Day 17 - February 14, 1998 - Milepost 2391 (401 today) - Ozona, TX

(BF). I saw it coming out of the corner of my eye. It bounded and rolled like a 5 foot diameter basketball woven of bleached branches. Zeroing in the passenger side of our motor home I awaited impact, then heard the crunch and felt the accompanying gust of wind as the giant tumbleweed collided with our speeding vehicle. Even though my hands firmly gripped the wheel, the motor home pulled to the left, fully into the next traffic lane. I've never noticed much effect of wind on our Pace Arrow and always found it better able to handle crosswinds than our previous vehicle, a custom van. But the windswept tumbleweed was quite an experience. Fortunately its effect was merely an emotional high and a scratched storage compartment door behind our exit door.

(SF). I am reminded again how big Texas is. Having started near the border and after driving 401 miles, we are still in Texas and have another day's drive before reaching home sweet home. We stop at the El Paso Flying J and while Bert gases up, I retrieve and send e-mail. Wind gusts blow at our side from the south and one big tumbleweed hits us and causes Bert to swerve out of his lane. I mean, it packs a wallop. I enjoyed the scenery more heading west than I do heading east. It must be that I know our little vacation nears an end. We are tired of driving at 5 PM and had hoped to at least make it to Junction and South Llano State Park. I realize that is still hours away and decide to look for a RV Park in Ozona. We park for the night at the Circle Bar RV Park, six miles east of Ozona. It is a pleasant oasis in the middle of nothing else and others parked find this TL rated 6/8.5/6 camp a welcome spot on the long road between towns. It advertises a swimming pool and hot tub but the windy Texas winters are too cold for it to be open tonight.

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