Thanksgiving getaway

Sunday Nov 19th, 2017

Today, we packed up the Mammoth and headed to Terrell, TX to visit family. Tony had to work yesterday, as it was Jr High District tryouts, so I prepped the rig for travel.

Before I get into the trip, a little back-story: 

One of the things we've been dealing with lately is a strange smell from our furnace, so in the past few weeks we opened up the basement wall so we could get a good look at it, and see if there were any obvious obstructions. We did not find anything visually that could tell us what was wrong, but we did note that the smell is coming from the unit when it is heating, not from the ducts alone. We have a call into a Mobile tech to see what the problem might be since the unit is still under a two-year warranty.

Furnace as seen behind the basement wall

ducts and back cover removed for viewing

front cover removed for viewing

Back to the trip -- we got everything hitched and ready to go Sunday, and pulled out about 11:30am. The drive was uneventful and pretty easy. We stopped at the Stripes truck stop near Santo for a quick lunch, then stopped again at the Blue Beacon in Dallas to get Mammoth washed. They didn't do as good a job as we've had in the past, but it was better than nothing.

"Beaconized" again!

We got to Bluebonnet Ridge RV Resort about 3:30 and got set up. 

Bluebonnet Ridge RV Resort

The boys enjoying different scenery

That evening, we got together with Tony's family, and ate at the new Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. It was very good!

After dinner we said our goodbyes, as they were flying to Las Vegas the next day. We headed home and watched the Cowboys look very bad against Philadelphia.

Monday, Nov 20th

Today we got up and got moving so we could go to Rockwall and meet my folks for lunch. We ate at el Chico in Rockwall, and had a good visit. After lunch we ran a few errands, and then headed over to our storage units outside of Rockwall to get our ski-gear and check on things. It's quite overwhelming to see how much "stuff" we have that we are not using! We are working on a plan to do something about that.

After that, we headed back to the coach and relaxed for the evening.

Tuesday, Nov 21st

Today, we packed up and headed to Durant, Oklahoma for some relaxing and different atmosphere.  We went through the country, and enjoyed the scenery and less traffic. We got to Durant about 1:00, and quickly set up. 

Tony waiting on me to get us checked in.
Choctaw Casino and Hotel in the background.

Our site a the Durant/Choctaw KOA.
They take very good care of the grounds here.

Tony ran and got us burgers, while I set up inside. We put up the satellite dish, but had some issues talking to Dish about getting our local channels here in OK. I made a second call while Tony was gone, and was able to get the Sherman locals. We also had some water leaking from our hose, so Tony worked to isolate that and find a solution.

After a while we decided to go eat at Chili's in Durant for dinner. They have scaled back their menu, but we found what we liked still on it. We had a pretty good meal. 

After that, we ran into WalMart to get a few things, since it was nearby, then headed back to the coach for a relaxing evening.

Wednesday, Nov 22nd

Today, we didn't really have any plans, so we hung around the coach and checked again on the furnace. I had some feedback from others on the Heartland Owners Forum, so we looked again inside the unit (without dismantling anything.) We determined it was not a broken blower squirrel cage, as we thought that might be the issue.

After putting the furnace back together, Tony decided to head over to the Casino for some entertainment. I worked on some projects around the rig and did laundry.

After Tony was back, we decided to go to IHop for dinner, as I was craving some french toast. We took the back-way into Durant, and then finally got to IHop. It was very odd as there was hardly anyone in the restaurant. We were seated and served very quickly. However, when we left, getting checked out at the front was very slow, and some folks got tired of waiting to be seated and left. I guess we were lucky. The food was good and I got my french toast. 

After dinner we headed back and watched our Wednesday shows, then started the packup for tomorrow.

Thursday, Nov 23rd  Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, we got the rig ready to go, and had planned to go the Casino's buffet for lunch. But it was 10am, and we were ready. We decided to skip the buffet and start the treck back to Cisco earlier than planned. 

We pulled out and headed down 75, then cut off into the country near Gainesville. Before we got too far, we pulled into a closed strip mall parking lot and Tony made us turkey sandwiches for lunch. Happy Thanksgiving! We then took Hwy 51 from Gainsville to Weatherford, then back on I-20 for the rest of the way home. We had no issues at all with traffic going this way, though it feels longer since you go through a lot of towns.

We pulled in back at our home park about 3:00 and got set up, just in time for the traditional Cowboy's Thanksgiving Day game. The park owner had done a little work on our site to level it a bit while we were gone, and we were very thankful for that! No more extra blocks under the tires on one side.

Home again!

The Cowboys again disappointed losing to the LA Chargers. I ran to the post office and also picked up some food.

It was good to get away and enjoy some family time and also some "away" time.