Friday February 2nd 2018

The sunrise is late in Van Horn Texas on the western side of the Central time zone. It was also in the high thirties with a steady breeze. Despite these complications I was on the road east by 9:30 in the morning for a long travel day to Kerrville TX.  It was cool all day. I had to turn the dashboard heat on in the motorhome.

Site 23 at the Kerrville KOA.

The first two thirds of the trip was across broad open areas with occasional hills to climb. It is really a monotonous journey. The speed limit is 80mph. Cars and some trucks pass by quickly since I maintain a speed of sixty five or less. In a couple of areas power generating windmills dot the horizon on both sides of Interstate 10. They were getting a good breeze today. I was pushed around by several good wind gusts and bounced around by some interesting road surfaces too.

The last third of the journey was in the Texas Hill country. The road climbs up and down some significant hills. I can’t really use the cruise control in hilly areas so I had to pay additional attention to driving. If I keep the cruise control on the motorhome downshifts to maintain speed on a hill. It can’t anticipate the climb and add more gas before it needs to downshift. The cruise control also doesn’t know when to give up trying to maintain speed.

It was a very long travel day. It took over six hours to travel 375 miles. I stopped once for gas early in the journey. It’s a good thing I took the opportunity to use the facilities because every rest area I went by was full. I drove through two rest areas looking for a parking place for lunch without success. My lunch turned out to be the crackers and water I keep in the drivers area. It was enough, but just barely.

I stopped at the Kerrville KOA before four in the afternoon. It is a good thing I had a reservation. The park was almost full. This was the longest driving day I’ve had since I went west last February. I wasn’t particularly hard driving, just long and boring. There shouldn’t be anymore long travel days for a while. Tomorrow is only about one hundred miles.