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April 19, 2010
Dear Friends and Family,
We’re on the road again, making our annual migration northward. We
left our "winter home" in the Rio Grande Valley Friday morning,
April 16, in heavy cloud cover and slight drizzle. The clouds continued
all day and the drizzle occasionally grew into showers. Once or twice
visibility was diminished by the intensity of the showers but for the most
part the driving was easy.
Traffic was light northbound on Route 77 N, so Mary Sue took her turn
driving early before the traffic picked up. We were soon leaving the
"Magic Valley" behind where cities run together and irrigation
waters produce a bumper crop of citrus and table vegetables. There, the
large nopales cacti were beginning to show their lovely yellow blooms.
Traveling north through the "Wild Horse Desert," the
wildflowers were gorgeous and thick: large patches of yellow, pink,
orange, white, purple, lavender, and blue. The rain has really
"greened up" this usually barren area. This is an area of huge
ranches, few houses and many more cattle and horses than humans.
Mary Sue was behind the wheel when we reached the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) inspection station at Sarita at the northern
edge of the desert. We waited as an ICE drug-sniffing dog checked out the
semi in front of us in line. The dog became more agitated the longer he
sniffed it, so his human handler pulled the truck out of line into an
inspection area for a more thorough search. We didn’t wait around to see
what kind of contraband – if any – was found in that truck.
We continued traveling Route 59 north, and it runs along a railroad
track from Brownsville to Houston. As we left Robstown, we saw larger and
larger crowds gathering near the track. At several places where side roads
crossed the tracks, there were police directing traffic and pedestrians.
We had heard that there was to be an old steam engine powered train in the city of Harlingen on Thursday, April 15, as a major part of the
100th anniversary celebration of that city’s founding. This
was a recognition of the major part the railroad had played in the
establishment of Harlingen. The train had come from its home in Wyoming to
the southeast corner of Texas for the celebration. Now it was on its way
back home along the very track that was running parallel to our line of
travel! We caught a brief glimpse of the chugging relic of an earlier era
of railroading as we sped past.
The rain continued and we realized the temperature was dropping. By
2:30 pm we arrived at the "Gateway to the Gulf RV Park" on the
southeast corner of the city of Victoria.
The next day, Saturday, we saw a little glimpse of sun in the morning as
we walked! We continued north on Route 59 thru thick patches of
wildflowers. We were giving thanks for Lady Bird Johnson’s wisdom in the
1960's, for it was she who encouraged Texas to sow wildflowers along its
major highways. That’s when we saw our first patch of bluebonnets along
the roadside. The bluebonnet is the Texas’ state flower and a really
lovely part of spring in the Lone Star state.
The economy of this area of eastern Texas was symbolized in the oil and
gas wells and storage we passed., We also drove by a huge storage facility for rice. We’ve
learned from experience to make a ‘pit stop’ before we get into the
heavy traffic of Houston. So we stopped at the city of Rosenberg, just
southwest of Houston. (We’ve often wondered who the city was named for!)
At 11 am, we entered the outskirts of Houston’s sprawl. We were
fortunate to be driving across the city at mid-day because the traffic was
light and moving well. It took us only an hour and a quarter to reach the
city’s northern outskirts and then we could take another break.
Later in the afternoon, when we were less than 10 miles from our destination for the day –
Livingston, Texas – we heard an ominous "pop."
Immediately the tire pressure monitor in the cab of the truck began
warning us of a serious problem with the right rear tire on our fifth
wheel. It had blown out! Bruce was driving and he wasted no time in
slowing and easing our rig on to the shoulder of the road. Already he
could hear the tread of the tire, torn loose by the blow-out, rubbing on
the frame of the trailer but the road shoulder was not wide enough to
safely change it there.
Ahead, about a quarter of a mile, was a wide gravel ranch lane on our
side of the road. So we limped slowly down the roadside until we reached
it and could pull safely away from the traffic that was speeding by. He
quickly built up a stack of boards borrowed from the "wood pile"
we carry to level the rig on uneven campsites. I carefully pulled the
trailer’s front right tire up on the boards, leaving the rear tire
hanging out in space. In no time he had the wheel of the blown tire off of the trailer.
We were shocked at how much damage there was from some road hazard we
had not even seen!
About the time we got the spare tire lowered from where it rides under
the rear end of the fifth wheel, a nice young rancher pulled his truck
into the driveway we had almost blocked. "Got a problem?" he
asked pleasantly. "Yes," we responded, "we’ve had a
blow-out but we’ve almost got it changed." He walked over closer
to our rig and studied the torn-up tire as we tightened the lug nuts on
the spare.
"Looks like you’ve got it under control," he said.
"Sure you don’t need any more help?" he asked one last time.
We thanked him for his offer as I backed the rig back down off of the
makeshift ramp. One half hour after we heard the ominous sound of the blow-out, we pulled back out onto the highway and continued
north to
our destination.
Beautiful blooming azaleas, peonies, iris, gentle hills, and tall pine
trees reminded us that we were now in the "Piney Woods" area of
this vast state. We arrived at the Escapees’ RV Park, "Rainbow’s
End" ten miles southeast of Livingston at 2 pm.
So, the treats and trials of travel seem to have caught up with us more
quickly this year than usual. But our anticipation of getting re-connected
with dear familiar faces in the mid-West will speed us on our way.
Grace and peace,
Bruce and MarySue
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