February 2017 - Westward HO and Away We Go

February started off as January ended, barely…. as we had just arrived back at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe in Texas on the 31^st of January. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5901558540140544.

Did I mention that when we arrived back from our cruise Susan and I were very sick and remained this way for a couple weeks? We later found out that MANY people on the ship had gotten the same illness which we are pretty sure was a strain of the flu. We did eventually recover but not before we both ended up at the doctor due to this “flu” turning into sinus/respiratory infections so antibiotics were in order.

We enjoyed some pretty nice weather except for the occasional late winter/early spring thunderstorm. But this camp was soon for the end as we were gearing up for our spring migration. We weren’t 100% sure where we were headed, but we had been planning to head to the Pacific North West for the summer; however, Susan and I both had medical appointments to finish up before we left the area AND as is always the case with one of these big rigs we had a couple issues to repair, like the toilet and the #2 A/C unit, so our time was pretty busy.
We couldn’t have left though without our good friends, Leon and Anita Kirby bringing their rig over to Lake Conroe and enjoying some good cornhole (beanbag toss) games. Leon also held one of his famous fish fries before we left – delicious!
Finally the month was half over and it was time Susan and I headed out. Away we went with a few planned stops for fun and exploration along the way to our now finalized destination for this part of our trip to end in Chandler, Az and the FMCA International Rally in March.

For the first leg of our journey we  headed to Davis Mountain State Park and Fort Davis, TX. Susan typically doesn’t let me drive more than a couple hundred miles per day, but on this day she allowed me to open it up a bit and we went a whole 350 miles….lol! We always try to adhere to the 2+2+2 rule at a minimum (no more than 200 miles, arrive no later than 2 PM and stay no less than 2 days). We missed the miles a bit, but everything else was met.

North Llano River RV Park - roomy

We finished up our first day by arriving in Junction, TX at the North Llano River RV Park ttp://www.junctionnorthllanoriverrvpark.com/.  I must say, this little park was pretty nice. The sites were plenty big, right on the river and most all sites had patios and a gazebo. You typically don’t find that much in our price range, so it was a very pleasant change.  We really enjoyed this park, and the people were very friendly and very military supportive. Did I mention I was able to impress my wife with my rock skipping abilities while here? It’s the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.

I just like this picture

It was only a few miles from our campground to the South Llano River State Park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/south-llano-river. The park provided a brochure on the history of the park about how the land was donated by Walter Buck. We tried to find a good link that shared this history as the TPWD link does not say much and we feel it is important to remember the contributions of those who have gone before us. The following link does not give the whole of the story but does add a bit to the history provided by the TPWD link http://www.work5hop.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?flag=article&article_pk=10000008.

Stop two again found us exceeding the 200 mile rule, but only by 88 so it wasn’t bad. We pulled into Davis Mountain State Park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/davis-mountains and found our site. They put us in a nice large site with a covered picnic table and plenty of room. This place was awesome and the scenery, landscape and temps easily exceeded our imagination. Unfortunately we only had three nights here but we filled the days completely full with adventure.

If you haven’t kept up, or don’t remember, Susan works part time from the motorhome and requires internet. Davis Mountain State Park had none…lol 😊 Well let me rephrase, they had internet and phone signal at the top of a mountain behind the campsite. So daily we would take truck trips up the mountain to the parking area on top where we would park beside all the other people seeking the signals from the skies..lol Susan would turn the truck into her mobile office. I would isolate myself on said mountain to give her privacy and surf the internet, stir the Facebook pot and search for coach parts, it was fun.

Fort Davis National Historic Site - View of Officer Row

During our stay we visited the old Fort Davis National Historic Site  https://www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/fort-davis-national-historic-site which was very cool (we both love that kind of stuff). It was a quiet day at Fort Davis and there was only a handful of people around which allowed us to take our time and not worry about anyone trying to hurry us along as we read from the information kiosks. One can only imagine what life in the military was like back then but I'm sure it was not an easy assignment for enlisted men. Susan is pretty sure the officers "had it made" and likely completed little of the manual labor but rather provided supervision over enlisted personnel without breaking much of a sweat. Regardless, they all lived a hard life that not many of us today would choose to try. 

We also took a trip to Alpine, TX where we found probably the most interesting Ace Hardware Store you will ever see. Thank you Rusty and Leon for the tip on its existence and location. It is hard to find a parts store in the middle of nowhere but as is always the case, I had a small project that needed to be attended to and needed parts.

If you know me at all, you know that I will look for about any excuse for a motorcycle ride and a day of nice weather is really all the excuse that is ever needed. Susan and I took a beautiful motorcycle ride through mountains and desert surrounding the area of Fort Davis. There was very little traffic along the way and we were the only vehicle on the road most of the day. Much of the land was set up as open range which did require me to be on the look out for cattle guards in the middle of the

highway - it really is a good idea to slow down for them, especially when riding on two wheels. Roadside parks were all over so we did avail ourselves to the use of one for a hydration break and a granola. Susan knows me well and generally packs a small cooler even if I tell her it will be a short ride. Short has been known to take five or six hours.  Along the way we passed a gentleman who had his easel set up in the grass just off of the side of the road. We didn't get a look at his painting but there was a magnificent set of mountains that likely were the main subject matter for his artistic inspiration. We finished off our ride by heading to the top of a another mountain where we found, not by accident, the McDonald Observatory http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/. Our timing did not allow us to attend one of their evening presentations and while Susan has an interest in astronomy she is not much into viewing solar displays. So we rode around a bit and explored the visitor’s center but did not actually go into the observatory. This was a cool place to see and I know if we are in the area again Susan is going to insist we attend an evening of stargazing there!

Stop number three took us to the “Original Escapees Ranch” http://skpranch.com/index.htm in Lakewood, NM. It is actually located about 25 miles north of Carlsbad, NM. Finally, we were able to adhere to our 2+2+2, which was good because our drive day found us in heavy 40+ MPH sustained and 60+ MPH gusting side winds the whole day of travel and high wind warnings when we arrived in our camp site. We made it, but it was an interesting drive with the periodic brown outs from blowing sand. We found the park clean, inviting, and the people were some of the friendliest people I think we have ever met and we will certainly go there again.

We didn’t have much planned for this stop over except to see Carlsbad Caverns https://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/index.htm and I must say, it was breathtaking. Susan and I chose to do the walk in as I was able to walk that day, and we were sooo glad we did!!! If you are not into caving, it may not be for you but to Susan and I there is just something awe inspiring about exploring caves and seeing all the various formations that nature has made over thousands of years. Words really cannot explain or express the magnitude of what saw during the hours we spent spelunking. The caverns are huge and even if you are not able to make the trek from the top, there is still so much to see - they have an elevator that can be taken down 79 stories and once you are down the terrain is fairly level and easy going. If you have the chance, GO! 

Carlsbad Caverns is worth the trip - that’s all we can say.

Stop four was just a short 145 mile hop with a one night stop over to help break the long drive the next day. “This will be easy,” I remember telling Susan those always famous last words …lol! We have a new RV GPS that warns us of roads that do not meet our height, weight or length requirements and it will not route us on those roads. But hey, it’s a device that doesn’t always know and I saw a road I wanted to go on. It got interesting when only a couple miles into it we continued to see signs that said ridiculous things such as “weight limit 11Tons”, and then another that said “length limit 60 feet”. Oh, and one that said “7% grade next 15 miles”….lol Susan looked at me and said

something to the effect of “Uhhhh, should we be on this road?”,  followed by, “How heavy and long are we?”…..lol, I believe she was a bit uncomfortable but I had to be truthful and tell her we are 26 tons and about 70’ long… I’m not sure she found much comfort in my words as she made a post on Facebook “just in case”

It ended up being fine just as I figured it would. We got to drive to an elevation of 10,000 feet, saw snow, elk crossing signs and 15 miles of 7% grade with a ton of curves. Then just like that, the ride was over, the brakes were hot but nowhere near danger hot as I had been using the engine brake mostly (Susan pointed out that she could smell them and she could) and next thing you know we were at our stop in Alamogordo, NM at Edgington Garden RV Park http://www.edgingtonrvpark.com/. This was just a little park, basically a big parking lot, but clean, cheap and friendly. They accepted Passport America so the nightly rate was hard to beat and we just needed an overnight for this stop. As we left Alamogordo we drove by the White Sands Missile Base and the White Sands National Monument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_National_Monument. Both of which were pretty neat.

White Sands at 4,200 feet 40 miles away from the snow.

Photo copied from Yahoo 

Stop number five, our final stop for February, took us another 300 miles to Benson, AZ and Valley Vista RV Park (can book at RPI or as Encore park) http://www3.resortparks.com/xap/nwb/MR010?resort=773. Again we found a nice park with sites that were plenty big and people that were very friendly. We did have to fudge the length of our coach as they had a 43’ length limit but hey, if you can fit 43’, you can fit 45’, right? Right! ……..oh and they had a BIG hot tub and pool, gotta make momma happy.

Benson is a neat little town and only about 25 miles from Tombstone, AZ. Nope we didn’t make it there as much as we wanted to. The day we had planned to go was forecast for heavy thunderstorms all day, of which we got NONE. However, the clouds in the surrounding areas indicated that some places did get hit pretty hard and our friends even messaged us to make sure the rains would not delay our plans or hold us up. We really didn’t do much except visit the hot tub and spend time getting to know fellow campers. We even ran into a couple who were actually camped next to us at Lake Texoma, TX last August. You never know who you are going to run into out here on the road…lol. All in all it ended up being a nice stop and we enjoyed it, but it was again time to move on as we had Quartzite, AZ in our sites. But you can’t hear about that until next month….