Thursday, September 20, 2007 – Iowa, LA

After successfully negotiating San Antonio during late rush hour (9:30 a.m.) we headed east on I-10. Unlike our earlier adventures on I-20 in east Texas (last year), I-10 was a relatively easy drive. I decided not to burden Carol with driving through Houston (after she had done Phoenix and El Paso). We were going to take the I-610 bypass, but when we reached the exit, I couldn’t merge, so we continued through down-town Houston on I-10. It turned out for the best. Other than a few tight moments through the construction zone(s), we came out the other side in east Houston no worse for wear. The by-pass (I-610) we had planned to take was backed up due to an accident.

The remainder of the trip through east Texas was easy. After the first 12 miles in Louisiana, the road surface on I-10 turned really bad. Carol was driving and had to slow down to 45 mph to avoid bouncing us and the motor-home to death. As it was, she was really tuckered after an hour of the rough road.

We exited in Iowa, LA – east of Lake Charles / west of Lafayette, Louisiana – and found a campsite.

Today’s photo is of some of the units in the RV park: mostly FEMA trailers and refugees from Katrina last year; probably not the best RV park we’ve found. We plan an early start tomorrow and attempt to reach better road conditions.

We are currently 727 miles (approx) from Jacksonville; reachable if pushed in a day. But I anticipate being in a RV park tomorrow night in west Florida, probably just east of Mobile, AL. Unless we have an unexpected event, we should be in Jacksonville some time Saturday. We plan to stay in the motor-home until we have moved some of our stuff to the house in Fernandina – probably moving out (in?) on Sunday.

It has been a continuing adventure and I’m so glad Carol decided to accompany me – it has been great talking and laughing with her.