Friday, January 4, 2018
Yesterday, it rained all day. Rain, rain and more rain. Reminded us of Lumberton. There were flood warnings, just like Lumberton. Lumberton, by the way, is still under flood warnings too.
There was a staff meeting at 9:00 that we attended for a little while. We were able to meet some new case workers and renew friendships with the ones we met last year. Charles and Daryl are still construction coordinators and they have added Eric who we got to meet. We learned that there are still about 100 homes that the conference wants to have completed by the first of August. We understand that FEMA has given that date as the final day for everyone to be out of the FEMA trailers. They’re counting on NOMADS helping finish up a lot of this work. There had several groups signed up to work January but now some have canceled. People are being called to work in so many other parts of the country. Baton Rouge really does need to be completed so people can move on to more recent disasters. After attending the first part of the staff meeting we returned to the rig and did some paperwork. We considered pulling out of Baton Rouge after the meeting and get a few miles behind us before dark. However, we really didn’t want to drive in the downpour. We decided to just make today a long day and spent yesterday in Baton Rouge. We got our grocery shopping done and rested.
Today we were pulling out of the Francis Asbury UMC parking lot at 6:00. We wanted to get over the I-10 bridge and out of Baton Rouge before morning traffic began and we were successful in doing that. We then took I-10 all the way across Louisiana and into Texas. Traffic was not bad and we were making pretty good time. We stopped for fuel in Orange, Texas. Had not heard of that town before today. It was then on to Beaumont, TX and a traffic tie up due to a wreck. The closer we got to Houston, the more traffic and the more road construction we experienced. And the road repairs are definitely needed. I-10 is in horrible shape through parts of LA and TX. In Houston there was a long time we were going 1.7 miles per hour. There was one area where we went from 8 lanes to 2 lanes. Talk about a mess! We left Houston on I-69 which became US 59. There was 39 miles of construction. Again badly needed but not a fun drive.
We stopped for the night in Edna, TX. It was only about 3:00 but we had been on the road 9 hours and we decided it was time for a break. We are at a Boondockers Welcome home and have met a very nice couple who allow RVers to spend the night in their driveway. The have been so welcoming to us, sharing information about the area and sharing fruit from their mandarin orange and grapefruit trees with us. We have had a fun evening making new friends and sharing stories of our travels. They have recently completed a Route 66 trip from beginning to end. For those of you unfamiliar with Boondockers Welcome, it is an organization of RVers who offer to let fellow RVers park for the night, or a few nights, at their house. In exchange, when there are traveling, they can stay at fellow members’ houses. We enjoy using a Boondockers Welcome site when it is along our route. It’s free, you meet wonderful people and it’s a lot more fun than a Walmart or Lowe’s parking lot. It was a long, tiring driving day – but a good day. And we made new friends.
RVing With a Purpose 