A few miles down the road the snow was gone and with the drop in elevation the temperatures warmed up some. As we chased the Low pressure system traveling east, the winds weren’t much of a problem. In fact as the day progressed, we had a mild tail wind, so we made good progress traveling slightly over 500 miles this day. On my turn driving, the vent system unleashed another blast of burning particulates, or some variant of pepper spray, don’t really know what. This time it only succeeded in burning my left eye. I didn’t say anything at the time because I thought the excitement the day before was enough for one trip, and I could still see out of my right eye. Anyway, Paul ended up driving more than he should of the day before while I was resting my eyes. With no construction this time, I found it easy to drive for a little while with my left eye closed. Paul or Shirley couldn’t see my left side anyway, so I mentioned it to them after the burning receded. Shirley wiped off my glassed again and we kept going. Needless to say I redirected the vents away from my face for the remainder of the trip.
Toward the end of the day, Paul was driving around the Oklahoma City bypass. The traffic wasn’t bad since it was Saturday, but it’s still a busy multilane, exit enriched section of road. We were making pretty good time when a load noise emanating from the driver’s side of the RV overpowered the usual loud road noise. I had a good suspicion about what that noise was, so I quickly looked out of the driver side window next to Paul and satisfied my suspicion by not seeing any part of the left side rear view mirror. It was gone off the side of the RV. Paul was peering through the remaining right side mirror, and looking at the rear facing camera screen to see if he could see where it went. He worked the RV over to the right side of the freeway and pulled off as far as the road would allow, which wasn’t far enough to safely walk on the driver side of the RV. Paul sticks his head out the window and finds the mirror dangling from the cable connected to it. As luck would have it, the mirror has electrical controls for adjustment so required a good sized cable through the bracket into the mirror assembly. After looking at it for a minute or so, Paul grabs the wire clippers and we clip it off and bring the mirror inside. But before we even get it inside, there in front of us is a cop stepping out of her car to see what’s happening. Paul cradling the mirror indicates to her that we were just securing the broken mirror and will soon be on our way. And we were, with Paul using the rear facing camera much more than normal to compensate for the missing mirror.The stop for tonight is at a casino which offers free electric and water RV hookups. Shirley had found out about this casino while in Arizona from some of their friends. By driving all day, we managed to drive under the Low pressure system and on the warm side of the accompanied cold front. Of course we were barely east of it, in fact, we were just ahead of thunderstorms which caught up with us as we were driving into the casino lot. We found the sites off to the right and quickly picked out an empty spot with electric and water hook ups. In the rain, we unhooked the car and Paul backed the RV into the spot, lucky number 13. Paul hooks up the power and water while the rain is starting to come down at a clothes drenching pace. Everything is set, it’s Miller time. Shirley grabs a couple bucks and takes a shuttle into the casino to get a camping pass and try to win ownership of the casino through the slot machines. While Paul and I were hydrating in the RV, Shirley calls and informs us that number 13 has electrical problems and that the RV will have to be moved. The electrical was working fine, so we didn’t feel the need to move. A little while latter a Security officer stops in and asks if we have a Pass. Paul tells him that Shirley went in for a Pass and hasn’t returned with it yet because of some supposed problem with the electrical. Officer tells Paul to get a pass as soon as convenient. Paul then asks the Security guy if Maintenance is coming out to the site he should ask them if they’d bring a drill and power screwdriver so Paul can reattach the mirror. The Security guy smiled shook his head and drove off, not to be seen again. An hour later Shirley comes back to the RV and informs us we don’t have a Pass because they wouldn’t give her one for a broken site and that we were suppose to move. Meanwhile, the thunderstorms started up again and the temperature was dropping with a brisk wind. Well, we didn’t move, and we really didn’t ever get a Pass to stay there, but no one bothered us again, and Maintenance never showed up. Maybe they weren’t excited about working on Saturday night in a thunderstorm on a fictitious electrical problem.
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