7 Degree night

No, not for us.  I was chatting with a RV friend in the Albuquerque, NM area and that is the forecast for them tonight.  I don't think our motor home could survive anything that cold unless we drained all the water and winterized the unit.  We don't have a good enough furnace to heat the basement area and I don't think the unit was designed for that.  I wish Karen & Russell well and hope it warms up soon for them.

The cold and lousy weather is all over the Southwest this December and it seems to be an unusual event according to reports.  I wonder if this is a part of the Global Warming that we have to be concerned about.  I think the weather is changing, but it doesn't look like it is headed for warmer weather.  The winds have been terrible in the SW already this year with 90mph winds in Los Angeles.   That is something else I like to avoid in the MH.   South Florida is looking better and better for next year.  

We joined Herb & Judy and Paul & Susan at the Spring Creek BBQ restaurant for dinner tonight.  The restaurant donates 20% of the check to their church so we are going to do our part to help out. We enjoyed the meal very much and also the company.  The two Pastors of the church was walking around passing out warm rolls that were very tasty.  We were too full to have any dessert so we made it an early evening.


When we walked out of the restaurant it felt like old man winter snuck up on us.  It was very damp and cold and I think this may be a cold night.  The furnace is running along with the electric heater so we should be in good shape.

Weather Delay

We had plans to leave here on Monday, however the weather down the road doesn't look too good for MH travel.  Windy and cold on tap for the next two days, so we decided to hang around here until Wednesday and strike out for Van Horn, TX and spend the night there.  From there we hope to drive to Willcox, AZ and stop for the night.  We can avoid 30-40 mph winds on Tuesday and temps down around 13 at night.

We joined Judy & Herb for brunch today at their house and had a nice meal and great company.  The girls left for some important shopping and Herb and I watched some football and chatted nonstop on a variety of subjects.  We almost solved all the world problems before the girls came home.  I got by easy today on purchases by Gerry.  Whew!!

We left early enough to watch The Amazing Race and take it easy this evening.  It has been raining all day and cooled off a lot so there isn't much incentive to go out in this weather.  

Quiet day visiting friends. 

Visit with Nephew and family

Gerry's nephew Jerry and family came by today for a visit.  They have two beautiful daughters, Kayleen & Kaitlyn who were a pleasure to talk to.  It is nice to see such well behaved and nice children.  Jerry and Rose are doing a great job of raising them to be nice young ladies.

We visited with them in the motor home for most of the afternoon and caught up on a lot of family matters.  Jerry works for a radio station and has been in the business for a number of years.  Rose works for a Televangelical Ministry and loves her work.  It was great seeing them again since it was in 2007 that we last saw them.   We hope it isn't that long before we see them again.

We had made plans to go over to Judy & Herbs house for dinner and had a nice time.  Herb fixed some brats on the grill and sauerkraut and we brought coleslaw and potato salad to complement the meal.  We all managed to stuff ourselves and had to sit a while to let the food find all the small places in our stomachs.  Whew.  We were almost too full to eat dessert, but we managed to finish it off.

Later on Cassie and I chatted on the internet for an hour or so and I finally hit the hay around midnight.   

Watching the weather & Tiger Direct

We had planned on departing Arlington, TX on Monday and head west on I-20 toward El Paso, TX.   The weather forecast has me thinking that might not be a good idea.  They are calling for ice pellets and cold weather along the way.  I am not sure what ice pellets are, but I don't think it is a good thing to be in driving a motor home.  We will have to keep a close watch on the weather to see what develops in the next couple days.

I was talking to my brother who is in Amarillo this afternoon heading for Las Vegas, NV and he has some bad weather ahead of him.  I-40 has ice on spots, snow in others and bad weather advisories in other places in New Mexico and Arizona.  It is going to be dicey for him traveling in that weather.  Hope he stays safe and pulls off the road if it gets too bad.  A tractor trailer truck with 48,000 lbs on the trailer isn't that good of a snowmobile.

Gerry and Judy went shopping this morning and we met for lunch and they continued shopping after that.  It is now 5pm and they are still out shopping.  I gave her an extra $5 to spend this morning and I think it may be gone along with a few more $5 bills.  I am almost afraid to see what this little shopping trip is going to cost me.  

Herb and I went shopping at Compuserve USA which is part of Tiger Direct and I picked up a USB docking station for my PC.  It will read either 2.5" or 3.5" hard drives and I have one of each with me.  They both came from PCs and I tried to buy a case for each to make them external drives, but the cost of the cases was more expensive than the docking station.  I tried it out and it worked like a charm.  My friend Mann bought one last spring and I tried his out on my computer and was impressed how well it worked.

It sounds like our friends in Tucson are having some bad weather with wind, rain and cold weather.  I guess it isn't that important to get there to join them in those conditions.  I checked the road conditions on the New Mexico DOT and they had an advisory for I-10 around Lordsburg, NM.  Ouch!   We have to travel that road in a few days and I hope the bad weather doesn't linger in the area.

Treetops RV Resort - Arlington, TX

It was an interesting night in Shreveport, LA at the RV park with the trains running, dogs barking, police sirens and street noise.  It is a well laid out park with concrete parking, picnic table, wifi,  and cable tv.  Lots of good points, but the noise out ways them.  I don't think we will be stopping there again soon.

It was an easy 210 mile drive to Arlington and we saw a lot of burned out pine trees along the side of the road for miles.  I guess it is a result of the fires they had here last summer.  Some of the trees were burnt right up to trailer parks and homes along the way.  It must have been a frightening time for those living close to the fires.

We arrived at the Treetops RV park without any incidents or problems.  That isn't always the case when you drive I-20 south of Dallas and Arlington.  In the past we have run across some very aggressive and reckless drivers in the area.  Today was a piece of cake.  The price of a site here has gone up considerably since we were here last and we only stopped here because of the 50% discount for one day because of Passport America.  If they give you that discount, they won't honor any other discounts for the remaining days of your stay here.  Looks like the local county park will be our choice next visit.

We are getting ready to go over to Judy & Herb's house for dinner and to visit with them.  We haven't seen them since last March when we visited with them in their Ruidoso, NM home.  Nice to have wealthy friends who can afford two homes.