Archive for the ‘travel’ Category

Hello! Yes, we are moving on…..leaving Arizona tomorrow for Laughlin, Nevada (<- click for Laughlin tourism website). I love Laughlin, there are about seven or eight casinos that sit on the edge of the Colorado River in Laughlin. I will get pictures to show you how pretty the Colorado River is. I’ve been to Laughlin before and I always look forward to going back. There is an RV park across the street from one of the casinos that we stay at. The RV park does have a paid internet router service but I will not be hooking up to it because we are only staying in Laughlin for two days. There’s really not a whole lot to do in Laughlin but if you are a casino lover – you are in heaven. The pictures I will take will have to wait to be posted when I get to Vegas next week because I can blog to you on my Blackberry everyday but can’t post pictures on my blog from my Blackberry (bummer).

So, what did we do today? Packed up a little bit. It was a tad windy today with winds getting up to 30 mph. We loaded the bicycles on the RV and packed away the outside table and all the chairs. We are not in a rush to leave in the morning. Laughlin is a little over 200 miles from Yuma! Easy skip over to there. Tonight we went to the Quechan Casino, ugh, I didn’t do too well at all there today, lost about 100 bucks.

As for Jake, he’s doing super! He eats his new food twice a day, takes his medicine twice a day and has a treat once a day. I got two emails today asking how he’s doing. I’ve got people calling me “Crash” and asking how Jake is doing. “Hey Crash, how is Jake doing?” Nice, huh? I’ve got great friends! In the slight chance that you were wonder how I’m doing. I’m doing great. Healing nicely, the hand and knee will take a little longer to get better, but I can walk just fine. Don’t need a disability plaque card just yet

All in all, everything is great. Arizona was fun and we did a lot, but time to move on. Hope everyone is doing good and thanks for checking on me (or checking on Jake!) – LOL!

Hi! WOW, I love all the comments that came in. I would of approved them earlier today but my Blackberry is not working properly, so I had to log on to my netbook to approve them tonight for them to get posted. Thank you for coming along with me on this trip.

Today we explored the casinos of Southern California. How exciting! We started off this morning enjoying the buffet at the Quechan Casino just over the California line, not a bad price too at $4.95 with a magic players card. And with my points that I’ve accumulated, the total cost of the breakfast buffet came out to be Free for me! I love a free buffet. After the buffet…..no, we didn’t spend a dime in that casino today….we left and the first casino we went to was La Posta Casino on the La Posta Indian Reservation. It’s a very small casino off Exit 61 on I-8. There’s about 350 slot machines there. I did pretty good there. Came out with a $20 profit. Don’t get too excited, we’ve got two more casinos to go to. Ha! There’s another casino right off the same exit on the other side of the highway called the Golden Acorn Casino. I’m getting ahead of myself again. I’ll continue to tell you about the journey in a second, just let me show you some pictures on our way to Exit 61……

There’s a lot of rocks and boulders on the side of the highway on our way over to the casinos…..Back home we have grass and trees around our highways, but no grass and trees anywhere to be found here……

I got a comment from someone that said, “Why would you post pictures of the highway, we all know what a highway looks like”. Geez, I can’t make everyone happy. I laughed out loud and deleted that comment……moving on…..here’s a picture of the highway…..

Here’s another picture of the highway…….

Look what we came upon….(and another picture of the highway )……

Huge windmills! What a beautiful sight. Okay, we made it, here’s a picture of the La Posta Casino. This is 1 mile off the highway and it’s just looks like a warehouse on the outside. So when you get off the exit and turn right, go straight, and when you come to a warehouse with an entrance that looks like this, you found it…..

Here’s the Golden Acorn. You can see this casino from the highway. Take Exit 61 and turn left instead of right and you are there……

We spent 1 hour at La Posta (small casino with 350 slot machines) and two hours at Golden Acorn Casino. Golden Acorn Casino has 750 slot machines. I looked up all this information on the internet before we ventured out…..

Okay, we made it to Viejas Casino!! I like this one a lot. It’s got an outdoor mall across the street….more of an outlet center……Nike, Wilson Leather, Nine West…..

Now, I know that casino security frowns upon taking pictures inside a casino, but I’ve never seen any warning sign like this one before, “If you take a photograph or video inside this casino, your camera will be confiscated.” So, I put my camera in my pocket where it stayed……

Oh, this casino has 2,500 slot machines and this casino is off Exit 36 (I think) 20 miles west of Exit 61, definitely worth a pit stop if you are passing through the area. The casino is 2 miles off I-8. We played the slot machines here for 2 hours…..I lost some money here. I have to say that this casino is huge and if you lose the person you are with inside this casino, well, good luck finding that person. It’s like a super maze in there…..casino rooms attached to casino rooms. You can really get lost in this place. We did get a magic players card here and we enjoyed the prime rib dinner buffet here for $7.96……..yep, for $7.96 you can enjoy all the prime rib you can eat….it was super delicious too! You’ve got to stop here…….here’s some pictures of the outlet shops (there’s 60 stores here)……

Oh, and look what I found sitting at the San Diego Visitor’s Center at the outlet mall……hmmmm…….you know what I’m thinking……did we hit all the casinos or did we miss a few?? ha!

Anyways, I flipped through this magazine (I don’t know if I should call it a magazine with only about 8 pages in it), but it looks like there are two more casinos in the area that we missed……maybe another trip at another time. We got home around 7:30pm and spent some time with Jake walking him to the mail center here at the RV park to check the mail and then fed him. He’s doing great and tomorrow will be a Jake Day and a Blackberry Day (there’s a repair shop down the street here)! OH, one more thing, we are all done gambling! Yes, we are! We all said we are not going to gamble anymore this year! LOL!!! Have a great night and thanks for the comments, you all make my day so much better!

Hi! Okay, I know I’m going a little crazy with the camera lately but I want you to see everything I see!!! Get comfy, this is gonna be a long one…..Today was a typical touristy day!

This morning we went to Mexico from 9am to 11am….I brought my eyeglasses prescription with me in the RV from home because I wanted to get some eye glasses in Mexico. I have a pair of glasses now that I got from my eye doctor back home and I requested a prescription written because I knew I would be visiting Mexico and wanted to explore their eyeglasses style. (Did I just repeat myself – sigh – senior moment). So, anyways, we went to Mexico this morning and..ohhhhh….they have all the brand name eye glasses down here – Prada, Gucci, Versace, and they even have a brand here that I’ve never heard of before called “Casino”!!! I don’t care how they look on me……I love them already!

Oh, prices…….the prices between eye doctor offices in Mexico vary because they are all craving for your business, but with the transitional and anti-scratch lenses, and frame, the Casino brand ones that I want are $109.00 complete. Not bad huh? I might get two pairs of glasses! They have neat eye glasses styles down there……anyways, I got a few pictures of Mexico today…..

Don’t know why this picture came out hazy…..anyways, this is the police car in Mexico – ha, like you can’t figure that out, huh

We went to the bakery today in Mexico and you see on the top shelf is loaves of bread…well, they are 30 cents each. Very good bread, we bought 3 of them today…..

Everything is for sale in Mexico – these here are 60 dollars. Well, they started off at 60 dollars. When I started to walk away, they guy brought the price down to 40 dollars and then again down to 30 dollars. I kept walking…….

Oh, we went to the liquor store to buy Dad some cigarettes. This is Margarita mix – no, I didn’t buy any liquor today, but I wanted to show you the price…….

Ohhhh, this is the place I was looking at frames for new glasses!!! I can’t wait to take my prescription back and see which ones I decide on……

Okay, moving on, after we left Mexico around 11am, we headed over to the Quechan Casino which is on the same road to go home (how convenient!) and I walked in with $100 and walked out with $84 dollars, so I lost, but not too much. We ate lunch at the buffet and I didn’t have to pay a dime – I had COMP points on my magic players card that paid for my buffet! You can’t lose with a buffet, all the food is really good, but when the buffet is free somehow it just tastes sooooo much better!!!

So, we left the casino and flipped through our tourist magazine we got free in Yuma and saw that there was a Antique Car Museum in Bard, California – not far at all, right next to that Imperial Date Factory we went to earlier in the week. About 30 miles away. So we stopped by there and checked out the place…..

We are still exploring…..do you see what I see????? Is it a….??

It IS a slot machine…..Oh, boy! Yesss……Do I touch, do I not touch??? Hmmmmm…….

Yeah! Let’s touch!!! Nickle goes in…….

Hang on and let er rip!!!!

Oh, it actually works!!! LOOK at those reels spin!!!! I won 3 nickles……..

Okay enough with the slot machine…..didn’t want to break it…….moving on to do other exploring…….

Okay, that’s what we did today. And tonight we are having dinner at the rec hall here. We bought tickets for a steak dinner for $6. We bring our ticket, they provide the steak and we have to cook it ourselves on the grill. Pay for it and cook it ourselves?? Hmmmm…..I’ll let ya know how mine comes out – Ha! Have a good night and I’ll bug ya tomorrow.

Hi! I was a ghost hunter today! We went to a ghost town in “Castle Dome” not too far from here. From where I am…probably 30 miles north. This a mine town right on the base of the mountains on outskirts of the north part of Yuma. It’s a small town. Remember those movies with the cowboy towns and everything is right next door to each other – hotel, bank, bar church……yep, a small town…..I’ve got pictures! (Oh, this is so far out in the middle of no where – both Nextel and AT&T cell phones had no service. This might not be important to you, but I was tapping the screen of my phone trying to find service)

This is the road to get there!

See! It says Ghost Town!

A little bit of history for ya!

It’s like a mini town!

This is the hotel lobby….

There’s a safe in the bank! Wonder if there is money in there??

Yep! I just had to look……

Someone’s bedroom…..

OH, a miner in the hole…..let’s look……

No one down there now……

This room here….anyone that served in any part of a military branch can sign the wall!

Want to buy some cigarettes???

Found running water inside one of the cabins…..

Close up picture of running water…….I was told that they dug 780 feet below and couldn’t find any water, they dug 1,100 feet to find water!

Me holding a gun…oh boy……

Hey, don’t forget, we are still looking for a ghost! I swear these rocking chairs were rocking by themselves! Spooky!

This is the grocery store…..

Okay, that’s what we did today. I didn’t find a ghost this time…..

Tonight we went to Card Bingo. Playing Bingo with a deck of cards every Wednesday night. I like that game. And tomorrow we already have plans to go to Mexico tomorrow morning! I’ll bring my camera cause you never know what will happen down there. Is it dangerous in Mexico? Nope, where we cross, they welcome tourists, we keep their town alive. I had my mail forwarded to me last week (I have one of those UPS Store boxes and their service ships mail to wherever you are), anyways, I got my mail last night around 7pm by UPS and I got my “Popular Science” magazine which I love! I read alittle bit of it last night before I fell asleep. So, that’s what I want to know….what is your favorite magazine! Do you like the magazine “Popular Science”? Well, that’s all I’ve got for today. Check on my tomorrow! Have a good night!

Hi There! Well, I promised you I would take my camera today, so I hope you enjoy all the pictures I got for ya! Give it an extra second or two to let the site download all the pictures! Great pictures too……

This morning was rainy. Ugh. I thought for sure the day was shot, so we decided to go to the movies at noon. We went to see “Old Dogs”. It’s a Disney movie! Great kid friendly movie with a very nice story. I enjoyed it. When we got out from the movies, the weather seemed to of turned around and it was 68 degrees and the sun was shining high! So we went out exploring…..

First stop – Imperial Dam. We had read about this location in the Yuma visitors guide. The road was blocked off to vehicles, but we could walk around and visit. There really isn’t much to do there, but they have a very nice view.

See the road was block (I take pictures of everything!) …….

This lake is on my left and the Imperial Dam is on my right…..

Too bad we couldn’t walk on the dam walkway, but that was blocked off to pedestrians…..

We left there and a little ways down the road there is alot of RVs dry camping…..I think this some sort of national park, there is a fee to stay here, $5 dollars a night…..

RVers just hanging out, they waved at us while we drove by…..

We drove down the road and there was the lake to my left and alot of RVs camping on my right…..

Now, this is a neat place….we drove down there just to look around. Dry camping and peaceful……

There were hundreds of campers of all sort dry camping……

After our journey through the mountains and the Imperial area, we stopped here on the way home……

Across the street from the store is the date trees…..

So that is what we did today. We ate dinner at the new Panda Express here next to Walmart near our RV Park and it was good. We have a Panda Chinese Restaurant in New Hampshire, so I’m familiar with their fast food. I got my fortune cookie and the fortune in the cookie said, “ATM on the right, Casino on the left” – NOoooo, I’m kidding! It didn’t say that – HA! My fortune said “Speak less of your plans – You will get more of them done”. Hmmmmm, basically I translate that to say that I talk too much! I probably do, but I’m that kind of social butterfly! Have a great night – OH, and the question of the day for you….I want to know…..what is your favorite fast food joint! Hey, got another question for all you RVers…..Have you tried dry camping? What do you think of dry camping? We have never tried it. Give me your dry camping story! Nite Nite!

Hi! I don’t have pictures today, but I’m in a yapping mood, so you will have to suffer through all I have to say. Nooo, don’t hit the “Close” button yet on the browser just yet. I might have something interesting to say. Let’s see, first off, what did we do today? Everyone gets to that point in their life where you know the wiring between the two DVD players, the surround sound system, and the TV just isn’t right. Our TV works great, and our DVD player works great, but the surround sound system isn’t working right. Wiring problems? Gotta be! So we took the TV out and traced the wires between all the video and audio systems to see if we were missing something, and it looks like there’s a cord belonging (belonging? is that a word?), that belongs between the TV and one of the DVD players to activate the surround sound system around the RV. I know that makes no sense at all, but after an hour of fidgeting around between all the tech stuff here, we have come to that conclusion. Anyways, we will go to radio shack and pick up the wire and give it a shot. I don’t know, we will figure it out. Oh well….enough about that.

Let me tell you a little about Yuma! That’s where we are – Yuma, Arizona until Feb 4th (then where? Vegas baby!), and I wanted to tell you a little about Yuma! There’s a few things I want to hit on. First off, there were 9 movies made in Yuma or right around the Yuma neighborhood. 1) The Son of the Sheik – 1926, 2) Road to Morocco – 1942, 3)Flight of the Phoenix – 1965, 4) Yep, you guessed it, Star Wars! – 1977, 5) Rambo III – 1988, 6) Stargate – 1993, 7) The Getaway – 1993, The Scorpion King – 2002, 9) Jarhead – 2005.

There! That’s your entertainment and history lesson all in one. Anyways, what else did we do today? Oh, we went to Walmart and went to the Quechan Casino and Resort. Ugh, I lost a little bit of money there, but I was doing pretty good at Keno! I like Keno, I remember when I was in Las Vegas last winter and I played the live Keno (not the Keno on an electronic machine, live Keno where you fill in the numbers with a pencil and give it to a Keno host), anyways, I played the Keno at the Binion Casino and I won $380, I got 6 out of 7 numbers. I couldn’t believe it! I love Keno now! We don’t have Keno in New Hampshire, actually we don’t have any gambling in New Hampshire. Keno is in Massachusetts and the casinos are in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine.

The Peanut Patch here in Yuma is neat. I’m still thinking about it. If you are in town you really should stop by. The store has peanuts, peanut brittle, medjool dates, homemade fudge, honey, trail mixes, and citrus. Yep, I’ve got the brochure right here and I’m reading in the brochure that peanuts are a vegetable!! They are a legume! Legumes are a rich source of plant protein that contains no cholesterol. Peanuts can help reduce risk of heart disease, help you with weight loss, and peanuts contains vitamins! You can look the details up on your own time, I’m just reading what’s in the brochure! The Peanut Patch is at 4322 E. County 13th Street and their phone number is 1-800-USA-PNUT.  They have a free tour on Tuesdays and Fridays in the months of January, February, and March. Neat!

Oh, I want to hit on Lutes Casino a little bit more too (where we had dinner last night)! I had a few people email me that wanted more information on this restaurant. I got that brochure here too! And it’s interesting too….Though this is called “casino”, there isn’t any gambling at the Arizona’s oldest pool hall. Basically, it’s just a hamburger and beer joint! And they have great hamburgers too (That part isn’t in the brochure, I’M telling ya that for a fact ), so let’s see here…..The Lutes family still owns and operates the “casino”, which R.H. Lutes acquired when a gambler to whom he’d loaned money couldn’t pay back his debt! Interesting story, huh? I thought so! Neat little place! FYI: Not really a RV friendly area. There’s plenty of parking, but I am talking about downtown. You will have to be super creative to park a RV down there, so I don’t recommend it.

Well, that’s pretty much all I have on my mind today. Tomorrow we have plans to go exploring…I can’t tell you where! You’ll have to come back right here on this site to find out what we did and take a peek at some of the pictures I got! Yep, I’ll bring my camera! Have a good night and chat tomorrow! OH, and leave me a comment…say Hi….tell me what you are up to….don’t by shyyyy

Hi! Well, today was a nice easy day. Today we checked in at the office (remember we arrived at the campground and got setup in our site late Friday night). So we all talked about how long we wanted to stay and all the other destinations we wanted to see this winter and we came to decide to stay in Yuma for 2 months! Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to travel and see what else is down the road, but when it comes to settling down for a couple of months and enjoying the area and company around me, nothing makes me more happy! So we are here until Feb 4th, then we will head up to Las Vegas for a couple of weeks. So, what else did we do today? Not much, it was very very windy out. I watched some TV and do you remember the corn on the cob we picked up at the flea market……

Today was rainy and windy….I think I brought the Northeast weather with me…..The rain here is very misty so this is how we tell if it’s raining out…..it’s just a fine type mist that you can hardly see. I see that there are RVs around us with some minor awning damage due to the wind. It’s very windy outside and the wind stayed with us all thru the evening.

Ohhhh, dinner is almost ready…..

Even Jake got lazy today….I caught him falling asleep on top of the couch…..

This evening I went to Bingo at the Paradise Casino here in Yuma. We are staying off Exit 12 off Highway 8 and Paradise Casino is off Exit 1 so it’s not too far away. Bingo was from 6 to 8 tonight and I went with my neighbor, she’s alot of fun! I didn’t win, but she won $50 bucks! I’ll try again next week!

Time to go back to relaxing…..have a great night! Oh, we will be doing alot coming up in the next few weeks, we’ve got a Christmas Parade happening soon, we are going to visit Old Yuma, and there are some landmarks that I’m going to talk about! Thanks for checking on me!

Hi! I think I’m going to make this more of a picture blog entry! Hey, I’ve got internet here at our Yuma RV Park. So I downloaded all my pictures and found the best ones to post for you. Just give it an extra second to download them on your screen and I hope you enjoy them…..

When we left El Paso, this is what we were faced with……I left New England so I wouldn’t see this stuff…..and now it’s on the ground…..

The bicycles got their share of it too…….

See, it wasn’t just a little dusting either……

Well, the sun was coming out, so it didn’t last long…..so you think…..

This is I-10 in New Mexico……

And at 8am, this is what is sneaking up behind us……

We made it to Yuma that same day and the next day we went out exploring……this is what we found in Yuma…..The Foxy Company was putting together their finest veggies for you right there in the field on the side of the road……..

They pick, wash, pack, and ship right there from the field. After it’s boxed up, the tractor trailer back right up and is loaded right there on the spot and shipped to your local grocery store!

After we drove around enjoying the scenery, we stopped at the Quechan Casino (of course!). This casino opened last winter while we were here. It was quite busy today. I lost $60 bucks……

After we left the casino, we headed down the street (like 4 miles or so from the casino) and we went into Mexico to check out what’s going on today!

A festival was happening in Mexico. In case you are wondering, we park the car on the United States side and walk over the border. As you can see, the town is right there! And when you leave, you just have to show your passport to the border inspector and then you pay $5 dollars to leave the parking lot to the toll attendant.

The Margarita’s were flowing and they were all free…….

After the shows, we went walking around to the little shops……Everything here is negotiable…..I have a blanket I bought in Mexico last winter that was $7 dollars, I love that blanket and I wanted another one of another color, so I found a vendor who was selling the blanket that I wanted and he said (in his cool Mexican accent) as he points to the stack of blankets, “$12 dollars”. I said, “No, not $12 dollars.” He said, “What do you want to pay?” I said, “Not $12 dollars.” He said, “$10 dollars”. I said, “No, $8 dollars.” He said, “$9 dollars right now.” I said “$8 dollars right now.” He said, “Okay, pick your blanket.” So, I flipped thru the colors and found one I liked and gave him $8 dollars (exact change of course) and we were on our way. We stopped by the bakery next door and bought some bread for 30 cents a loaf. Yep, 30 cents a loaf! Good bread too. Very sweet tasting bread. Different than what we have here in the United States. But, anyways, we moved on and I think that’s all we bought – NO, I almost forgot, we did buy a couple of cartons of cigarettes for Dad. They sell the same exact brand down in Mexico and up in New Hampshire, they are $54 dollars a carton, and down in Mexico, that same carton (looks the same and everything) sells for $20.50. So we got some of those.

During the festival, they had alot of vendor tables out on the sidewalk giving away free stuff. Alot of pharmacies had tables out giving out boxes of free pills. Between the cut up English language, I think I understood, “This is for flu. This is Vitamin C. This is for menopause. This is for anti-depression. This is for heart burn.” And it’s funny because they were passing those out. I mean, you don’t go by the table and pick them up or pick up what you want, they are shoving them in your plastic bag you get at the beginning of the line! I had more pills than I knew what to do with, or wondered again what they were for! So it was time to leave and I juggled my bags to get my Passport ID card out (have you seen these yet, they look like a driver’s license) and got in line to check out of Mexico. It’s always an easy procedure thru the border and the inspectors just want to know what ya got (if you have more than 2 cartons of cigarettes on ya, you don’t have to pay tax on the first one, but all cartons after that, you have to pay taxes on them at the border. But we only had one per person on us). So I’m waiting in line and it’s my turn next and I’m called up to the counter. Mr. Inspector sees my bags and says to me (of course in perfect English), “What do you have on you?” I say, “I got a carton of cigarettes. A blanket. And a bunch of pills for free.” I knew if I had purchased the pills, I would of had to produce a receipt. He immediately looks from his computer screen to me and says, “Where did you get the pills?” I say, “The vendors were passing out a ton of them.” Hey, I was telling the truth – gulp! So he says, “You are only suppose to bring back one pill.” I’m assuming he meant “one box of pills” because that all I had was boxes and boxes of pills. I say, “Okay, so, I’ll pick one andddddd……” as I look around for a trash can. He goes, “Just go. Just go ahead and you’re all set. Just go.” and I hear a big sigh from him as I left the counter will all my pills that I forgot what they were for and I don’t really know what I’m going to do with.

We left Mexico and went to another casino (you knew that, didn’t ya!), and we stopped by the Paradise Casino. This is a small casino in Yuma. We played some slot machines there and then headed home again. Our friend here, next door to us, was with us all day today, she made us dinner tonight and gave me access to her internet router. She’s great company and alot of fun to be with too. That was nice of her. So after dinner at her RV, we came back to the Montana (just next door) and gave Jake a bath and tucked him into bed.

As for me….I unfolded my new blanket from Mexico and laid it over my comforter and I’m ready for bed! I’ll leave ya with some other pictures I took in Mexico. Have a great night tomorrow is flea market day and we are dining out…..check on me tomorrow!

Wow! We made it to Yuma! Yippee! We get to settle down for a couple of weeks and first thing first – to fix our three-legged RV next week. Remember, one of our front legs gave out on I-495 in Massachusetts on the very beginning of our trip and I’m hoping we can get it fixed with no headaches. And if I see headaches with the service or warranty segment of repairing the unit, I’ll certainly be blogging about it in detail! I like to yap! LOL!

Okay, so we are in the RV park for now, at least for a few weeks to start off with then we either stay or we move on. The freedom of being planless (is that a word?)

Oh, we obviously don’t have internet tonight since we got here at 7pm tonight, plugged in, and just open the sliders. We will take care of setting up the rest later.

The reason it has been a long day is because we woke up this morning in El Paso to one inch of snow in the ground. And the local weather station said that I-10 was shut down in Las Cruces, New Mexico and sure enough, when we got to Las Cruces, we sat stopped on I-10 for about an hour before traffic started moving again.

But, for now we have plans for tomorrow all ready. We have a friend here we visit and what an angel she is! She made us dinner tonight and told us what was going on for local events and tomorrow there is a Mexico Festival across the border – Oh, that reminds me to get my passport out. So we are going to go to the festivities in Mexico and I will be taking my camera! I can’t wait.

If I’m lucky enough to catch an internet signal (I haven’t checked yet), but if I’m that lucky I will be adding a lot more pictures to my blog.

Well, this is my quick blog for the day, sorry if I jipped ya and you didn’t get your money’s worth, I’ll try to do better tomorrow. I’m tired after the 480 mile haul with the traffic tie up, so I’m going to feed Jake and hop in bed. I’m so happy to be here! Nite Nite!

Hello! Wow, what a long trip today! Over 580 miles covered in one day. We woke up in the San Antonio area to a 30 degree temperature and we got the wheels rolling at 7am knowing that we had a long day ahead of us. We watched the weather on TV last night and they mentioned the “S” word! The “S” word in our current area??? That’s impossible! I mean, isn’t that why we left New England in the first place – to get away from that stuff! So we wouldn’t have to see it in the first place!! Soooo not fair

Anyways, along with my trusty Blackberry (which I’m using now because, sure enough again, I’ve got no internet service at the Sunland Racetrack and Casino in El Paso), anyways, my blackberry has weather radar and I can also get a hold of my online buddies nationwide to see what’s going on around us weather wise.

So, temperature wise, it was not going to be a good day at all – the temperature lingered between 30 and 35 all day and sure enough, that wind was hitting us all day…..we plowed thru two tanks of fuel, but we knew we had to get out of Texas, the snow was on our tail…

There is no Nextel service between San Antonio and El Paso – I was off line for 8 hour due to this and the last thing that was transmitted to me via Blackberry was from a trucker a little north of us informing everyone that I-40 had a mandatory shut down due to ice from Texas into New Mexico. We stayed on I-10 the whole time from San Antonio to El Paso.

As I had no cell signal or internet service, I decided to live in real time and enjoy the scenery…..

I actually had a chance to drive today too…my dad gave up the steering wheel to me I drove this pick up and fifthwheel before and today was a nice and easy day for me to add some miles to the truck. We were going along and another fifthwheel RV traveler caught up to us. No, I’m not a slow driver, I was going 70, he was speeding. Anyways, I see it’s a white pick up truck carrying a Montana fifthwheel – the Montana must of been 7 or 8 years old – no biggie.

So THIS is where I made my mistake and next time, I will keep my mouth shut. I casually mention “Oh look we have another fifthwheel RVer behind us. Cool.” Now, let me just say that I don’t care what your driving, as long as it makes you happy. I couldn’t care less about what vehicle you own – whatever it may be – more power to you. Well, my dad don’t see vehicle ownership the same way I do. Nope, far from it…..

The pick up truck pulling the Montana behind us decides to pass me. No biggie to me. My dad asks me “What is it? A dodge??” I peek in the driver side mirror and say “Nope” and continue looking straight ahead where my eyes should be. I don’t care what kind truck the guy is driving. My dad on the other hand is getting a little hyper “Is it a Chevy? Is it a Chevy?? It better not be a Ford passing me!”
Ohhh lord….I sigh and I peek out the mirror again and repeat myself (knowing exactly what kind of truck it is) “It’s not a Dodge.” The pick up truck is in the process of passing us just about now and the couple inside waves to us. I meekly wave back and my dad points at it and states “It’s a Ford! A God Damn Ford is passing us!!” My mom is in the back seat and my dad looks at me and orders “You let him in, you stay up with him, and when we hit a hill, we are gonna remind him that he has a Ford!!” I personally don’t understand the competitiveness, but I got my direct orders, so I kick it up 5 mph more. My mom don’t like this idea at all and I knew she wouldn’t, so she takes advantage of the rest area that is coming up in 4 miles. She says “Why don’t we stop at the rest area?” This statement is probably the only 8 words that is gonna get me out of this situation. And keep in mind that we are in Texas, not too many hills around to teach the Ford a lesson.

So, my dad caves and says “Fine. We will stop. We’ll catch him, he’s gotta stop somewhere for gas.” So we let Jake out to do his thing and three minutes later we are back on the road – me behind the wheel still. We are mosey along and good ol’ Dad is scouting out rest areas as we scoot along on I-10.

Three hours pass by and we stop again to switch drivers and we are pulling out of the rest area and see the Ford zipping by on the highway as we are coming out of the rest area. My dad is at it again and says “There he is! All I need is one hill and when I get done with him, he’ll be trading that Ford for a Dodge!” As for me, I just don’t get it. But, it’s okay, the whole thing makes for a good comedy show and a blog posting!

So we trail the Ford for about a 1/2 hour looking for a hill and the Ford calls it a day and takes an exit and we whizz by and I wave, my Dad keeps driving…..

After the Ford episode, we have reached a part of Texas that had snow on the ground. Like, real snow, so I snapped some pictures of it. And when I got Nextel service back in El Paso, I put out a post to my friends that I am looking at snow and a 30 degree temperature. My New England buddies all came back with the same news of it being in the low 60′s! Like I want to hear that! And I’m freezing in Texas.

We are staying at the Sunland Racetrack and Casino tonight and let me tell what “luck” is. They have 8 hook ups here for RVs. It’s a “first come, first serve” and if you don’t get a spot, you are out of luck. Last winter we didn’t get a spot and had to dry camp in the parking lot here (it wasn’t freezing like this last year). Tonight there was one hook up spot open! 1 out of 8!! With all the snowbirds traveling thru, I couldn’t believe we got a spot! So we plugged in and turned the furnace on…..good for the night and Jake is warm and comfy.

It’s $10 a night here, so we went inside to pay and played the slot machines for a while. And now it’s about 9pm and I’m exhausted. I can hear the little electric heater next to my bed and I am one happy camper!

So, today’s question of the day for ya! You know what we drive. What do you drive? Are you a Dodge Diehard, a Faithful Ford owner, maybe a Chevy Committed owner?? Maybe you don’t care what you drive and what you drive you can afford? Even better! Tell me what you drive and don’t forget to tell me whyyyyy!

Off to bed with Jake. Got 500 miles to go and will probably do that over two days. We are heading to Yuma first to lock in a site for three months and then after the holidays, we are heading up to Vegas for a week or two. Have a great night!