…and I will go to Texas

The first part of the above quote is: “You may all go to Hell”, it is attributed to Davy Crockett after he lost a bid to become a congressman from Tennessee. As we are getting back on the road, we are heading to Texas to take care of some medical procedures, since that is our home state. Ironically, as we are also leaving California, I do feel some kinship to Davy and his feelings.

Hold on though, we weren’t leaving California immediately. We headed down to Hemet CA for a few nights. I was hoping to meet with my cousin in the area but schedules did not line up. However, we did meet some very nice neighbors at the Golden Village Palms RV resort. They were fellow Airstreamers and we met them in passing years back at an Alumafandango but we were able to reconnect this time around.

While we were in Hemet we got a phone call from our realtor in AZ that is selling our late mother’s house. She stated there was a water leak in the yard and it appeared to be the water main from the street! We were planning on swinging by the house on our way but this meant we were going to be there a bit longer. Good thing we are retired and had over 2 weeks to get to TX!

We stopped off in Quartzsite for a rainy night.

We took up our normal location in the driveway and coordinated a plumber to repair the water main. We were able to get it done in a very timely manner. We also were able to get a yard service setup. We got moving again after 5 nights.

Our normal parking spot.
Local grocery store ready for customers of a certain age frame.

Last year we stayed for a while at an Escapee’s Co-op park. These are locations where you can purchase an interest in the park which gives you a site to park your RV. You can also augment the site with non-residential buildings to make your life easier. The one we thought we would try is the one in Benson AZ. I was thinking of going to Tucson but this was just a bit south and with their ‘New Visitors’ special, it became very attractive. They also had a place for a week at under $100 (that includes our electrical usage).

The Benson Escapee’s park is very nice. The Co-op portion is very attractive and might be something we look at in the future. We took a few day drives around to Tombstone, Bisbee, etc. One evening we went to see some Airstream friends: Rich, Eleanor, and Emma. The park has a lot of activities to keep their members busy. I went to genealogy talk. They had some outside entertainment one evening and we also attended the weekly music jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBpzfkRF2Dw
‘Our’ spot at the Escapees Coop.
Lunar eclipse

Since we spent a well deserved week in AZ it was time to get moving to Texas. We had a bit of ground to cover. We first made to Las Cruces, then into West Texas. This was definitely NOT the beautiful part of the trip. We spent the night in Fort Stockton, TX at a Passport America spot that looks like it caters to the oil industry. It was cold and windy, we even had a few icicles from the water the next morning.

NOT the sign you want to see if you have an Airstream!
Our spot at Fort Stockton, TX
This was the locking system for the door in the restrooms!
However, the paper towels must be GOLD!

We were happy to leave Ft Stockton behind and work our way through West Texas. The next stop was the South Llano River State Park. This was a very nice location. We took a short walk down toward the river, saw numerous birds and where the flooding happened about 6 months ago.

We were able to try out our new fire pit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obBvc9ElJbw
Armadillo sighting!

The next stop was Johnson Creek RV park near Kerrville, TX. This time we were there for 2 nights (Passport America) so we could unhook the truck for the first time in 3 nights!

We had made it to our time (Feb 1) to start our month long stay in Henly TX. On the way there, we ran over an oil drip pan on the road and suffered a minor injury to the trailer.

It looks like a simple repair, just have to get the plastic part from Airstream.

Now that we are here, near Austin we get to start our chores!

A non-standard day

The part that could potentially fix our refrigerator problem arrived Monday.  I put it in and I immediately heard the propane fire up and the flue gets hot.  Sounded good.  However, when I got in the trailer the display was still not working.  The light was on inside the fridge which was a good thing.  About 5 minutes later it all shut down.  That is some progress.  I spent many hours trying to find the other part.  One RV part store said they could get the part the next day but by the time they returned my call it was too late to get it next day.  We decided to order the part and have it sent to my mother’s house and leave on Tuesday, the non-standard day.

We knew this was the day to leave.  We went through our normal routine at breakfast but then it all changed.  We had to ensure that everything was out in the truck or trailer.  Take multiple passes through the house and we still managed to miss a few things.  Our son can get those to us though.

We said goodbye to our neighbors and she took a few shots of us (her name is Tatiana Ruelas and does photography if you are interested).  Here is one in front of our old house (right) and the new house (left):

And us driving down the street, leaving for our adventure:

Off we go!  May 2, 2017 10:25am

Since heat was descending on us, and Arizona, I was hoping to find something cooler  I was thinking Kingman as it was higher in elevation and about 10 degrees cooler.  CA99 to CA58 to I15 to I40.  A path we know very well.

We ate lunch late in Tehachapi after a bit of driving around because I missed the main road.  Barstow was next for a fuel stop.  More driving around because of a new stretch of 58 and a misinterpretation of a detour sign.

We eventually got on I40 and saw the famous mileage sign:

We will probably get there sometime.

2 hours of extremely boring driving before exceedingly boring Needles to eat.  Fortunately, we tow our own toilet because there is not much on that road.  But without everything working right in the trailer (refrigerator), it feels more like we are just towing this:

This is the first real test of the new truck and it did great!  I love the engine braking going down hills.  The dash is mostly a flat screen so Ford can put up whatever information it wants.  Normally the gauges are the standard analog (along the top) but when it goes past the mid-point, Ford puts up the actual numbers:

Other than me being unemployed, leaving our home of almost 23 years, our town of 31+ years, getting confused twice while driving, having the rig loaded the heaviest I ever have, and driving 400+ miles in one day, there was one more non-standard.

We were out of California.  At 9:25 pm we crossed into Arizona. Some 11 hours later.  Another non-standard for us, not being California residents.

I hope that the days to come bring many non-standard days as we have had many years of standard days and it is time for a new part of our lives.