The Bummer Day...

 We knew this day was forecast to bring rain, but it sure brought everything else that can come with rain - accidents, traffic delays, traffic jams,...  It ended up being a very long, very tiring day, but we have to be grateful we weren't IN any of the accidents!!!

 Another state line crossed, and yes, this shot pretty much sums up the weather for the day!

 Arriving in the long, always crowded and busy stretch of I-10 known as El Paso!  Doesn't look too bad...yet....

 Wait, now it does!!!  Bill and I sat in that traffic, hardly moving, for about 2.5 hours (about half of the total time the freeway was closed there).  At first, we had no idea what was going on, but since there wasn't anything better to do and no sudden movement likely, I got on-line with the smartyphone and found out there was a semi-truck stuck cross-wise on the barrier up ahead and that they had to shut down the freeway, both directions.  Ugh.  Guess two other cars had been involved.  I don't think anyone ended up seriously injured, amazingly enough!!  But there were sure A LOT OF US left sitting, waiting for a LONG time!!  And for folks like me, it seemed like a VERY LONG time!!!!!!!  I didn't exactly have a full tank of gas...and I DID have a pretty full bladder!!!!!!!!!!!  And there was Bill - and our bathroom - sitting, stuck, right in front of me!!!!!!!!  I was seriously tempted to pop out and run up and use the bathroom!!!!!!!  I could have gotten away with it, but I would never have left my Zouey in that truck by herself in that mess!!!!!!  Fortunately, no bladder infection, and we stopped for gas and bathroom privileges as soon as we could!!!

 The cutest passenger.  Zou weathered the weather and traffic well.  Ahhhh, to be a dog and just sleep through all these things...!!!

 And this shot pretty much characterizes our entire day!!!!!!!  Because of the accident-caused bottlenecks and other things as you'll see later, we were sandwiched between semis pretty much all day.

 A lot of Texas cities have a lot of these...

 Pretty clouds gracing the tops of these hills.

 Hmm, a lot of semi traffic coming the other way...

 Time for one more potty stop...

 Ah-ha, that's the hold-up...an inspection station!!  Sheesh.  We got to pretty much keep moving (albeit slowly), but those poor trucks had to stand in line for hours, I'm sure...

 But with a storm, sometimes you get a rainbow!

If Bill and I had been smart, we would have sat ourselves down at one of those rest stops and reconfigured our overnight!  We should have just accepted that the hours-long delay would mean we needed to find a different campground, something closer.  Instead, we just kept driving.  And then it started getting dark, and we realized that our original destination was just too far away.  Driving the RV with the trailer, in the dark of night, with wet roads, and when you're really tired and hungry, just isn't a brilliant idea!!  So we finally stopped at a rest stop and tried to find a campground that could fit us that wasn't too damn far away!  Not an easy task, as there just aren't a heck of a lot of campgrounds to choose from in those parts, and most of them were made for smaller rigs.  But we finally did locate one that could take us, and we made it - in the dark, through small ponds and lots of mud...  And it ended up being a 9.5 hour driving day!  We were beat!!

But tomorrow's another day - and THE day we would arrive "home..."