Indiana thru to South Padre Island, Texas

Once we left Nappanee, IN, we headed south to Indianapolis. Ever been through there? Well, the Speedway is just one of the sights you see on the by-pass and, I might add, at 75 mph! We had been warned about how crazy the routes and ongoing construction in Indianapolis and they were right! We followed the voice of our Garmin exactly and, in no time, we were on the west side heading towards Terre Haute which is at the state line with Illinois. Just a word about the by-pass – we moved from the north to the west side of the city. Good thing we didn’t have to go east on the by-pass – the traffic reports on the radio pointed out the ‘explosion earlier that morning’ would close the by-pass for probably several months! Were we glad we were going west? Absolutely!

We went slightly southwest to the Terre Haute KOA. They welcomed us, offering us great cable, good internet, an oak leaf forested area for camping and a continental breakfast. And it started to rain – and it rained and rained and rained. We were glad we took an upgraded site – gave us the chance to step out onto a paved brick patio instead of a 3 inch puddle of mud! On arrival we noticed that the turn signal lights were not operating. “Oh great…”, we said. We had been struck by Murphy’s Law. Mind you, we didn’t exactly know how long the blinkers hadn’t been working but we thanked the Lord we had made it through Indianapolis without blinkers without incident!

So, now what? Before, during and after our continental breakfast ($1 more for an Egg McMuffin), we worked on where the closest RV dealer was located. The dealer recommended we go direct to Freightliner who built our chassis in the first place. His recommendation included their location and their direct number. The next thing we knew, we were headed further west to Troy, IL to the Freightliner service centre. Now the only thing separating Troy, IL from St. Louis, Missouri is the Missisippi River so you can imagine the traffic there! We got back onto the freeway and stayed put in the same lane for the entire ride – no turn signals? No turning! We were lucky and arrived on the east side of St. Louis (in Troy) in the massive Freightliner compound. We parked our RV amongst 25+ other rigs awaiting service. St. Louis is not called the “Gateway to the West” for nothing!

Freightliner treated us just fine. We were concerned the truck drivers would be given priority but, it was “first come, first served”. The service bays were drive-in but not pull-through so we dumped the Jeep and pulled into the bay. In no time, thanx to newer electronics, the mechanic had located the problem and the fuses were replaced. Now I want to tell you that we have a schematic for the chassis – but think about finding a ½ inch fuse on a 42’ long bus – a needle in a haystack, for sure! As Johnnie worked with the mechanic, I went up to the truckers waiting room, watched an old action-packed movie ("Die Hard") in a dark green, leather lazy-boy (one of 11 in a circle and all chairs were filled) and ate popcorn from a bag – all supplied by Freightliner!

Did we worry about the bill? You bet! We had no idea what to expect! But $136 and 90 minutes later, John backed the RV out of the service bay, we re-connected the Jeep and we were on our way! Murphy had struck but the price was not high!

Our next stop was at the Flying J in Sikeston, MO – noisy as Hell – they had 70’s music blaring all night long at the gas pumps. FYI, the RV parking area is right beside the gas pumps. It is free though! Next overnight was in Texarkana, AR – another KOA and right off the interstate. The next morning, we moved into Texas and directly south to a small town north of Houston called Livingston where we got a camp site on Lake Livingston. We visited some friends there – Stu and Lori – and they quickly advised us to stay two nights ‘cause of the rain storm headed over the area.

And storm it was… you know how you hear the pitter-patter of rain dropping on the roof… well this was like a fire hose full-on for 10+ hours all through the night. The next day was gray and the rain sprinkled all day long. The news reported that many parts of Houston were flooded - the film clips proved this to be true. We decided it was best to follow Stu’s advice and stay another night. Stu was, after all, a firefighter captain before he retired so he had lots of credibility! PLUS, we got to have dinner with them at their place – a lovely ranch-style bungalow nestled on a small, private lake.

Now just a word about traveling south from the Arkansas/Texas border in the north at Texarkana to the Texas/Mexico border in the south at South Padre Island... it's like traveling from the Manitoba/Ontario border west of Thunder Bay to the Ontario/Quebec border east of Cornwall – it’s a long, long way. So, after we left Livingston, we motored on through Houston and ended up just slightly southwest of Corpus Christi. The campground is called the Hitching Post – now, you know you’re in Texas when the campground is called the Hitching Post! And our third and last day of travel through Texas, yet another 3 hours, took us over the causeway to South Padre Island (SPI).

And when we arrived on the Island, everyone was so welcoming – the staff at the KOA here was all ready for us, guided us to our site and offered assistance at every turn to help us get settled. We’ve been here a week tomorrow a a couple of our chums from last year arrived over the weekend. We’ve already been to a few of our old haunts - and, speaking of Halloween, check back to the blog in a day or two and I’ll share some of our ‘sightings’... see you soon… m.