uesday, September 20, 2020 - We drove for three hours from Denton, Texas (north of Dallas) to the North Crest RV Park just on the north side of Waco, Texas. The entire drive was on freeways with the first 60% of the drive going through the massive freeway system of Dallas, Texas. We went right through the middle of Dallas. Luckily, the traffic was not super-busy at 9:30 in the morning. It still is a demanding trip with the 46-foot long Jayco Seismic tracking beautifully behind us.

We arrived at North Crest RV Park and Mark, the owner, said that he would back the RV into its slot. I was caught completely by surprise as this had never happened before. I felt sort of weird letting someone else drive the trailer, but Mark assured me that he had driven trucks for many years. Also, the spot was large with room to maneuver to back onto the concrete slab. He did a great job. Then we could not get our surge protector to work. The power source was fine, but water had leaked into the surge protector from some rain that we had had over the previous week and shorted it out. We went into town to try to find another surge protector, but after going to five shops, only one had a similar unit and it was priced at $510. We could buy on online for $350, but we have found that there has been so much activity in the RV world that there are not many surge protectors anywhere. We may have to "bite the bullet" and pay the extra $150 for the new surge protector. Turns out that the owner gave me a discount and we were able to get the surge protector for $50 off. It all helps.

We drove into Waco to explore the Magnolia complex created by Chip and Joanna Gaines that we watch all the time on TV. We were getting there pretty late in the day so the crowds were smaller and the waits for food were less. We walked all around and took photos of the different buildings. Then we went to the pastry shop to buy a cinnamon roll and a cookie. We had to walk to another building to get coffee since they have separate coffee shop on the premises. We bought coffee and enjoyed the cookie/cinnamon roll on their outdoor patio. We made plans to return in the morning and have breakfast at Chip and Joanna's Magnolia Kitchen. Normally, we would not be able to get a reservation, but a worker told us that since tomorrow was Wednesday, we would likely get in as a "walk in" if we arrived pretty early in the morning. That is our plan for tomorrow; go early and plan to eat there. After our 'sugar fix," we went for a drive around the center of town to look at the old buildings. We then drove out into the country and looked at some homes to see what the cost would be in this area and what the homes looked like. We drove along the Brazos River and looked at homes bordering the river. Prices were pretty good; in the $300,000 to $400,000 range for 2400 square feet and about an acre of land. Some pretty nice homes too. We decided that we would look around some more after breakfast tomorrow.

I'm still hoping that Chip and Joanna will come by the complex tomorrow, and that we will get to meet them and converse for a while (yea sure!).