Today is my 63rd birthday and we spent it on the road in our 7-day marathon trip from Yuma AZ to Cape Coral FL. Road tripping day after day to put on miles isn’t really mine, or Ray’s, idea of a good time but when you’re trying to get far, it’s the best way.

Until today, we left the truck attached to the trailer for the overnights. That makes for an early morning to be able to hit the road, and we’re normally too tired to go anywhere else after all that driving anyway.

We had some good stops and some not so good ones. One campground in Fort Stockton TX that we planned to stay at was just too yucky even for 1 night, so that day we put on 500 miles before we found a decent RV park.

Texas driving was the absolute worst. We went through both San Antonio and Houston, and there was so much construction, congestion and stop and go traffic that we hated all 900 miles of it. When we hit Louisiana, the welcome center was a welcome stop! And it happened to be the nicest one I’d ever been to, with good facilities and even a boardwalk nature trail along a lake. (Not even the signs warning not to feed the alligators detracted from the experience.)

So tonight we detached the pickup and went out to my promised birthday dinner. Ruby Tuesdays salad bar didn’t disappoint and the dulce de leche cheesecake was beyond delicious.

We’re back to listening to audiobooks as we travel, and already finished Nick Petrie’s latest Peter Ash thriller and are well into Clive Cussler’s Spartan Gold.

Although I’m missing my routine of activities and friends from Yuma, it’s fun to see the change in scenery crossing so much of the country. Accents are different, but the sequence of stops at Love’s truck stops lends a familiarity to the travel.

So this is where 63 finds me – enjoying the nomad life on the road again!