The Road in "RoadTrip"

I hate to write about driving, roads, and bridges when our goal is people and special places, but you can't have a road trip without that trio.  And of course, vehicles; vehicles of all sorts, colors, sizes and purposes.  One of the more intriguing items traveling down the highways are the fins for the wind chargers.  They are huge!  

Usually we see them on the Interstate just going straight but today I saw three or four actually come from a side road and go up the ramp to the Interstate.  Not only did each one have a lead-car and a follow-car but there were about three persons with stop signs stopping and directing traffic as these monster long trucks turned up the ramps.  The frame between the front part of the rig and the back set of wheels was probably, at least twice the length of a normal semi-trailer, but the tip stuck out half again as far.  I'm impressed with the skill to move one of those fins.

I spent the morning at an RV service shop.  I had a list of about a half dozen items to consider but we focused primarily on the electricity.  The AC hasn't worked properly and the refrigerator doesn't hold a cool temperature.  I asked to sit in a corner of the covered wagon and stay out of the way, but the technician, a cool young man,Perry, would ask questions like "Where is the inverter switch?" and I was eager to learn so I became fully involved.  The fresh water tank leaked at the beginning of the trip and so that was on the list.  The black water tank after we drain it still registers 3 out of 4 dots full and there were some missing knobs.

We started with the electricity and we ended with the eletririty.  He disconnected, tested and reconnected all the batteries, even the one hidden under the driver's feet,.  They are all good.  I drew my own solution on the refrigerator: make certain the 120v switch is on because the 12v option just isn't hacking it.  The solution to the AC is "don't run it" unless we're connected to a land line.  The fresh water tank is a huge project and could take days so we set that aside.  The missing knobs weren't available and the solution to the black water tank was to not use the envelopes of cleanser (the bags don't fully dissolve and affect the sensors) but add ice which when driving will break up the poop and then melt to be pumped out.

So when it came to paying the bill after two hours, the report sounded like nothing was done and so the bill (I was shocked and pleased) was $22 and that included a better solvent for the black water tank.  So if you're ever in Waco, Texas with an RV with a problem that can't be solved, I strongly recommend Crestview RV.

After that intriguing morning, if nothing else I learned a lot about testing the batteries, I picked up Charlie and Gail and we made our final and third visit with Gail's sister.  It certainly was bitter sweet to have the opportunity to see her despite her inability to fully connect with us, and it might be the "final" visit.  She's 93.

Back on the road, it was God, Gail and I against thousands of vehicles and many more bumps in construction sites.  As we drove through Dallas with the thick cluster of skyscrapers in the downtown financial district, Charlie woke up, sat up and started barking at all the structures and traffic.  Charlie, I'm with you.

The storms you hear about on national weather news are one day in front of us.  We're safe but after last night's storms in northern Texas, it is now a sweltering 94˚.  So we're stopped in a WalMart near Denison, Texas (almost Oklahoma) to kick back and cool our heels.  We have two families in Arkansas on the agenda for tomorrow.

Oh, yes, the landscape north of Waco is beautiful farmland: green, lush and flat.