Tag Archives: Texas

I visited Louisiana

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Day 72:
16,730 miles and counting.
Today I met Tela, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
I got started plenty early, long before there was any sunlight. I had quite a few things I wanted to accomplish today, and from my research I didn’t think any of them would take too long. On my way south I made a quick stop to top off my freshwater tank.
Apparently, something on the electrical system of the living quarters of my van broke yesterday. My battery supply is no longer charging as I drive, like it is designed to do, and like it has done for the previous 70+ days without issue. I have my fingers crossed that it will take charge when I get a chance to plug it in. It never did charge as I drove, and I need another new alternator belt. That is 3 so far, 2 on this trip. Ugggg. I decided to book an actual campsite, so I could plug in. This is a first, I have never plugged Pervvie in, other than to test that I knew how to do it. Hopefully she will be full battery by go time tomorrow. I spent all day today with my head on a swivel, looking for someplace I might be able to plug in and steal some electricity. I never did find anything, until tonight at the campground.
Back to geocaching. There are 4 geocaches surrounding Dallas that date back to the year 2000. I intended to get them all today, a bit aggressive maybe. In hindsight, not at all. Easy peasy. I even made time for a bunch of other fun stuff. I was going to make today be a day that I found every ‘type’ of geocache. I was even going to go out of my way to Galveston for the webcam. Then I realized I can’t do the locationless anyway. So, I did get all types except those 2 today. Dork. I did a couple walks in the park, a couple walks along water, a couple in the woods. After all that I visited an auto shop about my alternator belt. The fellas were great. They took a peek, and it seems standard. Going back first thing tomorrow, fingers crossed. Then I went to my campsite, gave my van some juice, got a shower, and went to Alfonso’s Pancake Breakfast Geocaching Event. I made some new friends, had a lot of great chats, and found out all the dishy gossip on all the local GC’ers. All in all, one of the best days of my life, even when my van is broken.
After the Geocaching event, back to the campground. I splurged on something I never need, a campsite. I needed electric hookup to charge, it was down to 10% after 2 days of not charging. Back to 100% by the time I woke up and head back to the auto repair shop in the morning.

Day 73:
17,070 miles and counting.
Today I met Juju, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
I woke up at the Plantation Place campground in Sunnyvale. Yep, I am in a trailer park in Sunnyvale. That is super Trailer Park Boy awesome. I stayed here so I could have somewhere legal to plug my van in, electrical issues, hopefully getting a new alternator belt today. I was at the auto repair shop before they opened at 7am. I checked in and tapped into their wifi. I sat in the parking lot, in my van and did real life stuff all day. I was there from 7am until they closed at 6pm. It is a Friday, so the fact that I am not stranded in this town all weekend is a miracle. They got my parts, installed, and had me out the door right at closing time. I could not be happier with the service I received. I got caught up on pictures, work, writing, anything else I could cram in. I am just glad to be out of here today. I don’t want to be stuck in Dallas for the weekend, but if I am, I hope the Eagles are in town.
Once I was released, I went to Babes for fried chicken. I asked around to some locals about fried chicken. The consensus was Babes. They were correct. Delicious family style fried chicken dinner for one. After dinner I was heading into Louisiana. I drove east for about 2 hours, ran out of daylight, got tired, and stopped to top off Pervvies fluids. I then found a slot to pull into, and tuck myself in for the evening.

I have put more photos of my roadtrip HERE.

You know where I got my kicks

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Day 70:
16,010 miles and counting.
Today I met Jingles, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
I woke up next to an abandoned tractor and some buildings in northeastern New Mexico where I took pictures of the night sky all last night, during the new moon.
Boy am I sure glad I changed my plans yesterday. I stayed up all night with two cameras taking pictures of all different angles with several different foregrounds. I also spent several hours just sitting outside in my camp chair staring up at the night sky. It was mesmerizing and amazing. Last night was a night that I really wish I could’ve slept outside under the stars. Everything about it was perfect, the scenery, the smell, the sound, the temperature, the cool breeze. The only thing that wasn’t perfect about sleeping outside under the stars was that within 30 seconds of being outside taking pictures in the dark last night, I saw a snake. If there was a place to sling my hammock up, I would’ve slept outside, but I wasn’t sleeping on the ground after that 🙂
This morning I’ll make my way back toward civilization, and then Amarillo area. Tonight, I will definitely be getting a hotel somewhere to catch up on real life responsibilities. My route includes a whole string of really high favorited geocaches along the route 66 corridor that I stopped for. I have done this drive in the past, but there is a lot I did not take time to stop and see.
After a quick stop for breakfast, refueling, and postcard purchases, I continued along the 40/66 corridor, all the way across the panhandle. My breakfast spot also provided me an awesome little route 66 old car museum tour. I may be a 71-year-old man, but walking around in there really made me nostalgic for being a little kid with my pop. This is the kind of crap that he absolutely adored more than anything in life, except professional wrestling.
I sure am glad I am not Don Quixote, I would have never gotten through that mine field. I made a few random stops here and there for fun stuff. My goal for this afternoon was to get to Oklahoma City. This is where I plan to get a hotel and settle down for the night.
Through my travels I learned a lot about history, businesses that opened and closed, Route 66, old gas stations, and helium.
I would imagine based on the part of the world I’m in, and the time of year, my picture taking opportunities are about over. I got the new moon in the middle of nowhere darkness New Mexico last night. Between here and home, it’ll probably mostly be just working my way back towards Maryland. For 2 1/2 months I have based where I was going to be on the sunrise and sunset and where I can take the best pictures. Somehow that time of the trip feels like it might be over? It really feels like this is a book end to my trip. I have lost two time zones in the past day. Suddenly it went from 3 to 1 hour difference from home.
I got into OKCITY, Yukon to be exact, and got set up for the night at a HIE. I hardly made a dent in the things I need to accomplish. I think tomorrow will probably be a working day too.

Day 71:
16,450 miles and counting. Yep, mostly worked all day at the hotel. But, today I met Kletus, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
I left a Holiday Inn express in Yukon Oklahoma about 3 PM. I got into a hotel last night and got a few hours of responsible stuff done, but I hardly made a dent. I needed to spend the majority of today catching up. When I finally got back on the road, I went straight into OKC proper, and wandered around for a bit. I had to stop by a post office, and the one I chose was right by the memorial park. I had a lovely time wandering around there, reflecting, and learning a lot of things that I knew nothing about. In the end, humans, we are all just the same.
After I finished my business in OKC proper, it was time to head a little east towards Tulsa. I was hoping to get a few things done before I ran out of daylight today.
I made it to my main objective today. I wanted to find Oklahoma’s oldest geocache. It was not difficult like many of the others so far this road trip. And a quick 2 mile jog over the course of less than an hour I found it, and several other challenge geocaches nearby.
I made it back to my van just as I was running out of daylight. I sat and figured out what to do next. Being out of daylight, the only real thing I can do is drive. There’s other stuff around Tulsa I’d like to do, but I also need to get to Dallas. So, I decided to start making my way south toward Dallas. I have a handful of things surrounding Dallas that I’d like to accomplish, hopefully all tomorrow. I guess we’ll see about that. There’s an event for Geocaching in Dallas that happens tomorrow night. I might try to go to that, just for traveling fun.
On my way south I made one stop. It was to check out some baby rattlesnakes. That’s one of the funniest, cleverest, anxiety inducing geocaches I’ve ever done! So glad I made time for this one.
From here I drove I-35 south towards Dallas until I ran out of awake time. I found a truckstop and got prepared to start up again pre-sunrise.

Good chance there is new pictures at the album I created HERE.

If the idea of baby rattlesnakes in a geocache piqued your interest, then this video may scratch your itch: