Traveling to the Land of Enchantment

Here we are in The Land of Enchantment, yes New Mexico.  Proof is in the pictures below welcoming us to the state.  The past three days have been an exciting trip across Texas.  It is easy to see why someone came up with the slogan, “Texas - It's Like A Whole Other Country.”  We have seen in our various trips through the state the forests and lakes of eastern Texas, the plains around Dallas-Fort Worth and endless miles of emptiness in the Panhandle, the Hill Country of Fredericksburg and Austin, the Gulf Coast from Houston to South Padre and now the mountains in far west Texas and around El Paso.  Texas is truly a magnificent and HUGE state.

First welcome sign on road

Main Welcome Sign

During our sojourn from the Fort Worth area through El Paso yesterday, we saw many things to add to our ‘To Do’ list someday.  The Civil War Museum in Fort Worth, eat at the Smokestack Restaurant in Thurber and visit the ghost town, stop in at Mary’s Café in Strawn, Texas to partake of the ‘Best Chicken Fried Steak in Texas,’ visit the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains, go to highest point in Texas at Guadalupe Peak, visit Fort Stockton and the list continues to grow with many other interesting sights to see and experience.  For now our travels have taken us to sunny Las Cruces, New Mexico located just forty miles west of El Paso.

As I sit writing this, the view from our front window is spectacular.  The sun is rising over the mountains and is as warm and inviting as any sunrise I have ever seen.  The temp outside is around 38 degrees but it warms up during the day to the high 60s to low 70s.  This is something I can get real used to quickly.

We met David and Sophie at Lake Benbrook south of Fort Worth and took off on Wednesday after spending some time catching up and making plans.  We stopped the first night just outside of Big Spring at Whip-In RV Park.  We whipped out the next morning and the next night found us in Van Horn, Texas at the Van Horn RV Park.

Here we dined at Chuy’s Café on Broadway and sat right next to the John Madden Haul of Fame table.  John Madden (of NFL fame and no Haul is not misspelled as this is how the area is labeled) does not fly and as a result traveled by rail or coach across the U.S.  He stopped here and found the food good and the company even better so he (and his family) make it a regular stop whenever they pass through Van Horn, Texas.  As a result, the owners have a table that is permanently reserved for Mr. Madden which is strategically located right in front of the TV so he can watch whatever game is in progress during his meal.  He always orders #21 from the menu.  I considered the selection but it was too much to eat late in the evening so I chose a different entrée.

Before dining, the management of the RV Park told us about the sunset and the view of the mountains that was spectacular.  So our intrepid photographers waited for the sun to set and snap just the perfect shot.  The pictures below do not do justice for God’s scenery and can never reflect the glory He shows us all the time.  In waiting, we had a later than usual dinner.  We wanted to have a hot breakfast the next morning in the café at the park.  Three of us partook of a marvelous breakfast plus coffee, I will leave it to your imagination as to who skipped the 'early' (8 AM) morning repast.

We wondered why the sun went down so late (according to the clock) in Van Horn.  We found out the next morning as we took off.  We were only three miles from the change in time zones from Central to Mountain.  So we were located about as far west in the Central Time Zone as you could be accounting for the difference on the clock that we were accustomed to for a sunset.

This last day of travel through Texas showed us some interesting and delightful sights as the shadows on the mountains changed throughout the trip highlighting them in different ways.  We also learned interesting things along the way.  For example we passed an area called Sierra Blanca.  Now from my old Spanish class in high school I recognized ‘blanca’ as a female version of white.  But I did not know what ‘sierra’ meant or denoted so Bibi took to the internet and discovered it means saw or tool in Spanish.  So the saw implication means jagged peaks of the mountains coupled with white aptly describing what we saw at Sierra Blanca.

We arrived at Hacienda RV & Rally Resort.  It is very nice with paved streets and a super nice clubhouse.  This will be our home for the next week while we take a break from driving and before we move to Tucson for our next stay.  We will explore some of the area sights and report on our adventures in the next posting.

It's Official - We are Full-Timers now!

Instead of waiting for our arrival in Arizona, I decided to post a quick blurb to the blog.  We are officially full-time living in the RV now.  We have left Longview and are on the road.  The last week included multiple preparations and was hectic.  We had numerous goodbyes including a farewell get-together with some of the family wishing us “Happy Trails.”

The weather cooperated nicely and packing up was not too difficult since the temperatures were moderate and no wet stuff falling from the sky.  I can now walk reasonably well and will finish my rehabilitation as we move about the country.

I think both of us are relieved and happy that the day has finally arrived to leave.  It was good to live in the RV before leaving our home base.  This allowed us to tweak the organization of items and more clearly decide what was necessary versus unnecessary.

Now we are at the other grandchildren’s location for a few days and will meet up with David and Sophie early next week.  From there we strike out towards Arizona for February and March.  Who knows after that where we will find ourselves.  Happy Trails to you for now.

It is a New Year and a New Adventure

Oh boy, let the adventure begin!  It is the 7^th of January and we are close to beginning our next chapter in our own book of life.  Two more doctor visits and a quick stop to get the rig inspected for the purpose of registration in the State of Texas and we are on the road again.  We have been living in the RV right next to our former home.  It has been sold and is now owned by our daughter and son-in-law.

We will say our goodbye’s during the next week and bid everyone best wishes till we see them again.  Nervous anticipation and excited nerves have us revved up to get things done.  I cannot believe how much I am getting accomplished in an eight hour day.  I think I have a full load of energy each morning that lasts the entire day.  It is amazing and so different from my 3 months of inactivity and the following 3 months of limited activity after the surgery.  Lots of fun.

The six year old grandsons (especially Shawn) will have a big adjustment to our absence.  Shawn has embraced our living close to him and really enjoys playing with his perpetual playmate, Bibi.  We have tried to prep him for the impending move but he has not really grasped what we are telling him.

 

In order to help the change in their lives and to keep a connection, we have purchased laminated U.S. maps to leave with them.  We will then send postcards and make telephone calls so they can follow our progress on their map using dry erase markers to pinpoint where we are.  We hope this is educational as well as emotionally satisfying for them.

Next week we will leave and make a quick stop to visit with the other grandchildren in Melissa.  We will make the same mapping arrangements with them.  Since they are older, they will get it quickly and there will not be the same learning curve.  After watching each of them play a game with their respective teams, we will move on and catch up with our traveling companions.

We will spend a day or so coordinating our plans and then we will begin the journey towards Arizona.  We will have a couple of weeks of easy traveling before we make our landing in Tucson for a month.  We are using the extra time to allow an easy unrushed move which has built in downtime for sightseeing or waiting out any weather challenges we encounter.  

Next stop is sunny Arizona and the next blog will be posted after our arrival.