Eggless Travel

On April 6 I started a driving tour of the north half of Texas. This wasn’t a camping trip, so Eglyntine stayed home. I drove to Amarillo (50 mph headwind) through the Llano Estacado, then to Dallas (50 mph crosswind) to take my cousin, the princess, to Parkland for some tests. I hadn’t driven some of these roads for many years and I’d forgotten just how empty parts of northern Texas can be.  The Llano Estacado has nothing to slow down the wind, let alone divert it.  We did stop at the coolest rest area I’ve ever been to – at exit 129 eastbound between Groom & McLean on part of I40 that is also historic US66.  Mostly I concentrated on keeping the car on the highway. (Remember that wind?)

We spent a few days in Dallas – at Parkland for the princess’ tests, which she passed. Once Parkland released her, we went to my dear friends’ home for some Mexican food & some visiting. On our way out of town, we went to SamMoon. Now, SamMoon really isn’t my kind of store, but I somehow managed to buy a wallet, a purse, and a sunhat.  *Sigh*

Instead of the northern route, we took I20 west. Now this is a familiar route for me, so it seemed much faster than the northern route had.  There is more diversity to the scenery, also. You get to look at several different landscapes: blackland prairie, rolling plains, oaklands & savannahs, the Edwards plateau, mesquite, the Brazos valley. We left I20 at Sweetwater and headed to Southland, just southeast of Lubbock, to let the princess visit her mother.

It gets sticky here: you’d think that the mother of the princess would be the queen – but Oakley is the queen. That is definitely not in dispute. The confusion starts with the princess, I think. She got her nickname from the story of the Princess & the Pea while we were at Parkland. In fairness, her ‘pea’ looked more like a TV remote, but it all seemed to make sense at the time.

After a good visit in Southland, I returned the princess to her castle at Amarillo and Oakley & I turned the car toward home. We would have visited longer at each stop, but Oakley had a deadline to meet: she had to be home in time to file her taxes.

Whew! About 1700 miles and a hospital stay in 8 days.  I slept in 5 different beds – sure missed the simplicity of traveling in the egg.

a different kind of travel

My egg traveled today - without me. My '85 Casita left for a new home in San Antonio. I followed the new owner to the local RV shop to try to fix a tail light problem. It was odd to follow the Casita instead of watching it in the rear view window. Oakley rode with me. On our last trip, Oakley discovered that the trailer was right behind us. She stared at it for a long time. Then she'd look over at me and then look out the back window again. It must have taken her 10 minutes to decide it was OK for the trailer to be there and relax. Today, as we followed the '85, she again seemed fascinated that it was in front of us - but this time she spent more time watching me. I think she was trying to see if it upset me that it was in front of us instead of behind. Usually she spends her trips looking out the side windows, so it is pretty obvious when something out of the ordinary has her attention. I'd sure like to know what she's really thinking.

Goodbye, '85 trailer. You gave me many good times & memories of traveling with my dad that I'll never forget. Boy did you teach me a lot of lessons!

Little things that take forever

At this precise moment, I own two Casita trailers. One is my first - a 1985 model from the early days of the company and the other a 'modern' 1998 version. There is an amazing difference in the two. As the company learned from it's customers, their design underwent both big and small changes. For example, the old door is a curved door like you'd see on an airplane while the newer door is square and flat - with a screen. On the '98, the door has a cute little catch to hold it open - believe me, in the West Texas winds, this is an improvement. The old trailer has a regular apartment air conditioner hanging out the back window; the new trailer has a regular A/C unit, but it is mounted inside the trailer wall - you'd kinda have to see it to get what they did, but it makes the egg look much better and is not sitting right over of the bed when it is running. (Much quieter)
A slide-show of the two trailers is at the bottom of the page.

I had found solutions for the oddities of the '85's design so that I could have what I needed in a place that seemed logical to me. When I bought the new trailer, I initially just moved everything over - but those design changes over the years mean that some of my solutions are no longer needed. So I have to look at each little thing & see what effect the design decisions have had on what I need now. Little things like where to put the dog's water bowl. Little things that take forever.
I'm ready to go camping, the boss is really ready, but Eglyntine isn't quite...

Spring!!

Spring is here - finally! You know that winter is finally over in west Texas when the snow flurries... Ok, we don't usually have flurries in the plural. It was a really unusual winter for us. When the snow flurries turn to windstorms and the white flakes in the air are the petals from early blooming pear and plum trees. The temperatures in a Texas spring can bounce from 20's to 80's and even into the 90's, so we don't know when winter is truly over until the mesquite trees start to green up. The ones in my yard are not showing the slightest green, so I don't have much hope for the fruit set this year.

Ok, I know this isn't about travel yet - probably because I'm not on the road yet. I am in the pre-travel preparation stage.

I took the new trailer (Eglyntine) out last month for the first time. Now I need to move around my 'stuff' to better locations, delete stuff that no longer fits, and load what I need for my next adventure.

Travels with a Texas Egg

What's a Texas Egg? It is a fiberglass travel trailer that has an egg-like shape. Mine is a Casita, but there are many companies that make 'eggs.' Mine is a Texas egg because home base is in western Texas. Simple, huh? Her name is Eglyntine and that's her picture on the top left. Like the arty lighting? This is the day I bought her, just at sunset.