Heading for Texas

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Got a late start this morning.  Luckily, Evan had a plan for fixing the wiring, so when the hardware store opened at 9 a.m. we were ready to buy some wire and connectors.  He discovered a wire that was supposed to have a constant current, but was dead.  He didn’t know where it originated, so he hooked it to a live one by making a couple of small jump wires and connected the dead wire to the live wire and voila, we had blinkers and brake lights and running lights.  Everything worked.  That Evan really knows his stuff. 

Thanks to Evan, I was on my way at 11 a.m., only a couple hours behind schedule.  I really wanted to get further south and through Dallas on Sunday.  Plus, another cold front with ice is headed for Arkansas on Monday.

It was a beautiful day for driving.  Not a cloud in the sky and in the high 60’s and low 70’s all day.  Quite a bit of headwind coming out of the west, so had to hold on tight.

I drove right through downtown Eureka Springs on highway 23, navigating the narrow and hilly streets of the town and then it was off through the Ozark Mountains on highway 62 to the town of Rogers where I picked up I-49/I-540 heading to Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Went through the hazy Boston Mountains   just before reaching Fort Smith.

I turned onto I-40 heading for Oklahoma City, crossing the Arkansas River before stopping for gas and lunch at McDonalds 60 miles down the road at my turn-off town of Checotah, Oklahoma.  If you go north on highway 69, you will hit Muskogee, but I turned south heading for Dallas/Fort Worth. 

Drove over and around Lake Eufaula, and it was the biggest lake I have seen since going to Michigan a few years ago.  It spidered everywhere as I went south on highway 69.

My goal for the day was to spend the night in McKinney, Texas.  However, the lost two hours caught up with me and as the sun set directly into my eyes, I knew I would not make it another 100 miles, so stopped in Atoka, Oklahoma.  There is a Walmart right off the highway with several RV’s already bedded down, so I pulled in behind one of them.  I am sure there will be road noise all night, but free is free.

The plan is to make it south of Fort Worth tomorrow, hopefully all the way to I-10.  Shouldn’t have to worry about ice that far south.

See you later.