Day 2382

Thursday April 11th 2024

Day 3 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

I woke at 6:15 this morning, for a night in a rest stop / welcome center it was a reasonably quiet night, we got lucky and had a flatbed eighteen wheeler pull in beside us early in the evening and did not leave till this morning. We normally avoid truck rest stops but this one is difficult to get to and is usually quiet, we have stayed here a number of times and usually have good luck. It was cool last night as our outside thermometer read 48ºF (8.8ºC) and the coach temperature is 58ºF (14.4ºC) chilly but not too bad, and as I rise this morning dawn is breaking and without a cloud in the sky the sun will be beating on the windshield shortly. So I decide to for go the heater this morning, and I got lucky enough to receive some lap time from Mister Sam.

A quick check of the onboard systems finds our battery bank at 77%, not to bad after watching four hours of television last night and all of our systems running all night. Now if your wondering what systems we leave on here is a quick list of what draws power from our batteries, our refrigerator (both compressors), two televisions on stand by, our Wi-Fi and router, the beverage fridge in the basement, three “Alexa” echoes, and the invertor that inverts the 12 volt battery power to household power for microwaves, as well as recharging 2 phones, 2 iPads, and our laptop and such. We do not shut off or unplug any equipment the same as most people do in their homes.

Todays route will have us moving further east on Interstate I-40 toward Oklahoma City, where we will refuel Thunder before turning north on Interstate I-35 for ten miles to Interstate I-44, we are at 2400 feet of elevation here at Amarillo Texas and I expect we will finish today under 1000 feet of elevation. Breakfast this morning is a toasted bagel, a quick easy breakfast as I want to get on the road early our departure time will be nine o’clock, the good news is there will be no time zone change today and we will be in rolling hills most of the day.

There is not a cloud in the sky this morning, and as we leave the rest stop, I make a few notes about this overnight spot. The poor AT&T cell service here, the fact this exit will have a Buc ee’s here in the fall, that will increase the popularity of the exit and probably increase the use of this rest stop as well. But it will be the only Buc ee’s on our route, which is a bonus as they provide a shopping experience. Traffic is light as we click off the miles, our destination tonight is a “BoonDockers’ Welcome” which is now part of the “Harvest Host” program. We have stayed at “BoonDockers’ Welcome” locations before, they are unique as they are usually RVers that have enough space on their property to accommodate fellow RVers. Some offer nothing more than a flat spot to park, while others offer complete hook-ups, the locations can vary from a parking lot to a total campground experience, some are single spots while others offer multiple spots, and the stay can vary from one night to multiple nights, we will see what this one has to offer.

Todays fuel stop will be a TA truck stop in Oklahoma City, it appears to be an easy off and on to the highway. and ended up being our lunch stop as well, as the rest stop we had picked out was closed. From the fuel stop we charge into Oklahoma City traffic, which again seemed lighter than I expected, we have driven this route last spring which always makes the trip easier. As we enter the toll road that is Interstate I-44 we hope we have the address for our overnight correct in our GPS, too often the street addresses do not come up correctly and we spent a number of minuets during lunch trying to confirm the correct location. This location is located a mile down a gravel road which is not a problem other that a mistake could involve unhooking the towed and a mile of backing up, turning a 40′ coach takes a lot of space.

Well we had the correct address and we have located out spot for tonight and to say it is a small piece of paradise would be a close description. A reasonably level gravel spot to park, a electrical panel with a power supply, there appears to be a 3″ sewer dump, and water supply is available close by, the only item we will need is the parking spot. As we are boondockers and need no hook-ups, the peace and quiet, in a natural setting is more than enough, and although we have not met our host for tonight we will thank them through the “BoonDockers Welcome” page.

Day 3 Stats: 297 miles (478 kilometers) solar harvest 255 amp / hours $0.00 camping, 60.01 gallons (227.2 liters) of diesel $200.20 ($275.98 Cdn)