Quiet day

It was a quiet day here at CCRV and we straightened up the MH a bit and settled in.   Our personal paper delivery person (Ron) stopped by with the paper and visited for a while.  He finally had to get going and do some chores.  It was nice chatting with him and getting caught up on some things going on around here.

They had a spaghetti dinner at the Rec center tonight and Ron K joined us for the dinner.  For some reason the attendance was way down from past years and less than half of the hall was filled up.  It was a more relaxed meal and people actually stayed around after the meal and socialized for a while.  In the past as soon as the dinner was served, everyone was shooed out of the center and they cleaned the tables and turned off the lights.  Much better this year.

It was another bright and sunny day here with a high in the upper 60s or low 70s.  Just about perfect weather for this time of the year.  It's around 10pm and we don't have the heat on yet, so that is great also.

I had the Kentucky-Indiana basketball game on TV and was halfway watching it.  Indiana had a large lead and Kentucky came back and went ahead by a point with 6 seconds to go.  Indiana didn't have a timeout and rushed the ball up court and made a 3 point shot with about .4 seconds left on the clock.  Time expired with the shot and they won by 1 point.  What a finish to a great game.  I love how excited and into the game the fans and players get in a college game.  

I worked for the Navy for 9 years and root for Navy in the Army-Navy football game.  Navy won again for the 10th straight year in a close game.  I feel sorry for Army losing all those games but they were good sports in the end.   

So much for the sports wrap up.

Cactus Country RV Resort

We left South Mountain, PA on November 8th to begin our trip out here to Tucson.  We had stops along the way in Concord, NC to visit with family and Arlington, TX to visit with friends.  It has been a 2500 mile drive through rain, snow, sleet, high winds and nice weather.  It was a great ride and we are glad to be here in Tucson.

Friends Ron & Dee greeted us while we were signing in, Cousin Al stopped by for a visit and the Ron K visited for a while.  Then Judy and Steve stopped by to catch up on events in our lives and fill us in on what they have been doing since last spring.  We chatted with Dan & Kim for a while in the office and are now fully hooked up, TV going, free wifi, on our old spot and life is good.

It was sunny and warm today and a welcome relief from the weather the past week or so.  I am sitting next to an open window typing this at 8pm and it is very comfortable.  Cold weather is on the way as expected, but nice now. 

Oh, Dee reminded me that the paper boy left today's paper on our picnic table.  Now that is what I call service beyond the call of duty.  Thanks, I am reading the paper now.

Moving West

It was colder last night than any other night on this trip.  Van Horn is higher up than you would think and it does get very cold.  We woke up this morning to a frozen hose and water spigot.  I knew it was going to be cold and should have disconnected the water hose, but laziness prevented me from doing it.  As they say, "no harm, no foul" and I was able to disconnect the hose.  The spigot thawed out about the time we were leaving.

It was another long day and we drove 390 miles, but it was a relatively easy day.  There wasn't much wind, so that was good and traffic was light once we got through El Paso.   There was a lot of snow along the roadside until we were about 80 miles west of Las Cruces.  They must have had a lot of snow there the past week or so.
 
We managed to purchase gas for $2.929/gallon at the FlyingJ in El Paso.  They have the RV island in a strange place and I drove past it and had to turn around in the truck parking lot.  We took on 65 gallons at a cost of $192.45.  How would you like to fill up your vehicle a couple times a week at that cost?  That was enough gas to get us all the way to Tucson and have some leftover.

We are stopped for the night in Benson, AZ and will go into Tucson on Friday morning. 

Pearl Harbor & Van Horn, TX

It was 70 years ago that Japan pulled off their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and pushed the U.S. into WWII.  As everyone knows there were around 2400 casualties that day along with a number of ships sunk.  They didn't bomb the oil storage tanks or the drydocks where the ships were eventually repaired and that was a big mistake for them.  They also bombed on a Sunday morning and many of the servicemen were on shore leave and didn't perish with those on duty. 

When I worked for the Naval ASW Data Center I went on a TDY to Hawaii and was working on Ford Island which was in the center of the action in 1941.  The movie Tora Tora was being shot in the area at that time and we could see Japanese Zero aircraft flying all over the place.  It sure gave me a funny feeling to see them shoot the film.

We left Arlington today at 9am after all the traffic had cleared up on the interstate and had clear sailing to Van Horn, TX.   The living room slide topper had a ton of ice on it and it fell off when we brought the slide in.  It was quite cold last night and must have gotten down to around 22-24 degrees.  I did turn off the water and disconnected the hose to keep it from freezing. 

We drove 493 miles in 8 1/2 hours and had an easy time of it.  There isn't much traffic on I-20 west of Ft Worth, however it is a long boring drive without much interesting scenery.  

We arrived here in Van Horn around 630 pm and got setup and ordered two dinners from the cafe here at the KOA.  We stopped here last fall and appreciated having a meal prepared for us after a long drive.

The only interesting thing that happened today was seeing the Davis Mountains covered in snow and climbing to over 4300 ft on I-10.  See, we do live an exciting life.

Early to bed tonight and leave in the morning for Benson, AZ.  We like to stop there and catch our breath before arriving at CCRV.  We are looking forward to seeing all you guys & dolls sometime Friday.  

Brrrrrrrr - it's cold out there

It looks like we overstayed our welcome here in Arlington, TX.  The price of gas at Costco went up 10 cents a gallon and it has turned very cold.  The forecast for tonight is around 27 degrees and it was 31 degrees and windy at 5pm.  We are fine and I will disconnect the water hose before we go to bed tonight and just use the water in the fresh water tank.  

We had a late lunch with Judy and Herb and she fixed a pork roast for the lunch, along with scallop potatoes and scallop corn.  The beer batter bread she baked was extremely good and I could have just eaten it as a meal.  It was a very nice feast and we were just expecting some ham sandwiches.   I think we will move in with them and enjoy her cooking.

After lunch we visited some more and made plans to see them in Ruidoso, NM in March 2012 if the weather holds out.  It can be quite cold and snowy there that time of the year.  

After saying our goodbyes we stopped by Costco for a few items for the road and filled up the gas tank on the car.  I like to travel with a full tank when we are traveling through West Texas since there are so many open spaces with few towns.

We video chatted with Gloria & Doug for a while and had to listen to them give their temperature in Melbourne Beach, FL at 70 degrees.  It was around 30 here, windy and damp to go with it.  Maybe we should have headed south instead of west.  Next year.

This will be an early to bed night so we can get on the road around 9am and make the 500 mile drive to Van Horn, TX.  That is the plan, subject to change as events may dictate otherwise.  I hope to at least get to Odessa, TX by the evening, but Van Horn would be better.

Good night all and I hope you have a nice day on Wednesday and think of us as we tool down the road.