We DID it!!! We finished the camper and pulled her down here to Katy!
We could NOT have left Sunday morning if Summer had not devoted her weekend to helping us get off.
She arrived Saturday morning and worked HARD all day!
All three of us worked HARD!!
So much to do. The camper had not been moved in 6 years!
Although we started the process Saturday morning it was Saturday afternoon before LD pulled her out!
Once we had it parked in front of the house I knew we were good to go!!
But then we had to clean up the leaves and debris.
Summer cleaned the stone wall with bleach water and cleaned up the mess leaving it all neat and tidy. We will need to landscape this area next year.
When Louis Dean first came on the scene there was a huge crape myrtle tree here and a row of full grown and beautiful bushes - I cannot remember the name of them now but they were thriving!! It all looked very pretty. Then LD cut down 'that messy tree!' so he could back the camper in. Back then I was working at a State Farm office and he called me one day and asked if her could trim back the bushes. I foolishly said 'Yes!'
Do you know what he DID??? He took a CHAIN SAW to them!!! Level to the GROUND!! Good thing we were newly weds. I still didn't learn my lesson though.
That same summer I asked him to weed eat around the stone planter in the front yard.
Guess how he did THAT?? With Round Up! I had STRAW outlining the yard the rest of the season! Now I try to clarify what permissions I'm giving him and chain saws are NOT landscaping nor lawn equipment tools!!
Not only did we have to get the camper ready and all systems go on that project - we had to leave our property in order. The West Nile virus has been especially bad in Texas this year so we cleaned all our ponds in the back yard and made sure they were pumping well. Then I cleaned the house and we finished packing the truck.
By this time we were so tired we couldn't think straight!
Summer had 2 tickets to the Dallas Cowboys pre season game.......
so she and I cleaned up and headed to Cowboy Stadium.
We didn't last through the whole game but it was nice to take a break and STOP working! By the time we got home Summer could tell we still needed help to get out of town so she spent the night in order to help us Sunday morning.
And away we went!
I followed him the whole way - 265 miles - with him driving AT LEAST 20 miles UNDER the speed limit!
He was hauling a pretty good load!
I could tell at the rate we were going we would be lucky to arrive before dark!
I called ahead and the RV Resort office closes at 4:00 but he said he would leave a packet for us taped to the check in window with the gate code and other info we would need.
Good thing I did! We were a long ways from 4:00 by the time we got there!!
(It actually took us 9 hours!)
That big old truck pulled it with NO problem!
We stopped at Buc-ee's in Madisonville for a leg stretch and grabbed a sandwich.
There is no place to sit inside so after he walked Lucy we just ate in the air conditioned car. It was a hot day in Texas! NOT the killer 100 degree temps of last year but still hot! AND Louis Dean had NO A/C in his truck! It picked a fine week to die!
He drove the whole 265 miles with his windows down so he wouldn't suffocate!
This really did a number on his asthma. He hasn't got over that part yet!
He couldn't hear me on his cell phone unless he rolled his windows up.
Let's just say he was my super hero driving under conditions like that!
The couple of rain showers we drove through were a real blessing to him giving him a few moments of fresh air.
He only stopped twice.
I stopped three times - once at a Texas Safety Rest Area and then drove 75 miles an hour - which is the speed limit - to catch up to him.
He downed 3 bottles of water as we made a mini camp behind a Cracker Barrel.
Lucy enjoyed the break! She rode shot gun with LD in the hot truck!
Maggie rode in comfort in the A/C car tucked under my seat.
After we rested we were ready to tackle the hardest part of the trip......going through Houston on I45 to 610 to I10. This portion is fraught with all sorts of possible dangers!
To add to our worries LD's fuel gage was flirting with EMPTY and he forgot he was going to stay on the service road after leaving the Cracker Barrel to get diesel and pulled right back up on the Interstate!
I got in front to guide him through this complicated route and signaled at the 610 ramp. Then to my utter shame I panicked thinking I was going the wrong way and veered off. Louis Dean - in the truck with the camper behind - was not as agile and entered the freeway waving at me on the service road through his open window! I tried to call him on the cell but the phone had fallen to the floor! That's when I pulled into a Taco Cabana parking lot and broke down crying!
I still couldn't reach him by phone so I drove onto the Interstate in search of a big white Dodge Ram Truck with a Wilderness RV behind it! This was not an easy part of the freeway as it is under a lot of construction and there were lots of barriers along the way. By this time - unbeknown est to me - LD had pulled off so he could retrieve his phone. Now I am on the freeway and he is on a service road! But when I ask him which exit he took - HE freaks out and says he is at a dead end - LITERALLY!!! Then he hangs up!
I travel on a bit and discover I10 West is just ahead - so we are - or at least WERE on the right road! SO! I get OFF and circle back to see if I can find him. I end up in a very shady part of town with lots of shady characters around. So I start crying again.
After a few minutes I get BACK on the freeway and Louis Dean calls me. He is still nearly out of fuel but he is back on the highway. I tell him I was in a shady area and he says he was there also.....and those 'shady' characters helped him get out of that dead end with harming the truck or trailer or any BODY! They also gave him good directions to get back in 610. He only had a $10.00 bill on him but he told the guy he wanted to buy his dinner. The fellow was real nice and said, "I just wanted to help!" Just goes to show you the ones who scared me were the very ones God used to help Louis Dean!
By this time I had driven back up to the I10 West intersection and was circling back - AGAIN - when lo, and BEHOLD, as we were talking on the phone we PASSED each other......me going east and he going west! So, for the LAST time I exit and made a u turn and follow after him as fast as I can! Guess where I caught up with him? At the very exit we take to get to the campground!
We pull up to the RV park - the truck is now running on fumes - and I get the packet and am trying to use the keypad so we can get through - and Lucy jumps out of the truck! Her collar comes off and we are trying to corral her - and I have already spent about 15 minutes trying that code thingy - when the camp hosts pull up in their little electric cart and offer to help us. The keypad worked like a charm. I guess I was just all a bundle of nerves by that time!
We reach our campsite and Louis Dean starts to angle in......
by this time he is a total wreck!
The fellow in the campsite next to us could see we were basket cases and had blocked other campers trying to get past us to go on to THEIR spaces!
He took off and brought back a young man who has a 40' trailer and he had our camper parked just as perfectly as possible in no time!
Talk about God providing 'Angels' along our way!
We were IN!!! The fellow even helped LD with unhitching and everything!
Wonderful! The guy next to us - the one who had gone for help - said this was our lucky day for arriving since he had some mean BBQ nearly ready to eat!
It had been a long time since we had those sandwiches at lunch so our mouths were watering. I called Amber to tell her we were here and would come over to help with the next feed. We were in no shape to stay up with the night feedings that first night after all we'd been through to get down here! The next feed was in 10 minutes so we had to tell the BBQ man we couldn't wait for a plate! We had quads to see! He gave us a rain check and I am hoping he BBQ's again soon!
We drove over and helped with the babies. LD was impressed with how much they had grown. They were just days old the last time he had seen them!We looked so ragged and were so tired I didn't even bother taking pictures!
We left Amber and Mike after the babies were in bed and told them I'd be back the next day and we went off in search of food. Too tired to shop and too exhausted to think straight we ended up eating some leftovers I had put in the ice chest from when LD and Mother had gone out to eat on Friday! Hey, it was food! We washed it down with a glass - OKAY! - two glasses of wine, hauled the stuff off our bed and crawled in!
We slept like BABIES!!!
The next post I will show how sweet Louis Dean is with the quads......
but for now - this is my moving story!
