Finally made it into a rest stop late last night. It took longer than usual because of the rain.... and the road construction.... the lack of rest stops in Texas... and the hundred or so big rigs that got there and bedded down for the night before I did. Turns out that I had to circle the same 6 mile section of highway nearly 4 times before finally arriving at a spot where one truck was pulling out of a space at the same time I was coming in. Otherwise everything in the south bound rest area was taken up with wall to wall truckers. Tried to circle around to the north bound rest area by going to the next exit and crossing over the highway. But the highway design down here along the I-35 corridor is just 'caca'. It dumped me on a north bound, one way frontage road that didn't even enter the highway until well north of the rest area. Of course I just thought I must of missed the on ramp the first time around so I went north circled around and jumped back on the south bound side, got off at the rest area.... still no empty spot, continued to the next exit and got off and then found that I hadn't missed the entry ramp at all, because there wasn't one. So back to the north cross over again and then back on south bound I-35. Off at the rest area.... nope, still no empty spot, on to the exit two roads down, about 4 miles south, get off, cross over to the north bound frontage road, back on the entry ramp to north bound I-35, off at that rest area.... nope, no empty spots there either. Actually even more full. Back on the highway south bound and the decision to do one more circle around before going on to Plan 'B', which was to find a Wal-Mart parking lot to stay in. But this time.... when I got off at the south bound rest area for the 4th time a semi was just pulling out of a spot along the entrance road into the rest area. Of course there were no parking signs all along that section of the road, but as there were at least a dozen big rigs shut down along there, I figured I would be okay at least until early morning.... and I was.

   Felt good to finally hit the rack, even though it was still hot and extremely muggy outside. The truck was saying it was still 78 degrees outside when I pulled in, and since it was raining pretty good that put the humidity at 100%. It took a little while to finally fall asleep I'm afraid. The bad news is that the roof vent is still leaking, but the good news is that it wasn't leaking very much this time, and what there was of it, was easily handled by my custom made, upside down umbrella leak catcher. It ain't purty.... but it does seem to work rather well.

    Up early, 6:30 a.m., this morning to another day of grey, foggy skies. Took off and drove for about an hour before finding a McDonald's to pull into for some breakfast and a chance to get on line. Needed to finally pin down somewhere to actually camp for the next 5 nights while I stayed here in the Austin area and went to the dance. The RV campground I had sent a reservation into a couple of days ago had never gotten back to me like they said they would, so first up was giving them a call. They had been having trouble with their computer system I guess, so never managed to get an email back to me but it wasn't good news anyway as they didn't have a single site open for the nights I needed. They did give me the name of another place though, and when I called them, they let me know that they had a site open for tonight and tomorrow night at least, but nothing for the rest of the weekend. Figured I had to stay somewhere tonight anyway so I went ahead and reserved those two nights at least.

    Pulled in here around 3:00 this afternoon and got the trailer all set up and squared away. It's a pretty nice little RV park right along the I-35 corridor in the midst of Austin itself. Haven't checked how far to the dance from here, but it should be a very reasonable drive there and back. Got unpacked and was just getting back on line to try and figure out what to do about a place to stay for the actual nights of the dance, when the front office guy came by and told me that they had a cancellation come in for this weekend and that not only could I stay until Monday morning, but I wouldn't even have to pick up and change site's on Friday morning either. Well you can bet I jumped at the chance to do that, even though the cost here is a little steep compared to some places I've been. It's $44 per night if anyone is interested. Certainly not cheap, but the place is clean, they have a nice pool and bath house, it seems safe and secure and it's still cheaper than a hotel room.

    I've just been hanging out this afternoon and evening reading my book and some magazines I have. It's been raining off and on all that time, but the temperature is still rather high. I do have both my portable fans going right now and all of the windows are open. It might be nice to have air conditioning, but I'll just make do with what I have.

    Got a nice long, hot shower just a little while ago in the bath house just across the road from me. Felt good to wash some of the sweat off and wash the hair. Earlier on I made a big pot of home made soup to eat on for the next couple of meals. Started with some braut style sausage that I browned up with some onions and garlic. Added in some chicken stock, along with chopped broccoli, carrots, a can of red beans and a package of split peas and assorted spices. It turned out rather good actually, and two bowls of that was just right for dinner. Just needed some really crusty sour dough bread to make it complete.

    Outside I can see lightning and hear thunder in the distance. It sounds nice to my ear... I always liked the sound and light show that came with western rain storms. They are talking about flash flood warnings here in the city, but I think there isn't any thing to worry about where the campground is located. It is well up on some hills above all the creeks and rivers in the vicinity.

   Hope to go on down to San Antonio tomorrow and visit the river walk and check out the Alamo. It's been nearly 20 years since I was last there and it would be fun to see it all once again. That will leave me Friday and Saturday days to explore a bit around the Austin area. Haven't really checked out anything to do yet, but will figure something out that will be fun. In the meantime I'm going to go read some more and then go to bed. It's been rather an exhausting day.