We left Austin on Thursday morning, traveled all day and into the night, and we were still in Texas! Here we are Friday morning at the rest area where we slept.
And, Odie was happy to find that he had his very own rest area:
So sorry that we couldn't stop and take advantage of some of the sights in West Texas. Someday we really must spend some time in the
Big Bend area. And, we even passed right by a couple other sights on our 'must-see' list:
Caverns of Sonora and
Balmorhea Springs. They scuba dive there! But, alas! We have a job to do and we need to be in Las Cruces right now to do it. If you want to see a blog by people who are really seeing ALL the sights in this country, check out our friends Diane and Andy. Diane's been keeping a
wonderful blog - showing us everything we've missed! Gee, thanx Diane!
But then I remind myself, there aren't too many people I know (who are working) and get to wake up to scenes like this:
That's our site at
Hacienda RV resort, where we had some work to do for
Coach Connect. We were also here
last year. It's Deja Vu all over again!
We always look at the
Datastorm Users Map when we stop at a new place to see who else may be parked near us. At Hacienda, we saw that
Weigh It was right in the same park, so we went over and said hi. Come to find out they will weigh our rig (each corner independently) without us doing a thing. And, it only cost $30! We've had this done before but it's probably been a year - so we said, let's do it.
They do the weighing right at your site, all you have to do is drive up a couple feet. Here's how they do it:
Then they feed all the numbers into their computer and give you a printout. We sit down and discuss it.
The good news was that our weight is very evenly distributed left to right, front to rear. More good news is that we haven't added any weight during our life and travels of the last year. The bad news is that we were about 1,000 pounds overweight last year, and we're still overweight now. They put a little more air in our rear tires according to the tables of weight to tire pressure ratios. And, we vowed to toss a few more items. If you've been reading our blog for a while, you know that we got 6 really good brand new tires
last fall. So we still feel pretty safe. But we know that weight and tires, tires and weight - that's probably the most important aspect of being safe on the road. So, we will keep working on it.
Jim finished his work at Hacienda and we got back on the road. Another Deja Vu. Here's the highway photo I took of west New Mexico on Highway 10.
It sure looks an awful like the photo I took
last year on this same stretch of highway! And, we also stopped again at
St. Clair winery in Demming, NM. We enjoyed the wine tasting, stocked our 'cellar' and even replaced the wine glass (bought here last year) that we broke!
Now we're in Arizona where we have work waiting for us at
Palm Creek Golf and RV.
We stayed the night at
Cochise Terrace RV resort. We're over 4,000 feet in elevation here, and the weather is crystal clear and 55 degrees. What we noticed right away is that, although the park was clearly able to handle big rigs, there were a lot of smaller ones parked here. We discovered that it was a rally of
RVing Women. Cool.
And, here's a
Roadtrek, our favorite camper van style of RV. Actually, it's Roadtreks that started this whole adventure. My Mom had her eyes on them for many years and so, introduced Jim and me to them as well. That's what we were planning to get (actually put a deposit down) until we decided to go full-time and found our current motorhome on eBay!
And, we get to take our morning walk with Lynne and John, letting the dogs run free in the desert and even getting a little exercise ourselves hiking up the hill.
Gee, maybe we should set up a geocache here?!
Then, on Saturday, we even got our kayaks in the water!! Yep, kayaking the might Colorado River.
Yeah - I know, it's pretty tame here. We put in at Blythe, about 90 miles north of the Mexico border. I understand the Colorado is barely a trickle by the time it gets there. It was great to get outside and paddle ... even if we didn't have to paddle very hard!
To see a picture of me, you gotta go to Lynne's blog! This is the second time she's beat me to the post!
So, tomorrow we get on a plane to Austin to work the Coach Connect booth at the ARVC convention. We're leaving the motorhome and the dog with Dick, Frankie, Lynne and John. I probably won't post in here till we get back next weekend.
Hope you all had as wonderful a Thanksgiving weekend a we did!
It was a short - but steep and challenging, walk.
This was a quick find.
Then, back home to Palm Creek.
And, back to work. Here's how I scoot around this 2000 space park to help people with their Wi-Fi Internet connections.
Tuesday morning we gave another seminar. This one was on 'Safe Computing'.
Next, it's our turn to visit. We'll be headed to Quartzsite to stay with Lynne and John ... and Frankie and Dick ... For the Thanksgiving weekend.
The next day, I made a lot of customer visits while Jim worked with the network engineers troubleshooting some issues. Ever have one of those days?
Yikes! I better make sure our health insurance is paid up huh?
And, just because I'm on the topic, here's my take on the major north/south highways:
Here's what I-10 looks like in West Texas. This picture was taken while we were at a rest area. Miles and miles of Texas.
I love rest areas. There's no doubt that you're 'on the road' when you're using a rest area. Here we are:
We did a record 450 miles that day! And, Jim was so happy that he had installed the backup camera and rearview mirror that he bought in Fort Lauderdale. You may have noticed in some of our photos that our motorhome has no window in the back. So, that means you have no way of seeing behind you. New motorhomes come standard with backup cameras, but ours didn't have one. It still had a rearview mirror. In the beginning I would find myself glancing at that rearview mirror all the time and being so surprised that all I could see was the bedroom! Why did they leave the stupid mirror there if it couldn't do it's job? Well, Jim found a backup camera that uses an attachment over the rear view mirror as it's display. Cool. Here's the little bitty camera that he mounted on the back of the rig.
Then, the tricky part was getting the wiring inside the rig (he used a 'fishing wire' ... or maybe it's called a 'wire-fish' I'm not sure!) and stringing it all the way up to the front to attach to the monitor. The monitor is the size and shape of the rearview mirror and it attaches right over the existing rearview mirror. Way Cool! Now, when I glance at that rearview mirror - I see the view behind the motorhome. What a difference. It makes it so much easier to change lanes. And, we really know that the car and the kayaks are still there! Pictures of it don't come out so good, but maybe you can see what I mean in this one. If you look carefully on the left side, you can see the top of our yellow and blue kayaks (which are on top of the car) and a car coming up to pass us on the left.
We drove till way past dark that first night, so we just slept in a rest area. Doesn't matter where you are when you close the doors, turn on the generator, raise the satellite dish. We can have our wine, cook and eat dinner, sit down at the computer to check some email. Then go to bed.
The Austin night skyline is dominated by the Frost building. Actually, the daytime skyline is dominated by it too - but it's extra pretty lit-up at night.
And, the capitol building is a classic beauty:
I had been talking about how we couldn't leave Austin without seeing some of the famous night life and entertainment. So, we drove down 6th street where you can hear live music coming out of every doorway. And we visited a couple authentic old-time bars: 
And, there's a pretty courtyard too.
For those of you who don't know, or have forgotten (like me) the 
I've wanted to see Riverwalk for years because, when Fort Lauderdale decided to develop it's downtown with a riverwalk, it was supposed to emulate San Antonio. I am mostly familiar with Fort Lauderdale's river area by being a boater. San Antonio's Riverwalk is much different. The river is not a navigable waterway. But, they do have a little boat tour - it takes about a half hour and you get the overview of the area.
One of the things our tour guide told us was where to get the best Margarita. Hey, you don't have to tell us twice!
And, speak of the devil! There's our tourguide now.
In a way, the Riverwalk reminds me of Atlanta's underground. It's kinda hard to find because it's at a lower level than the rest of the city. There's stairways to get up and down from the river-level to the street-level.
Then there's the upper level with all the high-rises! Did you know that San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the country?!
Bless You!
or ... maybe he's just allergic to work. y'think?