Today, we decided to take more breaks. We got up early in San Antonio, made it through that madness and continued down I 10. My BFF from San Angelo, had emailed and asked if she could meet us along I 10. She drove 2 1/2 hours ONE WAY, to meet in the DQ parking lot so we could visit. The day before THANKSGIVING - she took at least 6 hours out of her day to visit. I sure love this gal. We arrived before they opened, had a quick time to catch up. She brought two mugs, lemon tea, honey, and Emergen C with her! She's amazing that way. We'll be back in TX for Jamin's graduation in May. I am praying and hoping we can make it a leisurely trip....go to San Angelo for a bit, Abilene for a bit, San Antonio and Houston....maybe see the Grand Canyon on the way back....we shall see.
Deja and De'Etta Two Shoeless girls who Gelled |
I had a lot of questions, which we discussed. I now understand how to start up a diesel, how to stop the beast etc. I know many are dying for the day I take to the road - but here's the thing - THIS IS HUGE! It's 38 feet long. My dad and husband both have driven semis, school buses and have their CDLs. My friends have husbands who drive semi-trucks. They go to TRAINING to drive trucks and they often have annual safety trainings. Why do we think a person should just be able to jump in one of these things and intuitively KNOW all the different safety risks, turning radius' etc?????? So - Michael is fine with taking his time and teaching me....and our insurance has said I can drive without a driving school certificate or CDL, but our insurance will be significantly lower if I do either of these things. We are going to look into a RV driving course somewhere - though I'll drive before then.
We headed down the road again and stopped one more time to take a walk.....and for me to do a bit of driving - a tiny bit. I also pulled it away from the pump to a "parking" spot in our last truck stop. Small steps. The traffic was really busy - it's the day before Thanksgiving. My plan is to do more of the driving tomorrow - with less traffic on the highways. These are TOTALLY staged - Michael was sitting on the floor beside me pointing out gauges, checking mirrors and such when I was moving the monster.
These wind shades are one of my favorite things about the RV - we get a LOT of bugs
We stopped at a truck stop in Los Cruces - filled up, bought SOFT Kleenex and some meds - quickly realized we did NOT want to sleep here. We went and found an RV park with a 5 star rating. It was nice to put the slides out, hook up to shore power and SLEEP - without trucks running next to us and highway noise. We are refreshed and have 1800 miles to go!