Monday November
27
After Ann
got done working we drove over to PPL Motorhomes to look a couple units they had that
we might be interested in. The first was
2011 Winnebago Tour, and the second was a 2011 Holiday Rambler Endeavor. Because they close at 5:00 PM we
didn’t get to spend as much time as we would have liked, but we saw enough to
decide these two motorhomes were not what we wanted. When looking at motorhomes, like other vehicles,
you get a vibe from them, and neither had that positive vibe we are looking
for.
On the way
back to the RV we stopped at Longhorn Steakhouse in Sugarland for a nice
dinner.
Tuesday
November 28
Tuesday,
while Ann worked, I went to Harbor Freight to get a dremel tool, a sander, some
sanding pads, and denatured alcohol to try and repair the crack in our
countertop that had developed over the last year. Earlier this year I had bought a “Repair Kit”
from Vendura, the manufacturer of the countertop.
So after Ann
finished up her workday she left to visit her friend, Mary, who she knew from
when she was a teen in West Des Moines. I started on the countertop repair.
First using the dremel tool to grind out the crack, and then making some
“cross-stitching” grooves across the crack that I had read would make the
repair last longer. Next I got the
repair kit out and read the directions.
Oops! The directions said the
components of the kit, filler, resin, and a catalyst were only good for 30
days, and I had had this kit for a few months. Once again I learned, reading is
fundamental!
Since I had
already prepared the surface, I decided to go ahead and see if the kit was
still good, despite being well past the 30 days. First, I mixed the filler and resin, the
filler was still good, but the resin was a lot thicker than it should have
been, and when I added the catalyst, the mixture was much thicker than it
should have been, but I applied it anyway, but no beuno! It was too thick to
work, so I then scraped off what I could, and that is the way it still is, as I
haven’t yet ordered a new repair kit.
Currently, the countertop looks like something you would see on
Halloween.
Wednesday
November 29
The big
project for Wednesday was a search for automotive fuses. On our way down to the Houston area, the 25
amp fuse that controls the cigarette lighter, and the other 12 volt outlet
burned out, leaving us without the GPS or the Dashcam, and in my testing for
which fuse was burned out, I was able to burn out a 50 amp fuse, and since it
is not as common as the 25 amp fuse, they are as not as easy to find.
Here is what
I needed. 25 amp on the left, 50 amp on the right.
My first
stop was an Autozone, they had the fuse I needed, but it came in a kit with
about 30 other fuses, most of which I didn’t need, but they did have single 40
amp fuses of the larger size, so I bought one, to have a spare. Then it was off to a nearby Walmart for a
couple of items, and to check if they had the fuse I needed. Sure enough they did, but they came with a 30
amp and 40 amp along with the 50 amp I needed, so since I wanted a backup for
the 50 amp, and the 30 amp that our motorhome also uses, I ended up by buying
two pack of three fuses. Hopefully,
these will last me a while. After getting
back to the RV, and installing the 25 amp and the 50 amp fuses, things were
back to normal, at least for the rest of the day.
Thursday
November 30
Thursday’s
big adventure was a trip to the “post office”.
A google search showed a post office about 3 miles up the road, but we
hadn’t seen on the couple of times we had gone by that area, but headed there
just the same. When we arrived where the
GPS said we should be all we could see was a Shell gas station, but looking
closely on the side of the building, sure enough, there was a sign that said
Post Office, so we went in, and there was a counter with a lot of USPS mailing
envelopes, and boxes. How things have
changed since I worked for the USPS.
Back then everyone had to have a background check before they could be
hired, and all First Class mail was to be in locked bags or containers when
being transported from place to place. I
am not sure if the gas station clerk/ postal clerk had the same scrutiny and
USPS employees did back in the day.
However, the clerk was knowledgeable, and efficient, and we got done
what we wanted.
With our
adventure done for the day, we returned to the motorhome for a dinner of left
overs.
Friday December
1
Friday was
another workday for Ann but while she was working, I was checking the weather,
and after seeing how cold(I know that is a relative term) it was going to be in
Texas and most of the Southwest we decided that once Ann was done working, we
would load up and head west. We
originally thought of waiting until Saturday morning, but with about 1000 miles
to Tucson, we decided to it was best to get some miles behind on Friday.
Our first
stop was the Walmart close to where we would get on Interstate 10. I dropped Ann off at the Walmart, and went to
get gas at the station in the Walmart parking lot. The price was cheap, $2.01, but the area
around the pumps was pretty tight, and after trying to be out of the way until
my turn at the pump, two cars ducked past me in line, so I decided it was going
to be difficult to get gas here, so I went and picked up Ann and we were on the
road before sundown. Getting on I-10 was
interesting as there was lots of construction, and sometimes the lanes got narrow,
but we made it through, and headed toward Junction,Texas, a little over 300
miles away.
After
driving about an hour and a half, we stopped at Schulenberg, TX to fill up the
motorhome up with gas, and fill us up with food. We parked at the Pilot, and walked across
the street to Oakridge Smokehouse Restaurant and had a nice mean of smoked pork
and the fixins. Not only did we have
leftovers, but we bought a jar of their homemade jelly, and a couple of
pastries to have with our coffee in the morning.
Then it was
back on the road for a few more hours, until we reached Gene’s Go, a truck stop
in Junction that was right off an exit and parked in a open area behind the
truck stop.
Even though there was some
noise during the night, for the most part, we got some pretty good sleep.
Saturday
December 2
In the
morning, it was a short drive across the street to the Pilot where we filled up
with gas once again, and then it was heading west for along day of
driving. We wanted to stop in Fort Stockton
for breakfast at an IHOP we had eaten at a few years before when we were
heading south from Pecos, TX to Del Rio, TX, but no joy, as the internets said
it was closed permanently, and there not being any other place we wanted to
eat, we continued west until we arrived at I-10 Fuel Travel Stop.
It was
supposed to have an all day steakhouse, but it was closed until 5:00 PM. We were not sure how, or why they served
breakfast all day, if they didn’t open until 5:00 PM, but it did have a pretty
painted cactus by the side of it.
Inside the
truck stop there was a small restaurant that had a very limited menu, and the
slowest cook I have ever seen, but she was working hard. We each had cheeseburgers and fries, no Coke,
Pepsi. The meal gave us sustenance and we
again headed west, stopping in Van Horn to once again fill up with gas. Then it was heading northwest to El Paso, then west to our destination for the night, CoachLight RV Park in Las Cruces,
NM. We have stayed there on other
occasions. It is not a destination park, but works good for an overnight stay.
When we stay
at Coachlight, we usually go to La Posta de Mesilla for a great Mexican meal with an awesome ambiance.
Getting back
to the RV, it was time for a little relaxation and computer time before going
to bed, as tomorrow would be another day on the road. Sunday’s destination would be at some of our
friends house in Tucson.
Sunday
December 3
After
getting up and around at a decent time, abut 8:00 AM, and having a couple of
cups of coffee, I dumped the tanks, and filled up the fresh water tank, and
after filling up with gas at the close by Pilot, we headed out for out 275 mile
trip to Tucson.
Because we didn’t eat breakfast before we
left, we stopped at a Flying J in Lordsburg, NM and ate at the adjacent
Denny’s. Then it was on to Tucson
arriving at our friends well before dark.
We got setup, and then went in the house to visit with our friends,
their daughter, and her husband who have two boys. We had a nice visit, and pizza and salad,
then we called it a night. It was nice
not to have to travel the next few days.
Monday
December 4
Monday was
back to work for Ann, more conference calls and computer work. Not much for me to do, but I did get to watch
a mobile service guy replace the water heater in our friend’s motorhome. As in a lot of cases, what should be a pretty
easy job, winds up being much more complicated, and the service guy had trouble
getting a water line connection on the back of the heater connected properly,
and in the end had water over himself, and a lot on the ground. He persisted, and it only took him about an
hour and a half longer than he thought.
For dinner we invited our friends out to one of our favorite places in
Tucson, but they were not up to it, so we cooked hotdogs over the fire, and had
bake beans and chips, and topped of the evening with some smores. Yea, we all really needed chocolate and
marshmallows. J
Great fire!
Tuesday
December 5
On Tuesday
we went to the local Shell station/Post Office to mail a book to Gabe that Ann
got him for Christmas. Again, good
service. Next it was to the Basha’s(grocery
store) for a few items. The place was
not all that crowded, but they had Christmas stuff in so many isles, it was
hard to navigate. Again, I am glad we
only needed a few items. When we travel
in Arizona, we don’t usually drink the tap water, but buy five gallon jugs of
reverse osmosis water, and while at Basha’s we filled out two five gallon jugs.
Also, there
was some showers to the north of us in the mountains, so a grabbed a couple of
pics.
In the
evening our friends felt up to going out for dinner, so we went to Marisco’s
Chihuahua which serves Mexican seafood dishes.
We have been to several of them in Arizona, and it is always a good
meal.
For dinner I
don’t recall what our friend Randy had, but as you can see it was served on
French fries, with rice and a lettuce and tomato salad and steamed corn
tortillas.
His wife
Debby had shrimp in garlic sauce.
Ann had the
shrimp in oyster sauce.
While I had
the fish in garlic sauce.
We all
enjoyed our meal and the conversation that went with it. However, at the end of the mean Ann and I
were a little embarrassed as we invited our friends out to dinner, but didn’t
realize until we were at the restaurant, that it was cash only, and neither of
us had hit an ATM for quite some time, and didn’t have enough cash to pay for
the meal. But friends being friends, Randy and Debby paid for the meal, which
means we still owe then, so we will have to stop by there house again while we
are in Arizona, and take them out to dinner.
Wednesday
December 6
Wednesday
morning while Ann was working, and I was killing time on the computer, our
friends stopped by our motorhome to ask if we needed anything at the store as
they were going to Basha’s, which has a 10% senior citizen discount on
Wednesday. When they returned they
invited us over to their motorhome for dinner of rotisserie chicken, salad, and
asparagus. As usual it was all delicious and the conversation to always great
too. Sorry, no pic of the food this
time. L
About eight or so, we called it a night as Ann was still not back to
100% and Randy and Debby were a little under the weather as well.
Thursday
December 7
Thursday was
another long day for Ann, not getting done with her work until 4:00 PM Iowa
time. I had been checking the weather
again, and it was got to get pretty chilly in Tucson, with some weather reports
predicting and hard freeze, so the decision was made to head west after Ann got
dome working. We thought about only
going to Gila Bend, and then on to Yuma on Friday, but with the predicted over
night temps in Gila Bend being about the same as in Tucson, we decided to make
it to Yuma. It is only about 225 miles from Tucson to Yuma, so not a bad
drive. Heading out of Tucson, we stopped
at the Iron Skillet Restaurant at the Petro truck stop, near Eloy, AZ to enjoy
their buffet, which we had done a few years ago on our way through.
Here is
Ann’s dish.
And
mine. Obviously, I was hungrier than
she. J
After eating
and filling the motorhome up with gas we headed to Yuma, getting to the BLM
land next to the VFW north of Yuma about 9:00 PM Arizona time. Actually, this
is the VFW I belong to. I joined it two
years ago, so when we stayed in the adjacent BLM land we could go there for an
adult beverage, and some food. BTW, it
was December 3 of last year that started out at the VFW, and ended with Ann
tearing her ACL. L It has pretty much
healed now, but she still does some PT.
Friday
December 8
Today
started out with Ann working again, but after she was finished, she took the
laundry to town, while I got the motorhome ready to travel to the Quechen
Casino close to Algodonnes,
MX. Tomorrow is a “Welcome back Snowbirds” party in Algodonnes and looks like a
good time. For those who don’t know,
Algodonnes, MX is a place right across the border where thousands of Americans
and Canadians go each winter while there are in the area to buy prescription
drugs, eye glasses, and have dental work done, at prices a lot cheaper than in
the USA. For example, an asthma inhaler
in the USA that costs about $75.00, in Algodonnes can be purchased for three
for $5.00.
Saturday December 9
Well, that
pretty much brings us up to date with our travels and adventures. I was going to publish this blog last night, but all the pictures that I had used while typing the blog in "Word" did not transfer to "blogger" which we use to publish the blog, so I have spent the last couple of hours redoing the pics in the blog, and with very slow internet, I have omitted some I planned to use. Maybe more pics in the next installment.
One last
note about all the food pictures, that seems pretty common amongst RV
bloggers. One blogger I follow used to
call his blog simply “Our RV Adventures”, but after several people mentioned all
the food pictures on his blog, he changed his blog to “Our RV Adventures, or
eating our way across the USA” Seems
fitting!
Later all
Paul
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