[Our travel style is about 5-6 hours a day on the road. Our “sweet spot” for best fuel economy is about 62 mph. Thus, we usually cover only about 200-250 miles a day. Some RVers (including us) joke about belonging to the “Two or Two Club”—drive 200 miles a day and/or be off the road by 2pm! We tend to get a later start than most folks, yet are off the road by about 4 or 5pm. By the way, regarding favored departure times, there’s the 7-7:30am wave, the 9-9:30 wave, and then the “what’s-the-rush” wave, to which we belong, that leaves at about 11am, despite vague desires to leave earlier!]
Accordingly, this time, we departed from our home in Retama Village, Mission, TX, at the “crack” of 12 Noon!! Well, we made it anyway! One year, we didn’t leave until 4:30pm—made it to the Wal-Mart exactly two hours north in Falfurrias, TX!! Could have waited until the next day but we wanted to get on the road!!]
Our first night on the road this trip was spent dry-camped at the WalMart Super Center in Schertz, TX, n.e of San Antonio. It was an extremely hot evening so we’d opened most of our windows, grateful for the breeze. At 3 in the morning, I awoke to dramatic thunder/lightening, and rain drumming on the rooftop. By the time I could close the windows, wind-driven rain had come in all the windows along one side. I mopped up and returned to bed, glad I’d caught it just in time—my poor exhausted husband slept through the whole thing! Luckily, the storm cooled the air and the remainder of the night was more bearable (and quieter!).
We truly enjoy dry-camping, or parking with no hook-ups (electricity, water, or sewer). On our RV’s roof are four 100-watt solar panels which generate electricity that’s stored in our bank of six 6V deep cycle golf cart batteries. This allows us to live very comfortably; we simply don’t need hook-ups. Our lifestyle is seamless, hook-ups or not. There are 2 things for which we need our generator: running the microwave or the air conditioners. Also, it replenishes our batteries when there’s a cloudy day and we can’t receive a sufficient solar charge.
Our first destination this trip was MCD Innovations, in McKinney, TX, a suburb n.e. of Dallas. MCD makes window shades for RV’s—day shades which allow you to look out but prevent the sun and anyone outside from peeking into your RV, and night shades which are essentially “black out” shades preventing unwanted light from penetrating your RV and offering total privacy at night. All RVers have dealt with “the-parking-lot-light(s)-from-Hell” beaming into their RV and preventing a good night’s sleep. These new shades will take care of that problem!! (Wish we’d had them at the WalMart in Schertz!)
Arriving on Sunday 5/6, we spent 5 full days at MCD selecting which windows were to get shades, making a fabric choice for the night-time shades, getting the windows measured, and then, while our order was in fabrication, using this time to stow any gear which hadn’t found a “home” before we left, various chores, and doing some paperwork catch-up. The weeks leading up to our departure had been quite stressful and tiring, so we really appreciated this chance to catch our breath. McKinney is a lot larger than we’d anticipated—pretty impressive community. And MCD is a family-owned and operated company, striving to provide excellent products and service while being as “green” as possible. It’s remarkable how much material they efficiently saved from the landfill! They practice an active recycling program as well (i.e. scrap aluminum). We enjoyed our company tour.
Finally, on Friday 5/10, our turn in line arrived—it was “Installation Day”!! It proved to be a long one—there were a couple of hiccups—but they got ‘er done. We’re really satisfied with our new blinds and would happily recommend MCD to everyone!
Oh, and the nighttime black-out blinds?? They’re perfect!! (I’m writing this on May 20: they’ve been tested these past seven nights—1 RV park for 3 nites, one night each in 2 Wal-Marts, 1 Sam’s Club, and now a racetrack/casino parking lot.) This was a good choice and money well-spent.
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