29-30 November 2024 Recovering from too much food

After a very busy few weeks, we took the opportunity to sleep in late and have a relaxing morning. Then David worked on the clothes washing machine. He had watched a Utube video of how to diagnose the issue so he had some idea what he was getting into. First he found the drain pump filter and pulled it out. He found a bunch of coins clogging up the filter. Hoping that was the cause of the issue, he cleaned it out and started the washer to test it. Of course it was not that easy. And it still was draining slow. So he proceeded to take the washer apart until he could reach the drain tube where it connected to the wash tube. After wrestling with the spring clamp he was able to pull it off and found the source of the problem Clogging the drain hose was a COVID era face mask, a door handle key used to open doors without touching the handle, and a small cover that has been missing from the Wanderers electrical plug cable storage bin cover for several years! After wrestling the drain hose back on the wash tub (with at least one long string of curse words that scared Keira) and putting everything back together, the clothes washer works again! Good thing, because we were running out of clean clothes!

27-28 November 2024 Thanksgiving

We spent Wednesday making side dishes and desert while preparing the ingredients for the stuffing and turkey. We were up early Thanksgiving day to get over to Cynthia’s and Felix’s to get the turkey stuffed, prepped and in the oven by 9. Then helped prepare other dishes for the feast. Everything was ready by 2:30 and we had a wonderful feast with family. We have so much to be thankful for this year! We had Cynthia and Felix, Brian and Lauren, Ed and Mary (Brian’s parents), Andrew, Olivia and Avery. David’s turkey turned out spectacularly but Leslie’s Rum Cake stolen the show! It was delicious!

22-26 November 2024 Cheryl B Memorial

David arrived home just in time to upend his suitcase into the dirty cloths hamper and refill it for an early flight the next morning to Columbus Ohio. We stayed in the Dublin area of Columbus near the revitalized river front area. On Saturday, after sleeping really late, we drove over to Jason and Michelle’s new house near Wilmington. We had a wonderful visit and dinner with them. On Sunday we went to Cheryl Boyd’s memorial. We had time to visit with Chad and Emily, Justin and Ashly, Beth and John, Amy, Jessica and Brian and Landon. Jason and Michelle also showed up. This is the biggest concentration of cousins in one place of our family in a very long time. The service for Cheryl was beautiful. She would have been very happy to see so many of her friends and family together. We later went to dinner with Justin and Ashly, Chad and Emily and their children Liam and Maeve. It was great to have an opportunity to catch up with all of them!. On Monday, we drove over to Canton and picked up Veronica for lunch. We ran into Cheryl in the parking lot and dragged her along to Cracker Barrel for lunch. While we were there, Beth and John surprised us and stayed to visit for a bit. Later we drove back to Columbus to prepare for our flight home on the 26th.

11- 21 November 2024 Busy days

The 11th, we were up very early so Leslie could drive David to the airport for an early flight to California, then she drove up to Dallas to pick up her Mom and take her to June’s going away party. They had a wonderful time at the party and Leslie then stayed overnight in Fort Worth. In the morning, she toured a property we were interested in near Granbury before driving home to Conroe. Meantime, David made his way up to Edwards Air Force Base. He spent the next 10 days working on base. While he was there, he visited with our friends Bill and Pam. He also had dinner with our friend Scott. Even managed to do a wine tasting at Antelope Valley Vineyards. Leslie worked around the Wanderer. The clothes washer picked this time to suddenly stop draining and posted error code A10. Things like this always seem to happen when David is out of town! Leslie joined Cynthia and Felix one night to go see Three Dog Night in concert. Leslie stopped at the body shop and picked up the Behemoth on the way to pick up David at the airport. They did a magnificent job repairing the damage from the hitch failure and even detailed it inside and out. We are happy to have our big truck back! It has been a busy 11 days!

29 October – 10 November 2024 Settling in for the winter

We settled in for the long winter stay. We got up to Livingston to vote early and pick up our accumulated mail and packages. Leslie joined Cynthia, Felix, and Lauren in taking the grand nieces’ trick or treating on Halloween evening. We took Keira over to get to know Cynthia and Felix’s three dogs. Fortunately, that all went well and the three dogs seem to get along well. We also got to go back to church and get back into the swing of the church schedule. Leslie’s foot was pretty sore after walking so much on Halloween but is getting better each week. David repaired the MaxxFan in the bathroom again. This time the lift transmission leaked out is lubricating oil and seized up causing the motor to overheat and draw so much current, the current limiting resister burned up on the motherboard. Almost $200 in parts to get it working again. We dropped Keira off at Cynthia and Felix’s on Sunday night in preparation for our travels Monday morning. She stared at the front door for hours waiting for us to return for her. On the fourth we dropped the truck off at Woodlands Body shop to get it repaired from the hitch failure and picked up a rental car. It’s going to take almost 2 weeks to complete with over $8K in damages.

28 October 2024 Alvarado to Conroe TX

The drive from Alvarado to Conroe was uneventful. The hitch still thumped a little when we stopped hard or accelerated quickly, but it was a lot less noisy than the previous banging! We pulled into the same site that we had last year in Leisure Lane RV Resort ($600 per month + electric) around 2:30. We were surprised at how empty the park was. After we had gotten set up, David went to the office to check in, pick up a gate clicker and cable modem. He found out that a lot of people had left when the hurricane hit a couple of months ago which took out power and water to the park for 6 days. Keira seemed to be acting a little bit funny, like she remembered the place from the spring and was worried we were going to take her back to the pound.

22 – 27 October 2024

We crammed as many trips to view real estate as possible in this week knowing we were leaving. Overall, we viewed over 50 properties in the 2.5 weeks and none of them were “the one”. A couple were close but were priced above what we wanted to pay along with the needed modifications to make it perfect. Leslie’s boot, socks and sole came in from Amazon. She hates the boot, but her foot does not hurt as much and with the sole on the other foot, she is not limping. We squeezed in another trip to Lost Oaks to top off our wine stash. We met with Leslie’s Friend Tiffany and her husband David in downtown on Thursday. They are considering going fulltime RVing and had a lot of questions about how to make it work. We had a fun time discussing the fulltime life! On Saturday night we had dinner with Diane, Donnie, Matt and Renay to finally celebrate Diane’s 80th birthday, cake and all. It was fun catching up. David put in a lot of work hours

14 – 21 October 2024

David finally had time to work on the hitch and added the new spacers. The hitch is definitely fitting tighter than before. Hopefully it will stop the banging. We enjoyed dinner with Leslie’s childhood friends Billy and Robin on Sunday. They have been looking for a house for over two years and had just closed on one. They gave us some great advice on the area. Our relator had us running around to a view bunch of houses, which helped us better understand what we liked and didn’t like. But none of the houses fit the bill. Leslie’s foot was still hurting, even with the special shoe the doctor had put her in. So, she sent a copy of her x-rays to Lauren. Lauren looked them over and told her she needed to be in a boot, not a shoe or it would never heal. We got on Amazon and ordered the boot, compression socks and a sole to add under the shoe on her other foot so she would be at and even height. David put in a lot of work hours.

6 – 13 October 2024 Busy Times

Our relator has been sending us dozens of listings. We have also been looking on our own. So far, nothing that makes us interested. Leslie went to the orthopedic doctor which confirmed the diagnoses and provided a special shoe to wear while the recovers. She will need 6-8 weeks to fully heal. Leslie also went to see her knee doctor after having Lunch with her mother. We enjoyed lunch with our friend June on Sunday and caught up. David put in a lot of work hours.

30 September – 6 October 2024 Catching up

We didn’t waste any time diving into our itinerary for our visit. David saw his dentist and spent several long day’s working; Leslie visited her dentist and doctor. We found out Leslie’s foot, that she hurt in Estes Park when Keira knocked her off the stairs, has a fracture that will need to be looked at by an orthopedic (next week). We had dinner with our friends Rick, Jim and Kelley at the new location for King Tut. On Sunday, we met up with a real estate agent we were connected with through Zillow. We toured three new build houses on two acre lots in Granbury. It was interesting to see the new houses under construction but none of them appealed to us and none of them had decent views. But it gave us a start and we like our relator, Laurie. It gave us a chance to explain to her what we are looking for in our forever home. After we left Laurie, we drove around the area on our own to see what is there. We then headed over to our favorite local winery, Lost Oak, for a glass of wine and to pick up some favorites for the road.

29 September 2024 Birthday get together

 Cynthia and Felix were in Dallas to go to the SMU game, so we conspired together to drive over to Donny and Diane’s Sunday Morning with donuts to surprise Diane for her 80^th Birthday (and David’s 65^th). We spent several hours visiting. Everyone looked good and are doing well. After tiring them out with family gossip, we joined Cynthia and Felix for an early dinner at Mi Cocina’s before they headed back to the Woodlands and we headed home to Alvarado. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures.

28 September 2024 Wichita Falls to Alvarado TX.

 As we expected, the traffic through downtown Fort Worth was crazy, even in the early afternoon. The 153 mile drive from Wichita Falls was uneventful. We decided to try a different RV Park this time to try and avoid some of the horrible traffic due to construction at I-20/I-820/US287 intersection. So we are staying at the Texas RV Ranch ($853 monthly rate including $200 electric charge ($28.44 per day)) on US67 in Alvarado. It’s about the same distance out of town as the Texan RV Ranch we normally stay at but has a more direct route into Fort Worth on I-35 or into Dallas on US67. We were placed in the older section of the park (There is a large new area further back from US67 that is really nice) in a pull through. The site is plenty long, all the hook ups work well, but the landscaping has been completely taken over by weeds that have not been mowed in a while. We also are having issues getting the WiFi to work. They have a pond, but it is not being aeriated so it stinks. It will work for a month, but we will probably not stay here again. 

Our site at the Texas RV Park

27 September 2024 Amarillo to Wichita Falls TX.

 When we were planning our route back to DFW, we decided to break up the drive from Amarillo to DFW. At 365 miles, it’s a really long day and the scenery along US287 is pretty boring on this stretch. At 246 miles, Wichita Falls seemed like a good stopping point. We stayed at the Wichita Falls TV Park ($54 per night with GSC) for one night. This is by far the most dog friendly RV park we have been to. They had a really nice leashed dog walking area with sculptures and simulated fire hydrants for the fur babies to enjoy. They also had a really nice fenced in dog park to let the dogs off leash to run around. The dog park had nice lush grass to be easy on the paws. We did not feel like cooking, se we picked up a great pizza and salads from Mia’s Italian Bistro near the RV Park.  

Our site in Wichita Falls RV Park

Keira in the leash dog park

The off leash dog park

25 September 2024 Amarillo Route 66 Historic District

 We have been to Amarillo several times but never explored the historic Route 66 district on 6^th street. First, we needed another Texas food stable, What-a-Burger! Yum! Then we drove down to the 6^th street historic district. We strolled through a couple of the large Antique malls where Leslie found a couple of Porcelain Dogs for her collection. The district is a bit run down. We wondered what it was like in its heyday.

What-A-Burger Fix

23 September 2024 Las Vegas NM to Amarillo TX

 We got hit the road early to Amarillo. We picked up US84 south to I-40 near Santa Rose and then east on I-40. I-40 follows the old Route 66. David had fond memories of the stories of his Great Aunt and Uncle that drove Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angles and back ever summer in the 1950s and early 1960s. We had stumbled upon a Route 66 roadside landmark while planning our route. We pulled off I-40 at Adrian Texas and found the Route 66 Midpoint marker. It is the midpoint of the distance between Chicago and Los Angles. We had hoped to eat lunch at the Midpoint Café but were disappointed to find out it was closed on Monday and Tuesdays. So we explored the nearby tourist trap gift shop before heading on down the road to the Oasis RV park outside Amarillo ($56 per night with GSC). This is our go to RV park in the Amarillo area. But it is starting to get run down. Pot holes in the roads. Landscaping is not being maintained and the dog park is overgrown weeds. After setting up, we were ravenous after missing lunch and had an urgent need for some real TexMex. So, we drove into town to Chuy’s and feasted on delicious spicy TexMex. Man we missed it! 

21-22 September 2024 Las Vegas NM Historic Square

 We had a series of thunderstorms coming through on Saturday, so we stayed home to keep Keira from going crazy. On Sunday we drove into the historic downtown area of Las Vegas NM. Parts of the TV show “Longmire” were filmed here on the square. We wandered through a couple of the antique stores that were open. Being a small town on a Sunday, many of the shops and restaurants on the square were closed. After filling up with fuel, we went to the Buffalo Hall Café for dinner before heading back to the Wanderer.

Sherifs Door from Longmire

Historic Plaza Hotel

20 September 2024 Colorado Springs Co to Las Vegas NM

 We got hitched up and headed down I-25 for 254 miles. We have more confidence in the new hitch after we came up on a single lane construction zone. As we rolled up to it, we suddenly saw there was a series of deep dips in the pavement. We hit the brakes to bleed off as much speed as we could before we rolled over them. The dips in the pavement yanked hard on the trailer in multiple violent chucking motions. Keira did not enjoy the ride! But we rolled through and the trailer, hitch and truck were just fine. If that did not pull the hitch out of the pucks, nothing would! Only a hundred yards up the road there was a moving van pulled over to the side with a car trailer attached to the back. All the tires on the car trailer were blown out due to the violent motion when they hit those same dips. We pulled off I-25 at US84. It was at this intersection 40 years ago that David and two of his friends and spun out and hit the bridge abutment while headed to Telluride Ski area in a blizzard. It brought back memories. Just past the bridge, we turned onto a county road to go to the New Mexico Las Vegas KOA ($58 per night with KOA discount). We were a bit concerned since we could not see the RV park and this road was basically single lane with no place to turn around. A bit farther down the road we came up on the RV park and pulled in. After checking in, they escorted us to our sight. The roads were really tight for our big rig and we ended up rubbing against some small tree branches. As we pulled into our site, the skies opened up and it rained hard. We waited for the rain to let up before getting out and unhitching. The water system in this park is gravity fed so it is only about 22lbs of pressure. We’re not going to get good showers here! Best word we can use for this park is “rustic”. But it will do for a couple of days.

Our Site in Las Vegas NM

19 September 2024 Loveland to Colorado Springs CO

 The new hitch took a few tries to get it lined up properly, but we loved the way it automatically locked when the king pin slid in correctly. We ran our safety checks and all looked good. We headed through the RV park to get to the back entrance. When we went over a speed bump with the trailer there was a loud bang! We immediately stopped, which caused another loud bang. We got out and inspected the hitch and could see nothing wrong. We called Lazy Days RV and told them what was happening. They had no explanation but agreed to look at it if we stopped by. As long as we started and stopped gently there was no noise. We pulled up to the Lazy Days RV Service center and as we rolled up, several technicians came out. When we braked it of course made the loud bang. Don, one of the smaller guys climbed in the back and had us drive around the service area parking lot while he watched the hitch. He could see a portion of the head attachment (“the saddle”) moving when it banged. So, we pulled around to a parking area and disconnected the Wanderer. We pulled over to the service bay and Melvin checked the torque on all the bolts on the hitch. Surprisingly, over half the bolts were not torqued properly. The two bolts on “the saddle” were only finger tight. Keira did not like the bangs. Convinced this was the fix, we hooked the Wanderer back up, did our safety checks, and drove around the service area again. We still got Bangs but only when we accelerated hard or braked hard. So Melvin called the manufacturer and discussed it with them. 

They asked us to film the hitch while it banged. So, Melvin climbed in the back seat with Keira to film the hitch with his phone while we drove around the service area again. Then email the film to the manufacturer. An hour later and several phone calls, they called back and said the hitch was moving in the bed puck system. They could see it when they slowed the film down and watched it. They said it was normal for the hitch to move around in the pucks a little but they had never heard one bang before. They assured us that it was safe to go down the road and they would send us some washers to use to tighten up the pucks. 

 

So, we headed on down the road to Colorado Springs. We had some bangs when we hit big bumps on the road, but everything seemed ok otherwise. We could definitely feel more chucking than we had with the Comfort Ride Hitch. Otherwise, things went as normal. We pulled into the Colorado Springs KOA ($72 per night with KOA discount) about 2:45pm. We had a timed entry pass for Pikes Peak from 2-4PM. So, we dropped the Wanderer off at our site, grabbed some warm cloths and headed to the Pikes Peak Highway entrance. We arrived at 3:45 (15 minutes to spare). We drove the highway towards the top of the mountain. We stopped at Crystal Lake for some pictures before heading on up to the top. About halfway there was a checkpoint where they were stopping people coming down the mountain. That seemed unusual. We arrived at the top about 4:45. There were a few places on the road where the drop offs with no guard rails was a bit worrisome. The truck definitely did not have as much power as usual due to the altitude. At the top it was only 44 Degrees and the wind was blowing hard making it pretty chilly. But we walked all the way around the summit area with Keira. Keira was not liking the cold wind and was anxious to get back to the truck. Another visitor was kind enough to take our picture in front of the Pikes Peak summit sign showing the 14,115 foot altitude. The views were spectacular! The wind chill chased us back to the truck to get warm. The trip down was with the exhaust brake and low gear. We pulled up to the checkpoint halfway and they checked our brake temperature! (It was only 110). The ranger taking the reading was surprised at how low it was. David explained how we had used the exhaust brake and low gears to crawl down without using the brakes except in the hairpin corners. We continued on down and with a few stops, back to the Wanderer to finish getting set up. 

Crystal Lake

Views from the top of Pikes Peak

The Behemoth at the top of Pikes Peak