Day 1 of 3-Month RV Trip - What a Scorcher!

This is Day One of our summer RV trip to the Pacific Northwest. The plan is to escape the Houston heat and humidity. We are also getting in position for the upcoming birth of our first grandchild, due in August in Seattle. So exciting! We’ll be setting a new record with our longest RV trip yet: 3 months. By the time we return from this trip, I’ll be a grandma.
  

Today’s 6–hour journey was a hot one. We have stopped for the night at a spot called A Plus RV Park in Alvord, Texas, just northwest of Fort Worth. If the grade is given for simplicity and proximity to the highway, they earn the A+. 

             

Two years ago we made this same trek in our newly purchased motor home we dubbed Thor. That was a learning experience. We feel like old pros now. Instead of driving grueling 12-hour days, we stop now after about 5-hours, which is much more pleasant.

This morning, we didn’t hook up our “toad” vehicle, (the Jeep that we tow) until about an hour north of Houston where we stopped for gas in Huntsville. It was easier for Chris to maneuver Thor out of Houston and through the Pilot/Flying-J Big Rig gas lane without the toad. So my First Mate duties called for me to drive the “dinghy” until the hook-up. Phew, after that one-hour of driving the Jeep, I was ready to connect it to Thor and kick back in my co-pilot’s chair and leave the driving to Captain Chris. When I told him I was tired from driving a whole hour, his raised eyebrows said it all!  
   
As we neared Fort Worth, I noticed we were driving over a nice smooth new stretch of road. I remembered our last trip being plagued with construction woes in this same area. Just as I was thinking how nice it was for the construction to be complete, we came across more of the dreaded road work. Silly me, it never ends, much less in two years! 

Traversing through all the twisting temporary lanes, we almost took an exit but that didn’t look right so we stayed on the main road. I laughed, saying that was close, we almost went to Denton. The next thing you know our GPS is taking us into downtown Fort Worth, heading towards the Historic District Stockyards. Our 38-foot motor home was definitely out of place amidst the skyscrapers. We must have missed an exit somewhere. The GPS helped us to wiggle our way back on track onto the freeway which turned out to be the road to Denton! So that was the right way after all. 

Downtown Fort Worth

I watched the thermostat in the back part of our RV creep up from 91 to 94 degrees over the day. Here is a screenshot comparing the 90 degree heat in Texas to the 67 degrees of our destination. I can’t wait!