Today we went sailing

We woke up a little early this morning, and were on the road by 9:00 am. The day is dark, humid, and really windy. As soon as we hit the Interstate we felt the full force of a 20 mph crosswind gusting to 40. Each time we were hit by a gust, I had to crank in 1/4 turn of steering to stay in our lane, trailer wagging violently behind us. Even the semis were slowed down, and you could see them blowing back and forth.

Just before Abilene, a particularly strong gust hit us, while we were doing 55 mph. Now the motorhome felt like it was being dragged sideways. Suddenly, we were assaulted by a loud rapid banging noise, reverberating through the motorhome. I got slowed down and onto the shoulder, figuring we'd blown a tire. I climbed out and saw what had happened.

The last gust had torn our awning free from its cover, and was whipping over the roof. This thing is 150 sq. ft. of canvass, and it had become our own private sail. We are lucky it didn't drag us right off the road!

Anyway, we're sitting at the side of the Interstate, with this huge sail flapping and bending its metal supports. I could see where this was headed, and it wasn't good. Jumping into action, we got our ladder out of the trailer. Marlene went and got our sharpest knife and then with a pale face, held the ladder in the strong wind while I cut the top of the awning free from the roof. Marlene was terrified I was going to take off and sail away at the end of the awning. I transferred Marlene from ladder patrol, to holding on the edge of the awning. Maybe with both of us anchoring it, we could keep it from flying away, trailing its supports behind.

With a final rip, the f****ng thing came loose, and we wrestled it to the ground, weighing it down with the supports and recoil rollers. Now I had to go up again and remove the support bar pivots from the edge of the roof. Up the ladder again, clutching my 3/8 socket and ratchet. Each time a truck passes, the whole motorhome sways, then each time the wind gusts, it sways the other way. Hanging on for dear life, I ratcheted those bolts off in record time, and clambered down to earth. We quickly packed up the tools and ladder, locked up the trailer, and tugged the door open to climb in to the motorhome. It was hard to open the door because of the wind pressure. Once inside, we looked at each other, shrugged, and hit the road again. The adrenaline hit Marlene about an hour later, just as we reached a rest stop. She needed to recuperate, and so did I. Her fingerprints are indelibly etched into the dash on the passenger side of the motorhome. While maintaining her death grip on the dash, Marlene was clutching Ben with a grip so tight he had to give her a look, and pull away. Then we realized that we'd forgotten to take pictures!

After our rest stop, we continued the journey. We are out of the sandy, dry, oil well country, and into real Texas red dirt farm country. It is lush and green, and today in the drizzle it looks very nice. We pass the town of Sweetwater, which bills itself as "The Wind Generation Capital of the World". We have seen windmills all over the US and Canada, but never such a concentrated mass of them. The rows of huge, spinning mills go on for miles and miles. I tried to keep count of them, but lost it at 318 windmills. Got hit by more nasty wind, and had to concentrate on the road.

We proceeded without drama until we approached Fort Worth. Now we're in the traffic. Easter Sunday traffic. Eight lanes, everyone cutting in and out, merging in front of 60 mph traffic while still going 40. A real challenge piloting through here, especially with all the construction zones narrowing things down. We were in this traffic through Fort Worth, then Dallas. We couldn't see the beautiful Dallas skyline, because it was obstructed by a thick, grey mist.

Free at last from the city congestion, we relaxed a bit, and were able to look around. We noticed every restaurant we passed had full parking lots. As we drove over the reservoir, we saw thousands of people picnicking in the green areas. Don't people have Easter dinners with their families at home? Even the Dallas Zoo had an over-full parking lot, with cars lined up to get in. All this in the rain, of course.

We figured that the Walmart in Greenville, our destination today, would be pretty quiet on Easter Sunday. Fat chance! The place is teeming with people. There are a couple of other RVs here. We found a parking spot long enough to take our 65 ft., rolled out our slides, put out our orange cones, and fired up the generator and air conditioning. Time to relax, have a shave and shower, a glass of bourbon, and start thinking about dinner. Tomorrow we have a shorter run into Little Rock, Arkansas, but there are a couple of things we want to do there. Stay tuned...