Ran from the ice, 1360 miles in rain!

After an unexpected flat tire on the truck Thanksgiving morning, thank you Todd for fixing!  We set up for a really early, in the dark departure from Lubbock with Jason.  So at 5am in pouring rain and a temp of 33 degrees, ahead of the impending ice storm we blew out of town, oh yeah, did I forget to mention winds were 25-30mph!  We knew we needed to get south as well as east to avoid the ice so we cut diagonally southeast, right into Llano, TX.  While there we just had to go to Cooper's BBQ, for us and to show Jason this fabulous place.  His eyes lit up when he saw the serving pit filled with brisket, pork and beef ribs, sirloin, pork chops the size of baseballs, prime rib, and even cabrito.  It is so hard to just get enough rather than way, way too much, and we were all guilty as we ate BBQ that night and the next 2 lunches, and even one breakfast for Jason!  

Doesn't do it justice, but that is a beef rib, brisket and
a couple pork ribs

Cooper's is an institution that we have visited several times over the years.  You wait in line, pick up a plastic tray, pick which meats you want at the serving pit, they cut the amount you want, go inside the building, pick out some fabulous cobbler, hand your tray of meat to a guy behind the counter, he cuts it to order, weighs it, and wraps it in paper, hands it back to you, pick out any side you want, pay at the register, find a seat at the family style picnic tables, go get some excellent pinto beans from the enormous kettles at both sides of the room, help yourself to the some white bread  and pickled jalapeños on all the tables, and DIG in!  Then after making almost no progress on the ridiculously way too much meat that you picked out, go get some butcher's paper and tin foil and wrap it all up and take it home.  Oh yeah, it's good!

We are now in Atlanta after 3 more days driving in rain, developed a problem on the coach that we haven't solved yet, our rear running lights are out.  We have turn signals, brake lights, 4 way flashers, but no rear parking lights, even though we have the front ones and headlights.  We have tried all we could think of, solicited help from 2 different forums, and Jason and I had no luck fixing it.  I will do some more troubleshooting after the rain finally stops in a couple days.

Karen has joined us here in Atlanta for a week or so, on her maiden voyage with her two dogs that have never really ridden in a vehicle before and have never been restricted to leashes their entire life, so she has some challenges, but so far they are all doing fine.

We will be here for almost two weeks while we do dentist and doctor appointments, and several visits with friends before we head south to Florida for the rest of the winter.