Catalina State Park

The trip from Deming, NM to Catalina State Park north of Tucson, AZ was way better that our travel the day before.  The terrain was fairly even except for going downhill into Benson, AZ,and then back up hill some to Tucson, but the most important difference was there was no wind!  I failed to mention in my last blog that on our trip from Del Rio, TX to Deming, NM was against a headwind of about 20 miles per hour.  Ann and I joked that it was a 5 mile per gallon day. Statistics show it was 4.99 miles per gallon day!  Glad all travel days are not like that!



Even though it was the third time we have stayed at the Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming, NM, it was the first time that we realized that all the freight trains in the southern US go through Deming!  I dont think was a ten minute space between trains passing by all night, and of course, most RVers know that there must be a Federal Law that states that all RV parks must be built within earshot of a rail road track.

Here are some examples of trains we saw while we headed west of Deming, NM.

We stopped in Lordsburg, NM to fill up with gas, and get some food.  The Flying J and attached Denny's were right off the interstate and filled the bill.  When we got ready to leave we noticed this car on a trailer behind a motorhome.

After admiring the car for a couple minutes, we were ready to go, but the motorhome driver decided to block the driveway as he waited his turn to fuel up.

He apparently noticed that he had the drive way blocked as three different vehicles were waiting to get out, so he finally pulled ahead far enough for the three of us to leave.  The selfishness of some people!

We arrived at the park about 3:15PM and quickly got set up, and headed over to Happy Hour for our group of RVforum.net.  There was already a good crowd there as the usual Happy Hour time of 4:00PM was moved up to 3:00 because even thought it was mid 60s, it cools off fast after 4:00PM.

Here is the group at Happy Hour on Tuesday, December 27, 2001.  Ann and I are on the left side of the pic with our backs to the camera.  We will add a few more people in the circle tonight, and expect a few more to come in tomorrow.  Thanks to Ken of our group for the pic.

After Happy Hour we headed back south to "Five Guys" burger place that Ann had seen on our way up Oracle Street on our way to the park.  The food was good, and it had a different atmosphere than most places.

This morning(Wednesday December 28) we had to move spaces as the first spot was not available for the next few days.  This is really a beautiful park, and it is full every night!  Next it was off to a place that did faxing as Ann needed to fax something for work, and on the way Ann noticed a bike shop, and we stopped and Ann looked at bikes on the way back.  She has a bike, but wants a lighter and better bike.

Upon returning to the park, Ann went back to work, and I took a few pics of the area.

After Happy Hour, then dinner, it was a night of reading for Ann, computer time for me and updating the blog.

Here is a chart with some travel cost information. Odometer Miles  Price Gallons  Total  MPG 39,177  $    3.169 54.2  $        172.00 39,506 329  $    3.379 57.8  $        195.02 5.69 39,828 322  $    3.469 62.5  $        217.00 5.15 40,208 380  $    3.349 55.2  $        185.00 6.88 40,608 400  $    3.419 58.5  $        200.00 6.84 40,789 181  $    3.219 30.4  $          98.00 5.95 41,085 296  $    3.099 59.4  $        184.00 4.99 41,373 288  $    3.059 49.0  $        150.00 5.87 Total Miles 2,196 AVG/Gal  $     3.270 Total Gal 372.9 Total $  $     1,229.02 AVG MPG 5.89 Hope everyone is doing well!  We do appreciate everyone's comments! Paul

Del Rio to Deming

Well, we made our goal of getting to Deming, NM Monday evening, and yes it got cold Monday night!  It is now almost 8:00 AM and it is only 20 outside.  Time to move on!

We left our site 28 at the American Campground about 8:00.  By time we topped off the propane, and paid our electric bill for the three weeks we were there, said our good byes, and stopped up the road a couple of miles for gas in the motorhome, and some breakfast sandwiches for us, we were heading west by 9:00 AM.

According to Mapquest the quickest way to Deming, NM is to go west on HWY 90 to HWY 285 at Sanderson, TX, and then go north to Fort Stockton where you pickup the interstate and head west.  We went that way last year, so this year we continued on west on HWY 90 to where it meets the interstate at Van Horn, TX.  It takes a little longer this way, but we got to see a lot of new territory, however, in this part of Texas, a lot of the new territory, looks like a lot of the territory that we had already seen!

Here is the route Mapquest suggested.




Here is the route we took.



Going west we gradually climbed to higher elevations.  Here we are at about 3800 feet, but at one point we were over 4300 hundred feet before we descended back to about 3600 feet in Marathon.

Then it was back up again after Alpine , and at Deming we are now about 4100 feet altitude which accounts at least partly for the cold temperatures.

Much of the land looks pretty barren, I wonder how people raise animals and make a living out here?

By the time we got to Alpine, it was about noon, and time for lunch.  We found a place called Penney's Diner and decided it would be good enough.  There was some snow on the ground, and they still had Santa out front, so Ann took these pictures.

Then it was on west to Van Horn.  We noticed as we climbed out of Alpine, the scenery  changed to darker rocks and dirt.  Also, as we climbed, there was snow on the hills.

Several miles west of Alpine we came across this weird looking dirigible.  I didnt get to read all of the sign on the gate to the place, but it did say something about US Air Force TARS program.  I havent looked that up yet to see what this thing is used for.

Our next stop was a Pilot/Flying J in Van Horn to fill up with gas and take a break.  The place was a zoo, and it took us over a n half and hour to get in and out, but gas was only $3.09, some of the cheapest gas we had see up till that point in the trip.  Then it was off to El Paso, TX, and again we ignored Mapguest's, and our GPS' directions, as we remebered driving through downtown El Paso last year just as the sun was going down, and how difficult that was.  Both Mapquest and our GPS suggested we stay on Interstate 10.

Here is the route we took.



You might have to zoom in on the map to see our actual route.

After leaving El Paso, Tx, and before we got back on the Interstate, we entered New Mexico.

Then it was north to Las Cruces where the Interstate turns west, and then it was on to Deming, NM

 We arrived here at Dream Catcher RV Park just about 6:00PM, paid for the night, picked our spot, hooked up only the electric, and put the jacks down, and put out the slides.  Then it was dinner time, and in about ten minutes Ann had heated up Christmas dinner leftovers.  It is so nice to have your house with you!

It is now almost 9:00AM on Tuesday, and we are about head out toward Catalina State Park near Oro Valley, Arizona, which is just north of Tucson.

Here is a pic of us at Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming, New Mexico.

And one of the mountains to the north of Deming.

Now as soon as I post this blog, we are headed to Tucson.  Looks like the weather there today will be in the high 60s!  Yea, short pants and t-shirt weather!

More Later,

Paul

Last Night in Del Rio, Now the Weather Will Return to Normal

 It is pretty easy to get into a routine at any place we stay more that a few days.  Our routine here is for Ann to get up about 7:00, and I get up somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00, and about 9:30 I go over to the Community Center and have coffee with the other old guys.  Most of the time we discuss benign issues, other times we talk politics.  Wow, it is most interesting to here the different points of view!  I have way more fun talking issues with people I dont agree with rather than talking issues with people I agree with.  About the only thing we did this week out of the routine is get new tires for the car dolly.

New Tires

The other day while looking things over I noticed that one of the tire on the car dolly was worn to the pint of needing replaced, and the other was not far behind.  The search was on for some new ones.  First stop was the internet to get some idea of prices. The tires on the dolly are not car tires, but trailer tires, and surprisingly they were not that expensive.  The next step was to find a local place that had the tires and could mount them.  At coffee one morning I brought up the issue, and most everyone had a different idea of where the best place to get tires. 

On Ann's noon hour we headed toward town to check things out.  Down the road about two miles is a place that rents U-hauls, sells lot of trailer parts and deer guards.  We stopped and sure enough they sold tires for the dolly, but didnt have the correct size in stock, but could have them tomorrow.  Sounded good enough for us so we ordered some Carlisle 205/70 R-15s.

Here is a pic of the old tires.

And here is the place we bought them.

Here is the dolly with new tires on.

 Our motorhome and car at our "home' here in Del Rio.

Today was the Christmas Dinner pot luck.  Ann made spinach salad, pistachio fluff salad, and almond bark pretzels.  I made sweet potatoes.  As usual, there was way more food that we could eat.  I was nice visiting with the friends we have made here, and meeting some new people that got here a couple of days ago.

The festivities ended about 2:30 and we came back to the motorhome to sit until we felt we could move again.  Later I went outside put the grill, the battery charger, and our Cabella's chairs away. So in the morning we have to unhook the utilities, put the bike rack on the car, load the bikes, and load the car on the dolly.  We are planning on being on the road by 8:30, but we shall see.

We are not sure how far we are going tomorrow.  We would like to get to Deming, NM, but it is going to be in the lower 20s there tomorrow night, and we were hoping for a little warmer over night temperature than that, but it looks like it is going to be pretty chilly all across New Mexico tomorrow night.  You will have to stay tuned to see how far we go tomorrow.  We are scheduled to be in Catalina State Park just on the north side of Tucson Tuesday through Sunday.  We havent decided where we are going from there, but hey, we have a few days to decide what is next!

I have made a couple of changes in the blog.  Now instead of waiting for me to post on Facebook when I update the blog, you can now subscribe by email.  Just put in your email, and you will be notified when the blog is updated.

I added a couple more links to some of the blogs I read, and I finally remembered where I need to change the html to change locations in the weather bug.

Well, our propane heater just went out because the 20 lb bottle it runs off of is empty again.  The cold weather here really has taken a lot of propane.  We have used six 20 lb bottles in the three weeks we have been here.  I hope it warms up enough that we dont have to use that much propane in the next three weeks.

Off to change out the propane bottle, and then to bed.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Paul

Two Weeks in Del Rio, Where is the Sun?

When we arrived here at American Campground two weeks ago it was beautiful, 77 degrees and sunny.  That evening was the last we have seen of the sun, save for the time when it was visible through some thin clouds.

Other than that glimpse, it has been cloudy, cool(down to 23 one night), and rainy!  It has been dry here in Texas this summer, so I dont complain too much, but this isnt the weather we signed up for!

The first night we were here, we went to two of our favorite places; Rudy's Barbeque for some great barbeque, and then it was a stop on our way home at Lorina's Cantina for some adult beverages and an opportunity for Ann to sing some karaoke.  As was the case last year, there was a pretty good crowd, with several good singers, and it quite a bit of fun till about midnight when the DJ usually lets a few of the locals sing continuously, but by that time, it is time to go anyway.  We didnt go there last night(December 17), but we may go on Thursday night for a final time before we head west on the day after Christmas.

Other than the one night out, we havent really done a whole lot while we are here, as the weather is pretty much a downer.  Ann pretty much works from 8:00 AM until 4:30 everyday Monday through Friday.  Her regular recliner has become uncomfortable on her back, so she has moved to the passenger seat of the motorhome as her "office" chair, and has her "work" computer on the computer tray.

She still uses the recliner that came with the motorhome as her "non-work" chair.  She has her personal computer on a TV tray on one side.

And part of her Janet Evanovich library on the other side.  I also noticed that the liquor stash shows up in this pic as well. 

On the way down here, and since we have been here Ann has read many of the Janet Evanovich books that are part of an 18 book series.  Her efforts include having purchased a three part book before we left, checking out some from the public library in Del Rio, reading some online with the e-reader on her computer, and then buying the rest that are available from Amazon.  I am sure by the time we leave here, she will have read all that are available.  Then it is on to new reading material!

One of the things that we have noticed since we have traveled, is that no state take recycling as serious as they do in Iowa.  Since we are used to recycling, Ann found the local recycling center, and we made a trip over there the other evening with our cans, paper, cardboard, and bottles.

Friday December 16, we had a potluck in the community center.  Not ever knowing what to bring, I decided that we should bring a dish that one of the people brought last year that went over pretty well, and Ann made some peanut butter blossoms.  Here is a pic of the cookies, and the brussel sprouts, that have bacon, red onion, red wine, brown sugar, and cranberries added.  I am not a big fan of brussel sprouts, but they taste pretty good in this recipe.

As is usual at most potlucks, there is way more food than people.  Only a small portion of the brussel sprouts remained, and we left the rest of the cookies at the community center for our morning coffee that convenes at 9:30AM every morning.  The first day I went over for coffee, most of the same guys were there, and it just seemed I hadnt missed a day from when we left last December.

Seems like food is taking over this post, but that is the way it goes.  Last night(December 17) Ann made a delicious dinner of Chicken Cordon Bleu, rice pilaf, and lima beans.  It looked so nice, I had to take a pic.  It looks like I set the silverware on the table. :) 

After sitting around the motorhome for two weeks, except for the first night we were here, and a few trips to town for groceries, and some other errands, we decided to take a road trip today, if for no other reason just to get out and do something.  We put together a plan to make a circle of the area.  We started out in Del Rio, traveled  to Eagle Pass, and then a circuitous route to Uvalde, then back to Del Rio.





We left this morning and drove to Eagle Pass.  It is a city of about 20 some thousand people.  I must say that after driving around the town looking for a place to eat, it seemed more like we were in Mexico, and not the USA.

The number of signs that were in Spanish was surprising.  I guess I dont know why I expected any different.

We had the GPS set on an Applebees, but when we got there it was now Captain Charlies Seafood Restaurant and Bar.  It was not what we expected, but we thought we would give it a try. We had a good chat with the server, he was born in North Dakota, but his Dad got a job with the Border Patrol, and he got transferred to Eagle Pass.  Our server was going to follow in his Dad's footsteps, and become a border patrol agent as well. I told him I thought he made a good choice, as it seems to be as a secure a job anyone could hope for in this economy.

As usual in restaurants in this part of country, they start you out with chips and salsa.  The salsa was good, but not too hot, when they brought our appetizer of stuffed crab, the sauce that came with it, was awesome!  Plenty spicy, produced some sweat on the forehead, but not too hot for our Iowa pallet.

The stuffed crab.

Ann eating the stuffed crab.

For our entrees, we both had fish; Ann had bass, I had red snapper, very tasty!

After finishing our lunch, we headed out of town going north east in a round about way to Uvalde.  We hadnt gone too far when we came across an immigration check point.  These places are all over the Southwest, I am not sure they ever catch anyone, but more likely, just make if more difficult for human, and drug smugglers.  The officers are usually polite, and just asked us if we were both American citizens, and why we were in Eagle Pass.  We answered that we were both American citizens, and that we are lucky enough to be able to get out of Iowa in the winter, and were just visiting Eagle Pass.

The rest of our trip was uneventful.  So much of this part of Texas looks a lot a like.  There is some farmland, a couple of cattle ranches, but most of the countryside is scrub brush.  There are lots of ranches in this area, but all you see of most of them is the sign over the road that leads to the ranch.  We past by many of them, but did stop and get a pic of this one.  It was one of the nicer ones; most are just metal frames with the ranch name in metal as well.

We arrived back in Del Rio about 4:00PM, but couldnt pass by DQ without stopping.  Banana split for me, and hot fudge and peanuts for Ann.  No pics, as they disappeared quickly.

Once back at the motorhome, Ann had planned to do laundry, but because the office was closed, she wasnt able to get change, so I guess we will have something to do tomorrow.

It is 9:30PM now, after having some popcorn while I am updating the blog, Ann is watching Survivor.  Tomorrow starts our last week here, we shall see what it brings.

Paul

Our Third Annual Snowbird Adventure; The First Twelve Days

Day One:  November 23, 2011 Panora, Ia to Lexington, Ne



Despite having months to prepare for our Third Annual Snowbird Adventure, there always seems to be so many last minute details to attend to.  So it was about 4:30 PM before we pulled out of Panora and headed west.  Our plan was to drive as far as we felt like it, and drive the rest of the way to Milliken, Co Thanksgiving Day to my oldest sisters house for dinner with the Colorado contingent on my side of the family.

We drove to York, NE where we stopped to get something to eat at a place called "The Kitchen".  Pretty good food.  Then the decision needed to be made to stay here for the night, or continue on for a while.  Since it wasnt that late, we decided  to drive on, but by the time we got to Lexington, Ne, it was time to stop for the night, so after filling up with gas at Cenex, we noticed they had a large parking lot out behind, and it proved to be a very good place to spend our first night on the road.

Day  Two: November 24, 2011 Thanksgiving Day

After a good nights sleep, we got on the road in time to put us at my sister's house by 11:30 AM, which would give us plenty of time to visit with family before Thanksgiving Dinner.

Here I am carving the turkey, with the assistance of two of my brothers.

After too much food and lots of conversation, some of us went out to our motorhome to show it to some of the relatives who had not seen it.  My sister Terri, and her husband Walt have a pull type camper, and are enthusiastic RVers, enjoyed talking RVing and traveling.  They hope to be able to join us Quartzsite this winter.  We are looking forward to that!

After a long day of driving, eating, and visiting, it was time for bed.  We pulled our motorhome around the block to a level spot on an adjacent street to make our night camp.( a term I borrowed from Tioga George)

Day 3: November 25, 2011



Today was a short driving day.  After having coffee with my sister, and adding water to our motothome from an outside spigot ather house, and then de-winterizing.

 We made the short drive to Johnsons Corner  to fill up with gas, and plan our day.  We unloaded the car, left the motorhome in the RV parking area at Johnsons Corner, and drove to my brother's place in Loveland to watch Iowa get beat up on by Nebraska.  The game wasnt so good, but the conversation was excellent.  Been quite a while since I have sat down and watched foot ball with any of my brothers.  At half time we went to a local restaurant to get a bite to eat and watch the second half of the game on their big projection tv.  It didnt help the Hawkeyes at all.

Then it was back to the motorhome where the decision was made to stay at the nearby RV Retreat  for the night.  The lady at the check in was less than friendly and failed to give us the password for the park's free wi-fi, but we managed to live without it, as we tethered our Android phones to our computers to access the 'net.

It was a windy and stormy night, but no snow.  We didnt sleep all that well, but the signs were there; time to head south in the morning!

Day 4: November 26, 2011

This was to be a long driving day in an attempt to get to some warm weather before Sunday night, so we could be somewhere where Ann would be set up to work on Monday morning. The weather was great for traveling; about a 40 mph tail wind!  That doesnt happen often in the RVing world!



We finally decided to stop in Vaughn, NM for the night, and were able to find an RV park with full hook ups for the Passport America rate if $16.00.  The place seemed abandoned, but they had a self pay drop-box.

 

The place only had a few spots, but served the purpose for a quiet place to spend a few hours sleeping.

Days 5 -10: November 27, 2011-December 2, 2011

The original plan today was to drive to The Ranch SKP Park near Lakewood, NM, but after looking at the weather forecast for the area, we decided to drive on south to Pecos, TX, and stay at TraPark in Pecos, TX.



On the way, we passed through Roswell, NM, and stopped for some Dairy Queen.  It is nice to be able to practice getting myself into, and out of tight spots with the RV.

 We, meaning Ann, didnt take too many pics today but here are a few from TraPark in Pecos, TX.

Since the place was pretty full, we got to park by one of the entrance/exits.

The place is not bad, but one thing we noticed is that many of the people staying here are not retired RVers, but are working people who are living in RVs.  The oil field business is going pretty strong in the area, and I assume that is where most of the workers who stay here, are working.

We had to rely on our Directv for our tv watching, as we were not able to pic up any over the air channels, but we survived.

The week went by pretty quickly; Ann mostly worked, but we did get outside most days to take  walk around the park. I have an app for my phone that measures how far go, and it showed that our route was .6 miles.

One of the evenings, there was a tree lighting ceremony in the nearby park.  It had the usual singing, but that was followed by a huge and lengthy fire works display.  It was awesome, and we were so close that some the fireworks dropped down close to our RV.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like a fireworks display!

We didnt interact much with the town, other than eating at a Chinese buffet place, followed by a shopping trip to the local Wal*Mart, and another night we ate at the restaurant in a nearby motel.

 Day 11:  Traveling to Del Rio, TX



 
On Saturday morning we were headed to American Campground  in Del Rio, TX, a place we stayed in for most of the month of December last year, but planned on fill up at the local Flying J, and eating breakfast at the Denny's attached to the Flying J, but it wasnt to be.  Neither of the two RV pumps I pulled up to would accept credit cards, and after waiting in line inside for about 10 minutes, all the clerk would say is that if I wanted to get gas there, I would have to prepay.  That was not acceptable to me, so we left and drove to Stockton, TX to fill up and eat.

One more thing about Pecos, TX.  They have some weird roads in Texas, but the one by the Flying J takes the cake.  They have the usual exit where Interstate 20 meets Highway 285, but just to the west of the 285 exit, their is an additional exit that ends up on a two-way frontage road.  The people traveling on the frontage road are supposed to yield to the cars exiting the freeway!  I cant imagine a better set up for an accident!  I never even looked for the yield signs, and just happened to notice them when we were leaving town!

Our trip to Stockton was uneventful where we filled up with gas at a Stripes station, and then a little ways farther, we had breakfast at an IHOP that had a nice place to park for RVs, and trucks.

We then continued on to Del Rio, a route that we traveled last year when we left Del Rio, and traveled to Tucson.  I got a couple of pics on the way.

Coming into Sanderson, TX.

Down town Sanderson, TX.

A small restaurant that we ate at when we went through Sanderson last year.  Unfortunately, the restaurant is now closed.  

We arrived at American Camprgound neat Del Rio, TX about 3:30PM, got checked in and set up while we enjoyed the 77 degree weather.  This what we had been looking for since we left home, but it will be short lived, as the cold weather coming from the North West will catch up with us tomorrow.  Highs in the 50s, not the 70s, but better than the weather in Iowa.

After resting for a bit, we headed into town to do some grocery shopping at the HEB, then to Chili's for some dinner, then stopping at Lorena's Cantina for some karaoke.

It was a great evening, lots of excellent singers, and they appreciated Ann's singing ability, however, I dont think anyone remembered  us being there last year. After staying a little later than we normally do, we headed home for some well deserved sleep.

Day 12: December, 2011

Today is just a lazy day.  It is overcast and a general dreary day. We didnt accomplish much.  Ann did laundry, and I tested our Virgin Mobile usb modem that Ann will use while working while we are in this area, as there is no Verizon data service in this part of Texas.  The park has good wi-fi so, connecting to the 'net wont be a problem for our personal computers.  I spent most of the day contemplating the blog, and finally about 7:00PM I started writing.  It is now about midnight, and I am calling it a day.  I hope those that read the blog get something out of it.

Comments are always appreciated!

Paul