Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas on the Road, Part 2

Deming, NM, to Quartzsite, AZ was an easier run than expected. We heard the horror stories of the torrential rains drenching Southern California and knew we were driving into the storm. I had overnight spots picked in case we ran into the rain by Lordsburg, NM, Benson, Casa Grande, or Gila Bend, AZ. We must have had Lady Luck riding with us.

We passed through Benson, AZ seeing dark skies ahead, but far enough in the distance, we kept moving instead of stopping. The radio forecast heavy rains in Tucson, but we only ran into some light sprinkles—just enough to mess up all my car/truck washing and waxing. We continued to Gila Bend, AZ to spend the night at one of our favorite overnight spots: Steve Holt’s Shell station and campground. He gives Escapees a 50% discount, so the rate was just $13.

The storm caught up with us about an hour after we settled in. We rocked and rolled around a bit with high winds and heavy rain. Then we had light rain until about 10 p.m. when another gusty storm rolled through. We woke to clear skies!

And a dead car battery?? Larry had been starting the car every night as required by towing a Honda CRV, but his charging system that has worked for four years—failed us! So while he was putting the battery charger on the car, I went looking for the quail.

IMG_1182

Can you count all the quail? They are the masters of disguises. they blended into the landscape so well, I had trouble counting how many were in the group.

We got a good start and headed north up AZ Hwy 85 to get back on I-10 at Buckeye, AZ.

Copy of IMG_1189

Look at the color of the sky. It is hard to believe there was a big storm just about 10 hours earlier. Quartzsite had a lot of wind and rain; more than we received in Gila Bend, according to the stories we heard.

Tomorrow is Christmas and thanks to a dear friend, Barbara Sheeder, we have a tree. We exchange Christmas stocking and she told me to open the box and I would find a tree. How did she know we wouldn’t be in Livingston? We didn’t know until last Saturday.

Copy of IMG_1191

We are HOME! Our tree is up, we are settled in, warm and safe, after driving 1400 miles in just 4 1/2 days. We have reservations at a local restaurant for Christmas dinner at 1:30. Life is good.

We watched fuel prices rise as we moved west. From about $3.07 in Livingston, to $3.25 here in Arizona.

The most interesting aspect of the travel at this time of the year was seeing all the cars loaded with dogs—and even cats. Every rest stop seemed to be filled with travelers walking, feeding, and caring for two or more dogs. I got a kick out the the number of animals we saw—a one-to-one ratio of one dog to one human “servant.” (Yeah, servant—you don’t see the dogs picking up their messes, do you?)

On a sad note, the world lost a wonderful soul Thursday, Joe Peterson, founder of the Escapees RV Club, passed on to a new audience in heaven. Mr. Joe was famous among his friends for telling jokes—not necessarily great jokes, but jokes that still made everyone laugh. You had to laugh because he got such joy from telling the jokes and stories. Mr. Joe never met strangers—Joe was too busy adding new friends to even consider someone might not know him. A new friend was a new audience—and more joy for Mr. Joe. He—and his jokes—will be missed by hundreds, if not thousands, of friends. Our heart-felt condolences go to Miss Kay Peterson, Cathie and Bud Carr and the rest of the Peterson-Carr family.

Meanwhile, we will continue RVing in Mr. Joe’s honor—He and Miss Kay made it easy for all of us—by creating the Escapees RV Club! Thank you Mr. Joe and Miss Kay.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

December 21, 2010--Christmas On the Road

We were leaving Livingston, TX right after Christmas to travel to Quartzsite, AZ, for a few months in the desert sun. As with most of our plans, they were firm when we made them. However, like most of our plans, they were subject to change at a whim.

Our whim was the fact the weather was warm and dry across Texas. Why wait for rain or snow on our route? Why not just finish loading and head out when we were ready? No reason to not go. So, Sunday morning, we hooked up the loaded car to the loaded truck and camper and headed west.

We spent Sunday night at an attractive Texas rest stop between Luling and Seguin, TX. A freebie night! The weather was warm, the place was clean and had video cameras for safety.

IMG_1177

IMG_1175

I have previously mentioned we see some unusual things on our travels….this trailer was parked in the rest stop.

IMG_1169

See Larry standing next to it? It doesn’t look too big, does it?

The young man working at the rest stop didn’t know what this was…but we did. Remember the windmills we saw last May? This is the little box behind the windmill blades.

IMG_1171

This is one of those little boxes--that hangs behind the blades on the windmills—and it’s headed for the Palm Springs, CA, wind farm. Little? However, it brought up another question. We see these containers on the freeways and we see trucks with long trailers hauling one blade at a time, but we haven’t seen the part that attaches the blades to the this box? Have you see one? I wonder what it looks like????

The following day, we cleared San Antonio, TX early in the morning. As we crossed the scenic Hill Country on Interstate 10, we noticed the temperature outside climbing. By 2 p.m., we gave up and turned on the air conditioner—it was 85 degrees outside on Dec. 20th.

We stopped in Fort Stockton, TX at Parkview RV Park, a Passport America park; it was just $10 for a full hookup site.

Today we crossed El Paso, TX at lunch time and found ourselves in heavy traffic. I would hate to see their rush hour traffic. We continued west to Deming, NM. We are at Escapees Dream Catcher Park. It turned out to be the most expensive night so far--$17.00. I did take the opportunity to do a load of laundry and we will be running the heater tonight. It is supposed to get into the high 30s during the night.

We are going to run into rain tomorrow which may derail our travel plans. We had hoped to make Gila Bend and then Quartzsite, AZ the following day. Instead, if the rain isn’t too heavy, we will probably spend the night at the Casa Grande Elk’s Club.

Stay tuned for the adventures of the shoe box bumping across the U.S.