Monday September 25, 2017-Moving Day-Roadrunner RV Park to Tyler Oaks RV Resort, Tyler Texas

We were up right about on time to get started on our trip back to Texas. We made good, steady progress in packing up and were ready to go about 10AM. We were traveling alone today and most had pulled out before we did, but that's all right, we're not scared to travel alone...

We made our first pit stop at an Oklahoma rest area at mile marker 59. It was  routine stop and I was proud of Stella for not making me stop earlier. As soon as we pulled in, we saw Michael and Kelly, who had left several minutes before us. We found out that they had passed Mike and Peg, but we had not seen them. We had a short chat with M & K and they went on their way.

We continued on I-35 and made our next stop at the Welcome Center just across the border in Texas. I had gotten a little drowsy and wanted to get some coffee while there, but they no longer have coffee for travelers. We have stopped many times at various welcome centers in different states and have always gotten coffee, but not this time. I still had some left from this morning, but remember, we were both taken off regular coffee for decaf long ago, so it didn't help me too much with staying awake. Luckily for us, the walk across the lot into the welcome center roused me enough to continue on our trip. 

Guess who we ran into here? Dave and Nancy were just about ready to pull out when we arrived. We had a short visit with them and learned that they had seen us at our first stop. They are going back home before coming to Tyler, so this is the last time to see them before they come down to Tyler.

We were soon on our way and again made good time on the dreaded 635 Loop around Dallas. All was well until we ran into a construction area that slowed us to a stop. We sat in traffic, creeping along for fifteen or twenty minutes when several emergency vehicles passed on the shoulder. Police cars, Sheriff cars, a Highway Patrol car, ambulances, fire apparatus and a command vehicle all traveling east bound on I-20 made us concerned for our friends that are ahead of us. We finally got to the road construction that we had been warned about for several miles. Of course, we couldn't see ANYONE actually working, but they did narrow the lanes to one lane, as we had been repeatedly warned about. We also saw a red car that appeared to have overturned on the other side of the freeway. I believe that there may have been someone in the car because I saw several first responders look into the car and the ambulances that had arrived had not loaded anyone up to take them to the hospital, so it looked pretty grim for the passenger(s) in the car. At least none of our friends had been involved!

We need to renew the license plates on the truck and trailer, so we had researched someplace to stop along our route to get them inspected. Texas now has an asinine law that a vehicle must be inspected for safety issues before being issued new registration, so we stopped at a place called Tommy's Towing in Wills Point. We had intended to stop at the Explore USA RV dealership but they don't do inspections. They referred us to Tommy's, so it all worked out. We ran into a problem with one of the tires on the trailer. It had become out of alignment apparently when the springs had broken on the way to Oklahoma but that had been corrected. The tire would not pass the safety inspection, so we had to return to Tommy's after getting a replacement tire installed. I guess we could have taken it to another inspection shop, but we had already paid Tommy's, so we will return to get it inspected. The truck passed inspection, no problem.

We arrived here at the Tyler Oaks park about 4:30. Michael and Kelly were here along with Lin and Deb & Mike and Peg. Terry and Carol arrived shortly after we did, so everyone that was coming from Oklahoma was here. 

After a quick set-up, we were ready to visit with our friends. We sat outside with some of them until the bugs started biting and we went back inside. It's good to be here among friends!

I didn't set up the sewer hose because we intend to go finish up what we started today and that would be one more thing to do tomorrow. Stella called one of the Discount Tire stores in Tyler and had ordered a replacement tire for the trailer, so the plan was to meet Janie for lunch (previously planned), then to go pick up the trailer and take it to Discount Tire to have the tire installed and then to drive back to Tommy's Towing to get the inspection done on the trailer. Sounds like a full day tomorrow!

So long.