9/28/08 -- FL->Louisiana. Got up early and left De Funiak Springs. Crossed the Mississippi River (BIG bridge)! Tara got the sunrise shot out of the back window. You can see Mom and Dad's RV behind us. Anytime the RV makes a stop, Bacon visits Kevin in the driver's seat. AWWWWWWW. We made it between Baton Rouge and Lafayette on this day. There is about an 18 mile stretch of causeway between these two cities where I-10 crosses the Atchafalaya Swamp (this is scary Scooby Doo-type swamp with the tall cypress trees and mosquitos that carry off small children and dogs--we kept Bacon inside). Off of this causeway is a small pocket of land that held the Frenchmen's Wilderness campground. We got there early enough to have a cookout (introduced Mom & Dad to chicken sausages). As we were putting stuff away (right after sunset), the mosquitos swarmed. We could not believe how many mosquito appeared so quickly. That finished the evening--it was inside-only from there on.

9/29/09 -- Louisiana -> Schulenburg, TX. Kevin started unhooking the RV before sunrise. The mosquitos came out in full force just before sunrise. In any case, we got on the road and headed for Texas. We made a quick jaunt through Beaumont, TX looking for the worlds (3rd) largest fire hydrant, but had no luck finding it. Beaumont seemed to be a nice little town though. All along the eastern edge of Texas through to Houston, we could see the damage done a few weeks back by Hurricane Ike.

During planning, we promised not to drag Mom and Dad through the Houston interstate system (after their nightmare passage in rain a few years back). Looking at the map, we found this nice "little" Farm Road (FM1960) that looped around the north of Houston. It appeared that it would take us around the bulk of Houston traffic. It turned out to be a nightmare "shortcut" It was nice and serene on the Eastern edge of Houston, but once we got close to the airport, it was stop-and-go traffic in the northern suburbs of Houston. It remained that way until we reached the western side of Houston and picked I-10 back up. We have agreed that if we ever make this trip again, we'll plow on through Houston without taking any other shortcuts. This made for a very long day. It was nice to reach the Shulenburg RV park in Shulenburg, TX. After we setup camp, the four of us (sans dogs) walked to the Dairy Queen next door for a well earned ice cream cone.

9/30/08 -- Shulenburg -> Ft. Stockton, TX. Texas does indeed seem to continue on forever. We left early on this morning to continue heading west. Our destination was Ft. Stockton. Today involved one of the more exciting events in the trip so far. We stopped off for gas and when Dad went to open his fuel cap, gas shot out several feet soaking his entire right side. Apparently, pressure had built up in the tank (we believe that one of the vents may have clogged. We got filled up and pulled off so that Dad could shower off. Unfortunatly his shoes and clothes he was wearing would never be the same, so they had to be discarded. We continued our journy and about 30 minutes out of Ft. Stockton, we had to do another emergency pull of. The smell of gas was overpowering in their cab. We pulled off at a rest stop and checked things out; Dad found a small hole in the bottom of the tank that had been patched before. It turned out that it was near the tanks drain plug. We continued on to the campground and planned a run into town the next morning to pick up a patch kit. The next morning, Dad got under the RV and began repairs. Kevin assisted with the procedure, but managed to keep his hands fairly clean.