We have continued our westward journey this past week. We spent a few days in the San Antonio area where we visited a few of our favorite haunts ... meaning places we like ...that usually have really good food. Let’s see now ... in about 4 days we had Cooper’s BBQ twice (in New Braunfels), Bill’s BBQ once (in Kerrville), and Mexican food and Margaritas at the Original on the Riverwalk once. Imagine what we could accomplish with more time! Well there still is the trip home.
We met up with our RV buddy Rod Kendall on one of our trips to Cooper’s and had a nice visit. As many of you know, we all lost Rod’s wife and all around great person Debbie Kendall several months back ... and we sure missed laughing with her on this trip ... but we enjoyed our time with Rod for sure ... and took a little time to celebrate Debbie as well.
We stayed north of San Antonio in New Braunfels for 3 days and then traveled about 90 miles west to Kerrville for one night before heading out on our trip across West Texas. As we usually do, we stopped for an overnight in Fort Stockton, TX and then finished our westward Texas trip the next day making it across the Texas-New Mexico border to the little town of Anthony, NM.
We have some dear family friends in El Paso who just happen to drive north into New Mexico every Saturday for some fantastic authentic Mexican Food at a very small cafe in the little town of La Mesa, NM ... Chopes. And it just happened to be Saturday. And we just happened to be hungry ... so Chopes it was for us as well! Other folks must know about this place as well ... it was really busy ... the food was great ... and the visit with Reed and Sandy was great too. It remains the only place I have seen where you can get a triple Chile Relleno plate for $9 and change! As my friend Arnold would say ... “I’ll be back!”
We headed further west on Sunday ... through the high desert of southern New Mexico and into the high desert of south eastern Arizona to here in Willcox, AZ. Willcox, AZ is a small community along I-10 that I doubt many folks stop to see. It is a typical southwestern town that probably saw its heyday many years ago - but still has its claims to fame. Like being home to Rex Allen “The Last of the Singing Cowboys.” Or how about home to the Marty Robbins Museum? Or perhaps just an interesting place too stay while taking an afternoon to drive about 40 miles south to what appears to be the middle of nowhere to visit the Chiricahua National Monument.
Peggy and I spent a few hours visiting this natural wonder nestled in the Chiricahua Mountains - ancestral home to the fierce Chiricahua Apache people. It was a bit chilly and windy during our visit but we still enjoyed getting out and viewing the amazing pinnacle rock structures left behind after ancient volcanic eruptions and thousands of years of erosion.
Peggy has the better pictures on her phone ... with me you kinda get the random photos!
Today we move on to our first somewhat long stay (a whole week) here in Arizona ... right at the edge of the Sonoran Desert just outside Tucson.
Just about 3 weeks and 3,300 miles behind us ... A few Western Leg statistics:
Distance Traveled: About 3,300 miles
Fuel Mileage: About 9 mpg (and about 0.4 mpg less that our previous avg. ... I blame it on towing the Colorado - about 800 pounds heavier than the Fusion I figure).
Traveled through 18 states (a few were only corners of a state ... but I counted them anyway!)
Stayed overnight in 13 spots - Two “new” ones for us ... Tristate RV Park in Matamoras, PA and Grande View RV Park here in Willcox, AZ.
Cheapest Diesel Fuel ... Orange, TX @ $2.68/gallon
Most Expensive Diesel Fuel ... Port Jervis, NJ @ $3.46/gallon (one of those corners of a state)
Enough of all that ... time to get back on the road for another 90 or so miles.
See ya in Tucson!
This morning the Maineiacs find ourselves in Brookshire, TX - just West of Houston along I-10. We are staying in an RV Park that we have stayed in before ... but many years ago. But let me back up a little ...
We finished our trip down I-81 and into Tennessee some 10 days ago and we spent a few days relaxing and visiting with friends Darrell and Judy Patterson and we also got in a nice visit with Gene and Judi Curp who braved the line of thunderstorms between Crossville and Maryville and drove over for a few hour visit. It’s always great to visit with good friends along our travel path and our visit to Crossville was no exception.
We finished up our trip south last week and arrived in Summerdale, AL at the Rainbow Plantation Escapee Park on Tuesday. Since it was Tuesday that meant it was dinner at the Clubhouse day so we met up with more friends for some swamp soup and loaded baked potato cooked by Chef Karen and served by her host of kitchen volunteers. It was great visiting with Norm and Linda Payne and seeing the great progress Norm has made in recovering from a stroke he had a few months back!
Those of you following our travels on Facebook already know that although our time in Summerdale was short - we managed to eat well. In only 4 days we ate at the Clubhouse for 2 meals, ate out for a Mexican Dinner with Norm and Linda one night, had our normal family style buffet dinner with Norm. Linda, and Don and Gloria Martin on our final night ... and also managed to eat out for lunch all three days ... twice for shrimp at Big Daddy’s Grill and once for more shrimp and swamp soup at the Fish River Grill. Whew ... that’s a lot of good eating and visiting in such a short visit! Perhaps we will stop by again on our way back home to hit the spots we missed this time!
We left Summerdale last Saturday and drove through some pretty intense rain squalls but made it to near Lafayette, LA where we pulled in just as the major thunderstorm line was coming through. Great timing as we were off the road and high and dry as the storm moved on East.
As the storm moved through it pulled down the really frigid air from the Midwest and we drove through some pretty decent winds yesterday and temps back in the 50s with the low last night back into the 40s. I may have had to shift back to long pants but I am hopeful for a warming trend as we head further west.
Today we will have another travel day ... but a short one ... as we head towards our mid-Texas rest stop in New Braunfels ... just a bit north and east of San Antonio. We plan on staying in the San Antonio area for a few days ... relaxing in the Hill Country ... more visiting with RV friends ... and perhaps a meal or two of some great Texas BBQ!
Thanks for checking in with us ... see ya further on down the western trail.
So ... We did get the snow cleared off Winne, got all our Stuff loaded and we did hit the road yesterday morning around 7:30 AM. The temp was around 20 degrees and the skies were relatively cloudy but no snow in our future.
After watching the weather forecasts for the past several days - we decided to avoid the Tuesday night snow forecast for the Mohegan Sun area of CT and continue our trip further inland to hopefully avoid the snow. We traveled down I295 through Portland where we picked up I95 to continue our trek through Maine, then New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts before heading around Boston on I495 and then further southeast on I-84. We finished off Connecticut on I-84 and then a short stretch of NY, even a tiny corner of New Jersey, before finally landing in eastern PA along I-84 in Port Jervis, PA ... a long day and some 360 or so miles later.
Temps in Port Jervis last night got down into the mid teens but we were able to stay nice and warm in Winne using our electric Fireplace, an electric space heater in the basement area, and our propane furnace.
For some unknown crazy reason we awoke early this morning and since we were awake anyway ... we finished our normal morning routines and then hit the road again - heading east on I84 - right around 8 AM.
Today was a much more challenging travel day. As we traveled in the Northest through the Pocono Mountains east of Scranton, PA it started snowing ... just enough to keep things “interesting.” Things got even more interesting after we passed a snowplow/dump truck that was “brine-ing” the road surface. Whatever was in that brine solution got all over our windshield — then was smeared around by our wipers and would not come off no matter how much wiper fluid was applied! Not having much choice - we drove through the falling snow with limited visibility for the next 30 or so miles ... not fun at all!
The weather improved slightly once we traveled south of Wilkes Barre, PA ... and we finally found a rest stop where we could clean that Yukky windshield ... so things were looking up!
Then we hit several stretches of snow squalls that brought in whiteout conditions for short stretches — to be followed by sunny skies and then 20 mph winds, Weird conditions to say the least!
But we and Winne survived it all and we pulled in here in Winchester, VA around 3PM ... another 300 miles behind us!
It looks like it is going to get down into the teens again tonight — so it will be another night of keeping the heaters doing their job(s).
Tomorrow we plan on heading further south along I-81 and hope to land near Ft Chiswell, VA — where we are looking forward to lows in the high 30s and highs in the 50s. No short pants yet ... but looking better!
So that’s the way it is tonight here on the road in northern Virginia. The Maineiacs are doing fine, staying warm, and looking forward to getting Winne and the Colorado clean again soon!
