We talked about going across country for a long time…so we finally went half way across! Our best friends, Donna and Jeff, moved to Caldwell Texas 2 years ago so it was time to see what the hubbub was about. I get it, it’s BEAUTIFUL out there!! So here’s how it went…

Left on Saturday morning, June 4th heading for Williams Arizona via the I-40, where we stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. The roads from Havasu to Williams were torn up so bad we thought we might have nothing left of the RV by the time we got there but a couple of seats on top of the chassis. I’m not exaggerating either. Rather than fix the roads, Arizona just puts up signs that say “Rough Road” or our favorite, “Rough Road, May Crack Windshield”. Unbelievable! Add to that, torrential downpour for at least an hour coming into Williams and it was a real white-knuckler! But we made it and hunkered down for the night.

In the morning we left, headed to Albuquerque. The roads improved but were still not great, but the state is absolutely beautiful, especially the northern part where we were, off the I-40. We got excited to see the sign for Winslow Arizona along the way… You know…standin’ on a corner? So of course we stopped and took silly pictures!

Along the way was such beauty, especially in New Mexico. I’d like to plan another trip just to explore the Land of Enchantment by the way. We stayed at Enchanted Trails RV Park and Trading Post and would give it an A+. Such an adorable park with a great store and adorable vintage RV’s you can tour.

Our friends, Gloria and Stuart, who live in Rio Rancho picked us up for dinner and we had a great time at Sobremesa eating traditional Spanish food, and the guys really enjoyed the craft beer.

In the morning we got up and out early for the 5.5 hour drive to Lubbock. Now let me say this…the state of Texas is absolutely beautiful, and their Governor obviously spends the taxpayer’s money on the taxpayers. The roads and all infrastructure was excellent! But there is one thing that’s curious. The speed limit on the highway is 80 which is bad enough, but on the little state highways, mostly 2 lanes in each direction, right next to houses, the limit is 75!! And the trucks pass everyone like crazy! I assume that’s why they have about a million cemeteries? Every few miles, another cemetery. I find that interesting…

We stayed at Mesa Verde RV park in Lubbock. It had rained 7 inches in 7 days and it was quite humid. I got bit by mosquitoes 5 times sitting by the pool for only 15 minutes. It was a nice enough park…basically pulled in, ate dinner, watched TV, then pulled out early for the 6.5 hour drive to Donna and Jeff’s.

Donna and Jeff live on a beautiful country road way out away from any main towns…just about 30 minutes from College Station. We loved College Station and their stores like HEB (grocery), Specs (booze), and of course, Nothing Bundt Cakes! They took us to lunch at C & J BBQ in Bryan and it was delish!

They built a beautiful home and huge shop which sits on 4 wooded acres. So many trees and birds. It’s like a bird sanctuary and it sounds like I imagine the rain forest sounds.

We went for walks and really enjoyed the outdoors. When it got too warm we came in and hung out. Happy hour starts at 4pm in Caldwell! Pepper captured Donna and Jeff’s hearts and I was afraid Donna was going to keep him! And I’m afraid he wouldn’t have minded!

One night we had a crazy thunder and lightning storm that dumped a bunch of rain. It blew down trees and fences all around but we were safe under their RV building next to the shop. Pepper has no fear so he enjoyed it from the dash!! Crazy dog.

We took a trip to San Antonio to see the Alamo and the River Walk. The boys did the Alamo and we checked out some shops. Then we all walked around the river (for a short time, it was hot) before stopping at Mad Dogs Brittish Pub for lunch. They served Scotch Eggs as an appetizer so we had to try them. Basically it’s a hard boiled egg wrapped in pork and deep fried. Very yummy actually!

We stayed with them for 7 days and really enjoyed hanging out with our best friends. Jeff made us a beautiful and large wind chime made out of pipes that he tuned into actual musical notes. I love the sound of it on our patio.

I missed them immediately after we left. This will be a yearly tradition for sure. We may even meet half way now and then.

Sunset our last night at their house. We got up and left at 8:00 am the next morning heading to Fort Stockton Tx. We decided to take the 10 home since the 40 had such horrible roads. The 10 was 100 times better and actually a more direct route.

On our way to Fort Stockton we drove to Fredericksburg which is the Wine Country of Texas. We didn’t want to take much time so we just found a place to stop and have lunch in the RV. We’ll put it on the list for our next trip.

Hilltop RV Park in Fort Stockton was really nice and adorable. Very nice people and very clean.

The best sunset ever!

What the heck is this?

On the road by 8am the next day heading for Deming New Mexico. Roads are still great, but hitting a lot of wind. Went through El Paso on the way out of Texas. Beautiful over-passes and infrastructure in that town.

Deming New Mexico wasn’t much to speak of but they have a great Mexican Restaurant called El Camino Real. Really friendly staff and delicious food. We got it to-go and they served me water and offered chips and salsa while I waited. So nice.

We stayed at 81 Palms RV Park in Deming. Nice people, they only take checks and cash which is different, but it was nice. Very hot and windy though.

The next day we hit Arizona pretty quickly after leaving Deming and decided to go explore Tombstone. What a fun time we had there!

Made it to Cotton Lane RV Park in Goodyear Arizona around 6pm and boy was it hot! It was 91 degrees inside the RV with the AC blasting and an hour later it was 92. Go figure? It didn’t cool off until well after 9pm. The park was nothing to speak about. It’s actually a 55 and over place and is very nice. It seems they only rent out a few spaces in the back where there are NO trees or grass. Also, no store.

Anyway, early in the morning we were out of there heading for home! We took the 10 up to the 210 and 15 then the 395 and came down the 58. We were home by around 3:00.

What a great trip but it’s always so nice to be home. I’ll never complain about California roads ever again after some if the places we drove.

The RV is going in for new shocks and stabilizers before we go on anymore long trips. We may be heading to Virginia in the fall…we’ll see!

One of the best beach locales for RV camping in California. You park nose to butt all down the coastline for a couple of miles. You have a beautiful view of the ocean right out your RV windows and doors. It’s dry camping but that’s fine too. Around a 3 hour drive but not a bad drive at all.

Pepper was mesmerized by the ocean … he didn’t quite know what to think! We had easy beach access so we walked on the beach each day. At first he was afraid of everything he came across, seaweed, shells, the water coming it. It was hilarious. But by the time we were walking back to the RV on the first day he was loving everything, especially the water.

Had a cute visitor!

Such beautiful sunset the first night.

Back to our favorite place this month. It was so nice getting out of our town where it was cloudy, rainy, snowy, and foggy for months. Almost couldn’t get the RV out due to saturated ground, but we did and when we got back we put it into storage downtown until it dries out.

Pepper decided he likes riding on the dash on this trip. We’ll see how that goes LOL.

Our dear friends of over 40 years, Mike and Sherry, bought a travel trailer and joined us for their maiden voyage. It was smiles all weekend as they loved being out of the house and out in the elements, which by the way were beautiful. Cool with a warm sun. They’re pros now! They made us a delicious breakfast and dinner too! Can’t wait for many more camping trips with them.

Put the RV in the shop and got everything fixed!

A quick trip to Tehachapi Air Park to make sure all is well, and we had a very nice overnighter.

We’re headed to Rincon in March and Lone Pine in April with friends. Hope to camp monthly from now on. We will be visiting Montana from time to time, going Texas soon, and hopefully across country to Virginia in the Fall. It’s time to live the retired life!

Thank you Lord for all of your many blessings ❤

Yes, we went to Paso and stayed somewhere else! What an adventure this trip was. The people we were going with all got sick and ended up canceling. We decided to go anyway and what a beautiful park! We did have some mishaps though…

First, we found out on this trip that the propane leak was real and in this warmer climate it was leaking more. We had access to TV on this trip but our television wouldn’t come up from inside the buffet. The lift was jammed. So again NO TV! It was pouring when we arrived and our new water hose was missing a washer so sprayed all over Gary when he tried to hook it up so he ended up putting a little bit of water in the tank to get us through the night. The next morning he took Pepper for a long walk and I hopped in the shower and as soon as I was soaped up and had conditioner in my hair I ran out of water. He didn’t return for at least 20 minutes. That’s all I’ll say about that!! When he got back and fixed the hose and hooked us up he noticed we had a flat tire. Yes, the one that was sometimes slowly losing air before. We had to have a mobile tire service come out and fix it. Did I mention it’s POURING rain?

Friends of the people we were going with showed up on day 2, as they also were planning to join our group. They were so nice and we really liked them. Russ, Angel, Gina, and Greg.

On the third evening we all headed to the Christmas Market in Cambria. We Ubered as usual since we don’t tow a car, and upon arriving (45 minute drive) we were told by our Uber driver that there are no Ubers in Cambria so we were going to have a hard time getting back. So glad she told us that AFTER she dropped us off. However, she said she would be happy to come back and get us and even shared her personal cell phone number with us. Just shoot me a text she said.

Well, the weather was freezing at the Christmas Market and we never could find the food vendors so after a couple of hours we all decided to head back to camp. Our new friends took off and we texted our driver. No response. LONG story short and after at continuously trying to reach her, another Uber, or a taxi, with very limited cell phone service, and with my phone on 10% battery, we had to break down and call our new friends Gina and Greg to ask them to please call a taxi for us. They insisted on coming back for us as they hadn’t made it back to camp yet. Did I say they were really nice? Four of us adults crammed in the back seat of their truck and we got back to camp. I finally heard back from the Uber driver who said … oh sorry I’m already back home. UGH.

The next day my best friend Valerie from junior high and high school came to the camp to visit as she lives in the area. I had not seen her in nearly 40 years. Just on FB. She brought gifts and lunch and we had a GREAT time catching up for about 3 hours. Best part of the trip!!

That night group dinner with our new friends then home the next day. Crazy trip of everything going wrong, but we decided that after tons of wonderful trips, we were due. And a lot of good came out of it too!

Kids were busy this year so we took off to Lone Pine for Thanksgiving. We ate inside with everyone and had a great time. The food and company was great as always. The weather was pretty nice too. Pepper had a blast at the dog park. We still didn’t have TV because the park’s TV wasn’t working and we didn’t bring the DVD player again, and the propane leaked a little but not much, and truthfully we just thought it was the cold weather…

Time to get the RV out and see what needs to be fixed since we used it last. A one-nighter in Tehachapi would let us know that we had a propane leak (outside), the water pump didn’t work (we caught that and fixed it before we traveled), we didn’t have TV only because we forgot to bring our DVD player, and we kept losing air in one tire.

This was also a trial run with Pepper. What a champ. He loves camping and when we ask if he ‘wants to go bye bye in the RV’, he goes crazy!

Well, we didn’t RV camp until November but we had a lot of changes I want to memorialize.

Here’s a picture of the snow going towards Lone Pine. Glad our plans headed us west to Paso this month.

So we spent another New Years in Paso at Wine Country RV Resort.

Ventured a little further for a couple of days. BC had already said there would be no Thanksgiving dinner this year so we went up earlier in the month, then enjoyed a small Thanksgiving at home. But they ended up doing it anyway. Hmmmm…