The Stop and Start and Stop and Start Day

We all have days like this.  You go about your merry way and something stops you.  You deal with it, go along again, and something stops you.  That's the sort of day we've had today.

It started out fairly well, actually.  If you recall, we had bought an air mattress to put on top of the "sleeping slab" that was too hard.  Well, I must describe this to you.  First, you need to understand that the mattress supplied by Winnebago is a Queen SHORT, which is 5 or 6 inches shorter than the standard queen mattress.  Okay, I hadn't mentioned that Al's feet had always stuck out over the edges - that was little enough annoyance to overlook.  The waking up with aches and pains wasn't, so last night I stripped the bed, laid out the air mattress and attached the pump.  Within one minute the mattress was filled but Al decided he wanted a little more "give" so we let out a bit of air, I made it up, and some time later we retired.  Well, maybe we had let out a bit too much air because we discovered that getting into and out of the bed was like trying to climb over a field of JELLO - especially at the end with 5 or 6 inches hanging over the edge of the shorter, hard mattress!.  Plus, getting out of it in the middle of the night to visit the bathroom was nearly like skiing down a hill!  It was funny but not easy at all - tonight we're putting more air back into the thing!

The land still looked like this in the morning

Well, as I had mentioned yesterday, today's weather report threatened snow showers so in anticipation of this we packed up and left an hour earlier than usual, hoping to make good time to Junction, TX before any nasty weather happened.  On the way, we stopped at one of the many small town exits that boasted gas stations and pulled in.  As fate would have it, this grungy old pump DRIBBLED gas so slowly it took 15 minutes to put 21 gallons into the tank - but that wasn't all.  First, it was C*O*L*D out there and windy besides - and there I stood for all 15 minutes, shivering and trying to hide from the gusts and waiting for the automatic shut-off to tell me the tank was full.  Uh-oh - the automatic shut-off DIDN'T WORK and suddenly gasoline was splashing out and running down the side of the RV!  Lovely.  So now I'm not only cold and frustrated but my hands are covered in gasoline, I'm trying to wipe off the excess from the RV, and I spend the next 10 minutes trying to stop smelling like a cheap petroleum product.  BLEH!

But we moved on, enjoying the sights such as a wind farm that appeared out of the overcast, semi-foggy day.  We noticed a police car with its lights flashing that had stopped a motorist on the side of the road.  Thinking nothing of it, we passed it by, only to be stopped a short time later by that same police car.  It seems there's a  law in Texas that the officer explained to us, that requires a car to move to the far lane if a car is stopped on the road with its lights flashing.  If one can't move over one needs to slow down to at least 20 miles below the speed limit.  We hadn't known this so the cop was nice enough to let it pass but this was "stop" number two.  (so if you're ever driving in Texas, keep that tidbit in mind).  As an aside, as I thought about it, we've been traveling at about 20 mph less than the speed limit all along!


The limit on I-10 in Texas is 80mph during the day (it's lower at night - see the photo) and we average about 60!  Oh well - on we went, only to stop once again a short while later as Al's colitis acted up and we found a fortunate rest stop to pull into.

Okay, once more we went on our way, noticing that we crossed a whole lot of small bridges (each with a sign saying "watch for ice on bridges"), mostly none of which had any water under them until we were nearly at Junction.

Today's journey consisted of about 200 miles - thirty of which were "extra".  See, because Christmas is so near we wanted to make sure we had enough propane in the RV to provide heat through Sunday.  I can't think of anything more awful than sitting in a freezing RV on Christmas day, so another stop was in a small town called Ozona to look for a place that sold propane.  We found a place and filled up but for some reason our trusty Garmin led us astray!  Instead of leading us back to Route I-10 (which was actually only about a mile from where we found the propane) it led us down a rather nice country road for about 15 miles, only to show us a place to TURN AROUND and go back!!!  BAD GARMIN!!  Naughty!  Go sit in the corner!!  Well, it was a nice side trip anyhow, and we could tell the day was ending because as you can see from the picture below, the cows were beginning to parade their way back home.

Lots of cows, sheep, and goats on this trek

So that counted as our next "stop" though we really never stopped traveling.  While all this was going on we noticed the topography changing again - from scrubby little bushes to taller, well-filled out shrubbery and actual trees!  We had arrived in a temperate zone and left the desert country!  We still passed through a lot of long, slow hills and a few actual mountains - some of which had clearly had pieces chopped out of them in order to make the passes for cars.  The one below struck me as particularly obvious - as though a giant pie slicer had scooped out a wedge of mountain.  Interesting!

So we've finally reached Junction, where we stopped at a local restaurant to see how their "Country Fried Steak" compared to the same item we enjoyed so much the other night.  Nope - no comparison.  Oh well - another day another experiment.  

We've checked the weather report for "hereabouts", which speculates that the temperature won't quite drop to freezing, so we're taking a chance and have hooked up our water hose, hoping it won't freeze overnight but prepared with fresh water in the holding tank just in case.  Weatherman promises rain all day tomorrow between here and San Antonio, our next stop but fair weather for Christmas day.  Sadly, the temperature has been SERIOUSLY below the average for Texas - they usually expect 50s and 60s at this time of year and we'll be lucky if either city reaches 45!  Brr.  Yeah, I know - we're SO spoiled - but hey; we've been used to 60 and 70s at this time of year - 45 feels COLD to us!  We're still hoping to avoid any snow at all - but these days, who can tell?   We'll keep you posted!

Texas, Day Two - Where the Wild Things Were

I think I've mentioned before that the bed in the RV is very, very firm - to the point that we've been very uncomfortable on it every night.  I think I also mentioned that the RV can potentially sleep seven people, though in practice, that's entirely ridiculous.  Well, being rather fed up with sleeping on the "sacrificial altar", last night Al and I opened up the air mattress that lives inside the sofa and gave it a whirl.  What a difference!!  It was so far superior to the rock of Gibraltar in the bedroom that we slept wonderfully and I awoke refreshed at about 6:30 - half an hour before daybreak.

 Not wanting to awaken Al, I went into the bedroom and looked out the window and saw the moon with Venus off to the left, with the promised "rosy-fingered dawn" just beginning beneath the mountain below.  Now, I hope you'll forgive the photo to the left - it's really hard to get a good photo in the dark on a tiny little Canon Elph but you can nearly see the amazingly beautiful sight I saw.

So I waited for about half an hour and took the next photo where you get a better idea of how lovely the morning was.  Of course, this was interrupted slightly by the sound of the owner of the RV next to ours discovering that his water line had frozen... we were prepared for this ourselves, and had no interruptions.

Just before it really became day I noticed something moving across the ground nearby.  Peering out at it, I slowly realized I was looking at a small warren of rabbits; undoubtedly having grazed all around the RV park in search of leftovers and now returning to their burrows in the moments before dawn.  By the time I figured out how to spot them I noticed six of the little creatures - and then they were gone.

Soon after this the birds woke up and started to move around, which woke Al, so we started our day, resolving to find the nearest Walmart and purchase an air mattress to put on top of our present "sleeping slab".  As usual, Al went to work and I took a stroll to throw out some trash and get some breakfast from the nice, little restaurant at the RV park.  We had greatly enjoyed our "Country Fried Steak" the previous evening so we figured breakfast would be good, too.

On my way to the little restaurant I noticed two separate flocks of quail skurrying around the grounds, so I quickly took a few photos of them to share with you.   They also were just grazing and pecking the ground and walking around but they were shy and skurried away any time I came within 20 feet of them.  Cute little things though...





So after our breakfast and the obligatory morning Half-Hour-With-Dorian-on-My-Lap-Scratching-Him-While-He-Bites-Small-Holes-In-My-Clothing, Al gave up trying to get things done online, as the connection was seriously awful (as you may recall from my Facebook comment and my posting the day's photographs there instead of here) and we packed up and once more hit the road.

Today's journey was slightly shorter than average - being only about 125 miles to Fort Stockton, Tx.   We noticed almost immediately that the surrounding landscape had changed from the craggy, nearly endless mountains covered in scrub and cacti to broad plains that, while covered with short, stubby shrubbery (try saying that phrase a few times quickly), (manzanita, we think) there was no more cactus, and we kept driving up long, slowly rising hills, then going down the other side, moving from about 3850 feet above sea level to about 4300 and back again.  We also noticed that there are suddenly a whole lot of cars towing horse trailers...go figure...Texas.  Right.

Still some pretty scenery!

Our journey today was delightfully punctuated by some of the wonderful music our beloved nephew Clifford sent along with us.  Clifford made up some CDs for us, containing the most excellent mixture of every kind of music you might imagine - from a piece that sounded like it was played on the glass harp to Disney's "Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo" from Cinderella and everything in between. Part of the fun of this delicious collection is wondering what surprise piece of music will come next!!  Will it be an old Calypso by Harry Belefonte, or perhaps Gene Wilder singing a song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory??  What a wonderful collection of music it is - we haven't gotten even halfway through it yet but we're loving it a lot!!  Thanks many millions, Clifford!!!

If you watch educational TV you  may have seen a program describing how Texas is having an uncontrolled explosion of the population of wild boars (the pigs; not the rude people, though that might be a different discussion...).  Well, this afternoon I saw a wild boar chomping on something-or-other on the side of the road.  Big, scruffy-looking thing it was, having a bit of lunch.  I wasn't fast enough with my camera to catch it, and though I watched for more, I didn't see any other wild boars on the journey but there was this one guy at the local Walmart...

Oh, speaking of which, Fort Stockton is large enough to have a Walmart Super Store, where I bought the air mattress I mentioned earlier, plus a few other items we needed.  Afterward we found the next RV site, set up, and went to let Rover and Polgara out of the cage for a while.

Now, you may recall that Rover the Umbrella Cockatoo and Polgara the Orange-Winged Amazon parrot are emotionally bonded but right now they're living in two separate cages.  Every day I make sure I put Pol in with Rover for a little while so they can cuddle and preen each other but this afternoon when we went to let them out onto the table playpen we have for the birds we discovered how very attached to Polgara Rover really is.

What you're looking at in this picture is the roof of Pol's cage (on the left) which Rover has TIED to his own cage (on the right) with part of his rope toy.  He pulled out a long piece of the toy and wound it around and around between his cage and hers, binding them together!  Isn't that amazing and wonderful???  FYI, we've left the cages tied together this way.  He went to so much trouble, after all!


So tomorrow our plan is to drive to Junction, Texas.  The weatherman says here in Fort Stockton there'll be snow showers but we'll see if we get get past them to Junction, where it'll be a bit warmer and only partly cloudy.  Wish us luck, and a better night's sleep on our new air mattress!

We Learn from New Mexico and Discover Texas

It seems we have a new experience every day!  Today's adventure started as neither of us slept very well...plus it was COLD in the bedroom!  There are 3 windows in the rear of the RV (the bedroom) and they are about as well insulated as a toy balloon.  RVs actually are designed to be "fair weather" friends - so though the heater warmed up the main cabin of the RV pretty well, the 28 degrees outside sort of seeped into the bedroom with us.  Then we discovered that the 28 degrees had also seeped into our water hose and froze the water so we had to use whatever we had in the holding tank for flushing and washing, etc.  Luckily, Al's work (and my laundry) kept us busy until about 10 and by that time the sun had warmed everything up and all had melted.  We were on our way again by noon.

I'm not going to add photos today because apparently the owner of this KOA RV park doesn't know how to set up his internet and I'm having a hell of a time getting ANYTHING done!  I'll try to post today's photos on Facebook IF I can get connected to it.  This is NOT the first time we've had Internet trouble at an RV park - we've had one sort of difficulty or another at EVERY ONE of them!

Anyway, before we actually reached Texas we saw a huge cattle holding area - those who have been up Route 5 in California have seen one much like this one - and more - they've SMELLED it!  Yeah - imagine about a mile of tightly packed cattle and the pungency...lovely farewell memory of New Mexico.

Anyway, before we knew it we had entered El Paso - which surprised me by being an enormous, sprawling metropolis, full of industry and complex highway systems and...and...TRAFFIC!!!  We were actually delayed for about half an hour in a genuine Traffic Jam!  Go figure!

Once out of El Paso we were back into the miles and miles of miles and miles however I did notice one difference between Texas and Arizona/New Mexico.  While the scrub and craggy mountains were much the same as before, there were almost always signs of habitation in the distance in Texas.  One side of the road was empty scrub and the other also scrub but way down there were farms or buildings or something happening indicating human presence.   This continued for a long way past El Paso but eventually gave way to more emptiness.  And yes, Texas is BIG.  For the first time, we looked into the distance and saw...more distance.  Oh, I did see one road sign I thought was clever...it said "Littering is unlAWFUL"   Cute.  Oh, and while the speed limit in the other states ranged from 65 to 75, Texas is the first place that we've seen a speed limit of 80MPH!  We keep to around 65 actually.  It's far easier to control the RV and maximize fuel economy that way.

Well, shortly before arriving in this booming town of Van Horn (it has 3 exits on the highway!!) we passed through a border guard inspection station!  We figured they'd want to come into the RV to see if we were smuggling illegal immigrants or something but they just asked if we were American citizens, then passed us along.  Oh well.

So, here we are in a small town in west Texas, hoping to stay in the window of good weather, and prepared for another night of freezing.  Tonight we're going to sleep in the main cabin on the air mattress under the sofa.   This RV can sleep up to 7 people actually, though with just one bathroom, I don't see how that could possibly be accomplished!

We're in the Central Time Zone now - I guess it IS later than I think!!!

Ah - Sunshine at Last!!


 

Well, well, well!  This morning, after a VERY cold night in Willcox, AZ the dawn brought something we hadn't seen in days - Sunshine!!  Al went to work while I went over to the restaurant to get us some breakfast.  This included a twenty minute chat with the cook about our birds because the previous night we had bought a baked potato for them and both the cook and the hostess were burning to know how the birds enjoyed it.  Happily, they liked it so much they ate it up and immediately went to sleep! 





Life has started to fall into a somewhat comfortable pattern.  We wake up early, Al works while I putter or do laundry or whatever, we eat a little something, then we drive to our next RV park.  After setting up the RV we do something about supper for ourselves and the birds, then Al works while I blog or play on the computer or whatever else.  We've been retiring quite early each evening and I think the extra sleep is really helping us both, because soon after Al finished work this morning he felt well enough for us to take off for points east - specifically New Mexico.  Not surprisingly, this part of New Mexico looks quite a lot like southern Arizona - very, very wide valleys bordered by distant mountains.  I recall that when we drove across the country TO California we went across the middle of New Mexico and were impressed  by the mesas and so forth.  This area is very different from that.  More desert with cactus and scrub and rocky outcroppings.

Just like Arizona, this same topography went on for mile after mile, with the difference being that, as you can see, we enjoyed some sunshine along with the scenery.

Another difference was that we started to see cattle here and there - evidence of ranches or farms thereabouts.  Small semi-towns began to appear...little truck stop sort of places.  It was there that we saw a delightful little house we thought we might choose to move into instead of making that long drive all the way to Florida - here's a photo of it.  We thought it...had character...

There were actually a number of these old, dilapadated ruins scattered along the side of the road - some more disheveled than others.  I missed taking a photo of a REAL ramshackle one because the phone rang just at the wrong time,  Oh well -

Our trip today was about 185 miles, most of which was through scrub - I think this area of the state may be called "the badlands".  I saw a sign saying something about service in the badlands...not sure. 

This area actually reminded me of an area I described in the first book of The Siliphore - Spanner Plains - a windy plain where nothing much grew but yellow grass and scrub.  Like this: 

Anyway, before long we actually came upon Las Cruces, which, much to my surprise, lies at the foot of a range of SNOW-COVERED mountains!  Imagine!  Here we've been going along doing our best to avoid anything having to do with snow or winter weather, and we drive right into a town sporting a tall, craggy range all covered in white!  Having never been to Las Cruces before, I must say I was impressed by how one comes upon it - it's really rather lovely - the snowy mountains notwithstanding.  If I had a better camera with me I could have taken a much more impressive photo of it - but here's the best I could do so you can see what it looks like when you go over the hill and see the city spread out in front of you:

This really doesn't do it justice - and you really can't see that those mountains in the distance are all sorts of snow-covered.  Thinking that might be the case I took another photo - specifically of the mountains.  Boy, I sure hope this is as close to the snow as we get! 

There.  Snow.  Lots of it.  BRRRR.  And we've been hearing all these reports about the major blizzard that occured in the more northerly part of New Mexico up to Kansas.  Luckily for us, Las Cruces is at the BOTTOM of the state.  In theory we should be all right, since our route tomorrow takes us nearly due south to El Paso, then on to Van Horn, TX (where it's going to be in the low 50s tomorrow) and the rest of Texas.  And boy; if I thought Arizona and New Mexico were big - wait'll I see Texas!  I think it's going to take us the best part of a week to get across it!!    Think we'll be speaking in a drawl by the time we reach Louisiana?  Only time will tell, partner!

Well, I Guess We're Very S-L-O-W Adventurers

Hi, again -

Did I mention that neither Al nor I are really over the colds we picked up when we spent an entire weekend out in our windy, cold garage having a yard sale?   I've got a lingering cough and Al's still got the tiresome "crummies" - not enough energy, still congested, and just beginning to cough effectively.  It makes the adventuring somewhat lacking in romance, I gotta admit.

That's why we're still in Arizona tonight - oh, not still in Tucson - we're about 90 miles east of there in a teeny, tiny little one-road town called Willcox.  I'll tell you how we got here... Oh, and I'll be throwing in some photos of the sights we saw between Tucson and here, just for interest.  Like this:

There are still lots of distant mountains everywhere

See, before all this began, we joined the Good Sam Club which is an RVing club that does helpful things like help plan the route you might want to take, and suggest places to stay, tell you the average cost of gas between hither and thither, and so forth.  It also has ratings for very many RV parks, entered by members who have actually stayed in them, so the ratings are pretty accurate.

The sky was threatening all day

Well, when we joined I set up a route from Chatsworth, Ca to Lady Lake, Florida centering on Route 10 because being such newbies at this, neither of us wanted to chance trying to drive this big, 32' thingy in snowy, blowy, water-freezing-in-the-pipes sort of weather and Route 10 is the southernmost route in the entire U.S.  Okay, so we started to follow their route, which is how we ended up doing about 275 miles the first day!  FAR too much driving for one day!  So between not really resting yesterday and still not getting over his cold, today after working for about three hours Al really needed more sleep (another brief, 4 hour nap).  While he conked out I went to the store in the office at Prince of Tucson and picked up a copy of the Trailer Life Directory which has all sorts of maps and listings and ratings and information about every single RV park in the country and Canada!    Al napped and I mapped, basically ignoring the marathon Good Sam had us set up for and making each day have much smaller sprints.

This was coming into a town called Benson 

So once Al woke up, instead of having a 285 mile ordeal ahead of him he had a 90 mile jog.  MUCH better!

So that's how we ended up in the tiny town of Willcox, Az.  How to describe it?  Well,"rustic" comes to mind.  The whole town is one long street with some real places like a gas station, a few restaurants, um, I'm not sure what else...a motel or two, and a handful of RV parks.  The one we're at tonight "Lifestyle RV Resort" was the best-rated one for the city according to Good Sam.  Well, it's clean; I'll give it that - and that's an important factor.  It also boasted a "Full Service Restaurant" which Al and I looked forward to after huddling for 4 days in the RV feeling like vagabonds.  Okay, I admit it - the restaurant was something out of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" only not as cheery.  They offered soup, salads and sandwiches - but wait - you could get the meat in your sandwich HOT if you wanted!

Large, beautiful rock formations
wherever you look!

I just liked the shapes of these trees

  Don't get me wrong - these people were very nice and friendly and helpful but Trader Vic's this was NOT.  Yeah, I know I'm awfully spoiled and this trip is really showing me how spoiled I am!  Oh, the lessons we learn!  Anyhow, we happily ate the sandwiches while listening to Sirius Satellite Radio's Christmas songs.  Both the cook and the server wore Santa hats - a nice touch, though I think the hats had seen nearly as many Christmases as their wearers had.  Still, there's much to be said for friendly smiles and helpful natures and these were much appreciated.  At the same time I have to admit that I'm feeling very far from home here in the middle of no place.  Oh, yeah, right - I'm sitting in my home, aren't I?  Until the 6th of January when hopefully the escrow on the new house in Summerfield closes, home is literally where the heart is. Right now it's Al, me, and the birds in the belly of our big, mobile turtle, the Great A'Tuin.  (by the way, if you're not familiar with Great A'Tuin, Google him or Terry Pratchett, his author.  There are some wonderful illustrations...)

This was a large rock formation just across the road from a rest stop we visited.   A lot of the topography of this part of Arizona reminded me of southern California.  No surprise there, really.  Similar climates.

So tomorrow we try to make a big stretch of 193 miles to Las Cruces.  It's actually a good thing that we've delayed our travels by two days (so far) because the weather system I complained about the other day apparently has caused some unhappy road conditions somewhat east of us and I'd rather it was over and done with by the time we get there.  In the meantime, that wind as I got out of the RV to fill up with gas (AGAIN) was C*O*L*D!!!  Poor, spoiled Southern Californian gal shivering as she waits for the gas tank to fill.   BRRRRRR!!!  SO glad we're moving to nice, warm FLORIDA!   Watch carefully as Dru sheepishly gets down off her high horse...

There's adventure out there - I know there is...but sometimes I think you gotta TRAIN to have an adventure! Well, consider us in training.  I'll keep ya posted!