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!

Loving the RV Life

Here's a look at the route we've been on since we left Virginia Beach on Saturday.  

Everything doesn't have to be going our way all the time for us to love the RV life.  There are ups and downs.  The last few days have been a wonderful with a few things that went a little sideways.  We notched a couple of "wins" however, and are happily camped at the Roadrunner RV Resort and Campground (private) in Maynardville TN, for the Thanksgiving holiday.

We've been here many times over the years.  This is one the Roadrunner's favorite spots.  We're on Joan and Mike's property with water, 50 amp service and a dump station.

Here are the wins:

• Traveling in beautiful weather
• Visiting with good friends
• Catching an uninvited guest: a mouse
• Attending a good church
• Safely boondocking/dry camping in sketchy area of town
• Terrific early morning breakfast in Greensboro
• Getting in to the Cummins Coach Care facility first thing Monday morning
• Correctly diagnosing the engine hesitation with new fuel filters
• Getting underway before 10:00AM
• Seeing the wonderful Shenandoah Valley
• Not more engine hesitation
• Arriving safely in Maynardville TN

During Saturday's drive from Virginia Beach, we noticed how well the coach was running.  It was a smooth, comfortable ride at 62 mph.   We love traveling done the road and enjoying the ride.

We are grateful for good friends and love to visit when we have the chance to see people.  We had dinner and went to church with D and Jackie and got to catch up with each other.  Great times!

3 or 4 days after Halloween, we had a large bag of candy in our snack drawer.  That is probably not a good idea on a number of levels.  One morning Pam sadly announced we had evidence of a mouse in the Roadrunner.  One had eaten through a candy wrapper and apparently enjoyed a portion of a Reese's cup.  Yikes!  I got out 4-5 mouse traps we carry and set them up.  It took another 6 days before the munchy mouse met his match.

We always enjoy a good church service. We were able to attend Freedom Church with D and Jackie in Lincolnton, NC and were refreshed, renewed and encouraged.

After church, we decided our fuel hesitation issues required us to find a Cummins Coach Care facility and get it properly diagnosed. En route to Denver (near Lake Norman) the Roadrunner began hesitating slightly going up hills.  It has previously been an issue.  We guessed it the coach needed new fuel filters.  A similar issue occurred last December when we left Virginia Beach.  After sitting for months, the coach began slipping going up hills.  We guessed it was the same problem this time.

Unfortunately we had to back track 90 miles and arrived at the Cummins repair shop in Greensboro NC.  The gate was locked and it didn't look as if the electric hookups in back were being used.  We realized we had to find a place to stay overnight.  We first parked on the street outside of the gate. Our  satellite wouldn't lock on, so we looked around and decided on the abandoned restaurant next door.  It  had a parking small parking lot on one side and a staging area for a septic service on the other side of the building.  Surprisingly three truck came and went using that side of the parking lot.

We found a level spot and backed up the street 50 yards into the parking lot.  We were hoping we could stay there all night without causing problems.

We opened the Passenger Side slides but did not put down jacks.  We fired up the generator for a couple of hours.  Our TV satellite dish didn't work in that location, but at least we were off the street. Our Over-the-air (OTA) digital antenna picked up 22 stations and we watch some sports, read, and had frozen dinners.  It also was a restful night.

We were up early and went to breakfast at a local place and it was a real treat.  Lots of local folks there early getting a bite before work plus a few retired people.  Good food, huge biscuits.

We were first in line when the Cummins repair shop opened.  We carry spare fuel filters and left them on the seat of the coach for the mechanic.  It took about 90 minutes and we were done and back on the road.

There was some road construction and detours and we found ourselves on I-81 going through the Shenandoah Valley.  It is one of the scenic drives in America!  It was a clear day and we loved it.

We went up quite a few hills and had no more engine issues!  The Roadrunner ran smoothly up big inclines and we're thankful for that.

We continued over to Morristown TN and then to Tazwell TN before arriving at Joan and Mike's in Maynardville and our site.  It was late afternoon and a nice afternoon.  We got set up and are ready for a nice Thanksgiving.

Hope you and yours are enjoying the week and have a nice holiday.  Where are you for Thanksgiving?


Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Mooch-Docking at Bob and Patty's

Now and then, you meet people in Moss Point, Mississippi that become friends. Before you know it, you reconnect years later in Dunedin, FL and end up parking your motorhome in their driveway for a couple of days.

That's basically what happened with us and our friends Bob and Patty.  We first met volunteering at a NOMADS Disaster Relief site in January 2011.  And then we met up again in Florida in January 2012.   A few months ago, after we posted our travel schedule for our NorthEast Trip, Patty got in touch and we made a plan to see them.  They live in Warren, PA and we could not find a campground close by.  They were generous enough to invite us to park on their property.  So we did!

 I first heard the term "mooch-docking" used by Howard Payne of RV-Dreams.com

We arrived in the early afternoon at Bob and Patty's and got set up.  They have enough room along side and in front of the workshop for us to maneuver a little bit.  That allowed us to get a good satellite TV signal.  With electric and water, we were all settled in.  Once that was done, we wandered over to their home and got a tour.  Patty keeps their very large A-frame Spic and Span clean.  It is immaculate!  They have a beautiful A-Frame that Bob built years ago.  But it looks like is less than five years old.  It's really a nice place.

We enjoyed hours on their deck reminiscing and hearing about their stories on the road.  They full-timed for over 8 years.

The next day, they took us on a tour to see the area.  We stopped first at Kinzua Viaduct (or Kinzua Bridge) that spanned Kinzua Creek and was 301 feet high and over 2,000 ft long.

It was built in 1882 to move coal from the mines to northern NY cities on the more popular railroad line.  It was originally built out of wrought iron and completed in 94 days and dubbed the "Eight Wonder of the World" at the time.  In 1900, it was disassembled and rebuilt using steel to carry heavy trains and cargo over the deep divide.

Tragedy struck in 2003 when a tornado struck and wreaked havoc. Ironically, the bridge was in the process of being upgraded in 2002 because it was showing wear.  They just didn't get the job done in time.

The bridge is owned by the State now and is a popular park with a good sized new Visitor Center.

It has a description of the history and decline of the bridge leading up to the destructive tornado.  An overlook is where the old train tracks were, going out to the farthest point.

Next, we headed to a local spot for lunch.  It had some interesting displays on the wall.

We had more time and made a couple more stops.  The first one was at Kinzua Dam.  Many times we see places and have no idea what the name means.  I assumed "Kinzua" was an Indian name but more than that, it is Seneca for "Place of many big fishes".

Our next stop was Rimrock which had a pretty great view overlooking the Allegheny Reservoir.

After our full day, we went back to Bob and Patty's place and chilled out for a while.  We had such a big lunch, we only had some snacks in the evening.  We had a great time on their back porch again enjoying one another's company and talking.  It was a beautiful evening and after a brief shower, it was quiet in the woods and we could only hear the birds, watch the deer and talk.

Our time with Bob and Patty was too brief, but we were able to make it count in our short visit with them.   We look forward to seeing our friends again.  We are so glad this lifestyle allows us to catch up with folks like these.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Repaired and on to the Best Austrian Food in Years!

We finished up our appointment at the Freightliner Custom Chassis Repair Facility in Gaffney, SC on Monday at about 5:00 PM.  We had the standard M3 maintenance list plus we added a couple more items like dash air conditioner not blowing cold air.  We also had them check why our coach usually has a hard time starting after sitting for a few days.  We recently had a weird ABS light on the dash come on when we pulled the coach forward after fueling at the last truck stop, so we asked them to look at that too.  We had a Onan 7500 generator problem but they don't trouble shoot issues, they just do the maintenance on it.

I was hoping for a bill under $1000, but that was pretty unrealistic. Labor is $100/hour and they put two guys on it for six hours.  Pam was thinking it was going to be $2000 or more.  The bill ending up being almost $1842 which I thought was pretty reasonable.

You might ask, "What else did they do?"  Just for that possibility, I included pictures of the work orders and invoice which itemizes things:

Work order

 Invoice and notes

M3 Maintenance list

Battery test results

During the afternoon as we waited for them to finish, we were still thinking we'd travel that evening.
We were thinking we'd hop in the Roadrunner and drive three hours down the highway and stay at a campground along the way.

But the more we thought about it, we decided against that plan.  We had gotten up early and we didn't relish the idea of going through Charlotte rush-hour go-home traffic after a long day.  Instead we decided to go dinner somewhere decent and get a good nights rest.

We found an Austrian Restaurant in Spartanburg which was only about 25 minutes up I-85.  Except we hit the evening traffic going that direction and had a 30 minute slowdown.  We were surprised the traffic was that congested on a Monday afternoon.

Then we found out it wasn't usually like that.  We notice there were no cars coming in the opposite direction.

And this was why.  Somehow the truck driver had gotten himself sideways across the entire two lanes of traffic.  And he was seriously into a ditch, so there was no getting that guy out for a while.

We continued on to the restaurant and were in for a big treat.  Gerhard's Cafe is in a shopping center next to a grocery store, so we didn't know what to expect.  We were greatly surprised and pleased to find it was very authentic and the food was really really good.

When we got seated we looked around and there are a lot of memorabilia from Austria.  A lot of thought went into the cafe which could easily pass for a gasthaus.  The ambiance and decor was non-commercial.  The wood floors and ceiling timbers were authentic. You could image looking outside near the barn where the cows were being milked...

The cafe is a mix of fine dining in one section, casual dining, with a small bar and then a larger bar and pub in another area.  It also has outside dining but that was not an option because of the 90 degree weather.

We enjoyed the selection on the menu and ordered Weiner schnitzel and Cordon Bleu.  Pam and I lived in Germany for three great years (and our kids were born there) and loved the food.  And I liked the beer.  I got a draft beer which was delicious.  The glass said it was from the world's oldest brewery.  I don't know about that.

As I recall, dinner in Germany was an event of sorts and not something to be rushed.  Here too, we had plenty of time to enjoy the atmosphere and chatted with the waitress.  We learned that the owner and chef, Gerhard opened the place in 1993 and went back to the home country to bring back three containers full of memorabilia and artifacts.  No wonder the place looked and felt Austrian!

When the main courses were served they looked fantastic.  Schnitzel cooked to perfection with fried potatoes done the Austrian way.

And Pam's Cordon Bleu was equally appealing and delicious.  We had the best time enjoying that food!

We took a different route back to the Roadrunner that was still parked in the Service Center campground and returned in about 30 minutes.  It was the best German food we've had in the U.S. (technically Austrian - but who can tell the difference), ever!  It was a place I'd go back to in a minute.

Another great day on the road in the Roadrunner.  Thanks for joining us today!

Short Albuquerque Visit

We drove from Yuma to Deming in a day and then from Deming to Albuquerque on the next.  We bypassed Las Cruces and went from Deming to Hatch and then up I-25 to Albuquerque.

Leaving Deming and driving the Hatch highway was a very scenic experience.  I was quite surprise of the beauty on this road although Rand McNally had it labeled as a Scenic Highway.  The map was correctly labeled.

Kind of hard to tell on this photo but the vistas into the distance on both sides of the highway were great.  We will have to drive this way again.  It took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Albuquerque on a very pleasant highway.  We camped again at the military campground at Kirtland AFB which is about 15 minutes from Reid and Amy's house.

This was Easter Weekend and we carved out time to spend Reid and Amy. We were only going to spend a few days in Albuquerque and this time we couldn't see and do everything we wanted.  We were limited to:

• Seeing Reid and Amy and spending time with them
• Eating NM cuisine
• Working on their yard
• Spending one day in Santa Fe
• Extended family celebration on Easter

Reid and Amy were working on Wednesday afternoon, so the first thing we did after we got set up in the campground was find a Blakes Lotaburger and have a green chile cheeseburger for lunch.  It was great.

Later, that evening after work, we went to Padilla's Mexican Kitchen for dinner

The sopapilla's and the rest of dinner were great.  I know I have posted a picture of the same thing a time or two, but I love that food!  And it is hard to find a better restaurant in town.  Another one we like is Frontier Restaurant and we went there twice for breakfast, once on Friday and again on Sunday.  Hueveros rancheros and the hot cinnamon roll are always a safe choice there.

Reid took off Thursday and Friday and we worked on his yard.  He is in the middle of a big yard landscaping project that has take a few weeks.  Thursday was spent was moving dirt around, leveling it in places, adding yard trim to a walkway, and laying down some stones.

It is very nice and is looking better each day.  Their yard (both front and back) is going from one with a lot of grass (which requires watering) to one that has only a small area of grass.  He laid down a lot of mulch and planted a number of desert plants throughout the yard.  He also installed an extensive drip system to keep the plants and bushes healthy.

On Friday we went to Santa Fe by way of Cedar Crest on the back side of Sandia mountain.  He had a building to check out and we liked the drive on the back road to Santa Fe.

We passed through old towns that have become tourist stops. Madrid and Cerrillos were once important mining sites on the Turquoise Trail.  Now they are known for arts and crafts and unique little stores. The drive was interesting and I like the variety instead of traveling along the same routes all the time.  I think I've driven the Santa Fe/Albuquerque I-25 corrider a thousand times. (I grew up in Santa Fe.)

As we do nearly every time we visit, we drove by our old hangouts around some other places in Santa Fe.  Amy spent high school there and Pam grew up in Tennessee. Pam has heard the wind shield tour many times over the years but is a good sport about it.  

We drove out airport road to the old airport and had a look.  I remember then we stopped off at Santa Fe Country Club.  The Santa Fe Airport closed back when I was in high school.  At one time Continental Airlines and Frontier Airlines operated out of Santa Fe, now it is predominately smaller commuter type airplane travel.

We made our way downtown to the Plaza in Santa Fe and ended up having lunch at the famous La Fonda Hotel.  That is always a treat.

After we returned to Reid and Amy's I helped Reid with some yard work.  They converted their grass lawn into a low maintenance yard that saves a lot of water.

It turned out great and they ended up getting a rebate on their city water bill since they got rid of all the grass.  We enjoyed our time with Reid and Amy.  Never seems to be long enough.  We love spending time with them.

After a few short days in Albuquerque, we hit the Interstate early and headed for Oklahoma City with an overnight stop in Sayre Oklahoma.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Wrapping Up Another Great Time in NM

A week in Albuquerque flew by quickly.  We lifted our jacks and hit the road about 7:30 AM heading east on I-40.  We made great time and got over 1 mpg more than we usually do.

 We are at a very nice overnight stop at Sayre, OK at their self-serve city campground.  What a great stop!  Might be our favorite city campground ever!

Level sites, long pull through, on a golf course, 50 amp and water.  And - $12!  After all the Mexican food we've been eating, I thought it would be a nice change to have a steak.  I looked around for some options and Yelp! had good things to say about Rodriguez' Steaks and More...

We split a juicy 10oz Ribeye that was cooked to perfection.  It was just what we needed after a long day on the road.

Looking back over our week in NM, it seems like we ate a lot of Mexican (aka New Mexican) food.  We got to see some friends and family, and we also did some work with Reid (both at his office and house).

We hit the ground running with New Mexican food (which was known Mexican food when we grew up in the state) at:

• Thursday: dinner/ Padilla's Mexican Kitchen 
• Friday: breakfast/Frontier Restaurant 
• Friday: lunch/The Shed in Santa Fe
• Saturday: lunch /Lotaburger
• Saturday: dinner/El Pinto in Corrales
• Monday: lunch/ Frontier Restaurant
• Tuesday: dinner/ Padilla's Mexican Kitchen
• Wednesday: lunch/Lotaburger

If you are visiting Albuquerque or Santa Fe, there are some recommendations.
We never got a bad meal and somehow managed not over eat.  :) We could have, but exercised some restraint.  Yum.  We love the red and green chile and the enchiladas, beans, rice, sopapillas, huevos rancheros, burritos, the world's best green chile cheeseburger, tacos, tamales etc.
 You will not be disappointed!

There was just not enough time to see everyone we wanted to, so we did what we could. While in Santa Fe, we got to see Steve and Karen for our day trip there.  On Sunday, we saw some friends at church, then went out to cousin Linda's and saw husband Jim, their son and girlfriend (Seth and Amanda), and grand baby Carter.  (No pictures again??)
On Monday Reid and I were able to have lunch with junior high school friend Patty whom I hadn't seen in 20+ years.

 There are so many more people we would have loved to see but we ran out of time.

While in Albuquerque, we always try to work on a project or two at Reid and Amy's house.  This time we tackled repairs and painting to some fascia on his shed and house, stucco repairs and painting  on the soffit and put up a 28' gutter.

We like going over to his office and seeing the changes they have made since our last visit.  Their new signage on the outside looks great.  Inside, the new ceramic tile and carpeting through out the building really look great.
In one office, he wanted a cabinet shelf removed.

Then I got some OJT (on the job training) from Dan - their ace Operations Manager - on how to use the backpack vacuum cleaners the company uses.

The shelf removal turned out to be a smaller job than anticipated but I still needed to clean up the saw dust and wood chips.

That's a quick update on some memories of our NM visit this time and our overnight stay at a great little campground.

On to Oklahoma!  Thanks for checking in on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  BTW - love your comments!