Day 1 Journal

We drive from Dallas to Rusk today which is about 139 miles. We wanted to stay at a State Park in Tyler so we'd be close to Lou and Deb. Unfortunately both State Parks with RV sites in their area are full. I found a KOA in Rusk, TX (about an hour south of them) where we'll spend our first night in our new RV. I'm a little nervous about parking it at our site so we plan to be there well before dark.

What a day! I got up at 1:30am, then woke Deb and Rich (and Zeb) up at 2:30 so we could catch a 5:30am flight. What was I thinking when I booked that flight? Anyway the flight was uneventful thank goodness. We did have to change planes in Atlanta but it was fairly painless. We landed in Dallas on time and went to meet Spike and Camilla, the people we bought the RV from. We had corresponded for so long I felt like they were old friends and now without a doubt they are new friends. I don't think we could ever have found a better couple to buy a motor home from. They were so helpful and took several hours showing us all the ins and outs. I took plenty of notes but at his point don't know if any of it will make sense. And they left us with a full tank of gas, for goodness sakes!! The motor home is everything we hoped for and more. It's obvious it has been loved.

Finally after a short test drive we were off to Rusk. Leaving Dallas long before rush hour traffic was the main reason for our 5:30am flight and that worked out fine. We were leaving town by shortly after 1. It was a bit harrowing driving at first. I was mostly concerned with making turns before actually driving the thing. That turned out to be not so difficult. The thing that I've had the most problem with is the mirrors. It has these huge mirrors on each side. The top half is a regular rearview mirror. The bottom is a fisheye. There's also the regular rearview mirror that looks out the back window. In the bottom of that one is another large fisheye. That is a heck of a lot of information!! And of course about a dozen times I turned around to look over my shoulder to see if anyone was there. I had no idea that would be such a hard habit to break!

On the way to Rusk we stopped at the Super Walmart in Tyler. Don't forget that even though we shipped a couple of boxes to Lou and Deb filled with bed linens and towels etc., we are about to spend 6 days in our new "home". We had to stock the kitchen with the basic tools and buy some food. you can't imagine what the place looked like. We had 3 big suitcases and a couple of little ones and 15 or 20 Walmart bags sitting all over the place!

My second goal for the day (besides leaving Dallas before rush hour) was to make it to Rusk before dark. Trying to park in an RV park I assumed would be harrowing anytime but trying to do it after dark the first time just wouldn't do. We tried so hard but actually arrived in Rusk about an hour after dark. I can't even find the words to describe the experience. We turned off the main road and started up the hill toward the KOA. It was so dark you wouldn't believe it. I promise there was not a light anywhere and there must not have even been a moon. So we're going up this hill and Deb starts getting nervous. Then we see the turnoff for the campground. I thought as soon as we get close we'll see all the lights from the camp office and store and all the RV's etc. We pulled in and there wasn't a light to be seen other than from a couple of RV's a couple of hundred yards away. The office and store was closed and dark. I got out and found an envelope with our name on it. We were to fill out a form and leave it in the mailbox. It also had the number of our space and a little map. I was horrified. It was pitch black out and I was afraid to go looking for our space in case I got into an area I couldn't get out of. We had just bought flashlights and lanterns but heaven only knew where they might be in that pile of bags. Luckily about that time a man drove up in a golfcart and asked if we were the Gold's. Before he got out another word I said this was our first night in our new motor home and we had never even been in one before and had no idea what to do. He was so helpful. He led us to our space and helped us hook up the electric and water. We would have spent the night in front of the office if it hadn't been for him!

Shortly after we arrived Lou and Deb drove up bringing dinner!! They were a godsend. By then we had been up and moving for 16 hours and had to totally unpack and store everything before we could go to bed. dinner was excellent and they sent us with the leftovers. It was a really great evening. We ate at our picnic table that was next to the RV. The weather was cool and clear - a perfect night. Our time to visit was way to short but it was great. they're coming back in the morning so we can have breakfast together before we leave.

To Day 2