Were back in Texas

We left Michigan Oct 19th, headed first for the Texas Hill Country then on to Bentsen Palm Village Resort for the winter.

Arrived at the Big Chief Resort on Buchanan Dam in the rain. We were lucky the rain let up a little so we could get set up but I was still plenty wet. Some of the locals said it rained 9 inches that night so we saw a different Hill Country than what we are used to. All the creeks were now rivers and the rivers tended to be torrents. I was kind of cool to ford the rivers in the Jeep.

Enchanted Rock was a whole new experience with parts of the trails under water and the Sandy Creek flowing over the walkway. I didn’t take the entire Loop Trail, since I know it crossed the creek just before the end. I crossed back on the Echo Canyon Trial and encountered a number of pools on the trail and lots of tiny trickles as I make my way back to the parking area. You might think I would have some really unusual pictures, but since I have been here so many times I didn’t take the camera and have been kicking myself since.

We stayed at Buchanan Lake for 9 days before heading to Mission and BPVR. As we were turning onto Old Military Road Linda and I look at each other and said “Were Home”.

Howell, Michigan

After spending Thursday night at Interstate RV Park, in Davenport Iowa we arrived in Howell about 4PM on Friday. This is actually my mom's back yard, I sort of do another workamping stint as I do maintenance and lawn mowing in exchange for a place to park.

Really good to get back to the old stomping grounds, we got to spend some time with our oldest daughter, my Mom and Linda's parents last night. Today will be spent getting things set up again, doing laundry and just recovering from the ~2500 mile dash from Oregon.

We are just short of 20,000 miles on the coach and the motor seems to be loosening up a bit. The computer tracks mileage and we have gone up anther tenth on this leg of the trip, were now up to 8.2 MPG. I don't think that too bad for a 30,000 lb vehicle that 8 feet wide and 12.5 feet tall.

Omaha, NE

Spent last night in North Platte, NE. Linda got to get her Walmart fix for the week.

Today we made a stop at the Great Platte River Road Archway. I was not sure about stopping but Linda has wanted to visit it since last year when we passed through moving Manda to Oregon. They do a nice job of telling the story of people passing through the area on their way to the west coast. Beginning with the Mormons, the Oregon Trail, and the Lincoln highway. Not a whole lot of depth to the story but I thought it was well worth the 1 1/2 hours we spent there.

We are spending tonight with Cabela's. It cost us more than if we had just gone to a campground but I guess that's why they let you hide out in the back parking lot.

We have gotten our best mileage ever, between going down hill through most of Nebraska, and a good tail wind out of the west, we managed to get 9.4 mpg for the last 650 miles.

Weather has been good today, I do see some thunderheads in the sky around us, but still sunny where we are. Temps in the 80's today, sure feels good to be able to run around in shorts and T-shirts again.

Rowlins, Wyoming

No rain today! We did wake up to ice on the puddles on the slide toppers, but the sun has been shining pretty much all day. We are staying at RV World Campground, and can see snow on the hill side behind us. It's 52 degrees and the wind is blowing at 30 or some miles an hour so the wind chill felt like it was down around freezing while I was getting the water, electric and cable TV hooked up.

Made about 380 miles today and finally caught a tail wind. Crossed the continental divide a couple of times and saw elevation of 7500 feet. Saw lots of sheep, cattle, antilope and even a few Wyoming ground squirrels.

Snowville, Utah

About 75 miles North-west of Ogden Utah. Kind of a different little campground, nobody in the office, you take the paper work, pick your site then fill out the paper work add your payment and drop it in the slot at the office. Lots of antiques, stuff hanging on the fence and on the porch. Old farm machinery and vehicles parked around the outside of the park.

We are still at 4600 feet, with hills and mountains all around us. At the high point for the day we saw a sign at one of the passes saying we were at 5630 feet.

This was another day of rain, saw a little lightning, a little hail and a lot of up hill. The forecast was for a 30% chance of rain along our route, but we ended up with 30% of the day without rain. The one really nice thing was the sun came out when we stopped for lunch so we had the chance to walk around the Devils Washbowl and get some nice pictures.

Huntington Oregon

We did about 390 miles today, I was starting to get a bit tired and I had enough rain and drizzle for the day. We have stopped at Catfish Junction RV Park, a nice little campground on the Snake River. Inexpensive with very nice hosts and the view would be hard to beat. We are surrounded by mountains with the river in front of us and farm land to the south.

Linda HAD to stop at the gift shop at the Multnomah falls on the way up the Columbia Gorge. She did pretty good time wise and not buying too much, Bud ended up getting a stuffed beaver to play with. It was fun shaking it and tossing it out of his chair, then grabbing it and jumping back in. Only problem was he got tired of the jumping out and then back in so it didn't take long before he was staring at Linda to pick it up for him when he tossed it out. It sure seems like he want to rule our lives.

Woodburn, OR

We have landed! Planning to stay at the Woodburn RV Park for the next three weeks. Linda has another week off then she plans to work two weeks before we head out again. She chose this park for it's location rather than it's charm, it's really a nice park. You see we are spending a little time with our youngest daughter who lives in Portland and currently works in Salem. This place is just off I-5, 20 miles north of Salem and 30 south of Portland so works out to be a good place for Amanda to stop off. As a side benefit it's fairly close to a lot of the stuff Linda and I want to visit while we are here.

I have to admit we have seen more sun so far (two days) than we did the entire week we were in Portland last year when we moved Amanda out here. Although there has been more rain than we saw all winter in Texas. Poor Bud has had to have his coat broken out, it makes him walk funny but I am not sure he would stay outside long enough to get his "jobs" done without it!

We are pretty much just rejuvenating for the day after the trip from Sacramento. It's good to be able to lay around and take a nap once in a while. I am sure Linda will keep us on the move for the rest of the week, she needs to get lots in before going back to work on Monday.

Phoenix, OR

Spending the night at the American RV Resort outside of Medford, OR. Still about 250 miles from Salem where we plan to spend up to two weeks before heading east towards Michigan.

We caught I-5 in Sacramento with only one small moment of confusion on my part. The drive up the Sacramento Valley with the Coastal Range to the West and the Sierra Nevada to the East was really beautiful and relaxing. Beautiful snow capped mountains on both sides bordering flat farm land. We saw a number of big CAT tracked tractors.

Linda managed to pack her extra camera battery in the one closet that you can't get to while the slide is in, so after about 80 miles we found a rest area that was open. It was at the end of a 4 mile 6% grade and on the Klamath River, so I was ready for a little break. We had lunch, then opened the bedroom slide enough to get the closet door open and retrieved the battery. You know if she didn't take 200 or so pictures a day she could get by with just the one battery. Problem is you never know when you'll catch that perfect shot.

Sacramento, CA

Mostly easy day, we had a few moments with the wind and the grades but the ole Dutch Star came through just fine and seems to be getting better mileage. I guess we are finally starting to get the engine broken in.

I was just blown away by the beauty and scale of some of the scenery on our way into Bakersfield. We found 99 to be a bit rough but a nice road with not too much traffic.

I found Linda a little piece of land in Mojave, 7.5 acres of un-improved property for the measly sum of $450,000. I guess we will have to win the lottery if we ever hope to buy anything in California.

We hope to get some laundry done in the morning then hook up with my uncle Jerry and his wife Barb around lunch time tomorrow, then spend the rest of day doing a little site seeing.

Amanda has been checking out where we are, we think she might be missing us just a little, or maybe it's just Bud she is missing.

California, Here we are!

After spending most of the morning doing a little metal detecting (we found a Coke can, a bottle cap, a door striker, a 22 shell casing and another round metal disk) we packed up and left Quartzsite. Linda seems to like metal detecting and I am getting her to see a whole lot more of the outdoors while doing it. Funny how you can see flowers in the desert while walking that are too small to see from the coach or the Jeep.

Ran into some tough cross and head winds today, knocked the hell out of our fuel mileage. We saw some really beautiful country and a whole lot of traffic in California on our 300 miles for the day. More wind turbines in one spot then we have in pretty much all our travels.

We have stopped at a little campground, Sierra Trails RV Park in Mojave, CA. We managed to get a pull thru, with 30 amps and no sewer or cable, but it is a nice place and not far off the highway. Considering all we did today, it was a long day and we are really happy to get nice hot showers, watch a DVD and hit the sack.

Still have about 350 miles to do tomorrow to get to Sacramento to visit my Uncle but should not have any trouble making it.

Quartzsite AZ

Short day today, somewhere around 200 miles, but the rig just would not go past Quartzsite. I have been dreaming of boon docking here ever since the full-timing bug bit me. Sure is nice to have 300 watts of solar panels, an inverter and a cellular modem! I can just imagine what this place is like in January when ALLLLLL the characters are here, partying and what ever!

I spent all the money I made this winter working on computers, and then some, on a White's TDI metal detector. Just learning how to use it but so far I have found 4 pieces of wire. I played around with some nuggets I have just to see what it is like to find real gold. Tomorrow we will go to a local claim and see what we can find.

Linda decided we needed a little break from driving so she had me get the Jeep around and go for a little 100 mile site seeing trek. Bud, as always, was very happy traveling anywhere.

Not sure if we will spend another night here or get back on the road when it starts getting hot. I guess we will just have to see how the mood strikes us.

Day 3 and things are improving

We made it to Campground Buena Tierra in Casa Grande, Az today, around 350 miles. Things went well, breakfast at the Flying J west of El Paso, about a mile from the New Mexico border, lunch at a rest stop at Texas Canyon, Az. Easy to find campground and even the construction in Tucson was not bad.

I need to take a look at the tail light on the Jeep, that has been giving me a few problems, but that's the only thing out of the ordinary to do tonight. I think I will take a look after dinner then shower and turn in early (Bud and I are a bit messed up by the time change).

We have been running into a couple at a number of rest stops along the way and guess who is camped just two sites away tonight. They are from Bakersfield and suggested a route bypassing LA. Looks like it's about 830 miles to Sacramento (I have an uncle who lives there) so we are planning the next couple of legs to get us there.

Day 2

Things went much better today. We got under way without a hitch, well actually the left tail light is not working all the time on the Jeep, temp is 49 and the wind is out of the west so I guess things could be better, but it's much better than yesterday morning.

We made good time today and I felt like doing some extra miles so we made it to El Paso (about 500 miles). First place we tried to stop for the night was full so we decided to go a little further. Well we missed the sign for I-10 and ended up down by the border in El Paso, then down town trying to get back on I-10. We finally made it out of town and back on the highway and stopped at Camping World for the night. I really do plan to pick up some parts in the morning before we leave.

First day back on the road.

It's been a tough first day.

Dumped the TPMS sensors out of the egg carton so I didn't know which one went where, reinstall.

I have one that keeps dropping out and it ended up on the rear of the Jeep, after a hour of screwing around finally got it moved and replaced with a good one.

Hooked up the Jeep and again the tail lights didn't work. Sure enough it was a blown fuse, I thought I had the issue resolved but I guess it needs a bit more work. Then the first light I checked out was the left rear on the Jeep, guess what, the LED bulb I had there doesn't seem to be working, replaced it with a regular bulb and we were good to go.

Made it to Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, TX, really nice park.

Tried to deploy the jacks and guess what, nothing. Dumps the air bags but the jacks won't deploy. Messed around way too long and finally got them working. Even though the monitor said the jacks were fully retracted I think there may have been an issue so I cleaned them and sprayed them down with some silicone. Hopefully that's the problem and we will have no more issues with them.

Next we couldn't see any of the the WIFI spots in the park, tried Linda's Verizon cellular modem/access point, still no luck. Seems the WIFI switch on the laptop got bumped and turned off. Turned it back on and we are good to go.

Next RVer's notebook won't run. Still don't have that resolved.

Decided to use the park facilities for our showers, guess what my shower shoe fell apart on the way back to the campsite.

I think I should just go to bed and start anew in the morning. Hopefully we have gotten the problems out of the way for awhile.

Thanks for listening.