Wednesday, February 24, 2010 – Drive to Davy Crockett NF, TX

Woke up to the alarm at 7:00 am, was packed up and on the road by just after 9:30. The drive was a straight shot across country, due west, on some of the worst roads we’ve ever seen until we hit the Texas border. A patchwork of asphalt patches and potholes kept us bouncing around for the first half of the trip. Went to an RV place in Lufkin to 1) buy propane, which they didn’t have, 2) look for a new door handle for our patio sliding door, which they didn’t have, and 3) dump, which, by now we were so discouraged we forgot to ask. The man there did give us directions to the nearest propane place a few miles up the road, and we filled up for just $18/tank, the cheapest we’ve found since we left home. Then we found a gas station (though we forgot to fill the spare tanks for the generator 🙁 , and a Subway for lunch. We dumped at the regular campground at the forest, then traveled out to the horse camp, only to discover a sign on the kiosk saying “No water, sorry for the inconvience (sic).” I’d been on the phone with these folks trying to get answers to several questions for several days, and had yet to get those answers, except for the one about “Is there water?”, to which they had definitively answered “Yes.” I immediately called the District Office, and to which they responded, yes, they have water, it’s just been turned off because of the cold weather (two snowstorms in three weeks, apparently unprecedented for the area.) They thought a burst line had been fixed, and would send someone out to turn the water on. Sure enough, within 30 minutes, two women arrived to do just that, and we were in business. Meanwhile, we got the horses highlined, waited until we were sure we had water before we opened up the RV, and were all settled in by 5:00 or so. Of course, the pic is our new back yard!