Detours

[catlinyemaker]

J and I are in Vidor, TX.  We got the RV out of the shop in Baton Rouge today and we’re on our way to San Antonio.

Monday morning one week past, I awoke confident that we’d be able to keep our planned schedule and pick up our fiver from Baton Rouge in seven days.  And we did.  Just as planned, we arrived at Millers RV on Monday – today -- and were on our way to California (with some side trips) this afternoon.  It was the intervening seven days that didn’t go to plan.  Monday morning I had a work week to gather up the craft projects I wanted to take, get the laundry all done and packed, make sure all the odds and ends were done before we headed south early Saturday.  Two long but not arduous driving days would see us in Baton Rouge Sunday night.

By Monday afternoon, I was scrambling to get the bare bones of the odds and ends under control, stuffing dirty clothing into a duffle bag, and doing a fast weed of craft projects before packing them higgledy-piggledy into a bin.  Because J’s work called him on Monday, and graciously gave him two days to get to San Antonio Texas.  I’m not being facetious; this really was gracious, we could drive, if we pushed, and our plans wouldn’t be completely wrecked by him having to go out of town solo for three weeks.  We left Tuesday morning early, and drove 17 hour days.  It was rough, but we made it.  The hotel I picked out of the air, because we never did find out exactly where in the city the client was before we got to the city, turned out to be just about a block away from the site.  Of course, it turns out that in Texas, a block away takes two turn-arounds and a couple miles of frontage road to get to, but we could see it from there.

The cats went with us.  We’re going west from this point; we couldn’t leave them home.  They turn out to be much better travelers than I’d feared.  Minnie, little elderly thing that she is, needs frequent potty stops.  But she’ll happily accept being turfed into the litter box in the back seat of the truck, and does her business with what is almost a sigh of relief then is eager to climb back into her carrier.  The hotels we stopped at accepted pets, and other than having to fish Mercedes out from the innards of any piece of furniture with a torn bottom cover every morning, our and their hotel stays were unexceptional.

San Antonio was lovely, once we got our bearings again.  We had an evening to go into town, and had dinner at the Riverwalk (serenaded by Mariachis!) after an excellent tour of the river by boat.  We didn’t have enough time to visit the Alamo, but we’ll get there.  Saturday we roved around the city and the surrounding hill country looking for a good campground, because J’s due back there on Tuesday evening.  The first campground we checked out turned out to be the best, but I didn’t let J off the hook for driving around to the others, and we had a very pleasant day in the windy hills.  We went by the Guadalupe River state park and walked along the river bank.  The hills have their own austere beauty; the trees are small and twisted and the spring greens look like high summer to my eastern eyes, faded and subtle.  It reminds me of the arid plains where olives are grown in Spain.  Wildflowers are in bloom along the highways; we saw bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush in pretty juxtaposition.

Once J’s work was sorted, we were able to break away on Sunday and drive to Baton Rouge (almost as planned.)  The trip east took twelve hours, vs the seven hour western passage.  We got held up by a road closure on 10 east of Houston; we watched from the freeway as more adventurous cars sped across the median (and the accompanying drainage ditch -- a couple almost didn’t make it) to the parallel frontage road, then when that was stopped too we watched in bemusement as they made the traverse again, back onto the freeway.

I was very happy to see our fiver again.  I can’t wait to sleep in our own bed.  I feel like Goldilocks; one bed was too hard, one too soft, but this one will be just right.  Millers did a great job on our rig and after a review of the work we were able to settle up and get on our way.  We made one last stop in Louisiana, at a little place called Boudin Café.  The crawfish etoufe was delicious!  I love crawfish, but they’re like philly cheesesteaks; I really only want them in the region that is famous for them.   We made it into eastern Texas before taking an early stop at a roadside campground, with just enough time for a quick trip for a few groceries before dark.  The cats were glad to see the fiver too, and settled in like old hands.  Tomorrow morning we’ll take care of a few maintenance chores and make the run back to San Antonio, and then our plans will be up in the air again.  We’ll be there for the week, but after that?  I’ll let you know, once I do.