Texas in the Rearview Mirror

We were up early this morning and hooked up and ready to go by the time the folks at MCD Innovations popped out to make one last check of our blinds. I can’t and probably haven’t said enough about the folks here at MCD and all they have done to make sure we were fully satisfied with our new blinds. From the installers to the marketing folks and on up to the owner everyone has been helpful and a pleasure to deal with.

This morning we figured it was time to move on and put Texas in the rear-view mirror. We headed east out of McKinney on 380 and eventually joined I-20 over by Tyler, Texas. It was a beautiful day and pretty nice country to see rolling by. Once we got a few miles behind us we stopped at a picnic area and had a little brunch before heading on to Tyler where Brenda re-provisioned the rig while Meg and I washed the windshield.

It was a nice day for driving without to much wind and we averaged about 8.3 miles per gallon through the rolling hills of East Texas and down into Louisiana. Not great mileage for a car but pretty good for a house, pulling a pickup. And for those who keep track of such things that was moving along at 65 mph on the freeway and some stop and go before we got to Tyler as that is a two lane road that meanders through the small towns along the way. So not bad at all.

We stopped at the Louisiana Welcome Center and picked up some of the materials on a few places we are thinking of stopping while we are in the state. I didn’t see anything on Denham Springs but that is in our plans also as we need to see where Rollie and Gina have brought that piece of jade and the wagon wheel from the old wagon at the farm.

We noticed along the highway here in Louisiana that they must have been expecting Brenda. She was aghast at the garbage in the ditches last time we were here and from Shreveport south there has been a major clean-up going on and there are great piles of garbage bags at every intersection and we passed three crews working along the road getting it in shape. It is a beautiful state if you can see past the litter, so removing it will make it shine. So the crews must have already got your message Don.

Tonight we are at a campground in Natchitoches called the Nakatosh RV Park and Campground and I am thinking that the pronunciation of the town is close to the way the RV park sounds. We were first in this town back in 2003 on our 13 states in 17 day tour and we have always wanted to come back and have a little better look around. So over the next couple of days we are going to do just that.

Those who know me well know that I am pretty much a pro-oil business kind of guy and even my photographer seems to have caught the bug as she is catching images of drill rigs wherever we go. That is another reason we are in Louisiana, I thought after watching those same three pelicans flopping around in the oil on CNN for most of last spring and summer I would like to come down here and see for myself how much oil is still around. Lord knows that it is difficult to believe what you see on the news anymore.

OH, and one last thing, Brenda and I were interviewed for a Podcast on the American Rv’er last month so this month’s feature American Rv’er’s are really your two favourite Canadians. Catch it here on the December show of the American Rv’er.