Day 9 - Dallas/Arlington KOA

Well, this morning I set my alarm for 7:30 am to try a new system of mining for diamonds. They suggested three ways- 1. put dirt in box screen and rinse dirt off of everything with water in a sluice. 2. Put dirt in box screen and sift dirt through screen leaving pebbles in screen. 3. Surface mining which is walk looking down for diamonds. I did way number 2 yesterday and found fools diamonds which were quartz crystals. Today I decided to try way number 3. I didn't even last an hour as the green headed flies were there plus it was hot due to the heat index feeling like 90 degrees. If I ever come back, it will be when it's 50 F. Next time I will try method #1.

DH dropped me off and picked me up after I texted him I was done. And yes I was done just like a hard boiled egg. We packed up the motorhome making it travel worthy, and then hooked the MDX to the tow bar, dropped off trash and headed South to Arlington, TX a suburb between Dallas & Forth Worth. Texas. As we were driving DH, decided that he wanted some of the jerky we bought in Pigeon Forge, TN. He has a gap between two teeth that certain types of food gets trapped in. So I also gave him one of those tooth pick things that have floss on it too. He took it while driving and used it to get the jerky out but the toothpick thing got stuck. So here we are driving down the road with no place to pull over. I was laughing hysterically while trying to cut the floss with scissors. MIL was oblivious to our predicament. Finally I was successful, and cut the floss and it came out just like that.

We drove on back roads from Crater National Park to I-30 South to Texas. DH wondered about pronouncing Texarkana. I told him it was a combination of Texas and Arkansas. I also told him it was in the theme song of Smokey and the Bandit. And the town was half in Texas & half in Arkansas. While driving through Texas I was counting how many Texas bumpers there were on tractor trailers. So far I haven't seen that many. DH thinks I will see more on the stretch between Fort Worth and NM.
I guess you are wondering what a Texas bumper is? It's a broad flat stainless steel looking bumper which gives the truck a tougher look. Is there a reason for changing to a Texas bumper other than appearance, I don't know?

The Gremlin, which I have named our motorhome GPS unit, was up to no good yet again. It was mixed up in Dallas on all of the crazy roads. It constantly wanted us to make a U-Turn but one can not make a U-Turn that easily in a motorhome towing a tow vehicle especially on an interstate highway. Then it brought us to the KOA campground and it was on the opposite side of a road with a center divider. So DH drove the motorhome down the road looking for a parking lot to turn around. We found one with speed bumps that shook the whole
Motorhome violently when we drove over them. He turned around in a bowling alley lot behind the lot with the speed bumps. Then we had to go over the bumps again to exit. So DH drives up Cooper Road slowly and we are both looking for the KOA sign. Only after we had driven on top of it and past the driveway did we see the idiot sign as it was hidden behind a tree. So we couldn't back up even if we could due to our tow vehicle and of course the traffic. So I suggested we reprogram the GPS so it could alert us when we were getting close to the turn. So DH reprogrammed the Gremlin which tried to take us back the way we originally directed us, which was wrong. So I used Google and it directed us around the block but not far enough, so DH turned the motorhome around in yet another parking lot, and this time it took us up past where the KOA was. This time we had both GPS units telling us when to stop and we made it into the parking lot. We had a nice gravel pull through with a picnic table, across from the pool and laundry. Our ultimate goal was to go to dinner at Gino's East which is a chain that specializes in Deep Dish Chicago pizza. Our DD#2 first introduced it to us in 2007 when we traveled in that area. Then we have been in the general area two other times, and we always go to Gino's East. We went there for diner and it was slightly different as it didn't have the giant patty of sausage and as a result the crust wasn't as high. DH thought the crust was a slightly different recipe, however I think it was just over baked. It was still very good. MIL got roasted tomato soup plus she tried some pizza too. Tomorrow we are headed to Abilene, TX to meet up with a friend.