Before we left Texas, I wanted to stop in Kilgore on our way back to Louisiana. After we left Austin, it was mostly sprawl all the way to Waco, and traffic was pretty thick on I-35. Once we got onto TX-31, it was much less crowded. The countryside was pretty, with rolling hills, lots of different kinds of trees, farms and eventually pine forest. Neptune complained almost the entire way. He wouldn’t shut up no matter what I did. I told him to be quiet. That had no effect whatsoever. I talked to him in a soothing voice, pet him, brushed him, gave him treats, played with him, gave him catnip--all to no avail. He would stop meowing long enough to eat his treats and then start up again. He wouldn’t meow when I played with him but would start whining as soon as I stopped. Plato, on the other hand, was very good and stoic as usual.
Around 4:30, we got to Tyler and went to the Tyler Municipal Rose garden. Tyler is famous for its roses. Not many were in bloom, but those that were were pretty. We walked around and looked at them. It was nice to stretch our legs, but the garden would be much prettier in May.
Then we continued on to tiny Kilgore, the “world’s richest acre”. At one time, 1,000 oil wells crowded downtown. About 25 reconstructed derricks line both sides of one road for about four blocks. The small downtown area has street lamps, a few art deco buildings and an overall nice feel. We drove around a little and stopped to take photos. 
Then we drove around 10 miles farther to WalMart in Longview. We went in and got permission to spend the night, since there were no other parked RV’s. After dark, around 7:00 or so, David was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden he was looking out the back window directly at a woman sitting in the front seat of another RV. They had pulled in right behind us, their lights shining in our camper. They ended up parking just a few feet away. Later several trucks pulled in and parked nearby. By the end of the night there were 5 trucks and 3 RVs spending the night in close proximity. We went to bed around 10:30. At 11:30 we were awoken by a huge noise, which we eventually figured out was a train. It sounded like it was coming through the parking lot. The noise was all around us. It wasn’t just a polite whistle, it was a massive blast like someone exploding dynamite. Both cats were terrified. We peered outside and saw the train just on the other side of the road. It blew its whistle (or whatever it was doing to make such a loud noise) several times. 
We tried to go back to sleep. At 12:30 another train came through, just as loud. This happened a couple more times that night. Then at some point I heard some kind of loud machinery roving around the parking lot. It sounded like a lawn mower. David said they may have been vacuuming the parking lot. Needless to say I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Nor did the cats, who, having no idea what was going on, were still wide-eyed and frightened in the morning. If it weren’t for the train, it would have been a fine place to stay. There were security cameras, lights and a security patrol car all night. 
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