Yesterday morning Tricia packed up most of her clothes and I took her to the Austin airport. She flew home to Fort Lauderdale. I'm not too concerned though, I'm supposed to pick her up again next Wednesday night and we'll continue on with our journey.
Why did she fly home? Most of you are probably thinking homesick, maybe? Some of you are thinking she has some work related issues to deal with, not the case on this trip anyway. Why she chose to fly home this time is to attend a party on Saturday night.
Our good friend Alyse has finally decided to join the ranks of the unemployed. She has called it quits when it comes to working five days a week, 9 to 5 and then some. So in celebration she is throwing herself a retirement party.
A few of our mutual friends from several outdoor clubs are planning to also be there. Additionally Tricia has already made lunch plans with some of her previous workmates and dinner plans with a few personal friends too.
So I guess the answer is yes, when it comes to the question of her being homesick. This isn't the first time she hasn't spent the night in THE POD with me and I doubt it will be the last.
-----> GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS <-----
FIRST THE GOOD NEWS
I FOUND GASOLINE FOR $1.70 A GALLON
NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS
I ONLY HAD ROOM IN THE TANK FOR 9+ GALLONS
-----> MORE GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS <-----
AGAIN FIRST THE GOOD NEWS
TRICIA IS COMING HOME EARLY
Because of the coronavirus there is a real possibility of the airlines cancelling flights due to many being only 20% full. There is also the threat of travel restrictions being put in place on a national level. It's becoming a real concern!
For both of those reasons Tricia has decided to cut her South Florida visit short and return to Texas while flights are still available. I wasn't going to be the one to make that suggestion, but I'm glad she chose to come home early.
NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS
OUR NEW WINDOW WILL NOT BE HERE IN TIME
Two weeks ago we were at the Austin Airstream dealership and they ordered and got approved our request for a new front rock guard window under warranty. The problem is it won't arrive before we leave this area on Thursday so now I'm scrambling to make arrangements to have it installed somewhere else along our travel path.
The biggest problem is our 2-year warranty expires on April 13th and I don't want to be responsible to pay the shipping and installation fees at another location if that date passes. Estimates for out of pocket expenses could be as high as $400 if that occurs.
I'm not sure if I'm getting spoiled by all the delicious BBQ we've had while here in Texas but this place was just ordinary, not excellent like the others we experienced last month near San Antonio. But we were pleasantly surprised by what we saw right after having dinner.
Each of our last three fill-ups have set the bar lower and lower for what we are expecting to pay for gasoline. I'm not sure how long these prices will last but I'm glad they're here now!
Back in September of 2018 the Category 4 Hurricane Florence came ashore in North Carolina and forced the National Park Service to close Shenandoah National Park where we were staying. You may remember we were forced into fleeing down into the valley and stayed in our one and only visit to a KOA Kampground.
As soon as we were allowed back into the park we visited Loft Mountain Campground and had the place practically to ourselves. That was until a converted van camper pulled into the site just two slots over.
Later that day the couple came over to our site and introduced themselves as Vera Jean and Winston. They travel pretty much full-time in their homemade van conversion and are really heavy into geocaching. Where we are happy to locate one geocache in every state, they try and find a geocache in every county, in every state, they visit.
You may be wondering why I'm mentioning this now, after all it was a year and a half ago we met them. Well guess who pulled into the campsite just three sites to our left today. You guessed it, Vera Jean and Winston.
Tonight is our 14th and final night here in this park and they have been here for over a week hopscotching around to different sites every couple of days. It's easier to do that when you're in a van! They don't make reservations so that's just what you have to do to stay in one park. We on the other hand have been in the same campsite for two weeks now, we made a reservation six months ago.
While we were visiting the New England area all during the summer of 2019, they made the trek all the way up to Alaska and back. We're so jealous!
Anyway they are coming over to share a campfire with us tonight and we'll have a chance to hear all their stories and share some of ours. To horribly misquote a famous line from the movie Cassablanca, "Of all the campgrounds, in all the towns, in all the world, they drove into ours."
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