On Tour: Sometimes It Blows!

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This is Suzanne's little corner of the coach where, after a hard day's work, she settles into her recliner with a margarita - or maybe a glass of Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio to forget about her cares for a while. On this particular occasion (Wednesday afternoon/Acoma, NM) margaritas were served - courtesy of yours truly. I'm the mixmaster.

A still life

We logged a little over 320 miles yesterday - more than I like to drive in a day. Generally speaking, we like to do somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 to 200 miles in a day. However, Suzanne is flying from Dallas to NYC Sunday afternoon for four days of meetings/work so we're having to push a little harder than usual. She'll be returning Thursday and we'll be able to slow our pace considerably for the remainder of our trip home. We're planning to arrive back in Herndon, VA on the 4th or 5th of April and haven't yet decided upon a route. Although, another visit to New Orleans has come up in conversation a couple of times.

We arrived in Amarillo, Texas around 6pm last night. It had been very windy all day, which made the 320 miles behind the wheel even more tiring. The wind was from the southwest, hitting the coach from about the four O'clock position. I was constantly having to keep tension on the wheel, turning into the 20 - 25 mph winds all the while. The constant parade of northeast bound tumbleweeds made the journey all the more interesting. I will say that traveling in conditions such as these is made more tolerable by the fact that the Tour, unlike the Fleetwood Discovery we previously owned, has a tag axle. Sideways buffeting from wind and passing tractor trailers isn't nearly as disconcerting as it used to be.

We had a pull-thru site at Amarillo's Oasis RV Park. Arriving late in the day and having no plans to drive into town, I didn't bother unhooking from the Suzuki, nor did I bother connecting to the sewer since we would be leaving in the morning.

We had leftovers for dinner and watched a little TV. I took Travis for a walk when we arrived and another short one just before bedtime. By then, the wind had picked up considerably. We have three slides on the coach, each having a slide topper - an awning sort of thing attached to the coach along the roof line, and to a spring-loaded roller along the top of the slide. When the slide is extended the topper, pitched at a slight angle, sheds water that would otherwise collect on top of the slide. Suzanne's brother, Doug and I installed a brand new topper on one of the two passenger side slides on the coach during our stay at Indian Wells RV Resort. That slide is maybe 18' long. There's another, shorter (8 foot ?) slide in the bedroom on which the bed rides, creating more walk-around space between the foot of the bed and the opposite wall. The driver's side slide is the longest at 30' and the topper is ready for replacement. I'll be ordering a new one when I get home. The coach was parked facing northeast and the winds (25mph with 50 mph gusts) were from the southwest. It was a good orientation and spared us a lot of sideways rocking & rolling. But that big ol' 30 foot topper acted like a wind tunnel/sail with the wind blowing through it. The topper was billowing and extending several inches - unwinding itself from the tension bar during some of the stronger gusts. I was worried that it might tear... and that wouldn't have been a good thing. Finally, at 2am (and wide awake), I went outside with a flashlight and a walkie talkie while Suzanne pushed the retract button on the control panel inside. I slept much better knowing my 30 foot slide topper was safely tucked away for the night. Travis was completely wigged out and spent the night in bed with us.

The wind was out of the west by mid-morning Friday.

Today's leg of the trip had us continuing another ten or so miles on I-40 east to SR 287 southeast toward Dallas. We traveled a total 230 miles through towns like Goodnight, Clarendon and Childress. It's nice getting off the interstate and driving on roads that, while still large enough to allow for relatively high speeds and reasonable travel time, have you occasionally slowing to 50...then 40... then 35 when the highway becomes Main Street in some cool little Texas town.

We arrived at the Wichita Falls RV Park in (you guessed it) Wichita Falls, Texas sometime around 4pm. It's a nice little RV park located on the eastern bank of the Wichita River. We finished setting up and I took Travis for a walk. With all the time we spent last year camping on the banks of the Shenandoah River, Travis has become somewhat of a water dog. Well, it figures. He is a Golden Retriever! The area of the RV park closest to the river has grassy, wide open spaces. There were no other people or dogs around so I let Travis off his leash. He made a beeline for the river (and the two geese who had just waded in)! I managed to convince him to stop short of full submersion but he really wanted to go for a swim! I wish we were going to be around for a while tomorrow so that he could enjoy the water and have time to dry off before heading out.

Hmm... maybe we can work something out. We'll see.

Before going into town for some Texas BBQ we drove a few miles down river to Lucy Park and walked another half mile or so to Wichita Falls.