When we get up, Diane tells me she heard some partiers during the night, but I must have been sound asleep; I never heard a thing. It is another beautiful morning with the sun on our left and the lake on our right. We run our departure checklist and motate to the dump station. While I empty tanks, I repair the potable water station hose, where some Park employee or a visitor has used electrical tape to attach a 4” hose end (with hose threads) to the rubber hose that comes from the freeze-proof water spigot via a vertical spring arm. I apply the Possum Lodge remedy—duct tape. That should hold it for a few more campers (if the beer bottle people don’t vandalize it).
We stop at HQ/Visitor Center to get our Park Passport stamped and pick up a pin and a couple of T-shirts. Then we head for Mom’s, about 360 miles away. The drive is nice over a lot of flat land with occasional small bumps and dips in the landscape. I can’t get over how things have greened up since I passed through here two weeks ago.
We are looking for places to get a propane fill-up, and as we are driving through Wichita Falls, I am on the phone to a propane place and I misread the GPS and misdirect Diane at one of the interchanges. Five miles south of town I realize we are going down the wrong highway, a two-laner. We pull over onto a firm grassy shoulder to regroup the GPS to find out if it is faster to retrace or take a secondary road cutoff to the intended highway. Go back is fastest, so I get out and pace the distance across the road and onto the opposite shoulder, inspecting for good RV footing as well. (DD doesn’t do well on soft ground.) According to my fact sheet, kept in driver’s reach at all times, a 180° turn takes 63’ (25 Dean paces) of clear space to one side of the vehicle. This I know from some experiments in an empty sports complex parking lot in Augusta, Maine, last year. With my walkie-talkie I direct Diane ahead and partially into a gravel driveway just a little ahead. I climb on board and, with a break in the traffic, Diane completes the half circle without even touching the grass on the other side.
We arrive at Mom’s about 7 PM. After unhitching Essie, I direct
Diane headfirst into the neighbor’s driveway, but there is no way to avoid driving the rear wheels over the curb and the water valve box, so we abandon that. It’s a simple maneuver, however, to have her back into the driveway across the street (I ask them first) and then she pulls straight into Dave and Monty’s place with no problem. With blocks under the jacks to spread the load, we are level and set for a two night stay 
with our steps just four feet from Mom’s driveway. At least this time, we don’t have our bedroom slide extending out over the centerline of the street!
We have some dinner from Mom’s refrigerator (they’ve already eaten), and have an interesting visit with Mom and Rick before retiring to DD for the night.
We stop at HQ/Visitor Center to get our Park Passport stamped and pick up a pin and a couple of T-shirts. Then we head for Mom’s, about 360 miles away. The drive is nice over a lot of flat land with occasional small bumps and dips in the landscape. I can’t get over how things have greened up since I passed through here two weeks ago.
We are looking for places to get a propane fill-up, and as we are driving through Wichita Falls, I am on the phone to a propane place and I misread the GPS and misdirect Diane at one of the interchanges. Five miles south of town I realize we are going down the wrong highway, a two-laner. We pull over onto a firm grassy shoulder to regroup the GPS to find out if it is faster to retrace or take a secondary road cutoff to the intended highway. Go back is fastest, so I get out and pace the distance across the road and onto the opposite shoulder, inspecting for good RV footing as well. (DD doesn’t do well on soft ground.) According to my fact sheet, kept in driver’s reach at all times, a 180° turn takes 63’ (25 Dean paces) of clear space to one side of the vehicle. This I know from some experiments in an empty sports complex parking lot in Augusta, Maine, last year. With my walkie-talkie I direct Diane ahead and partially into a gravel driveway just a little ahead. I climb on board and, with a break in the traffic, Diane completes the half circle without even touching the grass on the other side.
We arrive at Mom’s about 7 PM. After unhitching Essie, I direct
Diane headfirst into the neighbor’s driveway, but there is no way to avoid driving the rear wheels over the curb and the water valve box, so we abandon that. It’s a simple maneuver, however, to have her back into the driveway across the street (I ask them first) and then she pulls straight into Dave and Monty’s place with no problem. With blocks under the jacks to spread the load, we are level and set for a two night stay 
with our steps just four feet from Mom’s driveway. At least this time, we don’t have our bedroom slide extending out over the centerline of the street!We have some dinner from Mom’s refrigerator (they’ve already eaten), and have an interesting visit with Mom and Rick before retiring to DD for the night.
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