Day 163

San Antonio 

Oct 16, 2013, 8:44 PM

We are in a really nice campground in San Antonio. We had a good drive here. The scenery was a little different than from Roswell to Fort Stockton, there were even several mountain silhouettes that were very female in nature. Steve made sure to point it out to me. They did look naughty! It was chilly/cold this morning and the day remained gray all day so having things to laugh at along the way seemed to brighten the day a bit. I-10 from Fort Stockton to San Antonio was a straight shot and not bad as far as traffic at all. This campground is very nice and welcoming. It's a really pretty place too. We got situated, had dinner, and are now relaxing for the evening. Tomorrow the weather here is supposed to be perfect, so we are going to the Alamo. I'm looking forward to that, I'm sure this will be a highlight for Steve too. I'm sure every little boy has wanted to visit the Alamo in his lifetime. See where childhood hero's made their stand. It should be great. I'll have more tomorrow, you all have a wonderful night. 

Day 162

Rain Day

Oct 15, 2013, 8:17 PM

When we woke up today it was raining. So we have a day of rest. Steve saw a Denny's on our way in and he thought it might be nice to go to breakfast. So we got ready to find breakfast, then we were going to go to a food store to get stuff to make gravy and mail a card. Well Steve must have been mistaken because I couldn't find a Denny's in the GPS! but I did find an IHOP. That will do nicely!!!! So we follow the GPS and we found no IHOP, no Denny's oh my gosh, there is NOTHING in this place. There is a whole lot of nothing in this place. We found a mailbox, and a little place to have something to eat, it wasn't great but it wasn't bad, we went to the food store, then back home. We spent a wonderful afternoon watching movies that were suspenseful as all hell. Oh it was a good day! Tomorrow we are off for San Antonio. The weather is looking pretty bad for there too, but I'm going to the Alamo. So be watching for that blog. Goodnight guys, sorry I don't have something more interesting for today. 

Day 161

The Stars At Night Are Big And Bright, Deep In The Heart Of Texas

Oct 14, 2013, 4:05 PM

The drive from Roswell, New Mexico to Fort Stanton, Texas was pretty much what you'd think. It was so flat and desolate. There were areas we passed that looked like junk yards along the side of the road. Mobile homes left to rot in the sun and cars or appliances or both. It's very sad. There were also a few oil wells and a couple fields of cotton. The cotton was never in a place where we could stop so I could get out and get a good look and maybe a photo or two. I've never seen a cotton field in actuality. Hopefully I'll see more. We traveled almost due south, then just a bit east. We got to a nice little campground, the guy we pulled up next to said we better be quiet or there' be trouble. I told him we had a problem then, cause I'm never quiet!!!! Thank God he was kidding, cause I wasn't. This will be a nice place I think. The area isn't much, but really this is just a place to relax till we get to San Antonio. 

We made a run to Walmart. I wanted to make sure it was a Super Center so I placed a call. I asked the woman that answered if the store was a super center? Her reply, "Sorta". I waited, and waited, then I had to ask. "Sorta?" Then she explained. REALLY? Ya wouldn't offer up that information to begin with. Come on!!! Some people really need to hear how to conduct themselves in the real world. Oh well, my life is too precious to school people on common sense. Sorry!!!! 

You all have a good evening and I will be in touch tomorrow. The weather here tomorrow is going to be iffy at best so we might just have a forced day of rest. That wouldn't be too bad. All this fun is starting to catch up with us. 

Day 160

Aliens Are In Roswell

Oct 13, 2013, 7:54 PM

Well I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it for myself, but there are aliens in Roswell, New Mexico. Spanky saw them too and he made friends with some of them and I was able to catch a few candid moments on film. Ha, what a campy little place. We went to the International UFO Museum. It begs one to ask more questions than it answers, I do however find it hard to take serious. After that we went to check out the Bottomless Lakes State Park and a National Wildlife Refuge, of course the wildlife refuge was closed and we didn't realize it till we'd driven all the way out to nowhere then find the barricades and ranger turning people around. Of course it was a "National" refuge, so it like so many things is closed.  Of course they couldn't put a sign at the main road and save you 18 miles of driving!

So after that we headed home. The sky was looking menacing and we needed an afternoon relaxing and I wasn't feeling my best.  This has been a wonderful long trip and I think the long could be catching up, but we only have a very few days left. We will be home on the 31st and oh my gosh then the real craziness will start. We are going to have to spend some real serious time getting things back in order, if I dwell on that I may have Steve turn the RV around and run away. 

Day 159

Alien Encounter

Oct 12, 2013, 10:02 PM

We made it to Roswell, New Mexico just fine today. We even somehow avoided an accident that had the highway closed. We were riding into Albuquerque and an overhead highway information sign said ACCIDENT highway 40 closed ahead. We both looked at each other and thought oh here we go, we are going to sit in traffic forever now, but NO! I'm not sure if we turned off the highway before the back up or it cleared before we got there or if the sign was a hoax, but we had relatively no traffic all the way here. I will say one thing though, the land is so flat after you turn onto Route 285. Oh my gosh, this road is long, straight, and flat as hell. The campground we are in is a nice place, completely full, but it is on a quiet stretch of road sort of on the outskirts. Well Steve disconnected the car and I checked us in. The woman in the office got on her golf cart to guide Steve to the site. I got in the car, turned the key and got NOTHING!!!!! The battery was completely dead. Steve this morning hooked the car up to the RV by himself. Typically Steve pulls the RV out to a spot where I can pull the car up to the back of the RV then he hooks it all up and we go. This time the site was big enough for him to just hook up the car before we took off and he forgot you have to turn the lights off. The car is put in neutral, the brake off, all the electronics off, the lights off (the RV controls the lights), the ignition in accessory. So for about four hours the car sat with the key half on and the lights on. Not good for the battery. Thank God it's a little car and a stick shift so Steve was able to just give me a push start. All is good!!!!

Oh my gosh, Roswell is such a kitchy little place. There are green aliens at about 25% of the store fronts, I would say at least half the establishments have aliens on their signage or make reference to the fact that aliens are welcome. There was even a motel that had a spaceship in the parking lot. Now I'm sorry, but that's cute. There will be plenty of Spanky photo ops. 

We were set up in time for Steve to see the last few minutes of the Gator game. Doesn't it figure it would be a loss. Then don't you know the Charlotte NASCAR race was on right after and we got that station too. Steve is having a big day. It seems to always work out that when the race or a game are on if we get the channel, we aren't home, if we are home, we don't get the channel. So he was in hog heaven. Then I made him take me to DQ. We'd passed several billboards on the highway for a DQ, but we turned off before we could stop. So that got me jonesing. After the race was over I dragged his butt to get ice cream, don't you know we passed one in town not very far from the campground at all. It was kismet!! So now we in for the night, we haven't decided what to do tomorrow but we are going to check out the UFO Museum. Oh and when we went out for ice cream, the streetlight globs are green and have eyes like an alien head. I'm going to like this place. 

Day 158

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Oct 11, 2013, 7:48 PM

Well we are just leaving the balloon fiesta and it was an absolutely fabulous, wonderfully exciting and enchanting afternoon and evening. We didn't have a super start to our day though. We stopped at the Sky City Casino RV Park  last night for two days, and it was pretty darn full last night. This morning at the UNGODLY hour of 6:30, in the flipping AM I might add, there were these inconsiderate idiots, and let me tell you what I am giving you the PG version here, that were standing outside talking so loudly that we could hear every word. This went on for a good twenty minutes or more too, Steve even went to get the car keys and chirped the car alarm. They actually laughed about the fact that someone probably wanted them to shut up, YA THINK!!!!! I mean come on, does a brick wall have to fall on your head to get through. I thought he should lay on the air horns of the RV or get the air horn that we have and sneak up behind them and blow it, scare the living hell right out of them, but then of course other people would have suffered, so we didn't. I just seethed!

We slept in a bit (or tried to) cause the balloons go up in the morning at 7AM. We are over an hour away from the event I thought there was also an evening assention, I was wrong. At least not tonight, tonight they were having a "Glowdeo", like rodeo except starting with glow. They don't go up in the air but they fill the balloons, then make the fire burn brighter and make the balloons glow. I think it might have been better than seeing them all take off and fly. Spanky got a pin although there really were no Spanky photo ops. We had no idea where anything was happening in Albuquerque, just that the balloon fiesta was in Albuquerque. So we set the GPS to the city and then set out to find the balloons. We found the Hot Air Balloon Museum and that was where the action was. Behind the museum was a huge field, probably five football fields long and several wide. There were vendors set up and a mariachi band playing, picnic tables, human size hamster balls, mini zip lines, food and more. People came with blankets and chairs, there were so many people there. We walked around a bit and we were worried that they were going to cancel the night's festivities because the wind was still blowing pretty darn hard. We saw a couple sitting at a table and asked if we could sit with them for a little bit. Well they turned out to be the nicest people. They have friends living in The Villages, they are from Ohio, they were just so much fun to sit and talk to. Then don't you know the gondolas started to be unloaded from the trucks, we heard the flames start and balloons started going up left and right. We watched for a while from the table then said good bye to new friends and started to walk around. It was so cool to see how the balloons were inflated, there were people hanging onto the gondolas trying to hold them down I would imagine, there were guys holding on to guide lines, they were filling them up and then lighting them up. We were able to walk all over around and among where the balloons were and there were so many in the end. It was a sea of crazy characters. It was just magical. So Steve and I are now on our way back to the RV. It was getting so darn cold and we did so much walking and tomorrow we are on the move again. This should be a hoot, we are going to Roswell, New Mexico. So if you don't hear from us again, we were probably taken to the mothership and now we are off exploring "space the final frontier, these are the voyages of the RV ship Baker, it's six month mission to explore new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man and his crazy wife has gone before" (you fill in the Star Trek music here). Good night guys!

Day 157

What A Wild Travel Day

Oct 10, 2013, 3:36 PM

By the time we got up this morning the snow on the ground had melted and just rain was coming down on and off, it was COLD, but at least we could hear traffic getting through and it looked like we might have dodged a bullet. Oh but looks can be so deceiving! We got all disconnected and we were ready to take off when the flurries started. That really stepped things into high gear and as we were pulling out of the campground the flurries were coming down harder. The sky was so low and gray and we were now in SNOW!!!!! Before we got to the highway we were in nearly whiteout conditions. Our only hope was to keep moving away from Flagstaff to lower elevations because there they were only expecting rain. Just when it seemed like maybe we should get off the road, the sky brightened and the snow was gone. Thank you God! The thought of driving this thing in snow makes me crazy. After that we had to deal with high winds, rain, low visibility, you name it we dealt with it today on the road. As we were getting close to our destination we even saw the most beautiful rainbow. I'm telling you, we had it all. 

The campground is nice. It is part of a casino, so we decided to go to the buffet for dinner, then we just happened to go into the casino. I lost $20 at the Roulette Table, but Steve won $30 on the slot machine. So we are up!! We had such a good time. The wind here was so fierce it felt like the RV was going to roll over, but since dinner it has calmed down. Tomorrow we are going to go to see the hot air balloons. I hope the weather allows them to take off. They showed a few seconds of footage on the news of all the balloons and it looked beautiful. I can't wait!! Good night guys, we will talk again tomorrow.