Fort Worth Area on our Road trip - Mar 2019

We drove from Abilene to Aledo TX on Thursday.  We arrived in Abilene the night before and found a La Quinta motel.  This was the first time in a long time that we have stayed with them and we were impressed.  The room with a king-sized bed was in the $70 range after taxes.  The room was in good shape.  We could pay more for a better room, but we had to pay what is costs for a Hampton Inn or a Fairfiled/Marriott.

We've been staying at Days Inn and that has been OK.  It has been costing over $70 after taxes.  The beds are OK and the rooms have been clean, but the furniture and rooms are a little beat up.   So we liked what we have found at La Quinta.  We will be giving them another try.

We asked for brisket BBQ recommendations at the front desk and were informed dinner at Betty Rose BBQ was pretty good.  So we gave it a try.

It was what we were hoping for and fit the bill.  We had overloaded in NM on New Mexican food, so it was nice to have a change.

After dinner we went to Walmart and also filled up the gas tank at Murphy's gas.  I took Pam back to the room and then went over to Starbucks to do more work on my manuscript.  I didn't last too long, but progress is progress.

We got up the next morning and shared a decent breakfast at Denny's.  Since we were in no hurry to get to Fort Worth, we took a leisurely windshield tour of Abilene after the morning workday started.  We liked Abilene.   The town has a few historical places and some museums that would be good to see on a future visit.  We were there early, so none were yet open, and we hit the highway and continued down the road.

After we got on the outskirts of Abilene Pam asked if I had anything to followup on.  I did, so she drove most of the rest of the way to Aledo.  I was able to correspond with USAA who handling our homeowners insurance.  I also got in touch with the mortgage company and did some things.  We are on schedule for closing next Friday morning, March 29.

We arrived at Brad's and Sue's place late morning and just hung out for a while.  Sue is a beloved high school counselor and at work so we ran some errands and got back to their place in time for some golf and NCAA basketball on TV.

We went out to dinner at Drakes's Yoke near their place and returned for the evening.  On Friday while Sue was a school Pam drove the golf cart while Brad and I played 18 holes at Hawks Creek Golf Course.

It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time.  I think we even got a birdie or two...

Next after golf, we had lunch in Fort Worth at the Railhead Smokehouse.  It was amazing and even better than the brisket we had in Abilene.

Yum.

Last night Jo and Andy came over for dinner.  We had the pleasure of meeting them while we were stationed at Norton AFB, CA in the 1980's.  Brad and Sue knew them before we did when Andy and Brad flew tankers while stationed at Loring AFB, ME.  It was a great evening full of reminiscing and catching up.

Pam and I have had a fantastic road trip and we are very grateful to be seeing friends and family during the last couple of weeks.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Changing Gears, Downsizing, and Questions?

We've thought about this day and it is finally upon us.  We wondered how we'd feel about it when the time finally came to switch things up.  The time is now here.

We're going to be selling the Roadrunner and downsizing.

Depending on how things work out we'll be moving to the next stage of our lives. Getting another but smaller RV is part of our plan at some point, but we have other things on the To-Do List before that happens.

To-Do List for the next few months:

• Sell Roadrunner
• Go to Virginia Beach for a few weeks
• Look for/buy a house? 
• Take a road trip out west?
• Return to VB and find a place
• Buy a used Class C
• More RVing (part-time)

After we get to Virginia Beach, an option for us might be to take a road trip out west.  We're thinking of traveling in the CR-V from Virginia - Arizona and return. We may stay with friends and family along the way.  Then we could return to VB and see where things are.

Here's some questions we've heard so far with some quick answers:

Why are we doing this?  Why now?
We definitely have mixed emotions about this but wouldn't be doing it if we ultimately really didn't want to do this.  The main reason for doing this is to be near and involved in our grandkids lives as they get older.  Harrison will soon be 2 and a couple of weeks after that Brooks will be 4.  They like having us around and we like being with them,  so we feel like now is the time to make some changes.

We also like being near our kids.  We enjoy spending time with Kelly and Jon and working on projects.  Adam and Melissa are only a few hours away too, so that is another bonus.

How Did We Decide on this course of action?

Last summer we started talking out loud about the possibility of changing from full-time to part-time RVers.  We believe grandparents can have a positive impact on kids lives and want to be those grandparents.  We discussed lots of things but the bottom line is that we love RVing and yet love our grandsons more.  The best choice is for us to cut back on our time on the road and spend more time with them.

Are we road-weary?
No!  We love being on the road, but we are focused on a higher priority for the next few years.  We fully intend to continue with RV living as often as we can.  We think that will mean trips every few months for a few weeks.

How do we feel about the change?
Mixed emotions, meaning we loved every minute of full-timing but we need to do this.  We need to be present and move on.  We look forward to the adventures ahead and learning how to "settle down" again.

How long have We Been on the Road?
We have been on the road since May 2009.  Looks like we will end this stint of full-timing just shy of 10 years.

What kind of a place will you get?
We are thinking a small 1100-1500 sq. ft. single family house, not a condo or townhouse.

Do You think you will full-time again?
Don't really know, but we wouldn't be surprised if we do when the boys get older.

Will you keep blogging/writing?
Absolutely!  I have lots of posts that I've started and are begging to be completed. I love writing and am learning a lot with the forthcoming book.

Where are you in the process of selling the Roadrunner?
We have had extensive exchanges with the buyer will get together in a few weeks.  I think they'll be pleased with what they're getting.  It looks like a win-win and we will do what we can to make that happen.  If that doesn't work for some reason, we'll go back to plan A, which is advertise and actively market it beginning in April.

What's next in the coming days? 
Cleaning, polishing, and emptying the Roadrunner, packing up things and preparing the Roadrunner for sale. Also I'm working on our forthcoming book: "The Wonder of RV Living," Roadrunner Chronicles, Vol 1 and continuing to write more blog posts.  We still have so much to tell of the places we've seen and where we've been.  And I have more ideas for the next manuscript.

It's been a real joy and quite a ride.  And we're looking forward to the days ahead.  Thanks for joining us on this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!

A Dinger and Did I Just Do That?- July 2016

Seems as if we have been incorporating a little more things in 'challenging' department lately.  I note these events and some to follow in order to not only share them, but also to remember what happened along the way...  The more we do full time and 'Live the Dream' the harder it becomes at times to remember exactly what happened and when.  But this is one day we will probably remember ;(

Last month while at brother Marty's cabin I was so excited that we got into the parking space in front of his without incident.  Like not a scratch!

I had been wondering for a year whether or not the Roadrunner was going to fit into the parking place in front of his cabin.  He said it would be no problem and was convinced that their was plenty of room.

Two years ago we were there but did not bring the Roadrunner.  We left the motorhome in the campground at Travis AFB and drove the few hours up to Arnold CA in our Honda and visited over a couple of weekends.  We did not think we'd ever bring the coach to his place despite his encouragement to do so.

But this time we did.  We drove to a campground in Angels Camp which is about 20 miles away.  Then we drove over to his place and took a look and decided yes it did look like it would fit and it was level and should be doable.

Then the day came when we drove it over, parked it in the little community center parking lot and did some tree branch trimming.

Pam helped me as I slowly backed into place and it had plenty of room.  Best thing was that we did not have even a scratch.  The trim job on the trees did the job.  

After our time there, we left and took a right out of the driveway.  Big mistake.  I should have returned the same way we took when we drove in.  But I thought we could make the very sharp turn up the hill at the stop sign 200 yards down the road where it met Moran Dr.  Nope.

I thought I had swung wide enough and gone far enough onto the other road before turned hard right.  Trouble.  I high-centered the PS on the edge of the road as I made the turn and dragged bottom in the middle.  Ugh.

That is a most awful sound.  I felt sick.  I drove it about a mile to a larger intersection where I could survey the damage.  It bend the mud flap a bit and and creased the bottom of PS doors two and three.  You can see the slight change in the lines along the bottom of the bay doors.

These are the two pictures I sent Bruce Deaton in Red Bay.  He said he thought he could fix it without getting new doors so that was a plus.  

It was a tough way to spend the day but we weren't through yet.  

This is the route we took for the 225 miles to Travis AFB.

We like to have a full tank before we find our campsite.  We found a large convenience store with diesel. It had large trucks in there so we knew we could get in and out without a problem.

Speaking of problems...it began when Pam alerted me that I was putting gasoline into our diesel tanks.  No---!!!  Yes.  Even though I had only put in 15 gallons that was enough for some big trouble.  I was stunned.  Shocked.  How could I do that??  

Oh man - this day just got a little harder.  We found a diesel service facility three miles away but I did not want to turn on the engine and get the gas all through the system.  We called CoachNet and they had a big unit come and tow us.

 Even though they were really busy, they put a technician on it and he drained our tanks.

A couple of hours later, we had 15 gallons of diesel and continued on our way to the base where we filled up.

 It was a tough day but the way I figure it.  Its all part of the adventure.  I would not wish dents or gas problems on anyone, but it happens and we just have to deal with it.  The towing did not cost us anything but we had to talk it over at length with CoachNet.

I was explicit from the first phone call explaining what I did, but they said they did not cover 'accidents'.  They relented after a few phone calls back and forth and said because they did not mention it during any one of our 5 previous conversations, they would pay it this time.  That was $800 worth of good news.

Emptying the tanks cost us 95 gallons of fuel plus $1200 and about 6 hours before it was all said and done.  Lot of lessons learned that day...

Thanks for joining us today.  More adventures and tales to come on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Heading toward Virginia Beach

We had a four plus hour driving yesterday and found a good overnight stop along I-20.  Pam found a park called R Vacation.  They asked for a lot of details including how long the motorhome was and where the satellite antenna was located on the coach (front-middle-back).

They wanted to be sure they put us in a spot where we could get our DirecTV working.  I found this interesting even though we have cable here.  It just stands out as an example of how some campgrounds really try to accommodate folks and we appreciate it.

We left Augusta at a fairly good hour - before 8:00 AM.  After a couple of hours, Pam drove

and finished up the day's trip as we pulled into Selma, NC in the early afternoon.  The person in the office was nice and friendly.  Before we got there I had remembered that we have stayed here once before.

In April of 2013, also drove from Augusta after the Masters.  From there we were also going to Virginia Beach and we stayed at this very same campground.

Amber, the young woman at the desk, looked it up and found that we were already in there system and consolidated her records.  Then we paid for the one night stay and she swiped the credit card had me sign on her iPad mini.

That was a first!  Never signed into a campground in that way.  Pretty high tech!

This is another solid park.  It is a modest one which is systematically being upgraded.  Right now they are building a new clubhouse next to the swimming pool.  The roads are gravel and there are no pot holes.  The sites are level and the trees are trimmed so they don't gauge the side of the motor home.  It is open and easy to drive through the campground.  We'd stay here again.

We made it over to our site and set up.  It was supposed to get real cold again so we didn't bother to hook up the hose or connect the sewer.  While I was doing that I got to meet our next door neighbor John.  He's from the Boston area and had his new 2015 Newmar Ventana only a few weeks.  His battery on his Hyundai tow car had died a couple of times and he wondered if it was normal.

I told him that happened to us quite a few times before we finally figured out we need to pull the radio fuse each time we tow our Honda CRV.  We also have a set of 20' jumper cables we have used and a $30 battery charger we picked up at Walmart to jump the car.

We rested for a while, over to the outlet stores and got a call from long-time Albuquerque friends Bub and Winnie that they were already at the restaurant.  They were nice enough to get in touch with us last week when we indicated our intentions of heading to Virgina Beach.  We stopped here for the night since it was not too far from where they now live.

It was nice to see our friends again.  They have made some big changes since we saw them last in Mesa, AZ.  They are both now retired have done some traveling on the West Coast and North West before re-located over here to be closer to their daughter.

We don't mind being on the road but one downside is that sometimes friends get in touch but we have already left the area before we have a chance to say 'hi'.  Such was the case in Augusta when Paul (R Sanity RV Adventures) had a shout out and inquired about getting together.

It was one of those rare occasions when we had plans to meet up with our friends Bub and Winnie here last night.  We would have loved to work out something but we were already down the road when we got the note.  We've haven't met Paul and Marti yet but look forward to that one day.

That's how we spent our Wednesday in the Roadrunner traveling down the highway.  It was a very cool brisk day but we are getting the hang of long sleeve T-shirts, sweatshirts and keeping warm.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

I Never Knew Buddy Holly...

But I recently watched the movie and got reacquainted with who he was.

He reminded me of a younger Ricky Nelson whom I was somewhat familiar with since I saw Ozzie and Harriet.  And when we were in Lubbock went went over to the Buddy Holly Center.

It was pretty easy to find and it was late in the day, so there were not many people there.  In fact, the girl at the counter told us, since it was 4:30 PM, the museum was still open, but they were not allowed to charge the entrance fee of $5.00.  That was OK with us.

The first thing we noted was that there were no pictures allowed in the museum.

If you go to the web site, you can see some of the artifacts on display.  It was really interesting and quite amazing how a young man of 22, from West Texas made such an impact on Rock and Roll music.  You all probably know he died in a 1959 plane crash in Iowa.

It was a great museum off the beaten path that was very well done and worth the effort to see.

But the real reason we were in Lubbock was to meet up with our friends from Virginia, Jojit and Kimberly and their two boys.  They were at our 'Open House' in Fairfax that we had before we launched out on this adventure.  They were the same but the boys had sure grown!

The first thing Pam and I were able to do was to play golf with at the Texas Tech University Course - the Rawls.  It was a hard but fair and fun course that is fantastic shape.  Jojit got a fourth to round out our group and we played in the morning.

The course is perfect for West Texas.  They moved millions of yards of dirt around to create a beautiful 'links' style layout.  It was fun.  I made 3 birdies which is always fun.  But I mixed some reality into it with a 5 putt on one hole and had an otherwise un-remarkable 94.  Pretty bad but Pam and I still had a fun day.

We decided to meet up over at the Roadrunner later in the day.

It was fun showing them our home again and it was interesting to see what the boys like.  It was the sofa bed that folded out.  After some time at the coach, we went over to Rudy's for some dinner.
It was a great choice.  Lots of BBQ with all the fixins.

Before we left we got a couple of pictures.

It was so great to see they guys again!

That was our quick, 1-day stop in Lubbock.  Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Until next time...

Getting Underway - the Long Story

When we leave a campsite and whether we go 100 yards or 500 miles, there are certain things we have to do - like stowing things and putting them away so we can close the slides.  And we don't items won't fall off shelves or the desk.  We 'Batten Down the Hatches' which in our case means securing the cupboards and the things in the refrigerator.  Plus we do other things outside.

Here is a look at what we do:
We have to move everything from the middle of the floor and off the counter tops throughout the coach.

The pillows from the couch are use to cushion the bedroom TV which is placed face down on the bed and wrapped in the comforter.  Never been a problem.  It doesn't move.

Then the laundry basket and some plants go in the shower.  The shower door and the sliding doors are locked or latched so they don't move.

Up front, the Driver and Passenger seats need to be turned around and are moved forward so the slides don't hit them when we pull them in.  (In our "Newbie" days, one time we pulled the slide in and the passenger seat started to get mashed.... we learned our lesson.)

 Everything gets cleared off the table.

I put the laptop and iPad on the floor.  That pretty much takes care of the inside things getting it ready for the slides to come in.

Then for the outside items:
We decided the clear water tank was a little low, I filled it.  It was at 15% (13.5 gal) and I filled it up to 35% (31.5 gal).  At 8 lbs a gallon, we usually don't travel with more than that.

The other item on the gauges was the black and grey tanks.  I emptied those, so it shows zero.

In the Passenger Side (PS) rear bay compartment, I carry the cables and connections for towing the car.

I usually put those on first and then move to other things.

Before that though, I fill up the clear tank if it needs it, then empty the black and grey tanks.

Then I fold up the 4" pipe in the wet bay, replace the plastic hose cap that screws into the wet bay floor, then stow the hose and end caps in the black square container under the bay.

I make sure the levers are in the correct position, unhook the flush hose and the regular water hose (and I remove my Y connector from the faucet).  I put an end plug that screws into the end of the hose.

Then I wind the hose up on the reel and use the bottles of 'Pine Sol' and/or bleach to clean up the bay and areas if necessary.

The jacks come up first and then the slides come in.

While Pam is instead raising the jacks and putting the slides in, I am outside making sure each slide came in and is snug.  And I watch the jacks to make sure they raise all the way up.

Then I do a 'walk around' to see that everything looks good outside.  And to make sure I didn't leave anything outside under the coach.

And I do a quick check on the tires.

Uh Oh...
The PS rear outside tire was 'soft'.  Needed quite a bit of air.  

I took off the tire pressure monitoring system sensor and found the valve was not screwed down into the stem.  I used my little tire stem tool and tightened it.  Then I got my extension cord and my air compressor and filled up the tire.  Took about 10 minutes.

Then we were ready to go.  We moved the Roadrunner to a place we could hook up the car.  In this case, it was about 100 feet over in a near by parking lot.

Then Pam stays outside and we do the 'left blinker/right blinker' and 'brake check'.  And I pull forward a could feet while she watches just to make sure everything is rolling like it should.

So that is how we get ready and do everything to leave our campsite!  It usually takes 15-20 minutes from the time we say, "OK lets get going".  Sometimes I drain the tanks and stow the hoses the night before and put the tow bar connectors on the car.  That saves some time.  (And I almost never have to fill up a tire.)

That's it for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for joining us. Until next time...

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

We only stayed in the area three nights and two days.  But long enough to gain a vivid appreciation for this stark beauty.  We stayed at Dead Horse Point State Park which was less than 10 miles from Canyonlands National Park.  It was about 25 miles from the Arches National Park and almost 30 miles to Moab, so we were more or less centrally located to see some of the more scenic places in the area.

This is a portion of the map you get at the entrance of the park.  You can see the Arches NP at the top with Moab in the upper right and Dead Horse State Park in the top central part of the map.

Canyonlands has three distinct areas, the Island in the Sky, the Maze and the Needles.  We spent our time in the Island in the Sky area.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and watched the brief video and then started our drive.  Our first stop was the Shafer Canyon Overlook.

The trail on the Lathrop canyon floor is used by jeeps and mountain bike tours to take it all in.  It used to be the primary road for access to the uranium mining that was conducted in the 1950's. The evaporative pools to harvest potash and snow capped La Sal Mountains in the distance.

And the mighty muddy Colorado River below.

We stopped for more pictures of the huge 'Grand Canyon - like' views

From there we went to a picnic area near Upheaval Dome.

And then continued on our drive through majesty

At the Buck Canyon Overlook, we had a surprise.  Pam recognized Denny and Suzie Orr.  They are Chapter Directors in the Escapees RV organization and write articles regularly in the Escapees magazine.

We met them first in 2008 when we attended a Life on Wheels Conference in 2008 at Harrisonburg, PA.  The conference had a lot of informative seminars we were taking in to get ready for RV full-timing.  Then we saw them again at a booth under the big RV tent at Quartzsite, Arizona when we boon-docked there with tens of thousands of others.  It was fun to say hi to them.

Next, we made it to the Grand Point View Overlook.

It was a memorable day.

Thanks for stopping by the Roadrunner Chronicles.  We are making our way through Utah and on toward the Yellowstone National Park area.  Stay tuned!  Until next time...