Texas to CA

Excerpt from the song “El Paso” regarding the West Texas wind:
“One night a wild Young cowboy came in, wild as the west Texas wind.”
Yes, there really is a west Texas wind. Our first night in LaMesa, we stayed in a brand new RV park. The pull thru lots had green grass (a major feat in west Texas) and all hook ups in. The office, rest rooms etc were being built. The owners came by to welcome us. There were only 6 rigs there. Nice Park, so we stayed 2 nights! We drove into town in the afternoon. A small town supported by farming and oil field equipment. The center streets were paved with red bricks! Pretty neat. Then on our way to Kerrville TX.
On our travels last year, someone gave us a card and said we would love “Buckhorn RV Park” in Kerrville TX. Kerrville is about 150 miles west of Round Rock. A beautiful park, very friendly people and we really liked it. The weather was warm, around high 80’s. Only problem was the humidly , the same as the temperature or higher! Like steamy. However we signed up for 1 week and were happy. Lots of things to see in the area. We found “Stonehenge” in Texas! In a country road amid the rolling green hills was Stonehenge. It seems a farmer once found a large diamond shaped rock on his land. He then decided people should be able to see it. He planted it upright. Then he had another idea, and the rock formations were formed! Besides Stonehenge, there were statues from Easter Island. The size was 2/3 of the original. Still it was a neat sight.
Then on Tuesday of that week we got the message that Bob’s Uncle Bev who is 97 years old was having medical problems. Serious ones. A decision had to be made. We e-mailed Rob & Leticia that we would not be able to see them this trip, signed out of the park and left Wednesday AM for Yuba City CA which was over 1700 miles away.
Get out your US map or Atlas and find Hwy 10 in Kerrville TX. (About 150 miles west of Austin)Then you can follow our route. We drove from Kerrville and spent the night in Van Horn TX. We were in the Texas Hill country for a time. It is beautiful with rolling hills and green trees good roads and we did not have a lot of traffic. We made good time. Texas is a large state. Then we got into the west Texas wind again. The wind blew from all directions. We bounced along with large trucks all over the Hwy! We left Van Horn early the next morning and wind was with us. A head wind! It was with us all day long. Winds are not good in a RV and the gas millage was worse! The next night we were in Benson AZ.
Remember, our normal drive schedule is to leave around 10:00AM, take time out for lunch then back on the road. Total drive time 4-5 hours and approximate 200 miles. Now we are driving 7 hours and covering over 350 miles a day!!! We are getting tired. Bob and Korkie are getting cranky.
Finally we cross over into CA. Got to Desert Hot Springs. The weather was beautiful, the park was nice and friendly. We took a rest and stayed 2 nights. It was good for us. We then went on to Bakersfield and into Yuba City. Guess what, the only RV Park in Yuba City was full. They managed to fit us into the last slot. Must be exciting things happening in Yuba City!
The trip was worth it. Uncle Bev was in a Nursing Home tucked into bed. However being a natty dresser, he had a beautiful soft plaid shirt on and a nice sweater. He smiled and held up his hand to us when we came in on Monday. He could not talk, but knew who we were and was happy to see us.
After a few days in Yuba City, we came down to the Bay Area. We are staying at the Alameda County Fair Grounds. Nice park. We are seeing family and friends. We have done some shopping and RV fix ups.
The weather here has been absolutely perfect and then one morning the wind came up and it turned cool. It’s time to move on. We get reports on Uncle Bev. He is hanging on by a thread. What to do now?
Our tentative plan is to go to Morro Bay to see my cousin Chick and spend a few days, then on to Desert Hot Springs where we were on our trip out. From there on to Yuma AZ? We will figure it out when the time comes.

New Mexico

It has taken us a while to enjoy New Mexico. Colorado is so beautiful with high green mountains, quaking aspen starting to turn colors. It is truly “colorful”. New Mexico is rather flat desert, with some canyons and granite gray mountains. After a while it does become enchanting!
It took us 2 days to get out of Albuquerque. No, it wasn’t the garmen this time. We had driven south about 20-30 miles and came across a Wal Mart!!! Well we needed to stock up on supplies so we stopped. While we were getting ready to go in, Bob did a walk around and found a large bulge in one of the tires!! Well a bulge in one of our tires is Trouble! So we asked at Wal Mart about the tires we needed. No, we do not carry that kind. We did our shopping, came and a saw “Discount Tires”!! We are in luck. No, Discount Tires do not carry that kind either. They told us that we needed to go to a Commercial Tire Company. They gave us a name and phone number that was located in Albuquerque. With no other options, we drove quite slowly back to Albuquerque. Made some phone calls on where they are located. Great place. They got us right in, replaced all 6 tires in a couple of hours. It had been an exhausting and scary day so we decided to stay another night in Albuquerque. Interesting night. There had been thunder and some lighting all evening. We went to bed and then around midnight, neither one of us were sleeping because of the storm. The storm got closer and louder! All of a sudden the thunder was on the side of our RV! All 3 of us jumped. It was so close it was totally scary! We finally settled down and the storm went to some rain. We finally went to sleep.
We were headed for Elephant Butte NM. On our last trip we had spent 1 night overlooking the town. We had always wanted to go back and see what was in that town. We also had found old friends in CS that were vacationing in Elephant Butte. We found a great State Park on the bluff overlooking the lake. The lake is really for fishing and house boating, but the surrounding countryside was really neat. We spent about a week there.
On our last night there, the evening was very warm. We had dinner outside the after dark, the starts came out. There were a million stars above! Over the lake was a drop of stars, it was the Milky Way! According to Bob: we are a part of the galaxy of the Milky Way. The stars were so clear and close, an amazing sight. We stayed out late, drank wine and had a romantic evening thinking maybe we would stay a while longer. Came onto the RV, heard a great song and started dancing. At that point, we heard a squeak, squeak of Korkie’s toy. That’s the sound we hear when Korkie needs more attention. So we stopped dancing and got on floor to play with Korkie.
Later on we settled in and went to bed. Usually when we go to bed, Korkie curls up and stays still until morning. Well he was pacing, up and down, up and down. Things were not going well. Then around 11:00 the wind started. The wind was about 30-50 miles an hour and was blowing every which way. Our RV was pitching all over. Korkie gave the bark that said “I need to go out now!” So I got up and opened the door. It is pitch black and he runs out and I cannot see him. After a few minutes he returns. This went on several times during the night. The wind pitching us all over, Korkie needing to get out. Then I realized, he was sick and barfing. A very long night. Well in the morning we were ready to leave.
The morning, all was cool and settled. Still it was time to go. Cleaned up the carpet and we took off. Drove to Alamogordo. A really interesting place. The first few days we stayed home to check Korkie out. He was not eating and his poopie was black. However, his eyes were clear and he barked at other dogs and cats when they came near. We got him to a Vet on Wednesday. After an exam and X-rays and several prescriptions we went home. We were not very good about giving Korkie his meds. Every 8 hous???? After 2 days we settled on the antibiotics only in the AM and then again at Happy Hour (5:00 PM if you did not know) after a couple of days, it worked! It turned out he will not eat his food which he has been on since we got him and that we had bought a one year supply for this trip so we would not upset his delicate digestive system. He would not touch it! So off to Wal Mark. Bob got him some Kibble and Bits. He loves it. We don’t think it is very good for him but he sure likes it.
We then went site seeing! Drove out to White Sands National Monument. It is a gigantic sea of sparkling white gypsum and covers nearly 300 square miles. You can rent a snow disk to slide down the hills! It feels like baking soda.
Then we toured the Air Space Museum which was located couple of miles from our campground. We found it really interesting. Maybe because a lot of the events happened in our life time. The next day we went to the IMAX Dome Theater. It’s has a wraparound dome screen and to see the galaxy and actual pictures of the working astronauts and space craft was really something.
On the Hwy from Alamogordo to Roswell we drove through some beautiful country. In this part of New Mexico there are natural springs. This is agricultural country. The Hwy went from desert up into green mountains. We passed Ruidoso Downs which is the site of the Racehorse Hall of Fame and the premier facility for Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred racing. Lots of beautiful green horse farms along the way. Back to the dessert and to Roswell to see the UFO’s. We enjoyed the museum. We stayed in a State Park at Bottomless Lake. Pretty nice. One evening Korkie started barking, it was pitch black outside. Then we saw 4 large Raccoons checking out the garbage cans. They were the size of small bears! Two of them came over just below our front window and looked up at us. We like the State Parks. Maybe a little out of the way but nice scenery and great prices! We paid $14 per night vs. approximate $30+ in RV parks.
Left Wednesday and went though Hobbs NM. A dusty town with lots of oil wells sticking up all over. They also supply the electric power for NM. Interesting area!
Bob has decided that I should share in the dinner cooking. This is causing problems. I gave away all my cook books and we do cook completely different! Stay tuned and I will let you know how this turns out.
On Thursday, 10/1/09 we entered Lamesa, Texas! We are staying in Lamesa a couple of days to ward off the rigors of driving for 3 hours.
We need your help! Bob and are have different ideas of what kind of pictures we send you. One of us like the scenery and the other leans toward pictures of us. Please comment here and let us know what you like and we really do not know if anyone reads this. We are taking hundreds of pictures!