First Day

 

Here’s our lot.  Denny Orr was knocking on our door at 8 AM. I had been up about a half hour getting the rig warmed up for Carol.  Denny & I pulled the Razor ATV out of the shed.  The battery was dead and it had two very low tires.

George from across the street with some cables and we jumped the Razor with the Jeep.  Then we drove it over to his new shop and pumped the tires up.  Thanks George.

Denny and I rode our Razors out the back gate and into BLM land.  Denny led.  We ended up at Jack In The Box out near the BLM land.  We had breakfast and hit the desert again.  We did some hot doging and had a blast.  We came back about lunch time after about 3 hours of running around enjoying the brisk air and no dust.   

Carol & I went to the Activity Center at 7 PM for their New Year’s Eve party.  I looked around and after about 30 seconds I was gone.  Carol stayed and did a little line dancing.

About 9 PM we went over to the Pelly’s annual party.  Now we were with a lot of friends and people we knew.  More our crowd.  We celebrated New Year’s at 10 PM, 11 PM and 12 PM.  Come around midnight there were only a handful of us left.  We left shortly after that as did the few remaining people.  It was the best New Year’s in a many year.

See ya.

North Ranch

The last four miles to North Ranch it rained.  The Beast was clean all the way from Texas until four miles from North Ranch and it rained.  Oh well, almost.

We arrived at North Ranch and went to our empty lot with no utilities.  We got level and went over Denny & Susie's for dinner and chit chat.  Ed & Sandy Kruty, Joe and Jan Tenpenny, and Lila & Steve Dudley came over to socialize.  It was great.

We returned back to a cold Beast.  The voltage was up so we turned on the Hydro Hot.  We watched some TV and then turned off the inverter and went to bed.

See ya….

Bird Heaven

Sharon & Don took us out to the Oasis Bird Oasis Bird Sanctuary.  Lots of birds.  We got a personal tour (by appointment) with Janet.

Here’s an old buzzard with two beautiful peacocks.

Here’s Janet.  We got to go into most aviaries with her.

This guy was showing off.

Very neat and the birds eat better than I do.

This is the only bird that came to me.  A bird of no feathers.  Ain’t I proud !?

Cockatiels liked Don

I guess you could say she has a feather in her head.

Here’s looking at you.

Go to their web site web site for the rest of the stories.  If you like birds and need a bird fix, this is the place.  This is a real bird sanctuary.

Don fixed his tri-tip special for dinner.  I tell you what.  It was great.  Between Mark’s smoked brisket and Don’s tri-tip the last few days have been great.  Both were outstanding.  It would be hard to choose between them butt (pun intended), I think Mark has the edge on flavor on the bark, butt not by much.

See ya…….

Tires, Friends, & More Friends

This morning was a normal morning until I plugged in the Pressure Pro tire monitoring tire system.  I had an alarm on the right front tire for low air pressure.  I checked it with a gauge and the other front also.   Both were about the same and fine.  I need two sensors.  My front two are probably about 8-9 years old and are starting to go bad.  So, we go on our way thru El Paso morning traffic.

The traffic was was pretty light on the outside loop.  We went straight over this mountain.  The Beast went down to 3rd gear and 35 MPH & 2100 RPM twice.  Other wise we went up it about 50 MPH.

Jerry & Carol Dale are broke down due to a bad steering box in their Newmar Workhorse chassis.  They’re in Las Cruses which is along our way and about 70 miles from us right now.  We gave them a call and we suggested we all go out for breakfast.  They suggested a nearby Cracker Barrel.  We met them about 8:30.  That is after going into New Mexico on the other side of El Paso.

They think and hope they will be back on the road next week sometime.  Their heading to their place in Quartzsite.  It was really warm in Cracker Barrel with that fire going.

They loaded their truck up with some toys before they left Livingston.

It was another normal windy day.

I guess you could say it was clear “sailing”.

Sharon & Don’s place.  Yes, they have a 2012 Phaeton.  So far it’s been pretty good to them.

Our temporary place.  It’s for sale…..

Here’s Don fixing my favorite rice with ginger and stuff.  It was really good.

They got some Christmas lights up.  Don likes getting up on a ladder.  I don’t think Sharon was around.

See ya………….

Up & Running

We got up and ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  We split a breakfast as usual and left with two coffees to go and filled stomachs.   With tip$13.05 out the door.  For some reason the frig didn’t fix itself.  Hey, you never know with this modern technology stuff.  Next stop will be El Paso.  In the mean time here are some pics from yesterday and today.

We got fuel before heading for the night at Cracker Barrel’s parking lot.  It was at the H.E.B. grocery store.   At $3.67 I’m getting to the pump.  Yes I blocked traffic but everyone was nice about it.  the Beast was a little thirsty at 83 gallons.  There went that $300 bucks.

The wind was a blowing during the day and it was a head wind.  I’m glad we were on back roads most of the day.

Here’s my dash with my two other ladies.

Is that snow?

Yepper….and they’re were quite a few of these snow covered cars going south.  And we are going north at the time!

I can dig it…….

Well over 200 of these things.

We got buffalo roaming around.  Didn’t see any antelope or deer playing though.

We get to El Paso around lunch time.  The tech said it sounded like a circuit board in the frig.  There was a Good Sam Park right next door to the repair shop so that was a no brainer.  FHU 50 AMP, cable $35.  Plus we got a $25 refund (mail in) from Good Sam club.  We’re not use to paying that but all things considered it was a good deal. 

The tech came out and after doing some checking he found a blown 5 AMP fuse in the back of the frig in the circuit board box.   When I looked at it it didn’t look bad but I couldn’t see all of the fuse in my defense.  Cost me $25 for the repair which was pretty good I feel.  Most places it’s a minimum $100 bucks or so.

No food went bad in the frig.  It went about 30 hours without power.  The ice just barely melted in the freezer.  Mark gave us some brisket so I had to eat all of it so it wouldn’t go bad.  It was good!….

Well, we got 800 miles behind us with 300 miles tomorrow to Don & Sharon’s.  We got a call from Carol & Jerry Dale.  They are hard down in Las Cruces, NM with a broken steering box in their motorhome.  Jerry said it actually broke while doing 40 MPH.  That could have been very bad.  They’re in a Passport America park in Las Cruces waiting for parts.  We will try and stop and cheer them up since we are going thru there.

See ya……