Weeks One and Two - Covering California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas for starters
This trip all started when Rosie called and said Justin and Ashley were getting married. We were all together when Justin popped the question (Orlando Florida visiting the Swede’s), so I couldn’t miss the big day. We haven’t actually received an invitation, but I’m sure if we show up at the church, they’ll let us in.
We installed Streets & Trips 2010 in both of our computers. Carl did a masterful job of mapping our trip and making all the reservations from home to Florida. We were able to use all of our clubs, except for a stretch in Texas. We’ll, there’s always Walmart!
Monday, December 28, 2009 The Ranch at Elizabeth Lake
This looks like a new park, new hookups, new park models, new river and lake going in. We took Hattie for a walk and were told by one of the workers that a Mountain Lion had been spotted. Well, that did it for me. It was too scary to walk any further so we hopped in the car and headed to Lake Elizabeth. No Mountain Lion sightings there. Hattie just loved the park and the lake and the running and the swimming and the frolicking.
And then, oh shit, I stepped in my own puppy’s poop. This is how it all came about. Last night, we or should I say, Carl, left a brand-new pack of Temptations on the dining table. Chado knocked them off the table for Hattie to eat/share. Well, she ate them alright, all except for the wrapper. Then she pooped, and pooped, and pooped and then I ran out of pick up bags, so I started to dig a hole to bury the last poop and stepped in it. Oh shit is right. Well, I did bury it, so I did the right thing.
We were abruptly awoken on Wednesday morning by the most severe wind storm I’ve ever heard. It rocked and swayed the RV so much, I thought the awnings over the slide outs would rip off, so we pulled the slides in. The wind continued all morning and into the afternoon and the fog was so thick, you couldn’t see but a few feet in front of you. We stayed at the campground until the mid afternoon, when the fog finally lifted and went to the store in Palmdale.
I talked to Dee, Cousin & Aunt Margaret and Cousin Richard. We’ll be seeing Dee and Richard during our trip. Yeah!
Thursday, December 31, 2009 Catalina Spa and RV, Desert Hot Springs, CA
Talk about a change of weather, it’s all about the sunshine down here. There are so many RV parks in the area, all looking about the same.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Welcome to 2010! I texted Heidi and Chris last night at 12:01 and they both responded.
We went to a farmer’s market and small craft fair in the Palm Desert area before we left for our next stop.
Saturday, January 02, 2010 Colorado River Oasis, Ehrenberg, AZ
This is kind of a blast from the past. We stayed here last year, the park is close to Quartzsite, the town of a million garage sales. Hattie recognized the park and couldn’t wait to go swimming in the river.
There was a dinner at the clubhouse so we decided to join in. They served chicken and pork chops. It was pretty good, well, it was OK.
Sunday’s outing was shopping at Quartzsite. We only saw a small part of the mega-garage sale / flea market. We got stuff. I bought some necklaces for me, Maggie, Rosie, Ashley and Diana.
Monday – still no wifi at the campground, so we headed to Blythe to find a Starbucks. Whew! Found one and we had a mocha AND we found a Dollar Tree. It’s all good.
After our great adventure in town, we took Hattie for a swim in the river. What a crazy puppy. I headed back to Quartzsite by myself to check out the bead store for Monica. Well, I didn’t find any beads that didn’t look cheap and cheesy, but I did find some cheap and cheesy earrings and bracelets. So I bought a bunch for my Bonko girls and my Little Theater girls, not that they’re cheap and cheesy.
I worked on coasters for Justin and Ashley, found them at the Dollar Tree. I ran out of ink in my printer. To be continued…
Tuesday, January 05, 2010 St. David RV Resort, St. David, AZ
I finally plugged in the GPS locator on my computer that goes with the Streets & Trips program. I love it. It’s hot!
We have wifi here, so I was able to check my email, etc.
Today, Wednesday, we went took a trip to Tombstone, a legendary town from the wild wild West. It’s classified as a ghost town, but has a zillion souvenir shops, restaurants, bars and authentic gun fights. We went to one of the gun fights, supposedly a comic gun fight. It was a little funny. The town is old, very authentic as far as I could tell and some of the local arts was local, but most was made elsewhere. They sold jewelry like I bought in Quartzsite, but with a 100% markup.
There are a lot of Border Patrols vehicles and check points in the area with full bullet-proof armor vests. I don’t know if we should feel safe or scared.
We crossed the Continental Divide at 4500ft altitude.
Thursday, January 07, 2010 Hidden Valley Ranch Resort, Deming, NM
The drive from St. David was pretty much uneventful. The wind was blowing and there were signs of possible sand storms and possible zero visibility. Luckily, it was only windy.
We got to our turnoff for the HVR and it turned to a dirt road, a long dirt road. We pulled over to check our maps, TomTom, computer, directions in the Coast to Coast book and we were on the right road. I let Hattie out to go pee pee and she bolted toward a herd of cows. What was she thinking? She’s not a herder. Well, she poo’d in the desert and ran back to the RV. She was licking at her foot. She had a cactus thorn in her hoof. I removed it and kissed it, so she’s all better.
We took a walk in the desert by the park. It’s very beautiful. The weather here is very cold, but were comfy-cozy in the RV.
We went into town today finding a super Wal-Mart. I bought a new printer for the RV. My old one ran out of ink and I could not find a replacement cartridge. The new printer, an HP1660, was $30! I set it up and printed out the coasters I made for Justin and Ashley. So cute.
We took Hattie for a long walk along the dry riverbed. This time we let her off leash. She chased a couple of rabbits, but realized she was no match for their hiding ability.
We’ve seen so much wild life at this park. Carl put out his bird feeder and every type of bird in the area plus a bunny and a rat or mouse, came to dine. We’ve see quite a few road runners, meep meep and cubbies of quails.
The news on TV is all about the severe winter weather in the Western US, right where we are. This is déjà vu from our trips to Oregon and Minnesota last year. I just hope it warms up before the wedding!
Saturday, January 09, 2010 El Campo RV Park, Van Horn, TX
The sun was shining this morning. Carl said our thermometer said zero in the middle of the night. I did buy the thermometer at the Dollar Tree, so it might not be accurate.
We are now on our own, campground wise, that is. We do not have any reservations for 4 days, between Deming NM and Bandara Texas. After driving for 222 miles, we came upon some RV parks on the GPS. We exited at a town named Van Horn, following the directions from the GPS and got lost, but . . . . we found a budget looking park called El Campo, which translates to The Campo, so we stopped for the evening. And it was quite the bargain, $16 for full hookups. If this is my last entry in the Chronicles, it means we were murdered in the middle of the night.
Well, it’s the AM and all I could think of last night was “somebody kill me!” The train that gently rolled down the tracks had to blow it’s whistle right by our trailer park. Geez.
I’m getting Wifi from the Days Inn so I can check my email etc.
The weather continues to be unusually cold. Record cold in Florida. I wonder if we were at home if there would still be that Arctic Blast? Our water hose froze last night. Carl had to take warm water to remove the hose from the faucet.
Sunday, January 10, 2010 Marathon Motel & RV, Marathon, TX
We’re still in the on our own part of this trip so we picked Del Rio as our next stop. Del Rio is 300+ miles from Van Horn so we decided to go approximately half way. We noticed for miles a strange object in the sky, flying around that we could not identify. Could it be a UFO? We thought it might be a blimp, but we were in the middle of nowhere. Maybe a weather balloon? We stopped at a picnic area to check it out, eat lunch and let Hattie go pee. At a closer look, it appeared to have cameras attached to it. I didn’t feel any probes, neither did Carl so wasn’t a UFO, probably just a border patrol thing. There’s border patrol all over the place. Anyhoo, Hattie and I were walking in the rugged Texas desert when she started to limp. She had several burrs in her paws, all 4, so I carried her back to the RV where we plucked them out. She let me carry her!
We stopped for the evening at the Marathon Motel and RV. It was very nice and the town is also very cute. I took Hattie for another walk and again, stickers in her paws. We have to stay on pavement. She’s such a city girl.
The RV park was full by the evening. The park was situated right across from a train track and it was LOUD! But, it did stop around midnight, or I slept through the whistles! Our RV neighbor, who was coming from where we’re going, said most of the parks are by rails. Oh well.
Although it was cold last night, it was nothing like previous days.
We are on the lookout for Peccaries aka wild pigs. We saw a dead one and three on the side of the road, but we need a picture. It’s like trying to see a kangaroo, bear, moose, etc.
Monday, January 11, 2010 American Campground, Del Rio TX
The roads through Texas are long, straight and barren with no pot holes and little garbage. Good RV driving.
Well, it finally happened. Carl found the wildlife mother lode. I don’t know how he does it, but he spotted a herd of long horned sheep grazing in the grass. Then, not far down the highway, he spotted some peccaries on the side of the road, only this time they were alive. I was to busy working on my Chronicles to see anything. He stopped the RV and ran across the street and was able to snap a few photos.
We came upon a big bridge that went over the Pecos River. We pulled off the highway into the Amistad National Recreation Area parking lot and got quite the eyeful. The river was beautiful. The area was where the Pecos River meets the Rio Grande. You can see Mexico from the parking lot.
We made it to Del Rio around 4:00. The RV and Saturn are filthy. We had to drive through a construction zone for a while and it did a number on the vehicles.
After settling in, we went across the highway to another Amistad NRA, they’re all over the place. Lake Amistad is one of the largest lake in Texas. Good swimming for Hattie.
Del Rio is a much larger town than we expected, you know, Wal-Mart and every fast food establishment ever made, even some we’ve never heard of. We picked up a burger at “Whataburger” for dinner. It was good. And we washed the car.
Tuesday, was an adventurous day for us. After breakfast we stopped at the Visitors Center to get the 411 on Del Rio. Well, she had only been there for a few months, blah blah blah. We headed to the border, leaving our TomTom at home. We found the border and I thought you could take a bus across. Well, there was no bus so we drove. We found a girl that spoke a little English and she pointed us to a parking lot. The sign said “pay now or when you return, do not pay anyone without a ticket”. We left and would pay later ‘cause we couldn’t find anybody with a ticket. We were walking around and trying to figure out which way to go when a man offered to guide us. What the heck, he couldn’t get us any more lost than we could. He took us to some local curio shops and Carl gave him a few bucks. When we got out of the store, he was there offering to guide us more. He took us to a local restaurant Las Cazuelas. We ordered a couple of Pepsi’s, a nacho appetizer and two entrees. The food was delicious. We were full after the appetizer so we got the rest to go.
After lunch, our guide long gone, we walked around the plaza and moseyed our way back to the parking lot. The town is very depressed, lots of vacant buildings, not much street activity, at least on a Tuesday afternoon. We had a great adventure in Mexico, I’m glad we went.
When we got back to the camp, after stopping at the post office to mail my postcards, we grabbed Hattie and headed to a trail behind the Visitor’s Center for a nice, long walk. It was a nice trail that ended at Lake Amistad.
My turn to cook tonight. We had left over’s for dinner. Again, delicious.
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