Well, the trip couldn't end peacefully, could it?
Nope, that would be too booooring! Instead, just as one last final Hurrah. . . the weather had to turn on us! hhahahah, you guys thought we had bus problems, didn't you?!?
As many of you know, we left the bus rally in Florida, with plans for New Orleans, and from there. . .well, not much planned, . . .just a leisurely stroll home. New Orleans was a bit of a disappointment, bad and over-priced meals and a definate change in the music venues, ( I mean, who goes to New Orleans to hear rock and roll or top 40 music
) but then again, we knew that it will take time for the city to come back. The funniest thing that happened was this guy who was staying there came up and wanted to see the bus. He then asked what it was. . . not what KIND of bus it was,
what the whole thing was!
He thought that maybe we had taken an Airstream travel trailer and somehow put a powerplant, steering, etc. on it to create some new type of motorhome!
Guess the guy had never seen a silver bus before
We left New Orleans and headed west along I-10, to experience the fine roads Louisianna has to offer, which made us glad we weren't in that old jaw-busting motorhome.
I mean, even the air bags couldn't soften some of the bone-crushing, teeth-rattling fine stretches of pavement they imply is an interstate. We bounced on through Louisianna and into Texas, stopping at every antique store we could find, turning north by Houston, on the last leg of our voyage home. The plan was to hit Dallas on Friday, shop at the Grapevine Mills Outlet store on Friday afternoon, hit the McKinney Flea Market on Saturday, and drive home to OKC on Sunday. Yeah, that was the plan. But like all good plans, something always goes awry.
We're sitting here, in Dallas, watching the ice build up on the trees. By the time we made it to Dallas, it was obvious we could either make a mad dash for home, which at the least, meant driving like crazy, hoping to beat the storm that was coming in, possibly skating the last number of miles home,. or we could hang in Dallas. We chose to dawdle in Dallas until the storm passed. We've pretty much got all the bugs worked out of this bus, so the last thing we want to do is attach it to a tree or make it a permanent part of the landscape along I-35!
It was the correct choice to stay here, as the storm hit home faster than they anticipated and our office manager had sent the guys home by 11:00 a.m. Friday morning because the roads were already starting to ice over. We boondocked in a Wal-mart parking lot that night, but once we realized we were definitely going to be here a couple of days at least, we decided we'd better go ahead and get into a campground. We are happily ensonced at The Vineyards campground, at Grapevine, Texas, backed up in a spot, at the very point farthest out in the lake. Hopefully, our tires won't melt the ice in such a manner that at midnight, we quietly slip off our spot into the drink! I could just see us waking up from what we thought was a bad dream, only to find our fine 8v71 blowing bubbles in the lake!
Hopefully everybody else either made it home already or are so far south that they don't have to worry about this nasty cold stuff. As for us, we'll be hanging here at least until Monday morning, from the looks of it. Even then, it's going to be coooooold. It was a hard choice, we almost just turned around and headed back to spend the Winter with Jack & Paula in Arcadia, FL! Ask me again on Monday which way I'm going. . . .Jack, um, how much space DO you have down there?
Christy Hicks
