Wednesday, January 31, 2024

31 January 2024 First day on the Road in NZ

 We got a good night’s sleep at the Sheraton Four Points in Auckland. This morning, Sammy picked us up as arranged, and we headed over to Wilderness Motor Home Rental to pick up our caravan we will be using for the next three weeks. We received a thorough briefing on the operation of our new home and loaded up our baggage. There were a couple of surprises, first was that there was no air conditioning unless the engine was running, second was that the TV only worked with an internet connection through a device (i.e. phone, iPad). After a thorough safety inspection, we headed out of the parking lot. David kept mumbling: “stay left, stay left” as we drove down the road. First stop was a Pak N Save to pick up some groceries and other essentials. The differences and commonality of many of the grocery products was entertaining. We got a good laugh out of some of the names of local products. We then headed for Waitomo. We took the opportunity to turn off on some of the secondary roads to see the New Zealand countryside. We arrived in Waitomo around 5. The cave tours were not available after that time so we made arrangements for a morning tour of Ruakuri Cave. Then pulled into our RV site at Waitomo TOP 10 Holiday Park and proceeded to unpack into our rolling home. David adapted to driving on the left fairly quickly with only a few suggestions from Leslie to get more to his side. A great first day on the road. 

Layout of our motorhome

Our motto home in the Wilderness RV Rental parking lot

The forward section

The kitchen

Frig

Bathroom

Shower (yes David fits in it)

Bedroom

Our sight in Waitomo TOP 10


Tuesday, January 30, 2024

28 January 2024 On our way to NZ

 We got up this morning, took showers and headed out to church and lunch with Cynthia, Felix and Olivia. Then hung out until it was time to head for the airport. Out flights are from Houston to Los angles, a two hour layover, then an 11-12 hour (6611 Miles) flight to Auckland. We left Los Angles just before midnight, crossed the international date line and landed in Auckland around 9 am, the day after. So we lost a whole day, 29 January. We were able to get some sleep on the plane down. It was magical watching the sun come up over the Pacific Ocean from 41,000 feet! We flew past many of the islands we will be stopping at on the cruise back. After immigration and customs, we picked up a cab to the Sheraton Four Points in downtown Auckland. Our cab driver Sammy (from India) talked most of the way to the hotel. He was a wealth of knowledge and we arranged for him to pick us up in the morning. Since we were early, our room was not ready yet. So, we had them lock up our luggage and walked down Queen Street toward the harbor. Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city and is a wide mix of Asian, middle eastern, and western cultures and food. We stopped at the Occidental Bar (a Belgium style bar) for lunch and to relax until our room was ready. We wandered back to the hotel and checked into our room. We had a short nap and cleaned up before walking down to the water front and walked along the historic buildings and new development. We grabbed dinner in the Amona (Italian) before making our way back to the hotel before dark. We had a fun time talking with the bar tender at the Amona about the local weather, lack of dogs (we walked downtown most of the day and never saw a dog!) and her move from London to Auckland. Then it was time to catch up on our sleep. Amazingly we were not really feeling any jet lag.

Sunrise over the South Pacific from 41,000 feet

Welcome to New Zealand!

Auckland Water Front

Looking up Queens Street


27 January 2024 Final Preparations

 We completed preparing he Wanderer to be left dormant for 3 months. We drained and blew the water out of the water lines, emptied all the tanks, put antifreeze in the traps, cleaned and scrubbed so it will be nice when we get home, and set up the alarm. David took the opportunity to replace the anode in the hot water tank and change out the water filter since they needed to be drained as well. David disconnected the batteries on the truck to keep them from draining dead while we are gone. We let the management know to keep an eye on things and how to get in touch with us. With the neighbors, park management and Cynthia and Felix keeping an eye on things, we're pretty confident it will be alright. Then finished our last packing. Felix came and picked us up and took us back to their house for the night. Then we went out for one last Texmex fix with all the family. 

Texmex with the family


1 - 26 January 2024 Preparation

 With our three month trip to the South Pacific suddenly looming large in our minds, we spent most of January getting prepared for the trip. David spent a week in Fort Worth working long days with his industry counterparts to get a study and some documentation on a path to completion along with several hours each week. Leslie spent 3 days visiting with her Mom and Friends in Dallas. Otherwise, we have been planning wardrobes, making lists of items to bring, digging items out of deep storage, and making plans for putting the Wanderer and Behemoth into safe storage. We’re a little nervous being so far away for so long given the health state of some of our friends and family. Also about driving on the left side of the road for 7 weeks. But were also excited to get the opportunity to explore new countries and cultures. We have also started laying out or itinerary for this summer and making key reservations in the most popular places during the key periods (holidays, summer break, etc.). We can work on the reservations in between while on our trip. When we have spare time, we also are investigating land purchase opportunities. We will need to get serious about that when we get back. The last week we were in town, we had monsoon rains for three days. The rain was coming down so hard, it could not drain off the roof fast enough and we discovered the leak around the new air conditioner that we though we had fixed was back with a vengeance. With the rain coming down so hard and continuously, the only thing we could do was place bowl and pots under the drips. When we finally got a break in the rain and the roof had a chance to dry out (its very slippery when wet), David got up on the roof to investigate. He pulled the new air conditioner off its mount and did a thorough inspection and cleaning, then put a large bead of silicon around the hole in the roof the air conditioner sits on and then placed the air conditioner gasket onto the silicon and wiggled it down. It is now sealed for life! We feel sorry for whoever has to change that air conditioner in the future! We also notice a small leak in the back over the couch and the source of that was easy to see. The lap sealant where they had mounted the brackets for the solar panels had lifter up. So, David pulled it off, cleaned it up and then covered it in a nice layer of Flex Seal. Then for good measure, went around and slathered Flex Seal around everything that protruded through the roof and around the ladder mounts. The next day the heavy rains came back and there were no more leaks. We pushed as much water out of the ceiling cover as we could and put everything back to together and ran the air conditioners to dry it all out. Oh, the joys of trailer ownership!

Diana and Donny

Mount for the air conditioner


Saturday, January 6, 2024

2023 Year End Summary

 It has been another wonderful year of visiting the incredible beauty of our country. We can summarize this year’s travels with:

 

1.     Drove over 21,000 Miles in the Behemoth (Our F-350). 

2.     Visited 6 National Parks (total so far of 56 out of 63).

3.     Visited 7 NPS National Monuments (total so far of 66 out of 85).

4.     Visited our fiftieth state (North Dakota).

5.     Visited 42 other interesting and historic places.

6.     Visited friends and family along the way.

7.     Saw a lot of beautiful slot canyons. We love slot canyons!

8.     Posted 116 entries to our Blog.

9.     Leslie wrote and sent around 254 postcards.

10.  Tasted wine in an additional 5 states (23 out of 50).

 

We have visited all the National Parks in the lower 48 states. It took us a lot longer than we expected to meet this milestone, no thanks to COVID, but we would not change a thing! We have three more National Parks we plan to visit (and four we will not), one is in Alaska, one in the Virgin Islands and one on American Samoa. There are several National Monuments in Alaska and US Virgin Islands we want to see and still a few in the lower 48 states. We are going to New Zealand and Australia early next year to visit several of their National Parks and a cruise through the South Pacific during which we will visit the National Park of American Samoa. 




31 December 2023 Happy New Year 2024!

 We decided we did not want to deal with anymore crowds, so we stayed at home and started a good fire in the firepit to keep us warm to ring in the new year. Being Texas, there was plenty of fireworks to watch around us as the new year rang in. Time to start preparations for our upcoming trip to the South Pacific.



24-25 December 2023 Merry Christmas 2023!

 Still working to get over jet lag, we went to Lauren’s house for Christmas Eve Day. They wanted to have dinner and gift opening early so the girls would not fall asleep in the middle. But Avery still managed to fall asleep just before we started opening gifts. So they had to stir her awake to open her gifts. But once she woke up she was fine and we had a great time playing with them and their new toys. Christmas day, we went over to Cynthia’s for dinner/lunch and enjoyed family time.







10-20 December 2023 Germany

 David had business meetings in Germany from 11-15 December. So we decided Leslie needed to go and to extend it for a few days so we could explore the wonders of German Christmas Markets (Kristkindlemarkts). David had been to many before, but Leslie had only been to versions in the USA. Unfortunately, the US Government delayed approving David’s travel due to the budget delays in congress. So, our flight connections were terrible on the trip over and the trip back (took 27 hours to travel back). But it was worth the hassle. Leslie came down with some kind of cold or flu as we were leaving for the trip (probably due to the kiddos at the Christmas Festival), so she did not have a fun trip over and was exhausted by the time we got into the hotel in Ingolstadt. She spent most of the next two days, while David was working, to rest up and recover. We went to the small Kristkindle Market in Ingolstadt after David’s meetings wrapped up and enjoyed some warm Glünwein and bratwurst with David’s work associates. We then piled into a rental car and drove to Weltenburger Monastery to seek out some Munk beer. The Danube River was flooding because of the recent rains and the melting snow from the previous weeks blizzard. The main road to the monastery was closed due to flooding but we used our Apple Maps to find a back way in. The back road was very narrow and very steep. We had a little mishap on the final decent into the monastery but fortunately the damage to the car was very light. Unfortunately, the beer garden was closed for the season, but we were able to walk around and buy items (including beer) at the shop which was open. When we got back to Ingolstadt, we had a wonderful traditional German dinner of schnitzel! On the 14th, David’s work associates headed for Munich while we headed up to Regensburg. In Regensburg we explored the wonderful Kristkindle Market around the central cathedral (yes more Glünwein) and then worked our way down through the medieval town to the river. We had lunch looking out over the flooded Danube River and walked down to the oldest restaurant in Germany overlooking the oldest bridge in Germany. When we returned to the car we found we had parked in a by permit area by accident and had a nice 20E parking ticket. 

The next day we left Ingolstadt and drove down to the village of TaüfKirchen, to the south and east of Munich. This is where our friends Herbert and Evelyn have their primary home. We stayed at a German Inn where we have stayed before called Limmerhof. It’s a wonderful and quaint Inn only a few blocks from the train into Munich. We met our friend Herbert at the train station later that afternoon and took the train into Munich and spent a wonderful evening exploring the huge Christmas Market in the Marienplatz and some of the surrounding areas that Leslie had not seen before. Herbert was a wonderful guide as usual and we had a wonderful evening. On Saturday, Herbert and Evelyn were dealing with some home maintenance issues so we had a relaxing day around TaüfKirchen. Herbert and Evelyn picked us up at evening and took us to another monastery, where their boys had gone to school, for a delightful dinner. Can’t beat that monastery beer! On Sunday, Herbert and Evelyn picked us up again and took us to two small villages in the Alps. The first, Rottach on the Tegensee, had a small Kristkindlemarkt but it was right on the lakeshore and the views were wonderful. After a late lunch at one of their favorite cafes in the area (they like to go there after a day of cross country skiing), we headed to David’s favorite Kristkindlemarkt. The village of Bad Tölz sits on the bank of the Isar river. The Kristkindle Market runs down the center of the Historic main street which slopes down to the river. The old buildings lining the street add a old world charm, along with the mountains rising around the town. We strolled through the good size Kristkindlemarkt enjoying the Glunwein and bratwurst for dinner. If this place does not put you in the Christmas mood, then nowhere can!

Monday, we headed down to Salzburg Austria to add another country to Leslie’s list and to enjoy the old town. We walked through their Kristkindlemarkt and the narrow streets of the old town. On Tuesday, we headed down to the Garmish area to visit the Linderhof Palace. We had been to it before but had arrived too late to tour the interior. This time we arrived in the early afternoon and were able to secure an English speaking tour. As the other King Ludwig’s palaces, the interior was regaled in gold leaf wood working and glittering mirrors. Linderhof is the only one of his palaces to be completed and the only one he lived in for any period of time. The gardens were covered in snow and all the statues were covered to protect them from the weather. We then headed down to Garmish and walked through their small Kristkindlemarkt before have our last dinner. Herbert stopped by later that night to say goodbye and wish us safe travel. Wednesday morning we arose early and began the 27 hour trip (three flights, two long layovers) back to Houston. We arrived back at the Wanderer at 2:30am the next day and were very happy to be home!


Glunwein Stand in Ingolstadt

Weltenburger Monastery

Kristkindlemarkt in Regensburg

Kristkindlemarkt in Regensburg

Munich Mat Pole

Christmas Tree in Marianplatz

Munich Kristkindlemarkt

Munich Kristkindlemarkt

Tegensee

Rotacher Kristkindlemarkt

Bad Tölz Kristkindlemarkt

Salzburg Kristkindlemarkt

Linderhof Palace Gardens

Linderhof Palace

Garmish Kristkindlemarkt

Starting the trip home


25 November 2023 Mansfield to Conroe T

 We arrived in Conroe only to find the Leisure Lane RV Park office was closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday! There was no late arrival packet, no emails to let us know what to do, and no phone number to call. We had been discussing a specific site number with them a few weeks before and that site was open, so we just pulled into that site and got set up, hoping it was the right one. When we turned the park water on, sure enough our leak was back. But it was rather small, so we put water in the fresh water tank and ran off of it. The leak did not go away like before, but it was much smaller. The next day David was able to crawl into the sub-basement again and discover what the issue was. Fortunately, it was just a loose cap over the screen on the water pump. A quick tightening of the cap and the leak was gone. Why it came loose is a mystery. We only had a couple of weeks in town before we were headed out another trip. We were happy to get together with Leslie’s family again and reconnect with our church. Our first Sunday we ended up helping with communion and the church Christmas Festival. We were assigned a position at the Christmas Festival to help children build Donkey Christmas ornaments (The Virgin Mary rode in to Bethlehem on a donkey). The children were great! But after three hours of bending over kids to help them build their ornaments, with people jostling around, the kids coughing all over everything (and us), we hope we never see another donkey ornament again!  

Christmas in Conroe


5 October – 25 November 2023 Back in Texas

After sleeping in late, we got cleaned up and headed to the Leslie’s doctor’s appointment. After her examination, the doctor wanted to do some additional tests. Fortunately, its none of the scary possibilities. He also ordered a chest MRI since she had not had one since she quit smoking. Then we went to Mi Cacina for some well-deserved TexMex! Over the next 6 weeks we replaced all the tires and the front air conditioner on the Wanderer. A lot of things caught up with us at the same time! After an exhaustive battery of tests and doctor visits, the doctors proclaimed Leslie is healthy and does not suffer from any major issues! Thank God! Our imaginations conjured up all kinds of bad things. A little bit of a diet change and some better stomach medicine and all is well. We enjoyed the time in DFW to visit with our friends and family and catch up on stuff like dentist visits and a couple of trips to our chiropractor to work the kinks out of our backs after a long year on the road.
The Benson Girls