Friday April 24, 2009

We woke today to high winds in Burleson. We are heading back to Dickinson to get the house squared away and hopefully closed and sold. The last time we spoke with Jeremy, he said he is scheduling a termite inspection and if the house passes, the closing date will be set.

We left the RV Ranch about 9AM, a good time to be leaving. We should miss the bulk of the traffic both here and in Houston this afternoon.

We made very good time through Alvarado, Waxahachie and Ennis and hit I-45 just north of Corsicana. This was kind of ironic because this is where we turned off I-45 to go to Tyler at the beginning of this latest adventure.

The only unscheduled stop we made was at the state rest area, south of Corsicana. It was ironic that we chose that location to stop because guess who was there also making a rest stop but Bob and Grace Stewart, our full-time friends from California. They are on their way to Livingston to the Escapee's park there for a few more doctor visits. We told them where we stopped overnight and they said they had stayed at a Corps of Engineers park.

We stopped for fuel at the Love's truck stop in Fairfield and took 19 gallons at $2.19 per gallon to go 175.1 miles for a 9.2 mpg average. Not too bad with the winds blowing like they were.

We got into Houston (actually into Conroe, but it all runs together any more) and immediately ran into traffic backing up. This is typical of Houston, so we saw that nothing has changed in that respect. Since we've been gone, we haven't experienced this kind of traffic, so it was kind of unnerving. We really had no problems getting through, but its been awhile since we seen this kind of traffic.

While traveling through Houston, we realized that its been three months since we've been to Dickinson. The last time we went down there, we had truck problems and didn't make it to Dickinson. We noticed a lot of changes to I-45 in the northern part of Galveston county, around League City. An entire strip mall has been knocked down at the corner of Nasa Rd. 1 and I-45 and a new UTMB clinic has started up just north of 646. I don't believe we even saw preliminary work being done there, but they have made considerable progress in erecting this new building. We didn't see any other major changes around Dickinson but we stayed on FM 517 and didn't do any exploring.

We found the Via Bayou park without a problem. The lady that checked us in said that the park changed hands a couple of years ago and they have wanted to change the name to the Galveston Bay RV Park, but realized that the park is not really on Galveston bay but on Dickinson bayou, so the Via Bayou name is really better.

We got all set up without a problem and everything is working well. The park wi-fi is down because they need a new antenna, but as soon as it is repaired I can get off the air card and use the free service here.

I bought a new adjustable regulator for the water supply from the RV Water Filter Store while we were at The Rally. When I got here, I put it on the water line and immediately noticed a very low pressure of 10#. While I was at the office, I mentioned it to the lady and she said that no one else had complained about low pressure. We returned to the trailer and when Stella turned the faucet on, she got no water. I went outside and removed the regulator and found a good flow from the spigot, so I took the regulator off and turned everything back on and all is well. I will get in touch with the store to see about returning the bad regulator.

After getting cleaned up, we went to the karate school where Tyler was sparring for his next karate belt. He has a red belt and should be up soon for a black belt. We went over to Kim's house to see them before we went out to eat with them at Uncle Chan's oriental buffet. We haven't had any Chinese food for a long time, so it was good to get back here. The boys wanted to come back home with us, but we were too tired after the long drive back from Amarillo, so we will have them over another night. We will be here for a month, so there will be plenty of time.

After eating, I went to get fuel after the trip. We took 19 gallons at $1.99 per gallon (great to be back here with the low prices) to go 213.6 miles for a 11.2 mpg average. Much better, even with the slow down through Houston.

I was in bed by 9:30 and slept like a log. That traffic and the setup of the trailer just takes it out of me sometimes.

So long for now,