Saturday & Sunday, 27/28FEB, we take it easy & begin
prepping for our departure from Louisiana & the long drive back to the
Pacific NW. On Saturday night Corrie
made steamed mussels w/various dipping sauces (a traditional & very common
meal in the Netherlands) for the family.
And on Sunday, Joe made pulled pork BBQ for everyone.
Monday morning, 29FEB (happy leap year), we had to say our sad
goodbyes to kids & grandkids, & hit the road to Escapees RV Park in
Livingston, TX. Where we stop every
spring to renew our TX vehicle registrations (& licenses if
necessary). Upon setting up camp Dan
took the Toad in for inspection & license tags. Dinner that night was at the Blue Duck – a
new restaurant, which has a very different menu & is pretty upscale for
Livingston (& highly rated on YELP)?
Late Tuesday morning we successfully got the RV inspected & tagged. The rest of day was spent doing minor choirs,
& relaxing in preparation for tomorrow’s drive thru HoustonL
Early Wednesday morning, 01MAR, on the road to visit Dan’s sister
Sharon & husband Tim in Kerrville, TX.
As always the traffic in Houston is no fun as usual. After our arrival at the RV park in
Kerrville, we visited with Tim & Sharon, before all of us headed out for
Thai food. Thursday was a day of relaxation
enjoying the good weather; before joining Sharon & Tim for more reminiscing
& BBQ.
Friday, 04MAR, early morning we started the long drive to our
next stop – Van Horn, TX. Last year we
had planned on eating at the Hotel El Capitan Restaurant; as we did in 2010
when they first opened. But we ate at a
steak house recommended by the RV park.
This time we did eat dinner at the Hotel El Capitan Restaurant. The food was very good, but it appears the
menu has not changed since our last visit?
Saturday morning back on I-10 West for more boring driving to
Lordsburg, NM. Once again, like last
year 27FEB15, the KOA person that took our reservation when we asked for a pull
thru, had assigned to a back in. So even
though park was empty, they reassigned us to a pull thru barely long enough for
the RV alone; & the Toad would still have to be disconnected to get it out
of the road? On our own we pulled into
another pull thru, & Corrie went to the office to tell them. After all this, they still couldn’t
understand why we wanted a longer spot then assigned & did not want to
disconnect the Toad.
Sunday morning we finished the drive to the Freightliner dealer
outside of Phoenix, AZ, for our annual RV maintenance service. During the drive we decided not to stop for a
break/lunch like we normally do & drive straight thru to Phoenix. Good thing – we got the last RV parking spot
with hook-ups at the Freightliner facilityJ! It must be spring break because AZ has their
programmable highway signs w/messages targeted at spring breakers, like –
Spring Breakers would your mom approve of how you are driving? Dinner was at Haus Murphys (German restaurant
w/Irish name?) where we last ate in April 2010.
Still excellent schnitzels!
Early Monday morning, 07MAR, it is straight into the service
bay. Assuming that the annual
maintenance will take all day, we made a Costco run. Upon our return at noon, we find the service had
been completed. Also, they have no empty
RV spots for us to stay overnight & we must leave. We were unable to find a RV park vacancy near
us; & needed to head to Goodyear, AZ, to find a RV spot because of MLB
spring training & NASCAR this weekend in the surrounding area. That night we headed to one of our favorite
Phoenix restaurants (La Piazza al Forno) only to discover it is closed on
Mondays.
Tuesday,08MAR, we continue westward on I-10 for Desert Hot
Springs, CA, where we plan to take a two day break for R&R (& laundryJ). We stay at Catalina Spa & RV. One of the many (& we mean many!) RV
parks surrounding Palm Springs, CA, frequented by snowbirds from across the
northern USA & Canada. It was a very
nice facility, but it is obvious from the empty spots that the snowbirds are
migrating northward.
The next morning we headed into Palm Springs for a walkabout
before the temperatures hit the mid-80s (we were last here in April 2009). Lunch was at Pinocchio in the Desert. Pinocchio is a very popular (& different)
local establishment. It appears one of
the owners is Dutch, because the menu states “wij spreken nederlands” &
they proudly serve Douwe Exbert coffee.
Dan went w/the Bavarian Meatloaf Dip.
We are not sure, but part of the popularity w/the locals might be
bottomless champagne for $3.95 or martinis for $2.95? Then it was back to the RV to shelter from
the sun (except for pleasant few hours at the pool).
Thursday morning we continued our drive & had to decide if
we want to take the recommended route on I-10W thru Los Angeles, or go around
LA? We decide to drive around LA at San
Bernardino. But our planned route on CA
138 is completely stopped do to some unseen problem at Cajon Junction. So we are forced to detour north thru Boron, CA;
finally getting on I-5N & needing to find a RV park soon.
During Friday’s, 11MAR, drive we had to deal with on & off rain
w/gusting wind to Woodland, CA, where we stopped to visit w/Bill & wife Liz
Albert who we last saw 10MAR2015. As
happened last year, Liz was not able to join usL. But Bill bought us dinner. We threatened not to stop next time unless
Liz was there.
For Saturday & Sunday the National Weather Service
forecasted a major winter storm in northern CA along I-5. Supposedly Saturday is heavy rain along I-5
followed by snow on Sunday. So we decided
to get an early start Saturday & try to drive to southern Oregon; & hopefully
miss the snow. Unfortunately just south
of Weed, CA, we ran into heavy wet snow, that quickly began accumulating on the
road (& the RV’s front window)! So
around noon we decided to call it a day & found a RV park. Of course the snow stopped & the sun came
out around 1:30PM.
Sunday which was forecasted to be the “bad” weather day, was
better than Saturday. But the entire
drive was on again, off again, rain squalls & gusting, high winds. We forced ourselves to drive further than
normal & finally called it a day at a RV park in Kelso, WA. Looks like a good decision because major
story on local news was the Seattle area being slammed by high winds, w/lots of
power outages & downed trees. 170
miles left to go tomorrow.
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