10-16MAR14 - Willcox & Fort Huachuca, AZ (via fort stockton, tx & las cruces, nm)

 

Early Monday morning, 10MAR, we hit I-10 heading west towards Phoenix, AZ, where hopefully we will meet up with Corrie's brother Ed & wife Elaine in about ten days.  Also we plan on stopping near the Army installation at Fort Huachuca, AZ, to visit with our son-in-law, Raymond Pitre, who we just left in Houma, LA.  Raymond is in the Louisiana National Guard & has been selected for advanced training at Fort Huachuca.  Unfortunately this means a four month separation from our daughter Rebecca, & the kids Jaxson & Mason:(!

First stop was at Fort Stockton RV Park outside of Fort Stockton, TX, where we stayed back in MAR11.  We stopped here because it made for a reasonable drive for the day, & because it is home of The Roadrunner Cafe.  The Cafe is only open for breakfast, & during "in season" for dinner.  There are only five items on the dinner menu & all come with green beans, mashed potatoes, & a small dessert.  Dinner is only from 6-8PM, & certain items (like ribs) sell out fast; very good food at affordable prices!

 

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2011/03/26mar11-fort-stockton-tx-buffalo.html

 

http://www.ftstocktonrvpark.com/

 

After dinner at the Roadrunner, we went back to the RV & skyped with Rebecca, Raymond & the grandkids.  As long as you use "free" wifi or a home network, it is free; & we actually thought it was pretty neat to see everyone "live" while you talked.  Grandson Jaxson even asked where Gumbo was, so we dragged him into the picture.

Early Tuesday morning back on 1-10W for another long drive to Las Cruces, NM.  This means going thru one our least favorite cities for traffic on I-10 - El Paso, TX.  We have learned to take Loop 375 around the NE corner of the city, even if it adds time & has a steeper pass to climb.  At least you bypass all the idiots driving in central El Paso!  The drive was pretty windy most of the way.  We stayed at RV park we always stay at in Las Cruces, NM.  The weather people said it would be windier tomorrow.

 

Wednesday morning, 12MAR, we awoke to very little wind; turns out that El Paso got the worst of it, while Las Cruces was spared.  Today was a short drive to Willcox, AZ, so we (ie Dan) can tour the Chiricahua National Monument.  We have stayed in Willcox before, see below BLOG for our thoughts on the town.

 

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2012/03/11-18mar12-various-tx-az-ca-or-wa.html

 

Thursday morning we had nice waffle breakfast provided by the RV park & then headed to Chiricahua National Monument.  Since we would be touring most of the morning past noon, we were going to park the RV in the RV park's parking lot rather than pay for another day in our site.  But the manager said they would only charge us $1.50 per hour past 11AM.  Our first stop at the Monument was the Visitor Center to get park information & to watch the eight minute park video.  From there we took the dead end Bonita Canyon Drive to Massai Point at the end of the drive, before retracing our route.

 

To paraphrase the park brochure - Chiricahua is a sky island; an isolated mountain range rising above the surrounding grassland sea.  Meadows dotted with cactus & mesquite begin to fill with sycamore, juniper, & oak trees.  Farther up are cypress, pine, & fir woodlands.  The landscape is typical of the basin & range topography in this part of the SW.  It's the rock pinnacles looming over the road, like guardians of the forest, that announce you are in Chiricahua country.  The Apaches called these pinnacles "standing up rocks".

http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm

 

We have discovered that by getting to a National Park early, going to the end of any scenic drive, then turning around to hit the scenic overlooks on the drive back; we end up in front of the usual large groups of tourists who get to the park later & stop at each scenic turnout as they hit them.  We weren't prepared for hiking, but Dan did quickly hike the Massai Nature Trail.  Departing the National Monument we took a dirt road north over Apache Pass, past Fort Bowie National Historic Site (hopefully to be visited in the future), to Bowie, AZ, & then I-10W back to Willcox.

 

http://www.nps.gov/fobo/index.htm

 

Returning to the RV park we broke camp & headed to Apache Flats RV Park on Fort Huachuca Army Post outside Sierra Vista, AZ.  As we stated at the beginning of this BLOG, we are going there because son-in-law Raymond will be here tomorrow for a four month Army "school".

 

http://www.huachuca.army.mil/

 

Late Friday morning we first headed to the base exchange, followed by the Commissary for groceries.  Then it was back to the RV for lunch.  After lunch Dan headed to two museums on the Fort - the Fort Huachuca Museum, & the US Army Intelligence Museum.  The Fort Huachuca Museum serves the Fort by collecting, preserving and exhibiting artifacts representing its own history and the larger history of the military in the Southwest.

 

Opened in 1960, the Museum houses several thousand objects and documents, many on display in attractive exhibits telling the Fort’s one hundred and thirty-five year story.  The Museum is located in two buildings on the Fort’s historic Old Post, and is open to the public without charge.  The nearby Army Intelligence Museum serves the US Army Intelligence Center of Excellence’s training mission with exhibits interpreting Military Intelligence history from 1885 to the present.

 

A large portion of the Fort's museum is devoted to the Buffalo Soldiers who were a significant portion of the troops at the fort from the late 1800s until WWII.  Also of interest is the history of the Army's Apache Scouts who were a part of the Fort until 1947.  Dan also learned that MRE stands for "Meals Refusing to Exit", "Meals Requiring Enemas", & "Massive Rectal Explosion".  Another small example showing the true value of museums:).

http://www.huachucamuseum.com/

 

That evening we attended the RV park's St Paddy's Day pot luck; where there was lots of good food, most of it green. There was group sing-a-longs of Irish songs (and a great solo Danny Boy); Irish joke/story telling; capped by the Armed Forces Song Medley.  The even showed the "age" of the attendees - starting at 5PM, finishing by 7PM.

Saturday morning, 15MAR, we headed to Tombstone, AZ, arriving just in time for the 12 noon O.K. Corral Gunfight Site Historama on the very site of the O.K. Corral.  After the show, Dan went oneway to historical sites, & Corrie went another to window shop.  Be advised that Tombstone is almost totally geared to separating tourists from their money (ie it is a tourist trap)!  Although is prides itself in its motto as "the town to tough to die"!  It is because of tourism today, that it is not a ghost town like other western boom towns.

 

For example, there are several enclosed areas where the Gunfight at the OK Corral is recreated on almost an hourly basis.  We picked the one we went to because it was on the actual site & we received free tickets to "Tombstone's Historama" narrated by Vincent Price; & a free copy of the Tombstone Epitaph with all the articles about the gunfight & Wyatt Earp's murder trial (note - the paper played a role in the feud between the Earps & the Clantons by supporting the Earps not the "cow boys").

Dan really enjoyed the Historama, which is advertised as a multi-media experience?  Quoting the Roadside America website about the Historama:  "A triumph of Great Society technology, it features a big, lumpy mound on a turntable, decorated with small vignettes from Tombstone's early history, set on a stage in a small theater."

"Every half-hour the house lights dim, the curtain lowers and then rises again (it stays open between shows so that you can admire the mound) and the story of Tombstone unfolds through blinking lights, recorded sound effects, and a projection screen that lowers and raises to show Western movie clips, although it often raises and lowers in the middle of whatever it is that you're supposed to be watching.  The screen also serves to hide the lump, which silently, magically has turned to reveal a new scene when the screen is raised."

"Despite Price's cache, the star of Historama is the lump. It was designed for a generation that demanded less from its special effects, and reminds us of other mesmerizing Paleolithic-tech A/V attractions."

"One imagines that Historama's robot brain is powered by punch cards and vacuum tubes.  To depict the fires that destroyed Tombstone, tiny red light bulbs flicker in a few representative buildings.  To show the murders of Morgan Earp and Frank Stillwell (who killed Morgan), small wooden people have their internal supports pulled away, allowing them to collapse onto the turntable with an audible "tonk" of wood on wood.  We'll leave it to you to guess how the flooding of the silver mines is depicted."

Dan gives it two thumbs up!!!

www.ok-corral.com

 

About 5PM son-in-law Raymond Pitre came to RV.  We visited for a little, & then went to "The German Cafe" for great German food (can you say schnitzel?).  Turns out the Cafe is pretty small & we were going to have to wait outside in the cold wind for a table.  The waitress recommended we order & eat their German food in the bar next door.  Its been a long time since Dan has been in a dive like Paul's Pub!  For some reason Corrie didn't want to eat there & we went back out into the wind & cold & waited for a table in the Cafe; the food was excellent & we are glad we toughed it out.

Sunday morning Raymond & Dan took off for the Coronado National Memorial.  Dan had discovered that there was a West Gate on the back side of the base & you could take Forest Service roads all the way to the Memorial.  But the drive would take over two hours, so they stuck to paved roads & made it in 45 minutes.  First stop was the Visitor Center to watch the film about Coronado's expedition from Mexico, northward almost to what would become Kansas, in search of silver & gold.  There are no indications that Coronado actually passed thru the area of the Memorial, but his records show he did pass thru the adjacent valley area.  Then Dan & Raymond hiked/climbed to Coronado Cave.  Lastly, they drove up the scenic park road to Montezuma Pass to hike up to Coronado Peak.

This is the first time Dan has run into a what looks like a "park" but is called a Memorial, so he did some internet research & discovered from Wiki that - "National Memorial is a designation in the United States for a protected area that memorializes a historic person or event.  National memorials are authorized by the United States Congress.  The memorial need not be located on a site directly related to the subject and many, such as the Lincoln Memorial, do not have the word "national" in their titles.  There are 29 national memorials owned and administered by the National Park Service as official units.  Five more are administered by other organizations but receive assistance from and are considered affiliated areas of the NPS."

http://www.nps.gov/coro/index.htm

 

After Dan & Raymond returned to the RV, we all skyped with Rebecca & the kids.  After Raymond left the RV to start preparing for reporting to school tomorrow, we started prepping RV & Toad for tomorrow's departure.  We know the four month separation will be hard on Rebecca, Jaxson, Mason & him!

05-09MAR14 - Kerrville, TX (via livingston, tx)

Wednesday, 05MAR, we hit the road to Livingston, TX; after Raymond, Rebecca, & kids had left the house for the day.  Usually we split the drive into two days, stopping overnight at a casino in Kinder, LA, before we continuing to TX.  But this time since we left Houma a little later in the year than we planned, so we drove straight thru to Livingston, TX.

 

Regular readers of our BLOG know we try to stop here every spring & stay at the Escapees Rainbow's End RV Park.  This allows us to update our Escapees RV club membership, get our vehicles inspected, & this year renew our Texas driver's licenses.

 

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2013/03/06-11mar13-kerrville-tx-via-kinder-la.html

 

Thursday morning it was off to the Driver License Bureau to renew our licenses.  We then discovered that they were closed all morning for court?.  We then proceeded to the auto body shop across street to get the Toad inspected as we do every year.  From there it was back to RV park to get the RV & go back to the body shop for the RV's safety inspection.  After lunch it was back to the license bureau & waiting for over an hour to get new licenses.  There was only one clerk at the bureau; & its Spring Break in Texas, with many teenagers coming in to get their learner's permit!

 

Friday morning we hit the road to Kerrville, TX, to visit Dan's sister Sharon & husband Tim as we try to do at least once every year (see above BLOG link for our last visit).  After setting up camp, we headed up to their place for dinner & reminiscing.

 

Saturday morning, 08MAR, Corrie headed to the mall near San Antonio.  During the day Dan's "old" laptop computer started acting-up & eventually locked-up.  He had purchased a new laptop before the end of last year & had transferred the most important files to the new laptop.  But there are some historical files that he hadn't gotten to, & now he will have to find someone down the road to try & save them?  That evening Tim & Sharon came into town & we all had dinner at Thai Ocha - an excellent, new Thai restaurant in Kerrville.

 

Sunday, 09MAR, around noon we headed to "Cafe at the Ridge" for a light lunch.  This establishment is right next to Sharon & Tim's; & has been thru several owners & themes over the years.  When we first saw it, it was a gas station with convenience store; then gas station & restaurant; then just a restaurant; & now a restaurant with garden center.  The new owner is a successful business man from San Antonio & has created a quality operation (in fact Sharon works here).  Now the gas pumps are gone, the restaurant is very good, there is an onsite bakery/ice cream shop, beautiful nursery, & live music Saturday/Sunday.

From there it was off to Sharon/Tim's for Mexican Train Dominos & dinner.  Since they had never played Train Dominos, we got to make up the rules & they had to accept our word:)!  Corrie & Sharon combined to make an excellent fish dinner & the games were fun.  Note -  Corrie left her favorite frying pan at their house, we awoke the next morning to find Tim had dropped it off on the way to work.

01-04MAR14 - Houma, LA (fat tuesday & departure)

Saturday, 01MAR, Dan's new cell phone crapped-out.  The Verizon store decided it was not a "warranty" issue & Dan needed to claim it against the cell phone insurance (can you say $100 deductible).  Dan decided he would send Corrie back Monday to "deal" with the issue.  The day was capped with Joe & Tasha having a crawfish boil for family & friends!

Sunday we spent most of the day by gathering everything up from Joe house & Rebecca's house that belonged to us for packing the RV in prep for our departure on Ash Wednesday.   The kids & grandkids took in a daytime Mardi Gras parade, which we skipped.  Then everyone met at Olive Garden for dinner after the Mardi Gras parade.

 

Monday Dan started working on installing our new "house" batteries that we picked up last week in New Orleans.  What should have been a two hour job, ended up being almost six hours.  First, the battery tray wouldn't slide out for easy access.  This meant Dan had to not only remove the four house batteries, but the two starting batteries also!  Since we are talking over 500 pounds of batteries, having a slide out battery tray is almost essential.

 

After fixing the battery tray, Dan installed all six batteries; only to discover one major grounding cable was four inches too short for the new taller house batteries:(!  After trying different arrangements, Dan finally got one that worked & saved us from having to buying an expensive, heavy duty cable.  The funny thing our original "house" batteries were four 12v batteries, the new ones are four 6v batteries; but we now have 50% more power capacity!

While doing this Dan was smoking/BBQ'ing a pork boston butt for a pulled pork dinner with Joe, Tasha, Rebecca, Raymond, Jaxson & Mason.  So at the end of the day he smelled like engine oil & wood smoke.  Oh yeah, Corrie got Dan's phone replaced at no cost!

 

Mardi Gras day (aka Fat Tuesday) Corrie headed over to Joe's to help remove the new "stain" from the concrete floor; because Lowe's sold Joe the wrong product!  Meanwhile Dan was able to get $20 for our old RV batteries.  Dan then spent most of the day loading the Toad & RV for tomorrow's departure.  Later in the day we all met at Joe & Tasha's for dinner & games.  Dinner was crawfish etoufee prepared by Tasha from the leftover crawfish from Saturday's boil.  We then played Taboo.  As usual there were small disagreements over rules & scoring.  Eventually all was resolved & play commenced.  The women's team won one round, & the guys won one.  To maintain peace & relationships, play was stopped in a tie:)!

05-28FEB14 - Houma, LA

 

Early Wednesday morning, 05FEB, we hit the road back to Houma, LA.  We left earlier than normal for us, to give us the time to drive the entire distance in one day instead of the usual two days.  That afternoon we were made it to Houma & parked in Joe's driveway.  After plugging in the RV we headed out to see Rebecca & Raymond & the grandkids.  After a short visit everyone headed off to Cajun Critters for crawfish! 

Thursday we awoke to miserable weather, cold & wet!  Miserable weather turned out to be the norm throughout February; while Louisiana (& most of the south) experienced record cold & rains.  Turns out there was a reason why Joe was so glad to have us in his driveway?  He wants our assistance (mostly Corrie's) in redecorating two rooms.  So today Corrie started repainting the den.

 

Saturday, 08FEB, in the morning we met Rebecca, Jaxson, & Mason at the Houma Y to swim.  Both kids appear to be natural water babies.  That afternoon Joe & Dan took Joe's two quad ATVs & went mud riding in the bayou.  Joe was amazed that Dan did something with an ATV he had never seen before - climb a tree with it & roll it over on its side.  Unfortunately Joe wasn't filming with his smart phone & it wasn't captured on film.  That night Tasha fixed dinner for everyone including her parents (Larry & Brinda), unfortunately Raymond was out of town drilling with his National Guard unit.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Joe heads offshore for work, & we start preparing the 3rd bedroom for painting & new flooring.  Dan removed baseboards - damaging two pieces & punching a hole in the closet drywall.  Tuesday, 11FEB, the miserable weather returned.  Corrie started painting the bedroom,  while Dan repaired the drywall.  Friday & Saturday we ripped the carpet out of the third bedroom & started cleaning the exposed concrete slab.  The reason for cleaning the concrete, is because Joe is going to stain the concrete & not replacing the carpet.

 

Monday, 17FEB, Dan spent all day at Raymond & Rebecca's waiting for Roto Rooter, they never show.  Raymond & Rebecca were experiencing "slow" draining of the kitchen & bathroom sinks.  Raymond & Dan had rented a power snake & tried solving the problem.  Things improved a little, but more work was still needed, so Roto Rooter was called.

 

Tuesday morning we took the RV back to Polar Aut-O-Air to work on dash AC again.  Back in January they had worked on the dash AC; but it had stopped working on our recent trip to Florida.  Turns out that someone had damaged an O-ring when re-installing the compressor.  Since it probably was their mistake, there was no charge for a couple of parts needed & labor.  We then moved the RV to Rebecca & Raymond's driveway.

 

Thursday was more waiting by Dan for Roto Rooter, who finally showed up at end of the day.  He couldn't find the problem & called the office to schedule the camera guy.  Friday, 21FEB, Dan spent most of day waiting for the Roto Rooter camera tech, who never showed.  That evening we went with Rebecca, Jaxson & Mason to the Hercules Mardi Gras Parade.  Jaxson didn't like all the noise, Mason wasn't impressed.

Monday, 24FEB, the Roto Rooter camera tech showed up & determined the central sewage line is broken under the slab.  This means that a four by four hole needs to be cut into the patio, for tunneling under the house.  This means hiring Roto Rooter or another contractor.

 

Tuesday morning we headed into New Orleans to pick up new RV house batteries at Saia trucking.  When we were dry camping in the Everglades National Park last month, we discovered our four year old house batteries wouldn't hold a charge.  We had intended on buying new batteries at the FMCA RV Rally in Brooksville, FL; but the vendor had not received his stock for the show.  Dan eventually found a very good price on batteries with a company in Texas, & we still saved money by paying for freight shipping to the Saia warehouse in New Orleans.  This also allowed us to do some shopping at Costco in New Orleans.

Wednesday after what seemed like years talking about it, we headed to the Verizon store to see about upgrading our cell phones & plan.  Our cell phone plan is the same plan we had with Cingular from over seven years.  In Dan's opinion cell phone sales people rank right up there with used car salesmen!  Long story, short, we now have two "smart" phones, & something called a jetpack; along with a sales receipt that must be four feet long!

Friday, the last day of the month, Joe finally made it back ashore from work.  Meanwhile, Raymond rented a concrete saw & jack hammer to make a four by four "hole" in the concrete patio to access the broken sewer line.  By doing this (& replacing the concrete after the repair) he saves close to $1000!

 

In between all the bad weather & cold fronts, the month was filled with:

 

---medical appointments

---baby sitting the grandkids

---lots of family dinners at Rebecca's, Joe's, or dining out

---Rebecca's birthday

---buying things for the grandkids, like Jaxson's first soccer gear

---etc

03/04FEB14 - Navarre, FL (via tallahassee, fl)

Sunday morning, 02FEB, we departed the FMCA Area Rally early because as we said in our last BLOG, we were dissatisfied with the rally in general.  The weather didn't help them; but in our opinion it wasn't well organized, we were surprised at the small number of vendors, & vendors that we wanted to buy things from didn't have the merchandise.  So we hit the road to visit friends in Navarre, FL.  We decided to split the drive into two days, & the first day was an excellent drive on a "blue highway", US19.  We found a nice RV park outside Tallahassee making sure it had cable TV to the watch Super Bowl.  During the drive our RV passed 100K miles on the odometer.  That means in eight years of ownership we have averaged over 10K miles per year!

 

Monday afternoon we arrived at Emerald Beach RV Park in Navarre, FL.  After setting up camp, we visited with our good friends Chuck & Anneke Guldenschuh.  Who we lasted visited in DEC12 (see below BLOG).  We all first met when Chuck & Dan were stationed at the Coast Guard Office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in the late 70s.  Our paths crossed during their CG careers, even being back in Rotterdam together in 95/96/97 when the office was reopened.  And both couples started fulltime RV'ing about the same time & we would infrequently "camp" together.  After several hours of reminiscing Anneke made an excellent spur of the moment dinner, before we headed back to the RV.

Tuesday morning was some small repairs on the RV.  Then the Guldenschuh's picked us for scenic drive along Santa Rosa Beach with a nice lunch at Peg Leg Pete's where we have dined before.  We then grabbed Gumbo & our Toad to head back to their house for several games of Mexican Train Dominos.  As always the first couple of games were spent coming to an agreement on the rules even though they were in writing & we had all played before.  As always the time together seemed too short, but one of the many benefits of RV'ing is we will be in their neighborhood sometime in the future!

 

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2012/12/08-13dec12-biloxi-ms-destn-fl-more-tire.html