Let's Drive Just a Little Further . . .

With the hunters taking over Inks Lake State Park and freezing temperatures heading into the area, it was time to head further south. It was windy and overcast when we broke camp and drove out of our camping site.

We had planned our next stop at Choke Canyon state park. We bought another Texas state park pass this year, and it's good for the next twelve months. Denisa is bound and determined to get her money out of that $70 investment. So far it has saved us $6 for each of the 4 days we stayed at Lake Arrowhead, plus got us a half-price night of camping there. Another 2 days of $12 day-use fees at Inks Lake and another half-price night of camping brings our savings total to $69.50. So we still are 50 cents shy of breaking even on our investment.

As Mark is driving the motor home south, Denisa is reading on the internet that there aren't many hiking trails at Choke Canyon. We also realized that it would be 24 miles out of our way to drive to the state park. So we thought, "Let's drive just a little further" instead of stopping at Choke Canyon.

Now Denisa is making phone calls about other possible places to spend the night while Mark is clicking off the miles on the odometer. The overcast skies have broken into sunshine and we have a nice north breeze behind us so, "Let's drive just a little further."

Texas has one of the best highway systems we have found since we've been full-timing. With smooth roads and wide shoulders, Denisa began to think this would be a good day to brush up on her driving skills. She hadn't been behind the wheel of the motor home for over a year, so "Let's drive just a little further."

We had to stage the picture and take it later, because Mark was too nervous to take it while Denisa was actually driving. The pictures he took on the road were all blurry from him shaking so bad. Truthfully, he got to experience some "firsts" while he was taking over the passenger seat for that hour. He walked to the back of the motor home while it was moving for the first time. He also tried out (ahem) the facilities while going down the road for the first time. Denisa's driving and Mark's other experiences were so successful we decided "Let's drive just a little further."

There weren't many campground options now, and Mark thought it really didn't seem worthwhile to go to the trouble of leveling the motor home and connecting the utilities for a quick overnight stay, so "Let's drive just a little further."

We noticed the temperatures getting warmer as we drove further south. We always enjoy those first glimpses of palm trees as we cross into the Rio Grand Valley. We shed our sweat shirts as we decided "Let's drive just a little further."

It was too far to drive all the way to our final destination at the tip of Texas. We had learned our lesson to not arrive at our camping destination after dark, so now we started looking for a good parking lot for a free boondocking site. When we finally found a Walmart right off the highway, we called to verify that they allow RVers to overnight there. To get to that Walmart we'll need to "drive just a little further."

We pulled into the Walmart parking lot in Edinburg, Texas, before sunset. We found a cozy place in the far side of the parking lot.

We did our obligatory Walmart shopping, and settled in for supper from the Subway inside the store. We were joined by another RV and several trucks before the evening was over. We didn't know if the security car circling the parking lot was a good sign or a bad sign, but we slept well. After a record-breaking 6.5 hours and 334 miles of driving the motor home today, we were finally glad we didn't need to drive even a little further.