Bob expertly navigated the tight oak trees at our RV site, as I watched nervously from the back with my two-way radio. I had to hold my breath as a gust of wind swayed the trees, with only 1 and 1/2 inches to spare. But we were off down Hwy 79 by 10:27 a.m. Not bad for a couple of retired folks.
We've traveled this route many times since we've lived in Texas, but this is our first time with The Beauty in tow. We stopped for gas in Hearne right after three 18 wheelers hauling the Budweiser Clydesdales passed us (they were performing in Palestine, TX, Tuesday and Wednesday for a Christmas celebration.)
We made the turn at Hearne and were on the route we left Texas on way back on March 1 of this year. Soon we passed by the infamous picnic area where we almost wiped out the roof of The Beauty on the first hour of our great venture...Ah, the memories!
It felt kind of weird as we headed south on 79 from Taylor; a route we've driven hundreds of times while living in Elgin. The Twilight Zone feeling was coming over us. By some miracle we recognized the back county road into Pleasant Grove RV Park so we didn't have to go through downtown Elgin.
It was very eerie to pull in Pleasant Grove, our very first RV Park with The Beauty and our home for three months last year. Manuel, the caretaker, was not there but Kelly came out from across the road and pointed out the spot we were supposed to go in. We're behind Manuel's office; out from under all of the trees. Our view is better and so is the TV reception (17 channels!)
We backed in and set up. We had a brief reconnaissance of our nine month odyssey. We traveled 14,800 miles since we left on March 1st of this year. We pulled the trailer 4,000 of those miles. Our longest towing trip was 213 miles from West Memphis, Ark, to Hampton, Ark. Our shortest towing trip was 61 miles from Chicago to Marseilles, IL (that doesn't include our 25 mile tow from Osage to Jeff City in MO when we changed campgrounds.) We averaged 122 miles per move and we moved 33 times. When you break it down to numbers it sure sounds like a lot.
Right after that we took the DeLorean off the top of the truck. I called our neighbor from Cedar Hills, Glenda, to see if she would meet us at Cancun's in Elgin. She was game and we agreed on 4:00.
Manuel came by before we left and caught us up on local news. Then we headed to Elgin since we were famished by this time after our 185 mile trek. It was really freaky to drive FM 3000 into Elgin--Deja Vu! Glenda joined us shortly after we arrived. It sure was great to see her. We talked until our jaws dropped off. Then we retired to Pleasant Grove for dessert and coffee at our place. She said it looked the same, just more lived in.
Manuel has Christmas lights on the office and the 5th wheel next door has a cute tree in their window. It made me feel very festive. We talked and solved the problems of the world. Then Glenda turned into a pumpkin at 9:30. How fun to see her again. After she left I made my pasta salad for the couples golf tournament tomorrow.
We're both exhausted. Moving is hard work (as "W" would say!) The evening is chilly but the day was warm and delightful with a 'big sun' Texas sunset.
It's 10:56 p.m. and 47.0 degrees.