North Texas

We are now in the town of Alvarado, TX....just south of Dallas / Ft. Worth.   The journey here from the easternmost coastal point in Alabama is scenic.   In the southern part of Mississippi we passed through the town of Hattiesburg....one of those places just about everyone has heard about but no one knows just where it is....including me.   It turns out Hattiesburg was voted one of the top 100 retirement destination towns.  This racially mixed community of 60,000 folks offers local arts and theater, the University of Southern Mississippi campus, a very diverse economy and it is less than one hour from the MS coastline.  Seems the town was started by a lumberman / engineer in the 1880s who named the town after his wife, Hattie.   (Makes some sense now!).   Hattiesburg is also the hub city for the Army's Camp Shelby, the largest training facility for the Army's National Guard contingents.

After passing through Hattiesburg we drove north to Jackson, the state's capital.   We drove around the city on some of the roughest roads we have experienced.....so while we cannot comment too much on the city itself, we can say unequivocally that they need to do some road work....and in a hurry.   The motorhome was shaking and rolling over the bumps and the very poorly designed and constructed highway to bridge transitions.   Enough of picking on Jackson.....from there we got on I20 West and headed toward our destination for the night in Shreveport, LA.   It was fun to drive over the Mississippi River, especially since it has been 40+ years since Pam has done that.   The remainder of the drive to Shreveport was pleasant.

After spending the night in a Shreveport Walmart, we moved on toward the Dallas area.   I was a bit concerned that morning as bad weather was forecast to come through the area.....rains, winds, a threat of hail and even a tornado watch.   We got back on I20W and kept the speed down a bit as we were buffetted by quite a lot of wind.   As the day wore on the wind worsened and more than once we were blown around....nearly from lane to lane....to the point where I thought a few times of stopping for the night short of our target stop.  But we slowed down and pressed on...arriving in Alvarado, TX just before 4pm.   That night we dry camped again and experienced the brunt of the weather front passing through.   All night long the wind whipped up...we found out next morning we had gusts of 55 mph!!   The slide out toppers on the motorhome were flapping and the wind was rocking the RV despite the fact we were sitting on sturdy levelers.  More than once during the night I wondered about getting up to bring in the slideouts.  A rocky ride indeed!   We awoke to calmer conditions next day but also to reports that places in the Texas Panhandle had upwards of 19" of snow....and some places in Oklahoma had received almost that much.   Thankfully, we did not have to deal with all that.

We have not been doing much sightseeing around the area as it is very developed with a lot of factories and the like.   We move on tomorrow to the German settled town of New Braunfels and then Friday on to San Antonio, where we will stay for a week.   There will be lots of photos coming from our sightseeing there, for sure.   Last night we made our way to Babe's Chicken House restaurant in Burleson, TX.   Friends Larry and Lainie had recommended it....and they were spot on!   We enjoyed large helpings of very good Texas Fried Chicken with all the fixin's....and the side dishes and home made biscuits just kept coming.   Hats off to Babes!!!

Babes of Burleson.


So, stay tuned for more from San Antonio followed by the Texas Hill Country.