Wednesday, November 23, 2016

San Antonio - Las Cruces

 Yesterday, Michael's trucking past kicked in and we drove like truckers. I didn't feel well - but have a bathroom. We could drive without stopping; so we did.  We were both worn out by the time we hit San Antonio. Michael was sore, achy and tremoring quite a bit.

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
We drove for a few more hours and Michael was really tired. We found a rest area and he went in the back and took an hour long nap. My mission was to spend at least 20 minutes in the "cock pit" and get familiar with it all.  This I did. Then I pulled out some wipes and detailed the cockpit so it was bright and shiny when Michael woke up.
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!