I woke at 5:00 eastern time as usual but I am in the Central Timezone so it was 4:00. I read other blogs until 5 and then drove to I10 west to the nearest Flying-J truck stop for a shower.
There isn't much to see on the road and since Missippi is narrow at the gulf it didn't take too much time to get to Louisiana. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo.
To amuse myself while listening to podcasts I decided this road being very flat, and having such a good computer in the Peius I would do an experiment. The test was how much better would my gas multiagency be if I picked up some drag from a tractor trailer truck.
Fully loaded I get about 50 mpg and as I use gas the less weight improves the mileage. So I found a TT going a consistent speed and backed off 8 car lengths for safety and trailed them and I was able to get 5 mpg more. You can barely see the computer screen but you can see how far off the TT I was. Today I was able to get my overall mpg from the start of the trip up to 49 and this is with running the Prius many hours to power my devices and the cooler. If I hadent run the engine as a generator I would have been over 50 mpg.
Today was a drive day all day. It was 36 deg this am and cloudy. I was traveling into rain today along the Gulf Coast. At least it is warm enough not to be freezing.
Above is one of a couple traffic jams. This was caused by an accident with injuries.
I stopped in this Louisiana McDonalds for iced tea, downloads and some work for my class. These men in the picture above were cajun's speaking Creole.
I didn't have room to bring a printer with me this year to print sign and then photograph and send back to the college. Today they wanted me to sign my contract.
It was a PDF file and it was sent so modifications could not be made. I brought up the file in my laptop and took a picture and used a picture edit software that allows me to script write on the image. I signed my name and dated it and mailed it to the college and they accepted it. Yea, paperless! Let's see if I can go without having a printer this year. Downsizing causes you to think of solutions.
Now in Texas I stopped for a rest break and the rest area is on the Blue Elbow Swamp.
I saw a billboard after entering Texas Catfish Kitchen and it brought to mind the large southern catfish they have down here and some people catch them by their bare hands.
This is a picture off the internet, I was recently talking to someone I met in the trip about southern catfish and about the fact that they can live longer than most fish out of water. Catfish is very popular in this area.
Arrived in Houston - that gray box on the dash is the remote wireless thermometer for my cooler so I can keep an eye on the food temperature.
Now it was time to stop for the afternoon and grade my students work and go to the post office.
My aunt in FL had loaned me a key to her trailer the night I went to the movies. Well guess what I found in my pocket. Yes the keys. A stop at the post office for a priority mailing envelope to send it back to her.
With my work done it was time for dinner. I found a local BBQ Restaurant here in Sealey, TX where I am staying at the Walmart parking lot for the night. This is where I stayed last year and I am parked near other campers.
It's still raining and it is 46 deg.
Tomorrow more driving in TX.
Brent
macaloney@hotmail.com
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