Sunday and Monday, November 14 & 15, 2010-Rayford Crossing RV Resort

Sunday, our first day off this week, was spent going to Beaumont to pick up the fuel tank that we had left at Bill's house. I stopped for fuel and Stella went into the Valero to get us something for breakfast on our way out. I took on 17.0 gallons of fuel to go 224.8 miles for an around-town average of 13.2. The computer showed a 16, so there is quite a difference.

The trip started out badly, with Stella remembering that she had left the electric heater on in the living room. She was afraid that one of the doggies would knock a blanket off the couch onto the heater and we didn't want the trailer to burn up, so we turned around and went back home and turned it off. Then after we had only gone a few miles down I-45, we ran into a 4-5 vehicle accident that had traffic backed up. We made it through and onto I-10 toward Port Arthur when we ran into a detour to the 610 loop. This slowed us down again, but after negotiating the small detour, we made good time to Bill's house.

When we got there, Bill called his son Billy and his next door neighbor Will to put the tank back into the truck. It was completely empty, so it went in without any problems. Everyone complimented me on the new truck and of course, I'm very proud of it. I can't wait to get the rest of my gear installed.

Bill and Ornell had fixed some gumbo and potato salad for lunch. We had a great meal with them and then watched the football game on television. Their grandkids came over to Will's house next door for his son's birthday party and they decided to eat some of the gumbo too. We had a nice visit with them before we had to leave for home.

Like last weekend, we called Tommy and Susan to meet us at the IHOP for a snack on our way home. They liked my truck too, and we learned that Susan recently bought herself a new car, a Chevy Malibu. They had gone to look one night and before you know it, they had bought it. She said her old Chevy had been a good one, so they bought the new one.

Monday, we ran errands all day. I called Master Hitch and made an appointment to have my other stuff installed tomorrow at their shop near the Galleria. Their new store opened today just a few blocks away from Rayford. This will be much more convenient for us if we need any more hitch work done. While we were out, I stopped off and filled up to get a feel for my highway mileage. I took 17.3 gallons to go 270.9 miles for a 15.6 MPG average, a far cry from the computer's estimate of 19. I'm sure that the mileage will pick up when we get more miles on the truck.

When we got home, Ted and Donna came over to see the new truck. We had a nice visit with them and of course, Ted and I compared notes on our new trucks. He complained of his new Ford not getting good mileage, so I was quite pleased with mine. We talked about our summer plans for traveling but sadly, it looks as if we won't be traveling the same directions next summer. I'm sure that at some point, we'll go somewhere together.

We took Jim out for supper tonight at Pitmaster Barbecue, since he offered to take me to Master Hitch tomorrow. This is both his and our first visit to Pitmaster this year since we've been back and it was very good, as usual. After our meal, we all returned home for the evening. The weather has turned off cool, and it was chilly tonight. It's a good time of the year to be outdoors.

So long.