Paws and Friends

We departed Spring, TX, just before severe thunder storms arrived, for Westlake LA on April 19. We spent one night at a very nice park north off of I-10, Whispering Meadows RV Park. Any of you readers familiar with love bugs...?! We ran into LOTS! And they were a pain to get off the front of the coach, especially the windshield! On April 20th, we drove on to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to Hollywood Casino RV Park for the weekend. Again, a very nice park, and we found Bay St. Louis a nice, small town. We even played the penny slots--Mike coming away with wins both times...Lindy playing for a while--some gain...then total loss!  It was fun! This small town (population 8,209) was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. As we drove around, we could see many empty lots, with driveways going nowhere....A quick look on pictures on line showed several before and after shots of beautiful homes, totally wiped away by the 28 foot storm surge. We found the area coming ba...

While visiting the Alamo in San Antonio, we walked to the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum for a delicious lunch of pulled pork and brisket and some interesting items in their museum: Teddy Roosevelt, as he spent time there recruiting to fight Poncho Villa. Bonney and Clyde's car.... We had the "new" Alamo movie, so Mike bought a DVD of John Wayne's Alamo...so we could watch each and "compare" with what we saw; an to compare these movies....Of course John Wayne's was the best of the two!!  Watching these movies was a fun way to spend two evenings in San Antonio! Saturday we piled in the car with the dogs and drove to where we could ride the Riverwalk on the bikes. We had a good ride, but as we got closer to the down town area, there were more people so we turned around and rode back. We enjoyed our site at Blazing Star RV Resort, and will return, if the opportunity presents! We are: "See" you down the road! SWIRVIN

With only 150 miles to go today, we took the most time getting there! We stopped for the night yesterday just north of Del Rio, TX, at the Broke Mill RV Park, nice long sites, with around half occupancy. There were lots of empty sites! We are sure last night was the last night without air conditioning for a while, as well! Perhaps not until we reach Maine! We moseyed down the road today, hunting for fuel as we drove through Del Rio--not liking what we found, so continued to look. We finally found a good prospect with separate diesel pumps and was under $4! Well, JUST under:  $3.99/gallon! We stopped at one of the many picnic areas to first change drivers and walk the dogs, then the second one (after fueling the rig) for lunch. We arrived at Blazing Star early afternoon, checked in and drove to our site only to find that our assigned site was occupied. Mike (and Bitty--she LOVES the jeep!) drove back to the office, returning shortly with really great news! We could tak...

We are HERE!  Elevation 4494 feet, mountains around us, thunderheads above those mountains! Thanks to Bob and Jo of How to Love Where You Are and Eat Where the Locals Eat!  Blog, we are ready for thunderstorms...and lightening, and tornadoes....we downloaded the mobile app for our phones from weathercall that they use and recommended. There is much to see, and we promise to add that information later. For now, we are cozy in our site where  we think a lost Alaskan landed here, among the pines, and built this park! We have a long list as we originally had more days so we shall see just what we are able to do:  our list includes:  The Mystery Light of Marfa  (and Marfa Research) , Fort Davis National Historic Site , and Big Bend National Park.  More later! View Larger Map Paws and Friends, Happy to be Back in the Saddle again, with a coach running smoothly! Just need to get the people up to speed!

Yesterday we found our coach in the "ready" line, at 9:20 AM!  Yay!!!!  Cummins engineers happy with software results--no need for filter....we are Good to GO!  We needed fuel, so drove up the road to a Pacific Pride, and wanted to stop by Lazy Daze to double check the hitch pulling the jeep, the hitch that dug into the dirt when the coach was rolled off the truck Monday. Mike heard a thunk, driving down Contractor's Way across railroad tracks on way to Lazy Daze. Didn't think much then.. When we pulled into the service lane at Lazy Daze, the Tire Pressure Monitor beeped, indicating tire with low pressure. Sure enough, we had a huge bolt, 7/8" head, in one of our tires! Hitch checked out okay--we had to wait another day while a tire to match ours was found, delivered, and mounted. We departed Lazy Daze at 4 PM, heading straight for their park where we tied up for the night. We were TIRED! (But safe!!!)  We have the bolt--perhaps will make a "necklace".....

We departed Benson yesterday morning--beautiful crisp, and yes, a little windy day....only to be returned to Tucson Freightliner via flatbed tow truck yesterday afternoon...!  Oh, you want the rest of the story...?  We were right at exit 378 off I-10, at San Simon, when a warning "bell" chimed. "Poor Def Quality!" was on the computer display. Then the check engine light came on. We took the exit, and stopped in the large parking lot of a truck stop. Lindy read the manual while Mike walked the dogs. DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) is part of the re-gen system of new diesel rigs to cut down on exhaust emissions. With this new system, when the sensors "sense" a problem, an engine protection system kicks in, allowing forward speed of 5 mpg.  Yes, it had kicked in! To make a long story short, after calling Freightliner 27/7 and Coachnet, a tow truck was dispatched from Tucson, and was in route, we were informed, arrival time estimated at approximately 2 hours--1:3...

We buttoned it all up at North Ranch, pulling out about 9:15 AM. Lindy did order new tire sensors for the tire pressure monitor, and after checking the tires discovered an inside dual low on air. Knowing the job tires do, and what can happen when tires fail. time was taken to get the air compressor out and fill the tire. Time well spent as you'll see later in this post. After hooking up the jeep, we pulled out heading south by south east... We dealt with winds most of the day, sighting huge dust devils south of Chandler. Of course signage along the highway warning of dust storms also served as a major clue warning of winds! We arrived in Benson, SKP (Escapees) Saguaro Co-op around 3. Winds continue to blow, according to the weather channel around 15 to 20 mpg. We had a gust stronger 20 that blew the door shut and items near windows to the floor. Looks like we will have them tomorrow as we head east across I-10 into Las Cruces. We did notice that Alpine has a wind advisory of winds ...