Oct. 24, 2009

From somewhere near Garrison, TX. N 31° 54.304’ W 094º 31.569’
I overcame my clockly deficiency and got it set. It’s one of those “atomic” jobs that sets to the correct time from some radio signal. I finally found the button combination to get it on Central Time instead of Eastern Time. I wanted to get an early start so I set the alarm for 7 AM. Gerri woke me up to tell me the alarm was going off. Oh, I guess I hadn’t mentioned that the beeping is in a range I don’t hear. I guess it’s the same frequency as the constant ringing in my ears. Of course I was too tired to roll out of bed and I laid there for another forty five minutes.
By the time I got the utilities put away and enough water off the slide awning to allow them to roll in properly it was nine o’clock. I couldn’t leave without saying goodbyes to the Howeth’s, after all it may be over a year before we see them again. So it was about 9:30 AM before we left the Rockwell RV Park.
Right away the Garmin started giving me trouble, here after I will refer to it as the Gremlin. Gerri’s Cousin, JoNell Perly and her husband Herb, live on Texas FM Road 1791that the Gremlin wouldn’t accept or couldn’t find. It did find FM Roads with higher and lower numbers. It also wouldn’t come up with Garrison, TX, Garrison several other states but not Texas. I figured what the hey, I know where Dallas is and headed that way figuring I would dial in a route later.
Gerri called JoNell to tell her we were on the way. JoNell gave us the latitude longitude coordinates for her house. How many people do you know besides me and Paul Conner that know the coordinates for our homes? Once the coordinates were laid in the route was calculated. I went over the turns and guess what the last turn was on to? You got it, FM 1791. In spite of that glitch I felt better with the route laid out and the mileage and ETA displayed.
We stopped at about noon and had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel. Meals for three at Cracker Barrel shouldn’t cost $98. I hadn’t figured on the shopping part of the stop. I had to stop a three more times, once for fuel and twice to walk around and wake up. Neither of the rest stops had caches, bummer.
In spite of the stops and a futile drive around Henderson, TX looking for a propane station, we got to Herb and JoNell’s at about 6 PM. But not without the Gremlin striking again. We left Henderson going south on US 259. About ten miles later the Gremlin said to turn on Texas something or other and later onto an FM Road and then east on US 84. I zoomed out the map display and of all things, I could have gone further south on 259 and intersected 84. That route would have been on wider roads with shoulders. Not that the Texas Route and the FM road were bad. The speed limit was 60 MPH on them , and 70 MPH on the US routes. This speed limit was in spite of the fact the roads were narrow two lanes with no shoulder or controlled access. In Ohio they would probably been restricted to 30 MPH. I know this because most four lane divided roads with controlled access there are 55 MPH, ask some one close to me what doing 60 there will get you. I haven’t checked yet but I suspect I had the Gremlin set to calculate the shortest route instead of the fastest.
Herb had set up a 50 amp circuit with a long cord for us, but he used the twist lock type plug and I didn’t have an adapter. So Monday it’s probably off to the hardware store. We got set up by about 6:30 with only 20 amp service. With the weather here that will probably be plenty.
For a late supper Herb grilled rib eye steaks and we had all the trimmings plus a delicious carrot cake for desert. Jason, eat your heart out, your Nana is a great cook.
We plan to go to church services in Garrison. Lucky us Bible Study isn’t until 10 AM and services are at 11 AM. Pretty convenient for us late sleeping slow movers. We have attended the Garrison Church of Christ a few times before, interestingly enough we met people there whose nephew I worked with in Las Vegas.
BTW, it was sunny today with only a small headwind while we were driving.