Dec 8 – Rain, Rain, go away!

The relaxing evening on Dec 7^th was interrupted late in the evening with the roar of stock car racing at the adjacent campground. Immediately Kevin harkened back to his youth when he and Buryl Roe would visit the Knoxville, IA fairgrounds Sprint car races. He and Mr. Roe would visit the Pits rather than sit in the grandstands.

The Pits provided a more personal view of the work being done on each car prior to and after each qualifying heat before the main event. The smell of specially blended fuel mixes would fill their nostrils and make the head spin. (This was long before anyone would sniff glue or spray paint). Amazing how things like this late evening unexpected dirt track racing noise would bring back such fond memories. Theresa did not have the same fond memory experience to draw from so to her the sound was simply annoying. If only she and Kevin and Mr. Roe had met earlier in life she too would have had a wonderful recollection rather than an annoyed response to the sound of loud cars going fast in a circle on a dirt track (but then again maybe not). The memory for Kevin and the annoyance for Theresa ended early as the racing stopped around 9PM.

With full hook up at the loud campsite the couple was thankful they could shower and charge up all their electronic devices. There was no wifi and the Verizon mifis had very poor connections so they were lucky to get the Blog post out that evening.

The next morning Theresa was up early as her internal clock had not adjusted to the new time zone. Kevin was not far behind, so they started to prepare for the departure.



Theresa had scoped out 2 potential RV campgrounds near Lake Charles, LA about 350 miles away. After they hooked up the Toad and paid the Camping fee Theresa entered the days destination address in the GPS and they were ready to roll.

I-10 lay before them with Sunday 'lite' traffic and some threat of rain and some variable fog.


Theresa was at the helm first as she navigated thru Mobile, AL over bridges and to her surprise a tunnel under the bay.

Yikes! This was 'white knuckle' time for her as she had to slow the 18 ton (when empty) Smitanic. Thank goodness it was a short down then up the other side to see daylight.

Kevin took over after a stop for gas. He walk Theresa thru pumping gas with all the additional options (DEF, REF, Trailer…) the truckers have at their pumps.

Kevin drove the the remainder miles thru 3 states with off and on rain most of the way. They were surprised to see that there was a town named Iowa, LA! The scenery was mostly swamps with over passes and bridges elevated over the water.

They crossed the Mississippi after New Orleans and descended into yet more swamp land. They arrived at the planned destination only to be greeted by puddles from the day's rain. They were happy to find that the sites were fully paved.

They were also informed about the donuts and hot chocolate in the camp-store as well as the pet park for Zin to visit. Theresa acted as the pilot boat and guided Kevin thru the various narrow turns, thru deep puddles and navigational features of other parked cars, campers, and trucks and glided the Smitanic into Lucky site 13. Upon proper deployment of jacks, slide-outs, and full 50 amp hook up the couple uncorked a bottle for a celebratory beverage.

The couple will spend the night catching up with the Blog, email and planning for tomorrows trip. They hope to find a RV campground near San Antonio, TX and hunker down for a few days of working and exploring that area (maybe the rain will pass as well).