Everyone has them – days where nothing seems to click. Nothing really major happens – it just is not a fun day. October 4th was probably our worst day on the road in six years. Here is a quick overview.
It started out just fine with us leaving a very nice Corps of Engineers park at about 9:30 AM. We (or maybe I) had visions of reaching Texoma State Park in Oklahoma that night – and having a day to play golf the following day. MJ thought it was too long of a day, so we were not in agreement as soon as we started out.
Well we stopped for fuel in Emporia Kansas – not important except to point out that the highway engineers in Kansas have totally lost their minds. On the exit just before the toll way begins on I-35, they have devised a maze on the exit ramp with TWO traffic circles to navigate. To get across (under the highway to get to the Flying J) you have to make a 3/4 circle followed by an almost immediate 1/4 circle onto the frontage road. To get back onto the highway it’s a 3/4 circle followed by a 3/4 circle. Our hats are off to you, engineers from the Kansas Highway Department. And our fingers are up!
We were just grinding out the miles until we got to Ardmore, OK, and turned east toward Texoma State Park. Not far from the interstate we were stopped in our lane by a flagman and we parked for about 20 minutes. What we discovered was they were sweeping a bridge where an obvious ‘highway event’ had occurred – the only remains we saw of the event was a totally burned out shell of a semi trailer and a large wrecker. Things can always be worse.
Well, we arrived at the Texoma State Park and immediately realized that this was not the state park we had stayed at several years before. The place looked, and probably is, totally abandoned. We drove into the park and did not find any signs to a campground – just run down old rental cabins. We did find the park office. It was closed. There was a map at a kiosk, but it was a poor one. We decided to leave and head back to the first park we had passed close to Ardmore, confident that it was the nice park we had camped in several years earlier.
We arrived at this other park at dusk. The office was closed. We drove into the park and found a sign to a campground. Site 8 looked like a drive-through we could navigate so we pulled in. It was going to be tighter than I originally thought so I was guiding MJ into the spot until we got to a point where a 4 inch limb on an oak tree blocked our path. Okay, now we unhitch the car and I guide her back out of the pull-through site. This is, by the way, the 4th time we have had to unhitch the car in six years on the road to get out of some road situation. We decide MJ will follow me and we will forge on looking for the campground we had stayed in before. We never found it, and soon we were at an intersection where there was a sign to I-35 again. I headed that way. It is now dark, and 1, the motor home lights are not great for night driving, probably because 2, I don’t see as good at night any more. We do not drive at night unless it is a dire situation. Okay, we hitch the car on and away we go – heading south once again. We arrive at the Texas welcome center – happy to be in Texas – but in the truck lot, not the RV lot. This is one rare place where cars and RV’s go one way and only trucks go the other. Now I am not a big fan of trucks, and I am sure that truck drivers are not a big fan on RV’s – so I decide to leave, go to the next exit, back-track and again enter Texas an navigate to the RV lot. About 12 miles later we are safely in the RV lot. I am staying the night no matter what the signs say because I have now been on the road over 11 hours and about 480 miles, its dark, and I am truly not safe to be on the road. I open a beer… then another.
We decide to crash. At 11:30 this total jerk from Colorado in a motor home pulls in one spot away from us and starts his generator. I am fuming. I want to go knock on his door and light into him, but I did not. This inconsiderate bastard ran his generator all night. We manage fitful periods of sleep. I hope he saw my gesture when he drove off.
But in the morning all is well once again. We wash the windshield and started a new and much better day.
