Week ending Nov 28, 2013

Thursday Nov 21 we went to El Tejavan,  a recommended Mexican restaurant, for dinner to celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary. We enjoyed our meal, Joan had a spicy fish meal and John  beef enchiladas.  Because it had turned very cold out we hurried back to the trailer to hunker down against the bad weather. What is with this weather being below 0 in Texas? Our research has shown that just 100 miles south of here the weather is much warmer, not below freezing.  As we have paid for our site here until Monday we will whine and complain, but stay until Monday morning.

 

Saturday picked up a few groceries and on our way out of the grocery the snow started.  We headed back to the trailer to do a great deal of nothing.

 

Sunday we awoke to a winter wonderland.

 

 

 

As it was a cold snowy morning it seemed like a good day to catch up on laundry. By afternoon it was starting to warm up, so we cleared the snow off the slide outs, packed our stuff back in the truck and took down our steps in preparation for our departure tomorrow. The evening was spent watching a great football game (Saskatchewan winning the Grey Cup).

 

 

Monday morning after checking road reports and finding that the ‘no travel’ warnings had been lifted, we packed everything up, resolved a slide out problem, at least temporarily and headed to Discount tires to replace one of the trailer tires.  We had checked with them earlier in the week to confirm that they had the matching tire.  It took them less than 1/2 an hour to change the tire and we were on our way about 10:45 a.m.    The roads where fine.   We stopped in Abernathy, just north of Lubbock at a Conoco station for diesel.  It had one of the slowest pumps we've ever seen, until the operator did something and came out to get us to stop and restart the nozzle.  We then carried on to Lamesa to stay for the night.   The good news about this trip today was that the snow was disappearing as we got further south.   When we arrived at the La Vedera campground in Lamesa there was no more snow, the water was still turned on in the campground.  But since there was no wi-fi at the park (except in the store), we couldn't contact the KOA at San Angelo to make a reservation.   Since this had not been an issue to date we were not concerned.

 

Tuesday we headed for San Angelo.   Near Big Springs, we intended to stop to do a short hike by the lake.  However, road construction had made the exit to difficult to navigate, we carried on out of the valley.   On the plateau,  we saw many crews working on the power lines.    We soon saw what had caused the problem.  

 

 

 

When we got to the KOA in San Angelo they only had space for 4 nights which we took, using a 10% KOA discount card.   Thank you Brian and Kris.

 

Wednesday we checked out a H.E.B. grocery store, and good luck,  they carry the wine we prefer.   Then we went to San Angelo State Park.  They have space for us after we need to leave the KOA. Their sites are lovely, large, level, water and 30 amp power, bathrooms have free showers and the one I checked out was very clean.   All this for 20.00 a night.   The only downside is no internet, but we can head into town occasionally for internet access.  After our drive through the park, where we saw a number of deer and some of the prize Texan longhorn cattle herd that is kept at the park,  we headed to Fort Concho Historic Site.    We did a self-tour through the numerous buildings at the Fort we watched a video about the history.  

 

 

 

On our way back to the trailer we stopped at an RV dealers, looking for a small part  we need.  They didn't have it, but thankfully the part is not essential to the trailers operation, so we will wait until we can get to Camping World.   We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Wii and watching the deer in the field next to the KOA.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving morning was spent washing the windows.  We are hoping this is the last time we have to clean them as a result of snow and slushy roads for a long while.   In the afternoon we wandered the historic downtown San Angelo.   We saw all the murals and the mermaid with a San Angelo pearl in her hand. The Concho river flows through town and we walked along its bank for a short section where we saw a blue heron standing on the dam.

 

 

 

 

 

Week ending Nov 21, 2013

Friday morning we checked out the biggest mall in Amarillo.  In our opinion nothing special, however there a number of shops we don't see in Canada. After a mall stroll and no purchases we stopped at Home Depot to pick up some RV chemicals ( which they don't carry) , and look at  weather centres ( nothing impressive so no purchase),  and got groceries.   After lunch we went for a swim and a soak in the hot tub.

 

Saturday was a very windy day.   We decided to explore Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.   It is a large lake formed by a dam on the Canadian River.  We studied the info regarding hiking in the area and headed off.   The wind was extreme, battering against the side of the truck all the way.     We finally found a spot where we could see the lake, which, we were later told is drying up a lot.  We stopped for lunch at a nice looking campground and picnic area.    The wind was blowing so hard Joan could hardly open the driver’s door.   We took a quick look over the valley and decided that lunch would be best enjoyed in the truck, and that walking anywhere was out of the question.    

 

 

 

 

When we got back to the RV park, we discovered that the wind had blown over our satellite dish, so we hooked up to the campground cable and spent the afternoon watching the USA Olympic curling play downs.

 

The wind finally subsided and Sunday morning we got our satellite working in time to watch the CFL Eastern  semi-finals, then the final Nascar race of the season followed by the  CFL Western semi-final. 

 

Monday morning (8:00 A.M.) we dropped the truck off at Browns GMC to have the warranty repairs done.   They arranged to rent us a car through Enterprise. After stopping for breakfast at the Waffle House, we headed for Lubbock to the Buddy Holly Centre.   After having driven for almost 2 hours, we discovered the centre is closed on Mondays.  

 

 

 

 After wandering around downtown Lubbock for a while, stopping at a park for lunch before heading back to Amarillo.   We drove along the side roads next to the interstate, as we had noticed that the cotton harvest was in progress.   All along the way we saw various stages of cotton harvesting in progress. As this was not a procedure we knew much about we found it interesting and when we got home had to sign on to the internet to read about the whole process.

 

A field of ripe cotton 

A harvester.

 

A stack of harvested cotton. 

 

 

 

Tuesday morning we checked with a tire company to see if they could replace one of our trailer tires next Monday on our way out of town.    We then headed out to the Cadillac “ranch”. We chatted with some other tourists that commented, like us, that this was a bit of a cheesy site, but we did note that we were there looking at it, what did that say about us?

 

 

 

Wednesday was spent wandering around Amarillo taking care of chores and enjoying the warm sunny weather.

 

Thursday we dropped the rental car by 8:00 A.M.   Enterprise then dropped us off at Browns GMC to pick up our truck.   After stopping at  `The Big Texan`for breakfast we packed a few veggies and headed out to Palo Duro Canyon for a hike.    It was supposed to be a nice day, but with a cold front coming in the evening.     We parked between a couple of two mile loops along the river through the canyon.     The views were quite interesting, with the many layers visible along the hills on the canyon.   There was also an interesting looking cave carved out of the wall.  

 

 

 

When we finished the first loop, the cold front had moved in, so it was quite cloudy, windy and cold, so just miserable, so we decided to cut short our hike and head back to warm up the trailer.

 

 

Week ending Nov 14, 2013

We were thankful that we had decided to stay 2 nights in Casper as it was extremely windy and the interstate was closed to all high profile vehicles.   Friday we washed our back window because we finally got tired of not being able to see through it, the result of snow and slush from Calgary to Milk River. After a few other housekeeping details we headed to Rotary Park to hike.  We discovered a really pretty waterfall and saw some great views of Casper. 

 

 

 

In the distance saw some more wind farms. Interesting we have seen  the army manning them with small artillery vehicles, and helicopters carrying artillery.   We weren't sure why the gov't is so concerned about the security of the wind farms.   One fellow we talked to figured it might just be training exercises. 

 

Saturday we woke to a sunny warm calm day.   Our plan was to get to the KOA in Limon, Colorado, east of Denver about halfway between Casper and Amarillo.    We knew it was a long drive, so we got moving by 8:00 A.M. We truly enjoyed the drive. The snow capped mountains on our right, the prairie on our left reminding us of driving down highway 22 from Edmonton to Calgary. 

 

 

 

The campground host in Billings had suggested a route that bypassed a great deal of the heavy traffic through Denver, but also avoided the toll road which rings the city.  Her suggestion was spot on. We arrived at our appointed destination shortly after 3:00 P.M.  The campground was almost empty, so we were assigned a great site close to all amenities.  We stayed a couple of days since Sunday is Nascar race day.  We watched the race as well as the football semi-finals, sometimes having to flip back and forth to keep up with both. We did laundry, went for a short walk, washed the trailer and generally enjoyed a nice warm day.

 

Monday morning we headed for Amarillo, Texas.   South eastern Colorado, Oklahoma, and north West Texas were the areas hardest hit during the "dirty 30's" and driving through this area it is easy to see why. The soil is sandy, trees far and few between and terrain flat. Most of the river valleys  we crossed had no water in them and this is not a dry year.    We did find one with some water, as we crossed the Canadian River. 

 

 

 

 We knew the area around Amarillo had to be reasonably flat as it has the largest wind farm in the world, so as we were driving along we wondered if we were crazy deciding to stay in Amarillo for a week. Good news though, as we got closer to Amarillo the terrain changed, and we started to see more hills and similar to the badlands around Drumheller. Much more interesting.   We also saw a cotton crop with fluffy cotton ripening in a field.

 

Tuesday we awoke to cold weather.  It had rained overnight and then frozen.  Our windshield and the right side of the truck were frozen solid, as well as the trailer stairs and bar beside the stairs.   After an hour or so it melted and was easy to clear. We headed off to the state tourist information centre. After having a long discussion with a very knowledgeable fellow who worked there we left with loads of information booklets. Our next stop was a GMC dealer. We had our oil changed in Calgary before departing, at which time they noted we had an oil leak that would take 2 days to take apart and repair, but under warranty.    We felt we would rather take care of it down here, where the weather is warmer and we could rent a car and continue with our plans, rather than delay our trip for a few days.   After stopping to look for a good grocery stores  we headed back to Amarillo Ranch RV Park. We enjoyed an afternoon swim and soak in the hot tub.   Brian and Kris, we found a swimming pool open in Texas even in November, because they have it indoors. 

 

Wednesday John dropped the truck at the GM dealer at 7:00 A.M.   They had to redo the diagnostics we had done in Calgary and should have that done by noon.   About 1:00 pm we called from the office (to save our roaming call time), and had problems because the service fellow who checked us in had gone to lunch, and then when we connected with him, found that he had passed it on to the lady who we had talked to the previous day was looking after it, and she was on a later shift so was off at lunch.   After finally connecting, they sent a shuttle and off we went to pick up the truck. It is booked in to have the work started on Monday, they figure it will take 2 days, maybe more if they find more problems when they take the motor apart. They are arranging for a loaner car for us for the 2 days. The good news is that this work is all covered under warranty. When we got back to the rv park we paid for another week. There is not a lot of things we wanted to do in this area, but this park has an indoor swimming pool, free coffee and donuts in the morning, so  there are worse places we could be stuck.

 

 Thursday we headed for Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which is the primary attraction near Amarillo. After buying our annual park pass, (gets us into 50 + parks) we headed for our chosen trail head. The canyon is beautiful, sort of a miniature Grand Canyon, but you can drive right to the bottom and then hike from there.   We headed for  6 mile round trip hike to the Lighthouse. 

 

 

 

 

 

The trail was fairly easy, really scenic and not very busy.  We got to the half way point  of the trail, had our lunch and then headed back. The weather was perfect for hiking, about 23 degree C. After scouting out some trails for the future hikes we took a short cut back to the trailer. Yes there are dusty gravel roads in Texas. Interesting and we made it back without encountering much traffic.

 

Week ending Nov 7, 2013

On Monday November 4th we left Bow Riversedge RV Park in Cochrane and headed south toward the border. We decided to head down highway 1 then south on 23/24 through Vulcan since the road report was warning of black ice on #2 south of Calgary. The roads we were on were fine, no ice, no slippery sections, but there were a few slushy sections. Our clean truck and trailer had been washed recently, but  only lasted about 50 kms east of Calgary.   We arrived in Milk River at our campground for the night covered in black ice chips and the back of the trailer was so dirty the window was useless.

The campground in Milk River was 20 km from the border, so positioned us perfectly to cross the border early on Tuesday when our health insurance kicked in.  The best laid plans always go awry. A  couple from Bowden, heading for Mesa AZ pulled in next to us late Monday evening in a similar Titanium 5th wheel.  We visited with them for about an hour on Tuesday morning, so we didn't get going as early as planned.

The border crossing was pretty uneventful, although the agriculture inspector who checked our fridge for citrus, etc, carried on about how he couldn't believe that Canada allowed imports of Chinese mandarins.     The exit from customs was a bit confusing and we watched a pickup ahead of us drive up the wrong side of the freeway.    He must have had an "Oh my God moment" when he realized he was heading up a hill on the wrong side of the freeway.  As we headed into Montana, we found that there was no snow, and the temperature rose above freezing. We stopped in Great Falls for diesel and lunch and then headed for Billings Montana.  There is very little in the way of RV parks between Great Falls and Billings, so we didn't have much choice but to go as far as Billings.  We arrived in Billings about 7:00 P.M., in the dark,  hungry and cranky while having to back up the trailer in the dark.   We did finally get set up, cooked supper, had a glass of wine and watched TV on the cable provided by the campground.   Wednesday morning after getting a grocery list together we took the truck for a wash, got groceries and picked up a headlight which we had noticed was burnt out, got the satellite set up and then planned our campgrounds further along the way.  After checking how to install the headlight, which requires removing the air cleaner assembly, we decided it could wait until we got somewhere to have a qualified technician replace it.

Thursday morning we packed up and headed for Casper, Wyoming, down Interstate 25.   This is definitely the land where the "deer and the Antelope play".  We saw hundreds more antelope than deer.  We stopped at one spot (on the freeway, which was very quiet) to get a photo of antelope, but as soon as we stopped, they looked up, and ran off before we could get a picture.  We were lucky to get another chance, where they were a little further from the road, and weren't spooked. 

It was a great drive, sunny, warm, the Bighorn mountains on our right were snow capped.  We arrived in Casper early afternoon and headed for the chosen RV park. We arrived at Rivers Edge in Casper (similar name to our "home" campground of  Bow Rivers Edge in Cochrane) to discover the office was not open. There was a note on the door telling us to choose one of a list of sites and the office would open at 3:00 P.M.  We set up and just after 3:00  we headed into the office.  After having a conversation with the host, and a few laughs about our experiences (both hers and ours), she charged us for one night and gave us the second night free, because we are "funny".  Who says a sense of humour doesn't go a long way. 

And the saga continues....

Nov 2, 2013 - Getting ready to travel again

We have finished getting ready to head toward Texas with no medical issues to stop us this year. Travel insurance is in place, and the truck has an oil change and new tires. 

Tomorrow we have dinner with Trev and family.

Monday, we head south to Milk River, and on Tuesday we cross the border. 

Our phone plan is to add US roaming which will allow us limited texts, enough voice to handle emergency calls and sufficient data time to do our banking.   Additionally, we will be using Skype call-to-phone to keep in touch with friends and family who do not have internet access.