 2015 - Canaan Valley State Park, Davis, WV, to Charleston, WV

And I thought yesterday morning was cold... 24 degrees outside at sunrise this morning, so the notion of a run got shelved again - just a little too masochistic even for me, despite the attractions of running in the state park.

The RV was pleasantly warm inside, however, as I was on shore power and so ran the heat all night, and there was plenty of hot water for my morning shower.

Decided to get a jump on the day's driving as I wasn't going running and the weather today is supposed to be sunny - better for the scenic routes - but clouding over tomorrow. So we were off by 8:15am, back on the twisting mountain roads heading southwest to Lewisburg along the Seneca Trail, part of an old Indian trail leading from New York to Georgia.

The route, as suggested in my "120 Scenic Drives" guidebook... twisty, yes; hilly, yes; rolling countryside, yes; scenic, not really, and all rather similar-looking with examples of roadside entertainment (such as this staged "man hanging from barn") few and far between.

I did make a stop at one state park - Beartown - late morning to stroll the extensive boardwalk built though and around the corridors and crevices and massive blocks of sandstone rocks that are slowly eroding and cracking apart. It was even warm by then - 58 degrees - helped by being at a lower elevation.

Many of the smaller towns I pass through are depressingly run down, and often predominantly trailer homes - though the many churches all look to be in good shape...

The end of the first "scenic route" on this trip was at Lewisburg, where I parked for a stroll, took a few pictures and indulged in an early afternoon ice-cream.

Though running rather late to complete the next "scenic route" from my guidebook in full daylight, I decided to press on northwest to Charleston (WV) but again I don't feel the scenery was really sufficient reward for the slow and sometimes tortuous driving up and down the mountains, often slowing for tight 15mph hairpin bends.

And the final run into Charleston itself, even described in the guidebook as "a drab industrial corridor", was only marginally relieved by the fact that it was dusk by then and at least the lights of the various industrial sites along the road following the course of the broad Kanawha River added a little drama.

After a couple of wrong turnings, finally found the Cracker Barrel store on the outskirts of Charleston that is to be our overnight stop. At least it's quieter than most, with the parking area tucked away behind the store.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015 - Charleston, WV, to Danville, KY

Took my first run of the trip this morning, due to a happy combination of warmer temps - 50 degrees - and quiet residential streets close by, alongside the river.

The plan, as often on my run mornings, was to stop at Starbucks fairly early on the day's drive to enjoy a toasted bacon, egg and gouda cheese sandwich - a reward for my efforts and a good protein supplement!

And luckily there was a Starbucks showing up on the GPS pretty much on our route out of town.

Unfortunately, this particular Starbucks outlet turned out to be in a hospital, with restricted parking all around.

So I was forced to "borrow" a fast-food store car park nearby, only to find that this particular Starbucks only offered pastries, goddamit... And clearly some of the hospital staff, who you might think would know better, had been over-indulging in those very pastries.

Plan B... find another Starbucks nearer to lunchtime and have the breakfast sandwich then. Good plan. And in due course I tracked down a Starbucks in Morehead, KY, via on-line research on my phone, a few miles off the highway but we needed fuel in any case.

Unfortunately, yet again, this Starbucks outlet turned out to not be a regular store but was inside Morehead University somewhere...!

So I gave up at that point, made a lunch sandwich in the RV, got some diesel and then continued on towards Lexington, quite enjoying the easy Interstate driving after a couple of days of twisting mountain roads.

Arriving in Lexington - via an interesting scene of a harmless roadside drunk apparently requiring three patrol cars - I drove into the center of town looking for the historical district, which never did show up... and so decided as it was late in the afternoon to join the stream of commuter traffic heading out of town and possibly stop at a couple of spots on the next scenic drive.

Leaving Lexington, the countryside was peppered with mansions - some free-standing, some in gated estates - golf clubs, and then horse farms with fenced pastures and identically-styled barns.

Until reaching some more twisting switchback roads going down to and crossing the Kentucky River, lying deep in a gorge with vertical rocky sides.

The first tourist stop of Shakertown - a reconstructed version of the original Shaker village - might have been worth a visit if it hadn't been close to the end of the afternoon, so I swung around in their car park and headed on to Harrodsburg, where I did actually park to get out of the driving seat and walk around for a while.

Not much of a town, really, though as with so many places it must have looked impressive "in its day", however long ago that was. Lots of churches, all seeming to be trying to outdo each other... At least 7 or 8 within 3 blocks.

And just as I was driving out of town I saw the apparently "famous" Harrodsburg fort (Kentucky's first permanent settlement, recreated close to the site of the original).

But, not for the first time, I discovered that tourist forts seem to be closed Mondays and Tuesdays...

So I took a few pictures of the exterior, then drove the final few miles to our overnight spot behind another Cracker Barrel store just outside Danville.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - Danville, KY, to Bardstown, KY

Heavy rain forecast to be moving in early, so I decided to avoid a long drive in bad conditions and go to the nearby Makers Mark bourbon distillery for a tour...

...and only just managed to get into the Visitor Center there at 9:30am before the rain came down.

Decided on the one-hour $9 regular tour rather than the two-hour $35 premium version as I have a pretty good grasp of spirits production from my days with United Distillers - including visits to bourbon and Tennessee whiskey distilleries within the group.

Although I was the only one on the $9 tour with "Lee", I found it difficult to get him to deviate from his group "script".

But a good tour, an interesting facility, a surprising amount of "hand work" - including label printing on site and manually dipping bottles to produce the signature red wax finish of the brand - and a decent 4-product tasting at the end of the tour... leading, of course, to the gift shop, where I treated myself to a new coffee mug and a 375ml bottle of Makers Mark.

As the rain was continuing, and heavy, I was kindly given a bus ride and dropped off at the on-site café - only to discover it wasn't open and to then have to walk back a good distance to the RV in the rain, getting pretty damp in the process.

So I warmed up with coffee brewed on board the RV while wondering if the rain might stop, found some weather forecasts suggesting not, so decided to head on a few miles to Bardstown and go to the Barton distillery to try their tour - which turned out to just be a walk (in the rain) to the aging warehouse, with lots of good explanations about the production process, then a walk back (in the rain) to their Visitors Center for a tasting - of much inferior whiskey, in my opinion, so no mementos of my visit bought there.

The final rain-soaked drive of a few miles brought me to my Walmart overnight stop, and plenty of time at the end of the afternoon to catch up on this narrative, do some research and route planning for the next couple of days, and "borrow" the WiFi from a nearby Lowes store.

Rain finally let up around 6:00pm. The next couple of days forecast to be sunny but getting colder with early morning temperatures in the 20s by the weekend.

Definitely time to be making some miles to the south...

Thursday, November 19, 2015 - Bardstown, KY, to Hohenwald, TN

Reasonably mild early morning - 48 degrees - and the wind light, and a quiet road nearby, so decided to go for a run. Unfortunately, my running watch decided that 8 years of service was enough and refused to turn on. So I ran without it, bravely...

Rather irritating, though, as monitoring and recording my mile times and heart rate is a significant component of the motivation to keep running.

In the event, rather a pleasant and comfortable run, and covering some 4.5 miles rather than my usual 4 miles as it turns out from checking my route against some on-line mapping software.

All of which, however, led to a slightly later departure than ideal, heading to Bowling Green, KY, and the National Corvette Museum.

Trundling along I-64 south, I decided that there wouldn't be time to visit both the museum and the Corvette factory located opposite, where a production line tour was available.

The museum won out, only partly influenced by the Corvette Café on site, which was my first stop for a coffee and "scone" (for which read very sticky pastry, liberally doused in melted icing sugar) at 10:30am, now on Central Time.

Watched the intro film before the museum tour, both of which would undoubtedly appeal strongly to Corvette owners and enthusiasts - as they should, the Corvette Museum being an undertaking by enthusiasts rather than the General Motors Corporation.

Interesting history of the brand and the examples on display, sadly including several that remain crushed and destroyed from the (in)famous sink hole that opened up right under the center display of classic Corvettes.

Back on the road, headed south around Nashville - having decided not to fight my way into downtown – and to the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway, this scenic drive being main reason for choosing this particular route down to the southwest.

And what a relaxing and refreshing change it was, on deserted, gently winding roads with perfectly manicured verges, in and out of the shade and the twinkling of the late-afternoon sunlight through the trees, some of which still wore a few of bonze and scarlet leaves.

The Natchez Trace had far fewer lookouts than on the Skyline Drive or Blue Ridge Parkway routes I drove last fall, but still with periodic vistas or other attractions, such as the Fall Hollow waterfalls.

After 50 miles, road works caused a diversion from the parkway, conveniently right at the campground spot I had decided on for the night - low temperatures forecast, so power for heat will make a big difference to comfort levels.

The campground is in a dip, and is fairly basic, so no TV reception at all, no WiFi, and barely a cell phone signal. I'll just have to make my own entertainment this evening...

Friday, November 20, 2015 - Hohenwald, TN, to Tupelo, MS

Chilly overnight, as predicted, and freezing by dawn, with some mist also down in the hollow of the campground. But plenty warm in the RV with shorepower for heat.

The sun was well above the horizon and the day warming nicely by the time we got on the road at 8:30am, following an initial detour off the parkway due to bridge replacement before joining at mile marker 386, site of the death and grave of Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame).

Several stops along the way today, looking at the old Trace pathway, natural springs and pools created by beaver dams (resident beaver obligingly making an appearance), Indian ceremonial and burial mounds.

Mid-morning RV coffee and bagel stop, then a Starbucks stop at around 3:00pm after pulling off the parkway at Tupelo in order to get some WiFi work done.

A short drive from there to Trace State Park, where I'm spending the night, again hooked up to shorepower to keep me warm against the early morning chill.

Possibly the most attractive state park setting to date, looking out over a huge lake at the center of this large park which boasts a wide range of outdoor activities in addition to camping.

All set up in time to catch the final rays of sun kissing the tree tops on the far side of the lake.

Saturday, November 21, 2015 - Tupelo, MS, to Grand Gulf (Port Gibson), MS

Silent overnight beside the lake, except for the intermittent, but distant, barking of a neighboring RV owner's dog.

Dumped the tanks before leaving, and off out of the park to find my way back onto the Natchez Trace Parkway by 8:00am, where I have a 150 mile drive ahead to a planned coffee stop just outside Jackson.

Made a couple of stops on the parkway, at the Bynum Indian Mounds - not as impressive as those yesterday - and at French Camp, where the Visitors Center had some interesting old farm implements on display.

With hunger and coffee urge gnawing at me by 11:00am, I decided to pull over and brew a coffee - at the Choctaw Boundary site - rather than drive another hour or more, and then head directly to Vicksburg.

Gradually getting behind the theoretical schedule for the day, not helped by turning off the highway rather too soon as I entered Vicksburg and finding myself in the Vicksburg National Military Park, where I had to pay $8 to park as soon as I entered off the highway.

So I decided to get a least a little of my money's worth by viewing the intro film at the Visitors Center and then take the driving tour around the grounds.

In the end, quite an informative stop, learning about the critical nature of Vicksburg in the Civil War as the control point on the Mississippi for supply movements and where the Union desperately needed to oust the Confederates from the town to control the whole of the Mississippi and split the Confederate territory.

It was a difficult campaign for Grant to finally take the city, but it proved to be a major turning point in the war.

The grounds of the Military Park cover the area of the siege by the Unionist troops, and they are impressively large. Now covered in monuments to the various state armies and divisions who took part - the Illinois Memorial being the most Prominent.

Also on display is the ironside ship recently discovered in the Mississippi River, recovered and partially restored.

Bailed out of the drive half-way round the park, however, as there was a convenient exit point and time was running short for a quick detour through downtown Vicksburg before heading south to the overnight state park location near Port Gibson - and with the temperatures dropping and wind picking up this was definitely an overnight location I wanted to reach.

The GPS suggested I would just make the state park before their 5:00pm office close time, and I turned of the highway with a few minutes to spare... only to find I had a further 7 miles to drive to reach the park itself.

In the end, I arrived by the skin of my teeth at 4:58pm. I've got to stop planning too much into my itineraries and adding this stress to my days...

But here I am, hooked up in the park, heat on, college football on one of the few channels coming through, a cold beer in hand. Lucky end to the day...

Sunday, November 22, 2015 - Grand Gulf (Port Gibson), MS, to Natchez, MS

Very quiet overnight, with only a few acorns dropping onto the roof of the RV to disturb the deep silence.

Decided it was too cold for a Sunday morning run, however, as the breeze picked up right at sunrise to bring the wind chill down below freezing. So instead wrapped up and went for a brisk walk through the hilly park, some of which had been Fort Wade, with defensive positions from the Civil War still in evidence.

Grand Gulf had once been a thriving port on the Mississippi before a series of disasters emptied the town, the old cemetery rotting away in the woods offering impressive evidence of this, with quite a few grand graves. A surprising number of people from Scotland and Ireland buried there, it seems, from the inscriptions on the tombstones, and many with brief lives.

There were also some renovated buildings and equipment on display in the park, including a Gothic style Catholic church.

After leaving the park, took the short drive in to Port Gibson to look around.

Some interesting older buildings, but rather a lot of empty and derelict ones, too, a sad sign of the times that seems to be generally shared by many towns I've been to in the US on my RV touring.

Unusual church spire, with a golden hand pointing to heaven.

Back on the Natchez Trace Parkway, made a couple of stops at scenic spots, including a deeply worn section of the old pathway, showing how it must have looked when in use.

Finally, on into the city of Natchez itself, after which the parkway I've been driving down for the past 450 miles is named.

The town was predictably quiet on this Sunday afternoon and the warmth in the sun made for a pleasant stroll through the downtown area with its picturesque period buildings, many with New Orleans style wrought iron balconies, and even a cathedral.

Walked down to view the broad expanse of the Mississippi River before leaving town, a tugboat in the distance driving a huge raft of barges slowly upstream against the current.

A short distance out of town is the Natchez State Park, where for $19.65 we're tucked up comfortably among the trees, shorepower to keep the heat running and even good TV reception on the Fox and NBC channels allowing me to watch NFL football games.

Monday, November 23, 2015 - Natchez, MS, to Ville Platte, LA

Woke to some e-mails from Europe that required responses before getting on the road, so a slightly delayed start, getting into St Francisville around 11:00am.

Stopped at the Visitor Center to get a more official briefing on the town than when I passed through on my way from Texas to Florida at the end of December last year, and to find out where the best coffee in town was to be found.

And the coffee stop was first, at Bird Man Coffee and Books - though not many books in evidence in what was trying hard to be a funky coffee house - before heading down the conveniently compact historic part of town, Royal Street.

Many mid-19th century houses and buildings have been well preserved and which looked much more photogenic on this trip through town as they were basking in the sun rather than a gloomy mid-winter end of afternoon as previously. One new and rather strange thing that I came across was an oak tree that had grown inside and broken through the trunk of a cedar tree, both of them apparently alive and well.

My fill of cute historic houses taken, it was back on the road to cross over the mighty Mississippi River via a very contemporary and minimalist highway bridge, and then head on north along what was supposed to be a scenic route but in reality was rather straight and uninteresting, flanked with flat stretches of Louisiana sugar cane fields and crawfish farms.

Also in evidence now that we are in Louisiana are highway gas stations with casinos attached.

Made a late afternoon stop at Walmart in Ville Platte for a few basic groceries, then headed the few miles out of town to Chicot State Park for the evening, quietly tucked up once again under acorn trees and with few neighbors.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - Ville Platte, LA, to Shreveport, LA

Woke to the sound of guns off in the woods, which rather put me off a potential morning run as I didn't really want to be mistaken for a white-tailed deer as I bobbed along the park roads.

Thought I might run later in the day instead, which I didn't...

So on the road at the reasonably early hour of 8:00am, making the fairly long drive to the day's destination of Nachitoches (apparently pronounced NACK-ih-tish), Louisiana's earliest permanent European settlement - established in 1714 by the French as a trading post on the Red River - and described in one of my guide books as "jewel-like".

I've exchanged the flatness of sugar-cane fields for slightly more undulating pine forests, and sugar-cane trucks for logging trucks, but most Louisiana roads are just as bad as ever, and have not been unseated from the clear leadership position of "worst roads" that I awarded them a year ago.

The stiffness of the RV's rear suspension in particular exacerbates the unpleasant thrumming and jarring effect of sectional road construction, where there's a gap in the road surface every 10ft as if built by someone on piece-work - not to mention the generally poorly repaired state of the road surface itself.

And the litter, and the trash bag containers of all shapes and sizes that seem to be permanent roadside fixtures at the end of most driveways, and the abandoned trailer homes that need to be torched... Can you tell I'm not particularly enjoying this morning's drive so far?

I did, however, enjoy driving through the town called Many (reminding me of the town of Accident in MD), though I didn't see quite as many amusing signs making a play on the name of the town as I thought I might - Many Apartments was a good one, though.

Our main scenic destination - Nachitoches - is actually rather too cute, its historic downtown overlooking the water, and the buildings reminiscent of New Orleans with their wrought iron balconies, all prettified and made touristy following the fame attracted by the film "Steel Magnolias", made there in 1989.

All the waterfront buildings are now shops, and many of the grand houses have been turned into B&Bs for all the tourists coming to browse the shops. A big festival of some kind is in preparation with miles of colorful lights being strung all over town.

OK if you like that kind of thing, but I would rather see somewhere a little less "Hollywood" - despite my previous complaints about run-down towns.

Had a late morning coffee in a much-too-noisy café on the main drag, used their WiFi to get some overdue work-related e-mails sent and then strolled around the back streets of town looking for some buildings that were a little less "worked over" but found little of any interest other than the First Baptist church.

Assuaged my disappointment with an ice-cream, the day having warmed nicely, then worked out that it was getting too late for a mad dash over the border to Texas and a state park for the night, so headed on up I-49 to Shreveport, stopping for a little more WiFi - and the slowest ever service followed by the hottest ever coffee - at Starbucks before suffering pre-Thanksgiving crowds in a Kroger grocery store, then drove on to our overnight stop behind a friendly Cracker Barrel.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015 - Shreveport, LA, to Longview, TX

Mild temperatures overnight, and almost warm during my morning run down a quiet road nearby.

Decided that I would patronize Cracker Barrel in an expression of gratitude for their frequent overnight hosting of the RV but the line inside, even at 9:00am, was too long. So I decided to head off to the first planned stop of the day in Jefferson and see what a café there might offer.

Soon crossed the state line. Nice to be in Texas again, which somehow feels more welcoming than Louisiana - and the roads are certainly better.

And what a good decision it was to abandon the Cracker Barrel in favor of the café in Jefferson.

By 10:30am, I was sitting with coffee and "breakfast scramble" - 3 eggs scrambled with lots of savory ingredients, such as bacon, onion, hash browns, cheese melted on top. WiFi available, too, so I was even able to get a few e-mails dealt with.

Then off for a walk around town. In contrast to Nachitoches, more modest Jefferson has a good mix of relatively unmolested historic buildings and period architecture (such as The Excelsior House Hotel, dating from the late 1850s, still being used as a hotel today and numbering Ulysses S. Grant, Oscar Wilde, Rutherford B. Hayes and Lady Bird Johnson among prior guests).

Although a distinct "improvement" in my eyes, rather too many places had been turned into "antique stores" - for which read mostly junk and tourist tat.

Decided to drive on to the town of Marshall, which was given a fair write-up in my scenic drive guide but which turned out to be a pretty serious disappointment - a large central building, a single street with any active businesses (including an out-of-place fine art gallery), but still peppered with plenty of empty stores or places about to be auctioned to pay off property taxes (such as the Paramount Theater) and the seemingly ubiquitous and obligatory tattoo and piercing parlor.

The town of Marshall's major claim to fame is apparently the millions of lights put up for Christmas - the festoons of strands of lights certainly in evidence.

So the place probably looks wonderful at night. But we're not going to wait and see, heading off instead a few miles out of town to Longview in order to stop at a Kroger grocery store, a Lowes for free WiFi and then across the road for our overnight parking lot at Sam's Club.

Thursday, November 26, 2015 - Longview, TX, to Lufkin, TX

Reasonably quiet overnight once all the testosterone-rich dudes with their trucks and loud V8 engines and exhausts had finished trying to out-do each other in decibel generation. A relatively short driving day ahead, so no rush to get on the road.

Borrowed the adjacent Walmart store's WiFi to dig around on the Internet and steal a few images to produce a graphic composition as the basis for a little Happy Turkey Day note to send out to a few people.

Then drove on down the "scenic" route through Carthage, Teneha and on to Nacogdoches where I stopped at the Starbucks there for a late coffee.

With no particular expectations, but with time to kill before parking up mid-afternoon to watch the Thanksgiving NFL game, drove on to the historic downtown area where I was very pleasantly surprised to find a brick-paved main street and a central square surrounded by attractive brick buildings.

Quite a lot of history seems to attach to Nacogdoches, of which I had been unaware as neither of my two reference guide books mention it.

Had a very pleasant stroll around in the warming day - temperature in the low 70s - reading the informative plaques around the square and on the buildings, learning that this was Sam Houston's first home in Texas, for example.

The odd break in the clouds brightened some of my pictures which, for once, weren't spoiled by the presence of parked cars or people as there was hardly anyone around, it being Thanksgiving.

Eventually headed back out of town to the Walmart store planned for overnight, parked up, tuned in to the football game, cracked a beer and watched the Dallas Cowboys getting pasted by the Carolina Panthers.

At half-time, I checked with Walmart Customer Service that it would be OK to park overnight only to be advised that this was one night they couldn't allow it, unless I came back after midnight as the car park would be overflowing with customers for Black Friday deals (and it was indeed filling pretty quickly) so they would need every parking spot. Additionally, the police would be patrolling and would likely give me a ticket, the town ordinance apparently forbidding overnight parking, although normally Walmart would have no issue and the police would not enforce it.

So, Plan B was the Walmart at the next town on the route; Plan C a rest stop a little further on.

But just as I was a mile or so from the turn off to the Plan B Walmart, and despite the GPS not offering me a Cracker Barrel store within 80 miles, I thought "why don't I just check anyway", so via the "Siri" app on my iPhone I found out there was indeed a Cracker Barrel right ahead...

Missed my turning, made a U-turn, found the store, parked, got permission to stay overnight, and caught the end of the football game (Dallas Cowboys thoroughly beaten).

And with the evening football game between Green Bay and Chicago just starting now I can report that all is alright again with the world...

Friday, November 27, 2015 - Lufkin, TX, to Navasota, TX

Couple of e-mails that came in overnight had to be quickly dealt with, then off for a run along a conveniently close and quiet residential street. Warm and humid, and the road rather hilly, so not quite into a relaxed rhythm and the run seemed tough as a result.

Shaved and showered, treated the RV to a quick spot of housekeeping, then into our host Cracker Barrel store for a light breakfast before finally getting underway around 10:00am.

Just before noon, pulled over in Huntsville for Starbucks coffee and e-mail check, then on for the final stretch to Navasota, pulling into Black Jack Springs around 1:45pm, quite surprised to see the half-finished house that Les is having built now standing where I had been parked with my RV under the trees 12 months ago.

So I was directed to a new parking spot further into the woods - up behind the house and close to Les's 5th wheel RV.

I attempted - unintentionally - to uproot a tree stump in a blind spot as I reversed in, softly crunching a couple of (expensive) RV storage hatches on the passenger side back end and pulling the rear bumper trim a little as I drove back off the stump, just to add to the damage.

So, now we have driver side front (from a year ago) and passenger side rear crunches...

Wonder where the next might be?

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