I must say that after almost three days of air-conditioned luxury at Carole’s, the open road in temperatures of around the 100 was a little hard to get used too. We also had to contend with extremely strong side winds, which didn’t make driving all that easy. The drive was through lush green rolling hills with a number of the horse style properties. With their white fences and really large houses, there seemed to be a lot of quarter horse ranches along the drive. The greenness of the countryside was quite unusual to us. We are not used to seeing lush green with such temperatures. Back home after a couple of days with this type of heat the countryside would be brown. We only made it as far as Gainesville and decided to seek some relief from the heat at Wal-Mart. We also thought it would be an opportune time to have a oil change on the van. This caused a bit of excitement as they said that the entry height to the lube bay was 10ft. As they were driving it into the building I climbed onto the back bumper, to eyeball the clearance, according to Michele, who was checking from a distance. My jumping on the back lowered the van just enough to clear the top of doorway. At least now we know that the van is 10ft tall. Of course we decided to stay the night. We had a visit from the security guard on duty. I would say that she was a mixture of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the three Charlie’s Angels combined. In between monitoring her two way radio, waiting to apprehend a couple of shoplifters once they left the store, she kept us amused with her stories, some of which we were sworn to secrecy so I can’t impart them to you, and I wouldn’t like to cross this lady. She was off when the villains 
were in the open “they’re mine” she said, through her head back, and let out an evil laugh. The wind was still blowing a gale, and it kept blowing the gas flame of the fridge out, we took this opportunity to turn the van around, next thing she is across our bow, with her hand up indicating a stop signal, she must have thought that we were going to do a runner, “you can’t leave now” she said. I would have to say that this was the first time that a security guard tried to stop us from leaving, usually it’s the other way around. She then came into the van, and continued with her stories. Her explanation of the strong wind was, as it was coming up from Southern Texas, through to Oklahoma, this meant that Oklahoma sucks. She also was not that impressed with this countries leader, she considered him more of a 
shrub, than a Bush. I had a cable hanging from under the van, from a temporary repair and she remarked that anything like that in Texas is usually shot. There were many more stories, but as I said “sworn to secrecy”. After she left we tried to sleep which was difficult due to the heat and the wind. We purchased an electric fan, which didn’t work all that well, latter on in the trip we purchased a larger one, which works brilliantly. Our new friend left after giving us here phone number, with the promise that if we had any problems, she would sort them out for us, Although this gave comfort, it was too hot to sleep, no photo’s this time, so have included ones not used from earlier. We are off to try and find cooler places………………..
were in the open “they’re mine” she said, through her head back, and let out an evil laugh. The wind was still blowing a gale, and it kept blowing the gas flame of the fridge out, we took this opportunity to turn the van around, next thing she is across our bow, with her hand up indicating a stop signal, she must have thought that we were going to do a runner, “you can’t leave now” she said. I would have to say that this was the first time that a security guard tried to stop us from leaving, usually it’s the other way around. She then came into the van, and continued with her stories. Her explanation of the strong wind was, as it was coming up from Southern Texas, through to Oklahoma, this meant that Oklahoma sucks. She also was not that impressed with this countries leader, she considered him more of a 
shrub, than a Bush. I had a cable hanging from under the van, from a temporary repair and she remarked that anything like that in Texas is usually shot. There were many more stories, but as I said “sworn to secrecy”. After she left we tried to sleep which was difficult due to the heat and the wind. We purchased an electric fan, which didn’t work all that well, latter on in the trip we purchased a larger one, which works brilliantly. Our new friend left after giving us here phone number, with the promise that if we had any problems, she would sort them out for us, Although this gave comfort, it was too hot to sleep, no photo’s this time, so have included ones not used from earlier. We are off to try and find cooler places………………..
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