Full Circle--home to California

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tombstone, AZ again
Wells Fargo RV Park

Stayed last night at Las Cruces KOA again. Horrible winds—55mph. Even got some sea sickness from all the trailer swaying. The wind blew the off vent cover for the bathroom in the gale. I improvised a cover for the inside of the RV by taking an aluminum 9x13 baking pan, slitting the corners and using duct tape to push it up in the hollow of the vent dome. This was the worst day of driving so far. I had to fight strong winds the whole time and it was exhausting. It was an ugly drive.



Thursday, April 12, 2007
Tombstone, AZ

Second night here at the old Wells Fargo RV Park. The first night was fine but this afternoon a HUMUNGOUS 5th wheel pulled in and by the time they got their pop-outs out, they were practically up against the Minnie! Then the couple left and their dog has barked CONSTANTLY since. On top of that, the wind is blowing so hard—which is why I’m here for a second night—that the levelers got knocked out from under the rig. I still have

motion sickness but couldn’t get a nap because of the barking dog 3 feet from the couch. I finally went and left a note on their door. The wind has actually picked up and is even worse. Their rig is so HUGE that I think it’s blocking my wifi connection. I had a great connection until they pulled in. I feel like I’m going bonkers. All the negativity is flooding back over me and spoiling the good times glow I had been feeling until I left Texas. Was it coming back or has it just been awful weather and travel experience? I don’t have a clue. I just know I’d like to bite someone right now.

I am most annoyed that this place advertises wifi but doesn’t come through with it. Same thing happened at Fort Stockton. They shouldn’t lure people in with promises they can’t keep. It matters so much to me because I’m really enjoying working on the blog and checking in with my cyber friends in chat. I like to check weather for driving, email, communicate, all that stuff and I’m clean cut off here. Can’t leave, can’t call, can’t email and can’t get rid of the neighbors! Claustrophobia sets in fast—and then add sea sick in Tombstone, Arizona, it all sounds ridiculous. I’ll laugh later—not now. Right now I just want to get thru this night and get out of Dodge—I mean Tombstone.

April 13, 2007
Holy Resurrection Monastery
Michael’s 34th birthday

Last night only got worse. I fell asleep on the couch watching the tv. I awoke around 1am because of seasickness. I was trying to get my bearings and realized the wind was really blowing hard. It blew so hard that the levelers gave way and the RV dropped. Then I realized that I was hearing noise on the roof—lots of noise. It was pouring rain. All I could think of was the missing vent cover in the bathroom. I went in and found water leaking past the cake pan stuffed up in the cover. Then I realized that my pajamas were wet—apparently the wind sometime in the night had blown off the vent cover over the bed and the rain was pouring in. The bed was soaked, the covers, the pillows—what a mess. I found some tin foil—cheap and too thin—and the faithful duct tape and went to work improvising a cover. It was hard—the wind kept tearing the cheap foil and I was getting wetter and wetter. I got a lame cover worked out and then pulled out all the towels in the rig and laid them across the bed and put my rain poncho over the whole thing. Then I added the rugs I still had left from Llano and then taped a paper bag over the vent hole. I was freezing, wet and very discouraged. I pulled out the couch into a bed, found one dry pillow and got down my old sleeping bag and curled up in that. I got about 4 hours sleep and by 7am was on the road out of Tombstone. It was cold, very windy and the mountains were dusted with snow!!!

I pulled over into a McDonald’s just outside of Tucson. The gas station wouldn’t work and it was crowded inside. I brought out a hot cup of coffee and my egg cheese McGriddle. I put it down on the couch while I got the coffee in the holder, turned around and there was Byrdie sitting on my McGriddle!!! I shrieked at her. This was turning out to be a very bad day. She still hadn’t had her morning run so when I finally found an empty field on the other side of Tucson I pulled off the freeway to let her run. Not in that field!! Cops, firetruck and coroner were there—dead body in that field. So I got lost in some Podunk place but finally found an abandoned hotel parking lot to let her out in to do her business and work off some of her anxiety.

By this time the weather forecast was for another big wind storm to come in so I decided to make it all the way to California today. What a long drive.

The ocotillo were really blooming this time in Arizona. There was just no opportunity to get off the freeway and get some photos. That really is an

I wonder what I will have learned from this. I suspect not very much—except I really liked the hill country of Texas. When I get home to my own computer I will post more trip photos. I hope you have enjoyed this trip journal and will email me with your comments. Y'all come back now, hear?

Hungry,tired and somethin's nibblin' at mah leaves

Welcome happy morning age to age hath come!

The wind is gone--for now. I went looking for the missing vent cover but it must be in Santa Fe by now. I have decided to stop nourishing the inner redneck because the inner Lady Windemere is demanding attention. Men have no idea what it feels like to suddenly realize that your entire superficial self needs a make-over.

If I'd wanted to rough it on this trip I would have done the sleeping on the ground tent thing. Mah hands look like a field hand's and mah nails look like a grease monkey. I am convinced that RVs are designed to scratch, cut, break nails (then break'em again), bang your head and strain your back. I look around at the paper bag duct taped over the bedroom vent (to keep the light out) and the aluminum baking pan duct taped up into the bathroom vent and all I can think of is that family in Grapes of Wrath. It's just symptomatic that I can't I can't even remember the name of the family--not Jed Clampett, not Henry Fonda--what was their name? Goad? Does it matter? NO.

I didn't bring the right kind of hair conditioner and the 12 volt or whatever curling iron I bought at the RV store wouldn't curl the hair on a poodle. Fortunately I did bring some cute hats to cover the tresses when they go bad but none of them can stay on in the wind. Oh, I tell you, sisters, when things go bad, there's nothing that can help but a day at the beauty parlor. And just go ahead and guess how many beauty parlors there are for women traveling along I-10???

The good news is that I spotted two Starbucks in El Paso--the bad news was that they both were 82 lanes over from my lane and could have been in Mexico for all it mattered.

Today I don't want to do guy things. I don't want to mess with hook-ups and an uncooperative computer and iffy internet. I want to go shopping and get a french manicure and sit in Starbucks and drink coffee with a good friend. Alas and alack--life on the road is having some drawbacks.

I am going to head off today without posting a flight plan. I don't like I-10 so I think I will just go somewhere else. As long as the Navigator shows north or west it ought to work out okay. When I get tired, I will stop. I never want to have another day like yesterday!!

More later if and when I find a place with wifi and no wind!

How windy was it?????

Las Cruces, New Mexico
AGAIN!!

(Psst--they're watching us)

This was the worst travel day so far! (HOW BAD WAS IT????) It was so bad that I didn't even take one picture. Now that is bad! The wind has blown without ceasing since arriving at Fort Stockton. Being trapped in an RV that is shaking from the wind with a dog who can't be let out to run while fighting every truck on I-10 through El Paso and fighting to see through the dust and stay in my own lane--this was a brutal day of driving. The vent cover in the bathroom blew off somewhere along the way--and I'd checked them too! Once again duct tape holds the entire world together. I can't control opening the side door so I have to use the driver door to get in and out.

(Too windy to play ball? Sometimes life stinks)

I'm in Las Cruces and just heard that the wind is blowing steadily at around 55 mph. Even with the levelers down I feel a tad seasick from the constant motion. Getting the online connection was ridiculously difficult.

Enought of the complaining. Let me relive some of the good times in Llano. For Easter dinner we went to Cooper's Barbeque--home of the best barbeque in Texas! Now, for my veegan or vaygan friends, you don't want to see this next picture! People line up outside and around the building to get a tray full of every kind of meat that you could want being grilled outside the door. I've never seen anything of that magnitude. And the big slabs of meat just keep coming to be thrown on the coals. You get the side dishes inside--superb--but I liked the cobbler the best!!! What a feast!

All we like Meat!!!

The drive yesterday was wonderful as I left the Texas hill country. I took so many pictures and will just end today by posting some of them. Here are the pics I tried to post yesterday. Enjoy!

(you don't scare me lady. )

Boneyard in Art, Texas

Oh look!

Democrats!

This is NOT where I am now.

Lleaving Llano

Gray, overcast and cold--just the way I'm feeling as today I start the long trek back to California. This has been the nicest little town there could be. Good-bye JoAnn who keeps the park where I lived so beautiful. I hope that rosebush is full of blooms by next week. Good-bye radio station KBAY that played the best country/western music I've heard. Good-bye all you nice people at Holy Trinity Catholic Church and the Llano Art Gallery. Good-bye "turkey" at the Acme cafe. Good-bye Super S Grocery that let me park in the parking lot so I could get wifi. And thank you to the nice folks at the llano Llibrary for letting me set up my 'puter and use their internet connection so I could keep up on this blog. Next time I hope to meet Doodles and LaVerne.

I'll miss Don and Sylvia. What a jump to last see someone as teenagers and then get reaquainted as senior citizens! You have such cute kitties and take such good care of Jake. Jake has a spinal cord injury so they have to move him and prop him up to eat and then put him on his "tinkle towel" when he has to do those other functions. The hummingbirds will sit on Don's hands and eat out of the feeders he has to fill up everyday.

There must be at least two dozen birds that elbow each other for a spot at the "bar"!

The drive back to California seems very long right now. The goal today is to make Fort Stockton, Texas. Wish me well and an uneventful day's travel.

Made it to Fort Stockton, Texas. The drive along the back roads before having to get back on the Interstate is so beautiful. Old cemeteries with blue bonnet-covered graves; a real buffalo who was cooperative about posing; a tree that had caught on fire. Right now the weather is the usual thunder, lightning and wild wind. I really hate to say good-bye to Texas.

Arrived at the Fort Stockton KOA and survived another storm. This is the worst KOA I've stayed at so far: no cable, hit and miss wireless--mostly miss--and just 2 snowy tv stations. That means I missed an episode of "24" so I didn't get my Jack Bauer fix for the week. I'll just post some of the pics I was able to shoot yesterday. It was a great day for pictures.

A Phd in D.U.M.B.

I got out of Van Horn just before noon which was early by California time but under the wire by Texas time. I got off the I-10 as soon as I could so I could take advantage of slower speeds and more photo ops. The land was beginning to look familiar compared to my childhood memories. Finally there were some trees and hills to break the monotony of the flatlands. By the time I crossed the Pecos River--another dream image bites the dust(Pecos Trickle was more like it)--there were even scrub pinons growing. The ground is covered with wild flowers and those beautiful blooming Mojave yuccas.












Probably the funniest berg I drove through was Iraan, Texas. I bet the local teams have a hard time on Friday nights. On the back roads the simple lifestyle is more up close and personal.

I think of the hard life my dad and his dad before him had trying to make a living on rocky, prickly-pear infested land. They knew what it meant to have nothing. I had hours to think of the strange twists of life that resulted in me being where I am now compared to just two generations ago. My dad graduated early from high school in Dublin, Texas, to join the Marine Corps.

That was his only realistic way of getting off the farm--a farm that wasn't supporting the family. There must have been young men from farms all over suddenly scattered to military posts across the country--and then sent overseas for World War II. Because of that huge global upheaval, the biggest--certainly not the greatest--generation(Boomers) grew up in a degree of prosperity our grandparents could not even imagine. My Texas grandparents didn't even get indoor plumbing until the Sixties! Perhaps that is why I can drive through the land that generations of my family farmed and feel nothing. I can't relate. I don't even know if that is a good thing or not. It might as well have been centuries ago rather than 2 generations. Did my dad go to a school that looked like this one? Just ghosts are left behind that we Boomers can't even guess at.














I have been on the road for one week now. One week since I last saw a Starbucks (in Barstow). Radio stations are few and far between. I've managed to catch just bits of Rush but there is no scarcity of Bible preachers and Mexican stations. Has anyone done any studies to find out if Mexican disc jockeys have more high blood pressure and heart attacks than other groups? This one man was nearly apoplectic in his announcing. I did get to listen to a show about financial advice. The host had a great expression: (in reference to a mother) "She's just a travel agent for a guilt trip!" He was also fond of reminding his listeners that he'd gotten his Phd in D.U.M.B. It helped the time go quickly.

I tried to get an ice cream cone at the Dairy Queen in Big Lake but the water main for the town had broken. I'm still not quite sure why that meant no one could get ice cream but the entire town of 800 was closing up. No business could get done.

San Angelo is a real pretty town. I'm staying next to one of their lakes where Byrdie immediately took a dip. She loved the swimming. She's been a great traveler and it was fun to see her in her element instead of riding shotgun in the RV.















Tomorrow is the final destination of Llano. I will be so glad to see family and get some rest in one place for awhile.

Don't Mess With Texas

March 28, 2007
Van Horn, Texas

After 5 days on the trip, I finally crossed over into Texas!!! Texas also has a sign encouraging motorists to "Drive Friendly--it's the Texas Way!" Notice the lack of 'please' and the reference to Texans defining their own way of doing things--which may or may not be the way y'all were used to doing things where y'all came from but from now on, y'all will be doing things the 'Texas way' or suffer the consequences!

The welcoming center had a great welcome packet with 2 "Don't Mess With Texas" bumper stickers. All free! One of the first things I noticed is how much the landscape reminded me of creamed peas--and then I remember having had the same association when I was a child making the trips to Texas back in the days of the old Route 66.It's the combination of white/beige grass with dots of small green bushes going on forever.




There are odd road signs in New Mexico and Texas that put me into a different time/space continuum. They read:

Dust Storms May Exist
Zero Visibility Possible

The way my brain is put together means that I’m immediately reflecting on what “may exist” means. Does it mean they exist in a different parallel universe? Can they exist to some but not to others? Are the dust storms subjective? Are they referring to all possible dust storms on the planet or just to this particular stretch of I-10? AND—if and when they exist in my world, zero visibility is possible but not required? A dust storm with great visibility? What does it all mean??? Twilight Zone!!!! Going into serious Alpha wave time!!!

As if to explain about dust storms, existential or otherwise,the wind began howling last night in Las Cruces, shaking the rig so hard I could hardly sleep. It has continued all day making driving more stressful. In Texas, the speed limit during the day for cars is 80 mph!! I just set the speed control at 64 mph and try to keep in the slow lane. The hardest part about traveling on Interstates is that there is not the opportunity to pull over and snap pictures when I see something interesting. The Mojave Yucca is all over the place and they are just beginning to bloom. The desert here seems very similar to the Mojave in California. The dirt is redder and there is a tad more green grass in the Spring but still, very similar. The Rio Grande was disappointing. It was so small--similar to crossing the Colorado at Blythe. But after driving through all this arid country it's nice to see rivers running through it.

Tonight I'm staying in the very small Texas town of Van Horn. The people at the RV park are so nice and friendly. They wanted to see Byrdie and thought she was something else--Texas speak for "only in California, I suppose." Dinner was served at 5:30pm and it was wonderful to have such familiar cooking: fried chicken, lots of mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans cooked at least 4 hours and big slices of bread. What a relief not to have to eat a salad or choose a soup. The wine was $3 a glass for the local label but I opted for good ol' iced tea. What a meal!

The wind is still blowing so hard I worry that the rig might tip over. My mind knows that isn't likely but it's noisey and I wonder how the German man traveling on a motorcycle and camping in a tent is doing.



Tomorrow, onwards through Texas all the way to San Angelo!