Friday, November 27, 2009

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Last day in the USA

The weather is so nice here – in the mid to high 70s during the day and quite cool at night. Noticed that at home in Indiana it is still raining and raining and raining. And down to the high 30s during the day. Looks like maybe some of the rain will turn to snow soon.
Ate dinner at a real neat place – The Cow Palace it’s just across the I-19 from the campground. We ate there a couple of times last year too. Good steaks.
Spent Thanksgiving Day doing last minute things – exciting things like doing the laundry and catching up on bills and mailing Christmas cards. At least this year I remembered to get them out before crossing the border. Also put US stuff away and drug out everything we’ll need to get into Mexico and the stuff we’ll be using there i.e. maps, books, directions etc.
Later we drove down to the little arts and crafts town of Tubac. It's a pretty little place. Just liked these plants.

These are the street signs, they're made of tiles.

Thought we would spend some time there walking around and looking at things. Surprise. It was all closed up. All the restaurants and shops were shuttered tight. Did walk around and took some pictures of some of the stuff they have for sale.
These are so colorful and should be easy to take care of

Really like this - about 3 feet high

Strange feeling to walk around a whole town with no one else there. Eerie.
Well we did see these guys but they wouldn't talk to us.


And then there were these guys!!!

Hope you like these pictures.
Spending the day here in the desert in the rv and not having any turkey dinner reminded me of all the years when the kids were little that we spent these holidays in the desert camping and having hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner. Long time ago.
This is the last update I’ll write on this blog. When we pass into Mexico I’m going to change blogs. The new one will be called Mexico by Motorhome. Will send new address the first time I use it.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tucson, Amado, Nogales, AZ

Well got out of Tucson this a.m. after going out to breakfast. Stopped at the truck stop next door and got the propane tank filled. It is 1/3 of the size of the one in the Alfa. Need to pay attention to that.
Did buy an electric George Forman Grill so we can use that in case we need it. Had one in the Alfa but forgot to bring it. Oh well.
Just went 40 miles down the I-19 to a park we stayed at last year. Mountain View RV Park in Amado, AZ. It’s not fancy but the sites are nice and the laundry and restrooms are nice. We’re going to stay here tonight and tomorrow and head into Mexico on Friday early.
Took this as we were driving down a Tucson street – it’s for all our northern friends. Thought you’d like to see some green.
And this is just a view from the highway. Love the serenity of it. The desert around here is beautiful.
After we got settled into the campground we took a ride into Nogales just for something to do. I had forgotten that when you get south of Tucson all the road signs are in kilometers not miles.
This is the sign from the RV Park where we stayed in 1978 when we were driving to South America. Now it is mostly live there trailers and mobile homes. Still has a couple of spaces for travelers. We stayed here 4 years ago too before going to Mexico.
And while in Nogales we went to exchange some US$ for Pesos. Exchange rate today was 12.50 for $1.

Coming back to the campground we had to pass through a Border Patrol check point – dog and all.
And that was about it for today. Not much in the way of news or pictures but we are on the move.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Waiting in Tucson

Oh boy, another learning curve. With the Alfa we have a very big propane tank. Got to remember it is smaller here in Jennie. Ran out of propane this a.m. Had it filled before our first trip to Vegas – so guess it lasted quite awhile as we have used the furnace quite a bit on both trips.
Spent most of Sunday just hanging around campground. Read and watched the last race of the season.
Staying in a campground just south of Tucson. Looks nice on the outside but leaves a little to be desired with the restrooms. At least it has Wi-fi.
The satellite guy Desert Satellite Systems got here before 9:30 – and replaced the controller box. Up and down went the dish, no problems. Then we asked him if he could change the satellite to the one we will use in Mexico. He couldn’t do it – only HughesNet installers can do it. And where is our Installer you ask? Well he is in Italy!! Lots of emails back and forth. We finally found a HughesNet installer here in Tucson. He came over and while he was here our installer called from Italy. Between them they got the satellite switch done. Thank goodness. All is up and working now. So enough of that.
Took a trip into downtown Tucson for a while Monday. Walked around for a while. Looking at some of the sights. This is the tile domed Courthouse. It was built in 1929
Just some more scenes. This is one of many fountains around the original town site.
While walking around we saw this great mural – reminds me of a quilt.
Saw this just painted on the sidewalk as we were walking by.
Then these bars on a store front window think it was a gym – at least they are attractive.
This church was down town. It was built in late 1800s.


And this was in the courtyard. Some type of gazebo of big metal flowers.

We’ll be leaving here tomorrow morning. Depending on when we get started we might or might not cross the border.
Later.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Arizona and Internet Problems Continue

Well famous last words – “the Internet is working great.” The next morning when we got ready to leave Odessa, TX the satellite dish refused again to go down. Tried everything we tried the day before and got no where. And around that area there was no one who could work on it. Mostly we got “Huh? A what?” over the phone. Finally using the campground’s Internet located a dealer in the San Antonio, Texas area. Called him and he gave us DataStorm/MotoSats tech support number. Called them. They talked Bill into going up on the roof and fiddling with things up there. Still wouldn’t go down. So then last piece of advice. Pull the orange and red wires out of the controller box and put power to them. HUH??
To regress – don’t know if I mentioned that a couple of stops ago when we turned on the satellite box Bill saw a puff of smoke come out of it and smelled electrical burn smell. But nothing else happened and the dish went up and locked on so we forgot about it. Now we know what it was. Back forward. I asked tech support what they meant by put power to them and they told me “touch the wires to a 9 volt battery and the dish will go down.” Okay, Bill went up to the campground office and bought a battery, touched the wires to it and down went the dish! Good – but not good.
Left the campground and drove the rest of the way across Texas – gad it’s a big state. No wonder the Interstate has a speed limit of 80 miles per hour. 80!

Went through the “Hill Country” – interesting. Once out of that area the scenery was nothing to see, expect for the oil pumps. Straight through El Paso and on to Las Cruces, NM for the night.
Usually I go into the campground offices and register us. This time Bill went in with me as he wanted to ask if they knew any MotoSat dealers. Well….I’d just picked out one of the easiest places to get into from the freeway. All I checked was to make sure it had Internet service. I can tell you next campground I pick out I’ll notice if it has the word “Resort” in its name. Guess Resort = Expensive. We both about dropped our teeth when the girl gave us the price! WOW! This was another time I wish you only paid for what you used. Didn’t use the indoor pool or the hot tub but paid for them anyway. (Bill did say their bathrooms were outstanding.) Did use their Internet though and contacted our satellite installer for info on contacting someone in Tucson. He gave us a number to call and said it should be under warrantee. Sure hope so.
Passed over the Rio Grande just outside of Las Cruces – not much of a river here.

Surprised me. Also passed this road runner next to the highway.

Shades of Mexico we had to go through our first check point – in New Mexico.

There sure were a lot of sensors set up along the road as it narrowed down to funnel everyone through the check point. Also noticed that on the other side of the interstate there were lots of sensors after the check point. (a weird thought flew through my mind – OMG what if the first owners of Jennie used drugs. Would they still be detected?) Okay so I’m strange. No alarms went off.
Saw lots of strange Yucca? Plants along the highway. They had all bloomed – some had one bloom others many. At first I though they were Joshua Trees – but don’t think they bloom like this.

So – now we are in Tucson – The satellite guy will be here at 9:30 Monday morning. We may get lucky and just need a new box, or….there may be a short in the wiring or dish somewhere – it would cause the same problem. IF its not the box – and not a quick fix with the wiring and it turns out to be the dish itself – we’ll have to send everything back to the factory (NO NO) If it comes to that don’t know what we’ll end up doing.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Windmills and Cotton Fields

These are from yesterday, only ones I took - entering Texas and typical Texas scenery

Again got pretty cold during the night. I thought we were going south! But today turned out to be a pretty good day – after a very bad (or so we thought) start.
Got ready to leave. Pulled in the step, unplugged things, put things away, stowed the satellite (put it down). Oh, oh – satellite dish did not go all the way down. Turned on generator. Tried again, put it up, put it down. Plugged in. Wouldn’t go up - didn’t go down. After playing with it a few times, put in a call to an RV repair person. While waiting for his call Bill pushed button to put it up again. It went up. Then pushed button to put it down – it went down!
So we took off - happy campers.
We are still in Texas – sure is a lot of Texas to go through. We’re taking the I-20. Went through the “Hill Country” kind of pretty.

Saw some longhorns in a pasture – but didn’t have the camera on. Then through lots of cotton fields and lots of wind farms.

Those wind mills are sure big.There is a tractor parked right next to it.

Especially when compared to the old wooden ones standing near the farm houses.
Along the way we passed a big fire off in the distance. Hope it wasn’t serious.
Now we are into oil country. Can see the wells pumping away and smell the refineries.
We’re stopped in an RV park between Midland and Odessa. Both the TV and the Internet are working great. AND the weather has warmed up considerably. Nice warm breeze. As an aside, it has been raining in Indiana ever since we left. Got out of there just in time.
Stopped at Flying J for gas and to eat lunch. I got a piece of lemon meringue pie to go. That’s going to be my dinner!!! Don’t know what Bill will have.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Closed highway Ramps!

Tonight we are staying just west of Fort Worth. Saw the campground sign from the freeway and pulled in. Was that kind of day.
Very windy all day and lots of unnecessary driving. Instead of just going south and over the I-20 through Dallas and Fort Worth we thought we’d be smart and miss going through the cities. Ha silly us. Should have got the message when the first ramp we were going to take was closed! Actually Gypsy wanted to go straight through a little town but I overrode her and decided we’d go below the town and catch the road on the other side. My decision led us to the first closed ramp. Then had to backtrack. The map showed the road to be a “principal road – divided” well it turned out to be divided every once in a while. Mostly it was two lanes through small towns. The Driver loved that. Then we were in a big town with traffic lights at every corner and lots of traffic. Finally got on a southbound freeway heading for the I-20. Then the 2nd closed ramp. So we were headed right for downtown Fort Worth. All that driving and all that time (by now a couple of hours) and we were headed exactly for what we tried to avoid. THEN – found another way to get to the I-20 and just barely missed the city. We left at 9 in the morning thinking we would stop someplace and eat – well by 2:00 we still hadn’t eaten. So as I said when we saw the RV sign we pulled in. Just 250 miles but it seemed like 550!
At least the TV and Internet came up with no problems. But then I got to my email. Got a letter from AdSense (the ads that have been showing up on my blog and web pages.) They said, “While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSenseaccount has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Sincekeeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage ouradvertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account. ) ????? So they shut down my account. For the blog it was no problem. For the web pages it is a night mare. – I have to go on every single page and remove the spacer for the ad. Then save and republish the page. And I have zillions of pages. So I’ve started working on them. Take me a couple of days.
No pictures today - just lots of flat land. I’m just going to post this and shut the laptop down and read a book. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Miles and Miles and Rain and Rain

Another day – another 411 miles. Yes 411 – and this from The Driver who says he doesn’t want to do over 150 miles a day. AND most of it was in the rain yet.
We left Hurricane Mills, KY around 8a.m. Stayed in a nice KOA there.
Loretta Lynns Ranch was just up the road. Next time by we’ll spend more time in that area between Nashville and Memphis. Went through the town of Jackson and wondered if that was the Jackson in the Johnny Cash song. Stopped for gas and breakfast at 9. By the time we finished eating it was raining. And rain it did for most of the day. Sometimes no more than mist other times a real downpour. Took the I-65 south. Ran into about 100 yards of dense fog as we crossed by Kentucky Lake – and out in the lake was a sail boat just sitting there in the fog. Tried to get a picture of it but it didn’t turn out. But did get one of the bushes around the water.
Got through Memphis and over the Mississippi into Arkansas. From there to Little Rock we had some of the worst roads we’ve been on for a long time. Very, very rough. Saw a Wal*Mart and stopped and bought a new microwave. Bill took the old one out and put the new one in. It’s in in a temporary sort of way until we get home. But if it stayed in over those bad roads, it isn’t going anywhere. It has a broil and grill feature – will have to read the directions and see how to use it.
Got as far as Texarkana, AR where we are staying in a real nice RV Park called Sunrise RV. It is just off I-30 and right next to a Flying J where we went for dinner before parking for the night. More about the park. Seems to be newly remodeled. Spaces are large and level. The bathrooms are the best we’ve ever seen. And there is cable TV and Wi-fi. Couldn’t ask for anything more.
Thought for a while we were having problems with our satellite again. Wouldn’t come on. But just had to unplug the modem for a minute for it to come back up. Was seeing red for a few minutes. But alls well now. Then just in time I remembered we were in Central Time Zone so I didn’t miss House.
Tomorrow into TX. Haven’t made any plans beyond that.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

On the Road Again

Well after a lot of delays we are really on the road. The installer finally got home from all his training. Here's Jennie with her satellite stuck up. Couldn't drive that way.
So we took Jennie and met him at the storage lot where the Alfa is stored. Ended up taking the satellite dish off of the Alfa

and putting it on Jennie as the parts he ordered for Jennie’s were on back order and would not be in for a while.
And there sits Alfie - probably wondering what the heck is going on.
To make a long story short everything is working just fine now. The Alfa will get a new dish after the first of the year.
As I write this we are watching TV and able to get on-line here in the campground in Hurricane Mills, TN.
As we were getting ready to leave this a.m. we could hear gun shots throughout the woods. Deer season began Friday. Then I looked across the street and there stood a little deer just watching us. At least he was safe there.
Not too cold this morning but very cloudy as you can see from the picture.

The Driver hooked up the car before we pulled out of the driveway – I held my breath all the way down the hill.
Gypsy is sitting on the dash trying to figure out where we were.
Made it fine. Stopped in Columbus and had breakfast before we got on the freeway.
Took the I-65 all the way to here. Did 300+ miles today. Not much of note for the trip except for this tricked out black truck. Chrome all over it. And check out the “balls” hanging under the license plate.
Well went to fix dinner – warmed up roast beef and discovered the microwave isn’t working any more. Nothing could coax it to heat up. Guess we’ll have to replace it – and soon. Can’t live without a microwave for five months. No way!
This is just an “overnight” stop. We’ll be on our way again in the a.m. Heading for Texas. Then we’ll start taking our time and checking things out.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Indian Summer Days

Wednesday – Not much going on. We are still home waiting on satellite system –
Went into Bloomington last week, 20 miles west of us, and got new glasses but they are not quite right. I can see distance and middle ground fine and close up as long as I look straight down. Not much good for reading. So back there today to see if they could be fixed. Nope – the lens was too big. Would have to get smaller frames. Picked a pair out but they did not have the lenses to fit. So got my money back and have the prescription, maybe will find some somewhere else. If not the old ones are working fine, I just have to take them off to watch TV. For some reason I can now see better distance without them.
At least the weather is nice, Indian Summer was here for awhile – highs in the 70s! Everything ends. Last night it went down into the 30s and is supposed to tonight too. Then supposed to warm up for the week end again. Goody. Just so it doesn’t snow for a couple of weeks.
Jennie sits in the driveway all ready to go. In fact last week I loaded most of the food stuff into her so now have to go out there and retrieve stuff as I want to use it. Also pulling some of my clothes out of her too. The satellite dish is still sticking straight up in the air. Bill says it’s like it took an over dose of Viagra.

Finally heard from the installer. He’ll be back in town by Thursday and will be out here then or Friday. Says he ordered a bunch of parts so he should be able to fix it. If not??? Well if not we’ll just tell him to take it completely off and we’ll find it somewhere else along our route. So by this weekend we should be on the road –one way or another. [Famous last words.]But won’t repack until I KNOW we are leaving the next morning.
In the meantime I dug out some beads to keep me occupied for a couple of days. Finished this necklace and am now working on a bracelet to match.

Got the first three disks of the Rosetta Stone– finally found my microphone – so might hook it up later and try again to learn Spanish – I think it is a hopeless cause. My brain just can’t work itself around those double lls and rrs and ñs. And the verbs EGADS!
Hear lots of gun shots off in the woods. And deer season hasn’t started yet. But according to the paper it is small game season. Rabbits and quail. The deer seem to be on the move already though, lots of them being taken out by cars.
Also according to the paper there is going to be Midget Wrestling next weekend. Hummmm
And while I’m reading the paper can’t leave out the Sheriff’s Log. “Oct 23 – 12:40 a.m. Officer advises he is out with two naked people at an apartment complex.” Wonder how that turned out. “5:57p.m. Caller reports she hit a turkey and wants to keep it.” Guess Thanksgiving dinner is taken care of for her family.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Still Waiting for Satellite

The saga of the satellite installation continues! Finally heard from the installer – he said he was in the hospital with food poisoning! He didn’t have any way to get a hold of us until his wife brought him his phone and he picked up his emails! Now he is back in Florida finishing his training classes (hope one of them was on customer service.) SAID he’d be here Saturday for sure. I will believe it when I see it. I think we deserve an upgrade to the system and suggested it to him.
Good thing we didn’t hold our breath – got another e-mail saying he’d be here Sunday.
Sunday – THE DAY the installer came and finished the upgraded installation.
That turned out to be an optimistic thought. He came, he installed, he left. The next day the satellite wouldn’t go back down after going up. Sure glad Bill checked it before we got on the road. Frantic e-mail to installer (he doesn’t answer or return phone calls.) He e-mailed us back and said he’d have his assistant come over right away. Well that was yesterday and assistant hasn’t come – is supposed to be here today between 1 and 2. We had planned on leaving tomorrow…..Depends on what is wrong with it I guess.
BUT the sun is shinning – supposed to be nice for the next seven days. It’s rained 15 or more out of the last 27 days. Enough already. We are still planning on leaving Thursday, tomorrow, bright and early, rain or shine. Hopefully the weather stays good along our route.
AND now in the morning by 7:15 it is light out. Sure makes it easier to get up in the morning when there is day light. Of course it’s dark by 5:30.
There was frost on Jennie when we got up this a.m. Bill says “Time to get out of here.”
Most of the trees are bare now, not much in the way of color left any where. I took this out back a couple of days ago when there were still a few left.


This one is downtown - pretty bare there.

I’ve been working on my quilt, have the top portion all put together– now it’s time to pack it away and finish it next summer.
I already posted the pictures of the windows. Aren’t they pretty? I like to watch as the sun moves around and shines through them.
Couple days ago we went over to get some more stuff out of the Alfa and tell him goodbye for the winter. Looks so forlorn sitting there – at least there are no mice there (I hope.)

We’re down to just a few things left to do before we take off. And most of them are last minute things. Jody, our friend who will be living here while we’re gone will move in when we leave. Makes me feel a lot better knowing someone is living here while we are gone. Jody, bless her heart, told me not to clean before we leave as she’ll keep the place up through the winter. Didn’t have to tell me twice. Will do some though – professional pride. Can’t let her find the dust bunnies on the fans.
Today will move slowly. I got most of the computer work done yesterday so the laptop is ready to go. Bought stamps so I can mail cards before we cross the border.
Today I’ll finish up the laundry and probably load most of the food from house into Jennie as we are going out to dinner tonight.
Just looked outside and it is raining – what happened to seven days of sunshine?????
Waiting to hear from satellite man Well today is Thursday the day we thought we would get on the road. Not to be. Still waiting on the satellite - hopefully it will be taken care of this weekend, either fixed or removed and we'll be able to head out Monday.

This is a map of where we are thinking of going - but things change every day when we get up.