Into the Golden State

We spent our last night on the road about 50 miles west of Phoenix.  Lovely campground, and as you can see from the picture, we had our choice of spaces,.

The snowbirds have not arrived yet

There is always something interesting to see in the desert.  This guy had a terrific bike that he must have build himself.  He flew up an exit ramp just as I turned to take a better picture, but you can get the idea of his ride.

Another interesting place just north Tucson is the Pinal Air Park, which is a graveyard for big airplanes. You can see a bit of the place from the freeway, but it's worth googling to see aerial pics and get more info.

hundreds of old planes in the distance

We finally made it to the Golden State.  

to New Mexico

It takes a long time to drive across Texas.  From the eastern border with Louisiana, to the western border with New Mexico, the distance is 880 miles. Traveling west, once you pass San Antonio, there are few campgrounds.  But there are traffic accidents.  We waiting in this traffic line for about 30
minutes just west of San Antonio.

There was no fence between the freeway and the frontage road to the right . . . many people simply drove over the grass to the frontage road to avoid the wait. 

we're past the wreck site; the frontage road drivers have their own traffic problems now

Texas has made the long drive across its state very hospitable by providing numerous rest areas, most of them equipped with large parking areas for big rigs like ours, and . . . ta da . . . free wifi!  We stayed the first night out of Houston in the rest area at mile marker 394, along with many truckers and several other RVs.  We stopped relatively early because there was a huge thunderstorm headed in from the west, and we didn't want to drive in it. 

darkening skies ahead

The next day we drove to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  We still love the incredible beauty of the western landscape.  It's interesting to see the landscape change in increments once you get past San Antonio.  First you notice there are no more big trees.  Then, you see that the bushes get smaller and smaller, until you reach the actual desert area.   The desert plants are completely different from anything else.  The whole drive is quite beautiful, in our opinion.

One of the surprising things we notice on every drive through here is the exploding growth of the El Paso area.  It is so much more than a can of Old El Paso Red Chile Sauce.

What used to be a sleepy, dried up border town is now a big city, with big freeways to prove it. 

Remarkable.

Texas

We had an uneventful trip from northern Florida to Houston, where our daughter lives.   We have driven along the Gulf Coast many times, but we never tire of seeing this part of the country.  From the Blue Angel friezes on the freeway overpasses in Pensacola, to the 30-mile long bridge over the bayous of western Lousiana, the ride is always interesting.

She really is smiling . . .

Once in Houston, we managed to pack an amazing amount of activity into less than 48 hours, most of it centered around a frenzy of capitalism:   we bought a DVD player and a Kindle from Chanda;   we paid her to give us decent haircuts; we contributed to the local economy by dining out and patronizing the local WalMart and a motorhome parts store.

Texas is full of Whataburgers . . . Florida, not so much

We were reluctant to tell Matt we had Panda in Houston

It short, it was a terrific visit.  Too soon, it was time to pack up and continue the journey west.  We pulled onto the Sam Houston Expressway headed for its intersection with I-10.  The $5.25 toll we paid for about 3 miles of travel was well worth it as the transition from the Sam Houston to the I-10 takes one over the highest flyover on the new mega-interchange of these two freeway.

Wow ... what a view.  We have driven under that interchange several times, but never on it.  Simply amazing.

Sam Houston freeway interchange with I-10

Nothing in California compares.  Of course, they worry about earthquakes out there, and the construction is different.   Once back down on the ground . . . back on I-10 . . . we began the trek across the Texas Hill Country to El Paso.

Fuse

 So we were tooling down the Santa Monica freeway, admiring the absolutely gorgeous sunset (above), when it occurred to us that we should think about a place to stop for the night.  Our first day out had been exciting, but we're not getting any younger.  We've got to pace ourselves because just getting to California is going to take several days.  No sense getting burned out on the first day. 

We pulled into an RV park in northern Florida, ready to rest up for an early start the next morning.  We pulled just as the office was closing.  The registration clerk assured us that although the park does not have cable TV, their wifi is working properly; she added that we can drive right into the park and choose from several sites she pointed to on the brochure.

As we drove through the park and looked for a suitable (read: level) site, we sense something may not be right . . . as in, we are the ONLY campers there that night.  The clerk did not exaggerate about choosing our own site.  We could have any of them!  We picked one, leveled up the rig, hooked up the water and power, and settled in to watch TV on the internet.  Only one problem, there was no wifi.

Frank pondering our predicament

We called the office, and the night manager (really?) answered the phone, but said, unfortunately because it was after hours, they couldn't get anyone out to look at the wifi problem until the morning.  Had we been lied to?  There was no use arguing, so we decided to move to another park just two exits down the freeway.  

After we disconnected water and power, we went to retract the hydraulic levelers and nothing happened!  The levelers would not go back up.  There we were . . . stuck in an empty campground with 6 wheels, and 4 hydraulic levelers all touching the ground.  We stayed locked inside the rig, and made sure our bad-guy protection systems were functioning properly.

It was a miserable evening . . . alone in the campground, unable to move the rig, no TV and no internet.  I will leave the reader to imagine the wailing and groaning and general frustration on the inside of Pooh.  But, we did get to sleep early, and we were able to ascertain some potential repair sources using Linda's smart phone connection.

While we waited to call for help the next morning, Frank decided to poke around the electrical system, and discovered a secondary fuse box wired under the dashboard labeled "HWH Leveling System."  Could this be the source of the problem?  Well, yes it was.  He opened the box, discovered one fuse was popped out.  He replaced the fuse, and voila!  The system worked, the levelers retracted, and we were on our way again, before the campground office even opened for business that morning.

Whew ... we've had some excitement already, and we're not even 300 miles from home.  We hope things settle down for a while.

Next stop:  Houston, and a short visit with Chanda.

California, Here We Come

A beautiful day for a road trip

Before we could cue up Willie Nelson and On The Road Again, we had to finalize some equipment.  First, one side of Pooh's windshield had developed two large cracks during the New Jersey rough-road experience back in July, and needed to be replaced.

Pooh gets her right eye replaced

Second, our readers will remember that on two previous excursions, we had major brake failures.  We have been determined to avoid this scenario again, and so we bought an auxiliary braking system for the Geo Tracker.  It sits on the floor in the Tracker, and hooks onto the brake peddle, and basically works by inertia . . . it senses slowing down, and then pushes down on the Tracker brake peddle.  This relieves pressure on the motorhome brakes.  

RVI Brake System

The whole system is simple, and works flawlessly, except for one minor problem.  It needs its own 12V dedicated outlet, and our old, old Tracker couldn't supply the power consistently.   Of course, we did not discover this problem until we had pulled away from the storage lot and headed out onto Ulmerton Road.  Two miles up the road, the auxiliary system beeped that it had lost power.  So, we pulled over, reset the thing, and scratched our heads as to what happened.  After it happened a second time, we returned to the storage lot to consult with our excellent mechanic Ken (whose owns the storage lot and has his auto repair shop there). 

Ken took pity on our predicament, and installed new wiring and a dedicated 12V outlet right on the spot.  But, the whole procedure delayed us by about 3 hours, and we did not pull out of Pinellas County until about noon.  But leave Pinellas County we did ... with the wind at our backs and the Ipod set to lots of twangy country music, we finally headed for California.

We know the route by heart:  go north on I-75 to the Santa Monica Freeway (otherwise known as I-10), and head west.   On The Road Again faded into California, Here I Come and Pooh started making tracks again.

Go West, Young Man

Frank and Linda are getting ready to make some Pooh Tracks again.

Since our return to Florida in late July from the Wedding Trip, we have battled e-coli (Frank), peridontal surgery and oral extractions (Linda), and a broken windshield on the Winnebago.

Everyone seems to be healed up now.  Frank has his doctors' blessings to make the trip, Linda is more comfortable with her new dentures in her mouth than with them out, and Pooh's new windshield gives us a brighter view of our travels.

We are more than ready to head West.

Frank's 50th high school reunion (Oceanside, CA class of 1962) is the main reason for the trip.  Evidently the 50th is a biggie, because the reunion festivities cover a full 5 days . . . Wednesday through Sunday.  Whew.  You'll want to come back here to read the recap of those days!

We're also looking forward to visits along the way with friends and relatives in Tallahassee, Houston, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Jackson MI.  Frank is even making a side trip --- via Delta Airlines --- to visit an old college buddy who traded the warm breezes of an oceanfront house in San Diego for a mountain retreat in Boulder, Montana.  That side trip alone should be worth a couple of interesting blog posts.

So, friends and relatives, please follow our blog, and add your comments.
And if you want us to pick up a souvenir here and there for you, just let us know!