West of the Mississippi!

8:16 am - Wednesday - January 16th - Marshall, TX - 48º F, 82% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the north by northeast.......cloudy today with a forecast high of 54º F.

As has been mostly the case for the past 5 days we awoke to steely gray skies and temps in the 30's in Vidalia, LA.  It was the first time I had awakened west of the Mississippi since April 29, 2018.  I had one big task to accomplish before the 11 am checkout time (besides stowing the city water hose, and electrical cord), and that was to check out our non-functioning city water pump.  This water pump is quite important while we are underway, and while we are dry camping/boondocking.  It quit working sometime Monday afternoon on our way into Vidalia.  Since our Jello plan called for us to be dry camping Tuesday evening near Tyler, TX I needed to either get this one working, or remove it and install the backup water pump we have been carrying around for 10 years for just such a situation.

The last time I had to deal with a non-functioning city water pump was almost 11 years ago, before we retired.  We were going away for a long weekend in the Newell and I discovered the water pump was not working.  We were going to dry camp along the Pacific Ocean north of Ventura, CA and needed it to be working.  I was still learning about our new to us 1982 Newell and just assumed the pump was broken and needed to be replaced, so I ran out and bought a brand new one at a local RV store.  Without checking the electrical connections to the current pump I just removed it and installed the new one.  It also did not work.....hmmm.  Must be the electrical connections, right?  I checked both the supply wire and the ground wire and found the ground wire was bad, so I replaced it and the new pump began working.  Since, apparently, the old pump was, indeed, working I decided to save it and keep it for an emergency.  Well, 10+ years later that emergency had reared its ugly head.

This time I checked the ground and the supply wires first, and found them to be fine, so I just removed the old 'new' pump and reinstalled the original pump.....

 The now non-functioning Shurflo water pump removed, and back in its original box from 10 years ago

The original Shurflo water pump reinstalled after a 10 year hiatus.......it still works!

.....in all it took me about hour to reinstall the original Shurflo pump, and we were good to go.  It was now after 10 am and time to get rolling!

We still had some 50+ miles left to travel on US-425 north to I-20, and then another 170+ to our destination for the day.....Marshall, TX.  The last time we were in Texas was back in late April when we passed through Amarillo, TX......

 The birthplace of my brother-in-law, Glenn Parker

......when we had covered about half the distance TLE received a call from her sister, Laureen, advising we would be passing through the birthplace of her husband, Glenn....Mangham, LA.....TLE made sure to snap a picture of the town welcoming sign for posterity's sake.

US-425 is a divided highway all the way to I-20.....very nice highway!

Just before 12 pm we merged on to I-20 westbound, and within 30 miles came to a very nice Rest Area where we decided to take an extended break, including a 1 mile walk around the Rest Area.  We needed to take on some propane as our 60 gallon propane tank was down to 1/4 full.  That's probably good for another few weeks, but I am all about taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves, and there was a Flying 'J' truck stop about 20 miles before Marshall, TX that had a propane station, so we exited the Interstate around 3:15 pm to do just that.  We received good service and were quickly back on the road after taking on 33.2 gallons of propane......hmmm....we had way more left than I thought....those rascally analog gauges can be so inaccurate!  

By 4 pm we had exited the Interstate just east of Marshall, TX to avail ourselves of another Passport America park.  We had planned to dry camp at a Cracker Barrel, but the temps were going to be very cold Tuesday night, so we opted to 'plug in' for $20.  In all we covered just over 235 miles and had a very good driving day.....flat and straight!  We finally got sun late in the day, but by the time the sun set it was to a steely gray sky once again.  

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defer the costs of producing this blog each day.

'Paying the rent'......

7:31 am - Tuesday - January 15th - Vidalia, LA - 39º F, 85% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north by northeast.......mostly cloudy right now, but forecast calls for mostly sunny later today with a forecast high here in Vidalia of 51º F.

We awoke to bitter cold, slate gray skies at Lamar-Dixon Expo Center,  and nothing changed all day long.  We had first to disconnect from our full hookup site, then drive about 7 miles over to a fuel station to 'pay the rent'.  It had been almost 900 miles since we took on diesel just north of Crystal Springs, FL and we were down to just under a quarter tank.  Using Gas Buddy I found a station selling #2 diesel at $2.39/gallon.....that is a full .40 cents less per gallon than the last fill-up, so diesel is finally beginning to drop.  We took on 125 gallons and change for $300.  When we are moving every few days we 'pay the rent' more often.  Prior to taking on fuel in Crystal Springs we hadn't had to 'pay the rent' since we topped off our diesel tank in Lebanon, KY back on in late October.  We determined we had average 6.9 mpg on this last tank of diesel.....slightly higher than the 6.7 mpg we averaged on the previous tank.

By the time we finished 'paying the rent' it was after 10:30 am, and time to get moving!  We had a very modest goal for the day.....just 117 miles north to Vidalia, LA (just across the river from Natchez, MS).  Based on recommendations from our hosts Forest and Cindy we left I-10 in Baton Rouge to merge with I-110 which eventually took us to SR-61 north to Natchez, MS.....

SR-61 northbound....a nice divided highway all the way to Natchez

......the traffic was quite lite on SR-61, and the super cold weather clung to us like white on rice for the entire drive.  We had all our chassis heater blowers on high for the entire drive north.  

By the time we hit Natchez and turned left on US-425 to cross the Mississippi it was about 12:45 pm.  In another 15 minutes we were entering the gates of River View RV Park and Resort right on the Mississippi River in Vidalia, LA.

River View is a Passport America park enabling us to stay in a $50/night pull through site for just $25 and change for one night.  We have never camped on the banks of the Mississippi River so this was a perfect opportunity to cross that item off our proverbial bucket list.

Once I had connected us to the pedestal supplying water and power we took a walk along the River covering about 2 miles round trip......

Big barge headed north on the mighty Mississippi

We just came across that bridge a few minutes ago....Natchez is on the right, and we are on the Vidalia side.....walking into the wind and all bundled up

Backs to the wind now.....

........River View is a very, very nice park sporting a large pool, and Jacuzzi.  The interior roads are gravel, but there are many long concrete pads in the pull through sites, which are very level, thank you very much!

Tuesday we will finish our trek northward to I-20 which we will take westward to Dallas where we will begin to angle north and west eventually hitting I-40 in Amarillo, TX.  That will take us almost all the way home.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.