Let’s set the scene. It’s New Year’s Eve day. We had planned a day to leisurely gather up everything we needed to haul to the RV for a anticipated New Year’s Day departure for warmer weather. Callie had returned to Portland already. Janelle was going to spend New Year’s Eve in Buffalo with college friends (Hi Chelsea!). The goal was to pull the RV out of storage near Cleveland, Ohio on New Year’s Day and caravan south with Janelle.
Jim habitually checks the weather every morning. This day was no different…except for the announcement “Cleveland is supposed to have snow showers tomorrow (New Year’s Day) afternoon. I don’t want road salt from snow plows all over the RV. Let’s leave TODAY!”
Snow = salt on the roads = salty RV. Nope…not gonna have it.
So we kicked into high gear and left home around 3:00 p.m. with a loaded Jeep (as always).
The Jeep was loaded. At least we could still see out the windows. There was no champagne New Year’s Eve, but we did bring the box wine (prominent in the foreground)!
Our New Year’s Eve was spent in a motor home with empty water tanks (meaning no shower) and only 20 amp electric. Woohoo.
This is what the inside of the RV looks like when you arrive with a Jeep full of “stuff” and an RV already full of “stuff” left behind in the Fall. My apologies for a blurry picture. It was all I was capable of at the end of a long day.
New Year’s Eve passed uneventfully. It was the first time since my teens that I didn’t stay up to watch the ball drop. Sigh, another sign of old age. But, we got the RV ready to go and headed out the next day around noon.
Our first night’s destination was the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) campground in Cincinnati, Ohio. Because we are members, we got free camping with 50 amp electric and full hookups! Now that does deserve a WOOHOO!!!! Janelle drove down from Buffalo after her New Year’s Eve frivolities and caught up with us there.
We then settled into a routine. Every morning Jim would check the weather. From there, we picked a path southward. We had no set destination in mind, our only goal was to avoid nasty weather.
Jim would drive the Blue Flame and have a co-pilot with him. The other person (Janelle or myself) would follow behind in Janelle’s car.
We managed to make it to one of our favorite campgrounds on the Mississippi River,
Tom Sawyer’s RV Park in East Memphis, Arkansas. While still taking overnight visitors, they were in the process of evacuating the long term residents because the Mississippi was about to reach flood levels and the campground is INSIDE the levee.
Sure enough, I just checked. Tom Sawyer’s RV Resort is closed due to flooding.
Jim kept us routed away from the nasty weather. Oklahoma was experiencing snow, so going southwest was out of the question. We eventually ended up deciding to just go with Janelle all the way to Galveston, Texas.
Snow is bad. Sunshine is good. So, we took the blue route, not our usual red route. And yes, I had way too much fun putting this picture together. 🙂
The three of us arrived safely in Galveston on Friday. We took the “back way” into Galveston, thus avoiding Houston. There is a free ferry that runs from the mainland east of Houston to the eastern tip of Galveston Island. Count us in!
Gasp! Is that sunshine after four days of gray skies and rain?
The Blue Flame had yet another ferry ride!
And here we are, in Galveston, Texas…less than a mile from Janelle’s house and right on the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s been nice to spend a few days with Janelle in her “natural habitat.” We helped her deal with a failed refrigerator (ewww…lots of spoiled food). Jim trimmed trees in her backyard (yes, we do carry such tools with us). We toured Janelle’s office and lab at Texas A&M Galveston and have been hitting all her favorite eateries.
Janelle’s office and her famous rubber ducks. Note the postcards on her partition windows. We have orders to send her even more!
One of Janelle’s posters from a conference graces a hallway wall.
Here it is, January 7, and we are outside in short sleeves, enjoying palm trees and rose bushes.
It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on. We need to be west of Phoenix, Arizona by the weekend. So tomorrow we will get an EARLY start and hope to be around Houston before the morning rush hour starts. We have a few long days of driving ahead of us!
Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico. Don’t worry Janelle, we’ll be back!
And they’re off — again!!! Sorry to hear that you had a rough trip south but — I’m sure the sun and warmer temps. were a nice reward.
Yup…we are off again. The trip south wasn’t too bad…Jim made sure of that. Being married to a weather geek has it’s advantages. 🙂