Day 1-March 21, 2018-To Dothan, AL-Drove 275 miles in 5-3/4 hours. 64 degrees, cool for us. Had a headwind all day, gained an hour when we got into Central Time zone. It's springtime here, pretty azaleas, newborn calves, yellow wildflowers. Windy all night.
Day 2-March 22, 2018-To Meridian, MS. Drove 249 miles in 6-1/4 hour. Sunny, not as windy, got up to 67. Argued with the GPS that wanted us to go the Interstate, we wanted to take the road less traveled. We won and drove through small typical "Americana" towns like Luverne, "the Friendliest City in the South",Pine Apple and Greenville, the "Camellia Capital". Beautiful purple wisteria and dogwoods on the side of the road in full bloom. Most of the time we were the only ones on the road. Many pine tree farms and we could smell the pine. Hilly country here with horses, cows and sheep farms.
Day 3-March 23, 2018-To Simsboro, LA-Drove 251 miles in 6 hours. Warmer today, up to 78. Drove through most of Meridian to find gas. The Denzel Carousel seems to be the highlight of Meridian, there are even lots of merry-go-round horse statues around town. I-20 is really boring, although the bright yellow wildflowers and red-winged blackbirds perked the ride up a bit. Stopped at the MS Welcome Center on the way out and were welcomed by a random DUI stop. They were stopping everybody maybe because there is a casino at the exit. Drove over the Mississippi River into Louisiana, where the roads got immediately terrible. Of course, there's always construction here too. Campground is great. Every site has a pretty patio, ours overlooked a stocked fishing pond. Very woodsy and hilly.
Day 4-March 24, 2018-To Hickory Creek, TX-Drove 264 miles in 5-1/2 hours. Louisiana roads are the worst we've been on. It's like driving on a washboard and you can almost feel the fillings in your teeth rattle. We passed through Shreveport where there are lots of casinos that we passed by. Entered Texas where the roads got smoother but more crowded. Dallas was crazy, 5 lanes of bumper to bumper to traffic, even on a Saturday afternoon. A massive accident on the other side of the highway had traffic backed up for miles. On our side there were three small fender/benders but the drivers weaved in and out, cut us off and had us both thinking Manhattan drivers were really courteous, friendly and considerate. The campground is about 20 north of Dallas and is an Army Corps of Engineers park on a huge lake. We got the last site which was right on the lake and beautiful. The campground was filled for the week-end, a couple of boy scout troups were camping here along with families, fishermen and boaters. Over 100 sites, every one spacious with a great view.
Day 5-March 25, 2018-Grapevine, TX. Cloudy, 74. Drove around the campground in the morning. This is a big park, boat ramps, beach, playground, hiking trails. Really spread out. Drove back toward Dallas (through all the crazy traffic again) to Grapevine, right outside of Dallas. It's a quaint little town that lives up to its name with quite a few wine tasting rooms, cafes and shops. We tried a few wines but weren't crazy about any of them. Expensive, too. Most tasting rooms wanted $12.00 for 4 2-oz. tastes. There's also a vintage railroad that goes into the Fort Worth stock yards and I had thought that would be a fun thing to do but the train doesn't run every day 'til Memorial Day and wasn't running today. We had planned on staying here another night to go into Dallas and Fort Worth but we'd have to move to a different campsite. And neither one of us wants to battle that traffic again on a Monday morning, so we're moving on tomorrow.
Day 6-March 26, 2018-To Childress, TX-Drove 213 miles in 4-3/4 hours. Rainy, warmer, up to 86. Drove through Denton, TX, a really busy suburb of Dallas, new buildings both commercial and residential, going up all around. Then the wide open spaces of the Texas Panhandle Prairie: cows, horses, oil drills, wind turbines, flat countryside and more cotton fields than I expected to see in Texas. Some small towns that seemed to be past their prime. Not much traffic, we're on US 287, a 2 lane each way divided road, very scenic. Campground is in a city park near the ball fields. Only 5 sites (there's only us and one motor home). We have a view of a pretty lake with some swans on it. Lots and lots of grackles with fan tails on the grass and two lonely robins.
Day 7-March 27, 2018-To Tucumcari, NM-Drove 227 miles in 3-3/4 hours. Last night we had the windows open. This morning we woke up to under 40 degrees. Drove to Amarillo on US 287, then picked up I-40 for the rest of the way. This area is called "The Top Of Texas". More cotton fields and black Angus cows. Noticed a chip in the windshield near Amarillo, guess we'll have to deal with that soon. Entered New Mexico and Mountain Time zone so we gained an hour. We're climbing in elevation (we're at 4200') and it's getting colder, down to 37 when we got to the campground. Campground is right on Historic Route 66, which is deserted at this time of year. There was one other camper when we pulled in. The owner told us it is unusually cold for this time of year and it might freeze tonight so we're not hooking up the water hose. First thing we did was set up two space heaters and turn the propane heat on. Only here for one night, then moving on. Started to rain just as we finished setting up, hope it doesn't turn to snow. We're talking about heading south to get warmer.