Easter Sunday ; San Antonio to Fort Worth, Texas
HAPPY EASTER ! Sunny and very warm, temperature in the mid-80’s, a very nice day.
We left the Wal-Mart parking lot this morning around 10:30 AM and headed north out of San Antonio on Interstate 35. Not too far down the road we stopped at a Flying J to refill our freshwater tank and dump our waste tanks. Traffic was heavy passing through Austin. We stopped to have an exercise walk, lunch, and a brief nap for me at a rest area. We stopped at another rest area late in the afternoon to have a snack, and take photos.
We stopped repeatedly today to take photos of the wildflowers in bloom, especially the Texas Bluebonnets. WOW ! We also stopped at the Czechoslovakian town (in Texas ? ! ?) of West to browse through a Czechoslovakian bakery / deli / tourist shop. I bought a frozen crawfish pie <blink blink> and a jar of jam, Joanne bought a beef jerky cream cheese dip. HUH ?
It was excruciatingly congested and slow through Waco thanks to extensive road reconstruction projects. There seems to be an awful lot of pork barrel road reconstruction projects in Texas ! That caused us to reconsider our planned route through Dallas on I-35E. We decided to go through Fort Worth on I-35W, hoping that the traffic congestion might be less. I believe we made the right decision. The traffic up I-35W was not too bad. We arrived at BUC-EE’S on the northwest side of Fort Worth at 8 PM, about fifteen minutes before darkness, just enough time to refill the truck with diesel before night fell.
We boondocked overnight at BUC-EE’S, a Texas chain of fuel stations. Each location has about one hundred fuel islands … <blink blink> … for personal vehicles only, no commercial trucks allowed. It’s not a “truck stop”. Each location has a massively huge “convenience store”, with fast foods / convenience foods, drinks and snacks, souvenirs, travel “stuff”, etc. After refilling with diesel we drove around the store’s large parking lot and found a quiet spot at the rear to park overnight.
Our Pollos Asados Los Norteños barbecued chicken Easter dinner was superb. Especially the tres leches (three milks) cake for dessert !
By the way … BUC-EE is a buck toothed cartoon beaver. I bought an “I ♥ BUC-EE’S” bumper sticker. HA HA HA !
Monday ; Fort Worth, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma
Sunny and mild, much cooler than we have been experiencing lately, temperature only reaching mid-60’s. HMPH … had to wear long pants … AND A SWEATER THIS MORNING !
I did some preventive maintenance on the truck and camper, we had a long walk around the BUC-EE’S property, and we left Fort Worth this morning around 11 AM. We continued north on I-35W until it merged with I-35E north of Dallas, and became just I-35 again. At Gainesville we turned east on Hwy. 82. At Sherman we turned north on Hwy. 75, and shortly after entered Oklahoma. We stopped at the Oklahoma Welcome Center and I went inside the Visitor Center to use Wi-Fi before we ate lunch in the camper.
Continuing north on Hwy. 75 after lunch we stopped at a Choctaw Nation Travel Plaza at Durant that was listed as having a sani-dump station and water. They had neither ! Later in the afternoon we stopped at a Love’s in Atoka and refilled our freshwater tank. At McAlester we got onto the Indian Nation Turnpike toll road and followed it north until it ended at Henryetta. We continued north on Hwy. 75, stopping in the scruffy little village of Okmulgee to buy catfish dinner (WOO-HOO) at House of Smoke BBQ Restaurant. By the way … House of Smoke’s catfish dinner for one includes … wait for it … five pieces of catfish ! ! ! HMMMM … maybe that explains …
We refilled with diesel at QT / QuickTrip fuel bar in Glenpool, a southern suburb of Tulsa. After refilling the truck we drove another mile or so to a Wal-Mart, to have our catfish dinner and boondock overnight. I went for a long walk while Joanne prepared fries to accompany our catfish and cole slaw dinner. The catfish dinner was okay, not great … I was disappointed. The second piece of tres leches cake from Pollos Asados Los Norteños in San Antonio finished it off nicely though. HA HA HA ! Joanne preferred tonight’s chocolate tres leches cake. I preferred yesterday’s coconut and dulce de leche tres leches cake.
Tuesday ; Tulsa, Oklahoma ; REST DAY
Sunny, cool in the AM, mild in the PM.
Today was a no driving rest day in Tulsa. We spent most of the day recreational shopping. We didn’t need any groceries, yet we still managed to spend about $200 on impulse purchases of food items. HA HA HA !
We started our day with a long walk around the neighbourhood of the Wal-Mart where we spent overnight. We left the Wal-Mart parking lot just before 11 AM. Our GPS guided us to our first destination of the day, Spirit River Casino, on Tulsa’s downtown riverfront. The GPS did a superb job repeatedly throughout the day, guiding us to and from our many destinations of today. We went to Spirit River Casino first, to check out if it would be a suitable spot to boondock overnight. Yes, yes … it would be !
We found our way to Supermercados Morelos, a local Mexican and Honduran supermarket. We bought a lot of Mexican and Honduran foods. Wonderful pan dulce ! We checked out a nearby Honduran restaurant and considered having lunch there but didn’t. We shopped in a “scratch & dent” discount store and bought quite a few $5 items for 50¢ each.
We drove to Camping World, hoping to refill our freshwater tank there and buy a few needed camper maintenance items. The customer service attitudes were so poor, from multiple sales clerks, that as I began to pay at the cashier counter, and was subject to another bad attitude cashier, I walked away from the counter, leaving my items there, and told the clerk I would simply go spend my money elsewhere. Bye-bye Camping World ! Your service has been shitty ever since Good Sam bought you a decade or so ago.
Next was Trader Joe’s. Every trip into a Trader Joe’s costs us a hundred bucks ! No difference here in Tulsa. HA HA HA ! We eventually refilled our freshwater tank at a Philips 66 fuel station and then … <insert drum roll here> … headed to … wait for it … BILLY RAY’S CATFISH & BARBECUE ! Bought catfish (for me) and barbecued ribs (for Joanne) for dinner tonight, barbecued chopped brisket for dinner tomorrow night. And, as always at catfish & barbecue restaurants, ALL the fixin’s included ! Place was filled with law enforcement officers having dinner. LARGE law enforcement officers ! Large, white, sheriff’s deputies ! I wonder if any of them were named Bubba ? Or Buford ?
We returned to Spirit River Casino, I went for a long walk on the riverfront walkway, we ate supper, then I set up the TV (powered by the camper’s DC to pure sine wave AC inverter) and roof top “over the air” antenna to find NBC. We watched “This Is Us”. HMPH … that worked well. Tomorrow in Kansas City I’ll try to find CBS and we’ll watch Survivor. Tonight’s catfish was better than last night’s but still … not as good as most catfish dinners we’ve had in Oklahoma in the past.
We liked Tulsa. Pretty city. Not too much traffic congestion, even around rush hour. Freeways and roads relatively easy to navigate. Lovely old neighbourhoods and homes. Lots of green space. Some people wearing masks. Even some WHITE people wearing masks. That is NOT the case in Texas !
<sigh> Sick again today. Don’t know if it’s a “regular” ulcerative colitis flare-up or a recurrence of Clostridium dificile intestinal infection.
Wednesday ; Tulsa, Oklahoma through Missouri to Kansas City, Kansas.
Overcast, mild, light drizzle all day.
<sigh> Yes, yes … still sick !
Longest day / furthest distance of this trip. Over 300 miles / 500 km. Left Tulsa, Oklahoma before 11 AM, arrived Kansas City, Kansas at 8 PM, at dusk. HMPH … too late to watch Survivor.
From Spirit River Casino we drove about twenty-four miles north to the town of Owasso, to dump our waste tanks and refill our freshwater tank at the sani-dump station at the municipal wastewater treatment plant. From Owasso it was a bit of back roads dipsy-doodling to Interstate 44 / Will Rogers Turnpike, a toll road heading northeast towards Joplin, Missouri. At Vinita we stopped at a travel plaza to have lunch and a brief nap for me.
After lunch we continued northeast on Will Rogers Turnpike until it ended at the Oklahoma / Missouri border. A few more miles on I-44 across the southern edge of Joplin, Missouri and we turned north on Interstate 49. We refilled with diesel at Kum & Go (HUH ?) on the outskirts of Joplin. We stopped again at Nevada, Missouri. While Joanne went into Wal-Mart for a few items I rested and had a late afternoon snack in the camper. When we reached the southern edge of Kansas City, Missouri we turned west on Interstate 435, the ring road around Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. We followed I-435 along the southern edge of both Kansas Cities, crossing from Missouri into Kansas, and halfway up the western side of Kansas City, Kansas we stopped to boondock overnight at Cabela’s, one of our southbound boondock spots last November.
Given that I was sick again all day, Joanne decided to postpone our Billy Ray’s chopped brisket dinner until tomorrow night. While I walked for twenty minutes around the Cabela’s parking lot she prepared a light supper of tossed salad, scrambled eggs and toast. <singing theme song to TV show “Frasier”> “Well I can hear the blues a callin’, tossed salad and scrambled eggs … they’re calling again. HA HA HA … Goodnight, Kansas City !”
Thursday ; Kansas City, Kansas via Missouri (again) to Underwood, Iowa
Sunny and mild in the AM, sunny and warm in the PM, thunderstorms and heavy rain in the evening.
Still sick but improving again … I hope !
Here we are at the Iowa Welcome Center / Interstate 80 rest area east of Omaha, Nebraska. We were forced here by an Interstate 29 detour around Council Bluffs, Iowa due to road reconstruction. We decided to stay here overnight when we arrived and discovered that this Welcome Center / rest area has Wi-Fi and a sani-dump. Good thing ! When we checked the weather forecast for the next few days, along our continued route northbound we discovered bad weather coming to southern Manitoba and the Dakotas. We’ll accelerate our remaining northbound journey as a result.
After a long walk around the Cabela’s parking lot and property we left around 11 AM, continuing on Interstate 435 around Kansas City, Kansas, crossing the mighty Missouri River, from Kansas back into Missouri, and continuing around Kansas City, Missouri, eventually turning north onto Interstate 29. AHHHH … the “home road”. I-29 eventually becomes Pembina Highway in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
We stopped to refill our freshwater tank at a Pilot truck stop in St. Joseph, Missouri. We stopped to refill the truck with diesel at a BP Fuels station in Rock Port, Missouri. The freeway crossed from Missouri into Iowa, following Iowa’s eastern border with Nebraska. Shortly before reaching Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the river from Omaha, Nebraska, we were forced east onto Interstate 80 due to road reconstruction on I-29 around Council Bluffs. HMPH ! That detour was going to take us forty-two miles northeast on I-80, then about fifteen miles west on I-880 back to I-29.
When we reached the Iowa Welcome Center & Rest Area on I-880 we pulled in to check it out. WOO-HOO … it had not only a sani-dump station that we could use tomorrow morning, but Wi-Fi that we could use this evening. It was earlier (5 PM) than we usually stop driving for the day, but we decided to stay overnight. I’m glad we did. Using Wi-Fi to check the weather allowed us to make a decision to accelerate our northbound journey to arrive home a day earlier than planned due to bad weather forecast for southern Manitoba and the Dakotas in a few days.
Tonight we had our barbecued chopped beef brisket dinner from Billy Ray’s Catfish & BBQ in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was superb !
Friday ; Underwood, Iowa to Wilmot, South Dakota
Heavy rain overnight, low overcast and light drizzle all day becoming thick fog at 6 PM, warm.
Still sick today !
This morning we dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled our freshwater tank then went for a twenty minute, one mile walk around the Iowa Welcome Center grounds before leaving at 11:30 AM. A few miles northeast on I-80, then west on I-880 for fifteen miles to complete the I-29 construction detour started late yesterday.
As we continued northbound on I-29 we discussed the options, pros and cons, and practicalities of “compressing” our remaining journey of about 625 miles / 1000 km. to two days, to try to outrun the incoming late winter storm. We probably can’t outrun the incoming heavy rains, but might be able to outrun the incoming snow, and most likely will be able to outrun the drastic drop in temperatures to well below freezing. If we get home Saturday evening, I can winterize the camper Sunday morning before the temperatures drop below freezing.
We stopped in Sioux City, Iowa and ate our lunch in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Then while Joanne went into the store for a few grocery items, I refilled the truck with diesel at (Wal-Mart’s) Murphy’s fuel bar. We stopped later in the afternoon at Ward Rest Area in South Dakota, our original planned destination for today, to have an afternoon drink and snack. I was exhausted, so napped for twenty minutes.
Around 6 PM heavy fog developed. We were still about a hundred miles from where I wanted to be before stopping for the night. But after about an hour of driving in thick fog, trying to maintain 75 MPH / 120 km. per hour … and being frequently passed … by vehicles travelling faster than that, AND with their lights still off, despite the thick fog … SHEESH ! I decided it was simply too dangerous to continue.
I was taught, as a pilot, that “get home-itis” is deadly. Sometimes that applies to highway driving as well. I wouldn’t fly in unsafe weather conditions. I shouldn’t drive in unsafe weather conditions either.
We stopped for the night at a rest area near Wilmot, South Dakota, not far from the North Dakota border. It was a long day of many miles in tough driving conditions.
Saturday ; Wilmot, South Dakota through North Dakota to Steinbach, Manitoba
Very low overcast, raining all day, often very heavy, strong winds, temperature near freezing when we arrived home.
Left rest area at 10:30 AM. Arrived home at 7:15 PM.
2050 miles / 3300 km. from La Feria, Texas, U.S.A. to Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.
Refilled with diesel in Sisseton, South Dakota. Refilled again in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Dumped waste holding tanks in Grand Forks. Within an hour of arriving home had camper freshwater tank, water heater tank, and plumbing lines drained and winterized, just as it got dark.
As we raced northward through North Dakota we kept receiving emergency alerts on the radio stations we were listening to, advising that due to flooding the roads were being closed from point A to point B, and we were always just a few miles ahead of that ! And I would push the gas pedal just a little harder !
Delayed a bit crossing border back into Canada because I had not filled out new ARRIVE CAN forms online. <shrug> Who knew ?
Still lots of snow left on roadsides and yards in Manitoba. And where there wasn’t snow … there were “lakes” where there should have been farm fields ! And rivers already overflowing their banks. I foresee lots of flooding in the next week.
Farewell to Merka. What a shithole third world country it has become !
DSK
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