Day 39 -- McKinney to Big Spring, Texas -- 315 Miles

First of all I'd just like to say that we've just set up camp here in Big Spring, Texas, and the outside air is cool and sweet and DRY!!! Over the past half century, Concetta and I have grown quite accustomed to our lovely dry air in Nevada. But for the past three weeks we've been traveling in the southeast, and we've experienced nothing but moisture-laden air.

Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and most of Texas are like one giant sponge. Sometimes it rains in these states like pouring water out of a boot. But most of the time the water is just hanging around like the invisible man. We suspect that you could slice a cubic yard of air in any of these states, wring it out into a basin, and survive for a good week in the driest of deserts.

Unbeknownst to us when we picked out Big Springs as our probable stop for the night, and called in a reservation, we didn't realize that the camp would prove to be a climatic heaven on earth. The camp is pretty rustic and the Internet sucks, but we don't really care. The desert air is so wonderful we may just decide to stay here until spring.

But first let me tell you about the years we lost off our lifespan today while trying to navigate our rig out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Looking at the map this morning, it all seemed so easy. We were camped in McKinney and, in my opinion, all we had to do was drop south a few rural miles after leaving our camp called Sugar Hill RV Resort and catch the east/west arterial labeled Route 380 on the map. Once on Route 380, we could drive swiftly west and catch Route 35 and 35W going south. Finally, we would leave Route 35W and head west to Interstate 30/20 for El Paso. It all looked so simple on paper.

Here's what really happened: we trusted Concetta's iPhone to guide us, and the attention-demanding lass in that tiny machine decided that the easy way was just boring. So for the next hour she stair-stepped us down every rutted country lane that claimed any proximity to McKinney, Texas.

We had rutted pavement and potholes. We had steep roadside dropoffs. we had all four cardinal directions fed to us making us think we were actually going in circles. We even had a collection of roads where repaving crews were limiting traffic to one direction at a time. Finally we had had enough, and we dug out the tried-and-true super duper GPS with a screen half the size of a loaf of bread and put that lady to work.

Fortunately, the large-sized GPS quickly got us on Route 380 which had been lurking just a few miles south of where we had been playing ring around the rosie for an hour, and we sped off in the correct direction.

Now that all the fun and games were behind us, we certainly thought that our troubles were over and we could navigate our way out of the insanity of metropolitan Dallas without further adieu. But that was not to be. All too soon we came upon more constuction work going on and unfortunatley right in the middle of where we had to catch Route 35 south.

Still, we made it finally to the onramp and the GPS set our course south -- and right into a super collossal remodel of the entire west Dallas freeway system. Immediatley all the lanes became as narrow as they could make them, and it wasn't long before we just knew we were in for it.

By the time we got out of the west end of Dallas we had missed at least three turnoffs, narrowly avoided construction debris scattered in our lane by some fool in a beatup pickup truck, and had to reverse direction at least twice. All I wanted to do was pull over somewhere and have a good cry. But there was nowhere to pull over.

The sad part is that we left camp at 8:30 in the morning and by 10:30 we were still trying to escape the melee in the center of Dallas. Back in 2016 we tried driving through the middle of Dallas and the horrifying experience was so traumatic that we haven't gotten over it yet.

Finally we managed to bumble our way to Interstate 30/20 west, and I glanced at my watch to confirm that, yes, it had taken us over two hours to drive perhaps 40 miles just trying to LEAVE THE CITY!

Thankfully, the rest of the day passed uneventfully. Because we had a little trouble finding a camp on the Internet or in our Good Sam book, we decided to try and get half way to El Paso, if possible. That decision brought us to Big Spring, Texas, about 315 miles from last night's camp. Our day turned out to be long, but we did find a fairly nice place for lunch just off the Interstate where I took the photos herein.

And that's it for now. Concetta and I wish you many exciting adventures of your own on the highways and byways of our beautiful country.