Day 53: Headed to Houston

Sunday, May 26, 2019:

We only slept until 7:00am today but somehow it seemed much later when we got up. It was just one of those groggy, slow mornings where everything felt, “just a little off.” I almost spilled an entire basket of blue berries but caught them at the very last minute, then about 5 minutes later I boiled-over a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave.

I figured out why the day was off-kilter when we turned the TV on. It’s National Clown Day in Peru … There are too many clown-vibes floating around in the universe today!

Fred hooked up the sewer drain after breakfast so we could drain the tanks and shower. By then it was already too hot outside. He came back in all sweaty. So he took a little rest before he showered.

Some days I open the shower door while he’s in there and wash his back for him. It saves him a lot of awkward manuevering in the tiny shower. It makes a little bit of a mess, but it’s a good reason to have to mop the floor.

After his shower, Fred put his head phones on and cranked up some Casey Kasem’s top 40. He took a little nap.

I didn’t want to wake him until the last possible minute before we had to be out of the park. So while he slept, I tried my hand at preparing the RV for take off.

I have watched Fred hook everything up and put it all away, so it seemed simple enough. But I was nervous to do it without adult supervision. I had him check it right before we left the park just to be sure. 😋 I woke him up at 10:50am and we squeaked out of the park just at checkout time!

We were already hungry by 11:15am so I opened my Chick-fil-A app to find the nearest restaurant…

I think their app is a little too direct, addressing me by my first name offends me …🤡… The clowns struck again.

Luckily, there was a Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers nearby. We ate there instead.

After that, we drove until we hit the Texas Welcome Center, and pulled into take a little rest. We turn the generator on and fired up the AC to keep the rig cool while Fred stretched out on the bed. I roamed around the Welcome Center to stretch my legs.

The Welcome Center sits right on a swamp, and I saw all kinds of wildlife while I walked around. There was a baby alligator, crawfish, turtles, birds, and the biggest fly I’d ever seen in my life.

We came to the conclusion that Louisiana along the I-10 into Texas is the worst roadway in America. We did come up with an interesting name for the RV while we were driving it though, “The Porpoising Dolphin.” We came up with that because there was a bridge where we rhythmically bounced, like a dolphin jumping out of the ocean, all the way across the bridge… for several miles.

As we made our way into Houston, Fred started to reminisce about his buddy Joey from his Air Force days. Joey was from Houston and became a cop there after they got out of the Air Force in 1979.

Fred had embarked on a month-long motorcycle trip across the USA when he got out of the service. He visited Joey down in Houston after Fred took a little summer vacation back on the cape. Joey & Fred ran a little wild and had quite the adventure cruising around together on their motorcycles.

Fred told me about how he almost crashed and died while ramping onto the freeway, way too fast of course, in Houston. The back end of his bike got loose and he nearly lost it but somehow manage to maintain control and escaped unscathed. Fred has a lot of stories like that, where he somehow managed to escape a near death situation unscathed.

After he visited Joey in Houston, Fred went to Florida to visit Michael Valentine for 5 months and then went back to California because he thought he was in love.

While he was telling me all this, he realized that he’s always been a traveler. He joined the Air Force to travel, and he traveled after the Air Force. Any he is still traveling now.

We met a man on this trip whose motto was, “Cover the Earth before it covers you.” Fred realized that he’s actually been living this motto his whole life.

That made me realize something too. Fred asked me about two days ago what are theme song should be. And at the time I didn’t know. But our lifetime-traveler conversation sparked a song in my head, Rascal Flatts’ song, “Bless the Broken Road.

Around 5pm, we decided to stop for dinner at Panera. We had been trying to get to Katy Lakes RV Park in Katy, Texas but it seemed a little far away at that point. It was still about an hour away. As we ate dinner, we started looking around for places closer to us but every place was full because it’s Memorial Day weekend.

We didn’t even really know if the Katy lakes RV Park had any openings because their office was closed when we called to make a reservation. We left a message with him but we were really just driving blind and hoping they would have a spot.

Just as we were finishing dinner, the manager of the Katy lakes RV Park called us and said they had one spot left that we could have. So we hopped in the RV and muddled through the last hour to get there.

We were glad we did. Because it will be a nice short drive tomorrow and the park was really pretty. It’s right on a man-made lake and very cozy.