Texas – Page 2 – Stark Adventures

Day 4,5: Alabippi and Texiana

March 6, 2022March 8, 2022karenstark

3/5/22- Today was nearly a 400 mile day, so we got going before 9:00. We’ve learned that camping people don’t break camp at the crack of dawn like boaters do, so we don’t want to disturb the peace too early. Besides, if we get to our destination too early, our spot might not be open, so we are slowly learning this land way of life. We did have to pull out of our spot and completely block the road to get Kawi loaded. Wouldn’t you know it, a truck came into the campground and had to wait for us. I think it was probably somebody from the campground like me yesterday, who just bopped over to the visitor’s center to get cave tour tickets. Anyway, we quickly loaded Kawi up and only put on the back tie-down straps and closed the back door to get out of the way. Then we pulled around to a wide spot in the road, opened the trailer back up again and finished strapping him in. We use two straps in back, two in front, plus over-tire straps on the front tires. Kenny likes the tire straps to take the most load so that Kawi’s suspension isn’t smashed flat all the time. It’s probably overkill, but at least we know he isn’t jumping around and having a dance party back there while we drive down the highway. And it’s good that we have some kinda procedure and can do things sorta quick in a pinch if we have to. So out of Florida, and we were into Alabama by 11:00.

Galveston 7.26.16

August 5, 2016February 20, 2018karenstark

It’s about 550 miles from San Antonio to New Orleans. Kenny was really feeling the need to breathe some ocean air, so we headed to Galveston to break up the trip. Unfortunately, there is no good way to get there without going through Houston. Boy, did we ever drive right through the middle of a crazy thunderstorm! This was certainly the most stressful freeway driving we went through on the whole trip!

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We did get a glimpse of downtown Houston before the sky fell on us. Read more →

San Antonio – 7.24/25.16

July 31, 2016February 20, 2018karenstark

Headed south from Austin to San Antonio. It’s less than 100 miles. Along the way, we stopped at this cute little historic town called Gruene, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was Sunday, and there must have been a thousand people (I’m not even kidding!) there for lunch at the Gristmill River Restaurant. The restaurant spread out all over the place, inside and outside. There were lots of cute little boutique shops, but the highlight is Gruene Hall. It is a saloon and dancehall, in continuous operation since the 1800’s!

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Hello Texas! – 7.23.16

July 25, 2016February 20, 2018karenstark

Heading south from NM to TX. Right off the bat, as soon as we cross the border, we lose another hour of time! DANG!. Texas is in the Central Time Zone.

The shortest route from Carlsbad NM to any sort of freeway in Texas is via Hwy 285. The truckers all know this, and this is where they all are… and all of their blown tire recaps. We are bumping along at the 75 or 80 mph speed limit on a road that needed to be repaved about 30 years ago. It is 105 degrees out. Really, it is that temperature! In a line of trucks. WHAM! We hit a blown tire recap in the middle of the road. %*@$#!!!! Pull over and try not to get hit by a truck. Whew! No flat tires. But, the front passenger side wheel-well cowling is buggered up. The driver/mechanic secures it as best he can. Start down the road and whap! A big ol’ chunk of cowling flies out. Pull over again, and watch behind us. Fortunately everyone steers around it, we back up and recover it. Put it in the back seat. Driver/mechanic once again does what he can to keep more parts from falling off, since we are a good 80 miles to anywhere. Welcome to Texas. There wasn’t even a sign anywhere to tell us Howdy y’all!, so I found this later.

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