Come along for the Ride!

I am so glad you are here. Stay with us as we travel everywhere. I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Almost South of the Border

We landed a load going to Texas. It was a hazmat load. So when we made our pickup it took us quite a while to get our paperwork in order and then placard the vehicle correctly and then finally call in the load to our company. But all was in order and so away we went.
We are still trying to adjust to this "new" truck. So we were working on little things each time we stopped just tightening loose screws, padding items that rattled, and re arranging things to make more sense. It takes a little while but we were adapting okay.
Until...our A/C stopped working. We could not figure it out and thought maybe we were doing something wrong or just not right. It was hot. We started to really bake around Arkansas and it got worse as we traveled through Texas. At one point I stopped at a rest area, blocked all light from coming in the windows and just rested in the slight air that we had for a few minutes.
Then I got moving again. I drove until we reached Dallas area and then Pops took over. He drove us south through Waco, Austin, San Antonio and Hondo. We were going to Del Rio. We knew it was really close to the Mexican border, but we didn't realize how close until the Border Patrol trucks began to Yell at us through loud speakers from their trucks. We were 20 feet from the big, heavy border fence. We were at a T in the road and the fence was just in front of us. There were tall, very bright lights all along the fence and we could see many, many deer eating the grass on both sides of the fence. We even saw a cow!
We turned right and followed the instructions from Gypsy as the border patrol rode along side of us until we turned right at the next intersection which took us away from the fence and into our delivery address.
It was between 11-11:30pm. The man we were meeting to unload us was there waiting in his car. He asked Pops if we were sure we wanted to do this now. He was a little concerned about the mexican crime all along the border. He said that at the fence is where most bad things happen. We chose to unload rather than try to find a place to sleep in this small town. So Pops and the man unloaded quickly and we were driving away within 20 minutes. But we had to go back past the fence. This time we didn't see the patrol.But we still saw the cow and a lot of the deer.
We drove north again back about 100 miles and pulled into a rest area to sleep for the night. It was Saturday night or rather Sunday morning and knew that we wouldn't be able to get to church in the morning.
When we woke up we drove to San Antonio and got showered. Then we met Tate and Shirley who told us they had made plans for us. It turns out that they were picking up a team of drivers that used to drive for them, Bob and Ellie.
Pops and I had met Ellie once really briefly, but never had met Bob. So it was good to meet them. Tate had arranged for all of us to spend the afternoon at a place called Buckhorn Museum and Saloon. It was an old West saloon that has been turned into a museum. There is a large section devoted solely to the Texas Rangers. Well, Tate knows how much I loved the Lonesome Dove Novels so this part of the museum was fantastic. But of course, I enjoyed the whole place. We were there for several hours.
Then after we left there, he took us all to eat at my favorite place, Schobels on the River in New Bruanfels. I have described this place before but it is worth repeating. It is very big, almost barn-like with stone and boards on the walls. It has a huge stone fireplace and a couple of wagons set up as decorations. The right side of the place is a bar, but to the left is a big restaurant with buffet. Outside of the restaurant is a large stone patio with tables along the river so that you can eat outside and enjoy the view.
The buffet had fried chicken, roast beef, ham, pork, and any side dish that you can imagine. The were great big wheels of cheese. The salad bar is huge and is so very fresh. There was tomato bisque soup and vegetable barley. And the desserts, oh my, so many cakes and pies and cookies to choose from and it was all homemade now thawed and served.
Oh, yeah, Schobels, it is good!
After we finished eating indoors, we walked outside and sat on the patio and just chatted away into the evening. It was such a good time. Thanks, Tate and Shirley.
After that Tate took us back to our truck and then took Bob and Ellie back to theirs which was at another truckstop.
It wasn't long before Pops and I were in bed. After taking the "poor neglected" dogs out of course.
The next morning we had an appointment to get our air conditioner fixed but they couldn't really find a problem so we were a little disappointed but still had to see another mechanic about the in dash air conditioner. We also went and got a new tire put on the front.
Then we drove out to Tate and Shirley's place. I love it here. It is so quiet and peaceful. It is big and the dogs get to run. It was hot, but breezy so I didn't mind it.
Shirley and I sat on lawn chairs and enjoyed a good visit while Tate and Pops fixed our water leak and a few other little things.
After spending most of the day there, Pops and I got a load and accepted it. It picked up tomorrow in Lufkin and was going to Arkansas. So we left Tate and Shirley's and went to see the other mechanic. He installed a new compressor for our air conditioner and then we had cold air. Oh yeah, it was wonderful.
After that was fixed, we drove up close to Lufkin and slept for awhile until time to pick up our load.
We have been here before so we kind of was familiar with how it would work. It is always nice to return to places because you already know what to expect. And we expected that here our load would not be ready when we got there. And sure enough, we were told to sit in the truck it would be at least an hour.
So while we waited I fixed us some french toast for breakfast and then got everything all cleaned up, by then it was time to go inside. Now our load was ready and so while Pops helped to load the truck, I worked on getting all the paperwork in order and taken care of. Now it was off to Arkansas. This is also a place we've been to several times, but it is hidden in the boondocks and it isn't easy to locate.
We ended up getting off track for a little bit but then we rerouted and it all worked out.
It had taken us the whole day to drive here so it was a little after 4 o'clock when we got here. But we got unloaded quickly and then headed to a place of layover.

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