Hopefully the stars at night are big and bright, (clap, clap, clap), deep in the heart of Texas.  Reminds me of the one I love, (clap, clap, clap), deep in the heart of Texas!

No traffic, but hopefully you don’t get road blocked by a 1000 traveling ‘migrants’!  You should be good.  Just don’t go any closer to Pierre’s Negras and Eagle Pass.  Eagle Pass used to be a fun place to go 40 years ago for a quick border crossing to do tourist shopping for trash and trinkets.  Got my first pair of hand made leather cowboy boots there for like $20 back in the day.

The Caverns of Sonora are pretty cool if you have a few extra hours.  Not too far from where you’ll be.

Enjoy!

I got home tonight !   The Interstate turned into a parking lot just west of Memphis this afternoon ... so ... I got off and went the "OLD" way .

It was a pleasant way to drive the rest of the way home .   The craziness of the Interstate went away !!      There were people running 80's mph in the 55mph zones zipping around traffic like they had no sense at all.   It was more than likely one of them that was behind the Parking lot problem  .   I was just fine with the scenic route .  

I see there is two pages of post to catch up on here .    

MMRanch wrote on 04/21/24 at 20:35:37:


When Deb and I drove down here - we saw 3 areas where the northbound traffic was a big problem and the traffic backup went for miles.  One of those places was Memphis, and another one was Little Rock - I believe the Little Rock backup was construction related, and it was on a Thursday morning.

We are not going home the same way in an effort to avoid the interstate parking lots we saw on the way down - they will likely add hours to our travel time (and a lot of frustration).

The southern route home goes through Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Texarkana and Dallas.  Mapquest says it takes 19 hours and 17 minutes of driving (without the traffic jams).  We can take a northern route from Comstock that goes through Abiline, Wichita Falls, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Joplin, St. Louis and Louisville that has 19 hours and 43 minutes of driving - about a half hour longer.  That will take us through places we have never seen and avoid the traffic issues we saw on the way down (hopefully the roads don't have their own issues).  The travel times for an RV are considerably longer than Mapquest quotes.  We cannot drive 75 mph and our average driving speed was 52.3 mph and includes the time spent in traffic, at intersections and driving through towns and driving to/from the fuel stops - the time the engine was on and the RV was moving was 24 hours and 42 minutes (Mapquest says that it should have taken 17 hours and 34 minutes without our stops for fuel/tips to Crackerbarrel parking lots to sleep, rest areas to stretch our legs or driving to the stop in Waxahatchie to visit family).  I was driving at 65 mph on flat land between Nashville and Little Rock but did slow down to 60 mph up the hills so the transmission wouldn't downshift to try and maintain 65 on the hills.  After we passed Little Rock I had to slow down to 60mph continuously as we were fighting a strong headwind.  We may be able to go a little faster on the way home if we have a tailwind to help us!  We are learning that owning/driving an RV just requires a bit of a layed back approach to travel - you can't be in a hurry!

Our house sitter called us yesterday and told us the fridge/freezer stopped working.  She had to clean out all the food and put it in a dorm size fridge she brought over.  When we get home it looks like a fridge repair/replacement will be needed.  The fridge is 17 years old - and so was the oven we had to replace last fall.  It is a shame how short of a life span modern appliances have - we had to put our third water heater in the house last year!

MMRanch wrote on 04/22/24 at 08:31:41:


Sounds like everyone had a good time here.  

The shingles is starting to clear up a little, but the pain is still... interesting?  At least I can type for a little while.

MM ... sorry you missed the longhorns.  I finally found some for you.. and you weren't there!!!
There is a video of them from the bike cameras on the FB link I posted before, and I know others took pictures.

My situation does not allow long distance travels, but I do appreciate the invite to your home in TN!

Glad to see all got home safe and sound and everyone had fun.

Neal, thanks again for all you do for us grumpy old men. We really do appreciate you very much.

Paul, it was great meeting you and riding together. Sure hope you will join us again in the future.

Dave, glad you and Deb are having a grand time. I think I am envious.

Guys, as always, I love seeing and riding with ya'll. I'm so glad that we could all make it. Thanks to all for the good times.

Hay Dave and Deb

Remember the Natchez Trace goes South to North.  

I've taken it twice on my way to Texas ... No Three time .

Free Running water campgrounds at both ends and one in the middle.
Relaxed speed limits
No commercial traffic
Lots of Scenic Views along the way !
What's not to like about that ?

Ya'll take care and be careful !  

MMRanch wrote on 04/24/24 at 07:30:55:

Last year we were using the Bluegrass Parkway in Kentucky to get us over to the Natchez Trace - my new Ford Explorer only had 1,100 miles on it and we had just passed the 1,000 miles that Ford wanted for a break in before puling a trailer.  I wanted the slower pace of the Natchez Trace Parkway so we could give the engine some more slow/easy going and not subject it to 75mph freeway speeds.  Unfortunately we were still on the Bluegrass Parkway doing 60mph when the engine decided to blow up.....with 1,252 miles on the odometer!

Ford put in a new engine and at this point it has 5,000 miles on it and has made a couple of trips to Deals Gap without blowing up!

springman wrote on 04/24/24 at 10:45:09:

This is exactly what we intend to do.  We watched a Dr. who is doing a lot of traveling while he and his wife are young - he said that we all plan for retirement, and yet 1 in 5 people never makes it to retirement!  I have 2 younger male cousins who have already passed away, my uncle died at 74 from a brain tumor, my grandfather at 64 from a heart attack, my dad at 72 from alzheimer's.  I am in better shape than those folks and Deb makes me eat better - but there is no guarantee on the future.  We need to enjoy our health while we have it and enjoy life while we still have it.

COMSTOCK: Our 2 days in the Comstock are were great.  The land is incredibly rugged and harsh.  The land is so rocky that is is amazing that anything can grow or live on it.  The Southern Pacific laid rail tracks in 1893 that passed right through the area we were camped, and then later rerouted the track to a safer/easier route in 1892.  The old railroad bed is still visible and a testament to how hard the men worked to build the second Transcontinental Railroad.  The Judge Roy Bean museum in Langtry was fun.  The J&P Cafe in Comstock is the only place you can get food in the area  It looks a bit run down and rough on the outside - the inside is all OSB plywood on the walls and ceiling - but it is clean and it is the best hamburger I have ever had in my life!  It was so good that after we had it on Tuesday we had to stop on the way out Wednesday and have another one,,,,,,,,,and the French Fries are all hand cut!  The J&P Cafe' is a very special place~

On Wednesday morning we packed up and got ready to leave, then took a 10AM tour of the Seminole Canyon and the petroglyphs painted on the rock overhangs by prehistoric inhabitants.  It was the first time we ever got to see something like this - so even though it meant  we could not leave until noon on Wednesday we took the tour.

On the way past Comstock we stopped for another burger at the J&P Cafe' and got on the road around 1PM.  The first 2 hours of driving north out of Comstock was on very rural 2 lane roads through incredibly harsh canyons and rocky hillsides.  The speed limit was 55 but the roads were curvy and bumpy and 40 mph was often the top speed.  In 40 miles we only saw a couple of other cars - it was a bit intimidating to be in such a remote place.  We stopped driving last night just north of Wichita Falls and traveled 474 miles - we have 958 more to go!  The god of wind has not been kind to us - we fought a headwind most of the way down to Texas - and now we are fighting headwinds going the other way!  We were the only RV in the parking ot of the Cracker Barrel in Lawton, OK last night - the tanker trucks takes 15 minutes to suck the grease out of the waste tank at 3 AM, and the garbage truck empties 3 large dumpsters at 4:30 AM on Thursday mornings - just thought you might like to know.

You know that getting those jackets means that you are only a half step away from being a BMW owner/rider.