Travelled I-10 to Ft Stockton. Possibly 100 deer killed along the freeway. Lots of windmills, oil pumpers and huge patches of prickly pear cactus, some acting as fences around the acreages. Stayed at Parkview RV.
From here we travelled west over many miles of flat vacant desert to Deming, NM where we stayed at Little Vineyard RV and were invited to the Burger Bash for $3.00 each. Was fun and we met Mary & Rick, full-timers from Minnisota. Ended our day in the indoor hot tub.
Feb 1 - Checked into Valley Vista RV in Benson, AZ at 2:30 so had time to spend the afternoon with Carmen & Rich Biggs, another couple from our NZ/OZ spring trip, in their lovely new desert home. Lots of reminiscing about our travels and their trip to the Outback, which we missed out on. We joined them at Magaly's for a great Mexican dinner.
Feb 2 - We checked into Western Horizon Desert Shadows in Casa Grande by noon so spent the afternoon at the pool while Norm polished the bus. We were invited to a pot luck supper so took advantage of that. It is always interesting to meet new fellow travellers. Next day we drove into Phoenix to try to find upholstery fabric to re-do our couch cushions, The 2 warehouses that we were going to had both shut down so we were out of luck.
Feb 4 - We got away early so we could get to Algodones, MX for Jan's dentist appointment at 1:00. We checked into Pilot Knob, RV in Winterhaven, CA, only 15 minutes to the MX border. As usual, Arturo was on Mexican time (out for lunch) but he did manage to fix my broken tooth and clean both of our teeth for $120. On our way past the new Quechin Casino we noticed a lighted sign advertising steak & shrimp dinner for $7.77 so decided to give it a try. Good choice, with Caesar salad, the best french fries & organic yellow carrots, and a bottle of Mondavi wine = $34.00 !!! We, of course got our players cards to get free gambling money and cheap meals. We each got a $10 credit for the machines so in the end mine became $11.50 and Norm's became $12.50. The last of the big spenders - but we had a fun time while it lasted :)
Feb 5 - We went back to the Q casino for $2.95 ham & eggs breakfast then headed off to the Yuma Swapmeet, where Jan got more fabric for another quilt and our discount supplements. We spent a great couple of hours with Jim & Gisela Spires, our wagonmasters from our NZ/OZ caravan, at their little home out in the foothills of Yuma. Heading back to camp, we got pulled in once again to the Q casino for another delicious dinner, repeat of last night as it was so good. No gambling tho.
We shared our table with a younger couple, Ed & Suzanne Thiel, from Leonville, SK who are first-time campers. Dinner was slightly interrupted by a live band playing LOUD blues, very good but killed the conversation so we headed home and they went dancing.
Feb 6 - We took Hwy 111 up the east side of the Salton Sea to Indio then checked into the Palm Springs Thousand Trails park. We picked up Jan's southwest quilt that was at the quilters since last March. Karen Lummis did an amazing job on her long arm quilting machine and admitted that both she and her husband didn't want to let it go. We went to Trader Joe's for our Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw) wine then went over to Andy & Joanne McVagh's for happy hour and eventually out to dinner at the new Mimi's. A great meal for the value -3 courses for $12.95 plus wine, of course !!
Feb 7 - We went to the College of the Desert Street Fair and several golf shops.
Feb 9 - We took our 3 couch tops to the Upholstery Outlet to have them re-padded. This took all day and when we got back there they were closed so checked into Indian Waters in Indio for the night. We went and took a look at The Vineyards Luxury Motorcoach Resort and at Del Webb's Shadow Hills Community. Some interesting properties at very reasonable prices. Norm took the coach toPete's Road Service to have the oil changed and lubed.
Feb 11 - And finally to Blythe in beautiful sunshine after 227 days on the road and 15,500 miles under our butts. It will feel good to just sit and enjoy our spot, schedule-free for a while. BUT, WHAT A TRIP. We hope that you will all have an opportunity to do some or all of it someday. So long from this end.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Jan 28-30 San Antonio
We spent 2 wonderful days with Carl & Elaine Hallada, friends whom we met on our New Zealand trip last spring. They have a lovely country home on 2 acres which could accommodate our coach. We shared a lot of travel stories and they toured us up to Fredricksburg, an old German town, where we enjoyed a German lunch of smoked porkchops, beets, saurkraut, etc. While there we shopped at an Amish furniture/gifts shop and the Wildflower Seed shop, which has so many great gift items for home and garden. A great time was had by all.
Jan 26-28 - San Antonio, TX
Drove through the rice growing district. Huge rice drying /storage silos along with the large fields. Lots of "Gator" farms, cafes, bars, etc.
We hit really heavy traffic through Houston, with its population of 5 million !! Lots of smog and exhaust fumes here. It is a real oil city with major truck traffic, oil pumpers,oil refineries & tank farms, & cement plants.
Checked into Braunig Lake RV Park in San Antonio (SE) and made reservations for a bus tour in the AM. Their great hot tub released some of the anxieties of the hectic day.
Dave, our Alamo Tour driver, picked us up at the park at 8:05 AM. First on so we got the prized front seats for picture taking !! We toured the Alamo; took a riverboat ride (2.5 miles) along the Riverwalk with its many boutique shops, hotels & interesting eateries; Mission Concepcion, where Friars Christianized the Indians; it is the oldest unrestored church in the nation; Mission San Jose, the finest example of a completely restored mission in the US -exquisite stone carvings & the famous rose window; the Japanese Sunken Gardens in an old stone quarry -most of the greenery had been killed off by the prolonged cold temps and the tea house was closed for extensive renovations; Buckhorn Saloon & Museum (1881), housing over 500 species of wildlife & sealife from all over the world; Mexican Mercado & Bakery & several restaurants. We had a delicious buffet at the famous old German Menger Hotel's Colonial Room. The hotel celebrated its 150th anniversary last year; is filled with exquisite large antique furniture and fixings. Bussed back to the park at 6:15 basically dragging our tails behind us. A great day !!!
We hit really heavy traffic through Houston, with its population of 5 million !! Lots of smog and exhaust fumes here. It is a real oil city with major truck traffic, oil pumpers,oil refineries & tank farms, & cement plants.
Checked into Braunig Lake RV Park in San Antonio (SE) and made reservations for a bus tour in the AM. Their great hot tub released some of the anxieties of the hectic day.
Dave, our Alamo Tour driver, picked us up at the park at 8:05 AM. First on so we got the prized front seats for picture taking !! We toured the Alamo; took a riverboat ride (2.5 miles) along the Riverwalk with its many boutique shops, hotels & interesting eateries; Mission Concepcion, where Friars Christianized the Indians; it is the oldest unrestored church in the nation; Mission San Jose, the finest example of a completely restored mission in the US -exquisite stone carvings & the famous rose window; the Japanese Sunken Gardens in an old stone quarry -most of the greenery had been killed off by the prolonged cold temps and the tea house was closed for extensive renovations; Buckhorn Saloon & Museum (1881), housing over 500 species of wildlife & sealife from all over the world; Mexican Mercado & Bakery & several restaurants. We had a delicious buffet at the famous old German Menger Hotel's Colonial Room. The hotel celebrated its 150th anniversary last year; is filled with exquisite large antique furniture and fixings. Bussed back to the park at 6:15 basically dragging our tails behind us. A great day !!!
Jan 25 - Beaumont, TX
Lunch break at Lafayette, LA. We drove most of the day for mile after mile on bridges and raised cement roads on pilings. Real bayou/swamp land. Sat behind a truck accident for over an hour. Checked into Gulf Coast RV in Beaumont
Jan 23-25 New Orleans
Swung down to Hwy 90 along the coastline which took us through Ocean Springs, Biloxi and Gulfport.Incredible amounts of total devistation from Hurricane Katrina, still untouched since 2005. Biloxi is a hustling city full of Casinos and tourist attractions. Several waterfront hotels and casinos were totally destroyed in the storm. There are areas several blocks deep that were totally stripped of buildings, with only the footprint, driveways, chimneys, etc left. The trees that were destroyed along the waterfront roadway have now been chainsaw carved into very attractive pieces of art. From here we carried on to New Orleans where we checked into the Mardi Gras RV Park, an area that was under 3' of water during the storm.
We took a city bus tour 0f New Orleans-picked up at the park at 9:20 AM. We toured through Ward 9, the hardest hit part of the city; went through an above ground cemetery (because of being below sea level and a really high water table); the French Quarter; the Red Light district (home to 200 red lights and shut down by the Navy as it was too much of a distraction); the new city (Brad Pitt project- 40 new "green" efficency houses already with 60 more to come); and Basin Street Station. John, our driver, kindly drove us to the Mardi Gras Museum where we took another tour. This is where all the big floats are made and stored. We got to see the actual process using styrofoam,and paper mache. The characters can be altered over and over to fit the theme of the parades from year to year. An average float will cost $50,000 and on up to $800,000 and there is no corporate funding so teams have to do lots of fund raisers.There will be several parades going at one time but you must have a minimum of 14 floats to make a parade.
From here we shuttled to the foot of Canal Street and walked up to Bourbon Street for a bowl of gumbo at a street side cafe. There were throngs of people everywhere waiting for the final football game for the Superbowl to begin between their team, the Saints and the Minnisota Vikings. Fortunately, the Saints won it in overtime. We walked down to the French market but caught it at closing time -lots of masks, beads, T-shirts, etc. so stopped at the Rivers Edge Restaurant on Decatur for a Southern sampler dinner (gumbo, shrimp creole, red beans, jambalaya, bread pudding with rum sauce). We caught a taxi and headed home after a long and very informative day.
We took a city bus tour 0f New Orleans-picked up at the park at 9:20 AM. We toured through Ward 9, the hardest hit part of the city; went through an above ground cemetery (because of being below sea level and a really high water table); the French Quarter; the Red Light district (home to 200 red lights and shut down by the Navy as it was too much of a distraction); the new city (Brad Pitt project- 40 new "green" efficency houses already with 60 more to come); and Basin Street Station. John, our driver, kindly drove us to the Mardi Gras Museum where we took another tour. This is where all the big floats are made and stored. We got to see the actual process using styrofoam,and paper mache. The characters can be altered over and over to fit the theme of the parades from year to year. An average float will cost $50,000 and on up to $800,000 and there is no corporate funding so teams have to do lots of fund raisers.There will be several parades going at one time but you must have a minimum of 14 floats to make a parade.
From here we shuttled to the foot of Canal Street and walked up to Bourbon Street for a bowl of gumbo at a street side cafe. There were throngs of people everywhere waiting for the final football game for the Superbowl to begin between their team, the Saints and the Minnisota Vikings. Fortunately, the Saints won it in overtime. We walked down to the French market but caught it at closing time -lots of masks, beads, T-shirts, etc. so stopped at the Rivers Edge Restaurant on Decatur for a Southern sampler dinner (gumbo, shrimp creole, red beans, jambalaya, bread pudding with rum sauce). We caught a taxi and headed home after a long and very informative day.
Jan 22 - Mobile, AL
We left Tallahassee under clear skies and sunshine. Went back out to the coast all the way across the Gulf to Foley, AL. We travelled across lots of keys connected by a multitude of really long bridges. Checked into McCoy's RV in Mobile, AL. Gained an hour today with time change.
Jan 20-22 Tallahassee,FL
Away from Yellowjacket in sunshine and 61F. Passed through areas of large timber farms (pine) as well as saw mills. We had planned to follow the coast around the Gulf but changed plans quickly and checked into the Tallahassee RV Park early as there were warnings of severe thunderstorms coming through the region. Had torrential downpours through most of the night continuing on throughout the day. Alerts for tornados and flash floods streamed across the TV until 4:00 PM. Fortunately for us the storm passed us by and headed for Jacksonville. (tornado touched down before it reached there).
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