Traveling 600 miles of nothing I- 10 east from ElPaso

Finally we got the new tire and got it put on the RV. The tire it replaced had been damaged when the hubcap,which Mike broke, finally flew off the RV somewhere in Iowa. The whole time driving I worried that this tire would go flat or blow out, so a new tire made me feel alittle more secure. We left Truth or Consequences on a clear but chilly day. We drove south to Las Cruses to pick up I-10. I wanted to get through El Paso before rush hour, which we did.

We stopped for gas in Fabens, TX. and continued to drive to Van Horn. Van Horn is a small town, named after some military guy. The post was captured by Confederate soldiers during Civil war. We stayed at the Pilot Truck stop, which Mike didn't like, but I didn't care I didn't want to drive anymore. He said the truck motors vibrated him too much to sleep, the sound made me sleep. We were next to 2 RV trailers and an oil truck so all in all it was pretty quiet, and we could eat at the Wendy's. This was also a bus stop for the ElPaso San Antonio bus. There were lots of people going to visit family for holidays.

Driving on I 10, there are lots of trucks and alot of desert with mountains in the distance. There are no houses, no humans, no cows, just dirt and brush. It is 600 miles from El Paso to San Antonio. I don't know how people did this in wagons. It would have driven me crazy, It almost did and I was driving.

The second day, my oil gage was acting weird. It was jumping all over. We checked the oil levels, everything was fine, but I decided to stop at Fort Stockton to have it checked out. We found an RV shop right on the main road. Charles, who had worked on Chevy's for 25 years, knew exactly what was wrong. He fixed that, and our step, which fell apart right in his parking lot. A clip or something fell off. We decided to stay at the Walmart down the street. We got there and the step fell apart again. Charles came over and rigged it together, which has been working ever since. Thanks Charles. Charles was a shop teacher in Odessa and said it was so bad there, one kid was stabbed, guns and knives were all over. The kids even shot one of the teachers. This is a sad state for our country and something needs to be done to protect the teachers.

Fort Stockton was a frontier fort which housed mostly Buffalo Soldiers who were commissioned to "get them ingins".

Walmarts are usually ok to stay, but you get alot of car sounds, and usually a hotrod or two cruising the parking lot. We didn't get started too early, but found a donut place for coffee and donuts, of course.

SANTA GETS STOPPED BY SMOKEY

Mike wanted to go to McDonalds, which was a couple blocks from the Walmart Ft Stockton. One his way, wearing his Santa hat, a state police stopped him for not wearing his seatbelt. I won't tell you how many times I had to ask him to put them on.. Anyway they searched his whole car, taking apart his packs and bags, etc. There was a lot of stuff in his car, thankfully nothing illegal. The best part was people passing by yelled at the cops for arresting Santa, they finally told him to take the hat off. End result ticket for $150 bucks...

Next stop Junction Texas. After driving about 225 miles, I am done, so we got off at Junction Texas. There was a truck stop there, but tucked away in the corner was this local little restaurant. We parked in their lot, after asking. We had a great dinner, and breakfast there.We talked with the locals and talked about schools, kids, health care, smoking and veterans. We stayed there several hours. Nice place. called Junction Restaurant, right by I-1o.

We are only 117 miles from San Antonio. The landscape was changing.There were more trees and more bushes. This area definitely gets more rain. Compared to near El Paso, this was lush, with rolling hills. They call this the hill country , but some of the hills are more mountains in my book.

We stopped for breaks and got these pix. At one stop we went to see if there were long horn, since we could see some cows. Mike comes running back pulling off his pant, "Red Fire ants , fire ants" They got on his ankles and bit him, I was lucky I look were I'm walking heheh

Like any big city San Antonio driving a big ol bus rv is never fun. Lane changes, cars pushing in line and accidents are all the fun. But all in all we made it to the San Antonio KOA with no added grey hairs.

tomorrow the Alamo and Riverwalk

Winter time here on the Desert

By now everyone is having a taste of Ol' Man Winter. We have to collectively send that Jet stream back north. Here there have been record breaking low temperatures and snow. It even snowed in Houston Tex, first time in 90 years!!.

Now I love snow when I am in my cozy house baking up some chocolate chip cookies, but living in a tin can- no offense Agatha- it is not that pleasant. We had the water line freeze a bit and also the waste water lines. The cure was my handy dandy hair dryer. The wind was whipping around here so hard that it was rocking the rv like a baby cradle. We have 2 space heaters, which have kept us warm enough, almost. It is great during the day, when the sun shines about 50 degrees, but as soon as the sun sets, all the warm goes away and the temperatures quickly plummet. There have been nights when I have had 2 comforters, a horse blanket, my hat, socks , flannel PJ and a dog, and still be cold. But we survive.

This cold gave us motivation to move south. We finished at Desert Haven and are waiting for a new tire. We moved to an RV park in Truth or Consequences for a week. Mike is happy he has cable and his Sci-fi channel. I am happy to have a hot shower!! Dakota is happy to have a place where we can walk around the block. We have not decided where in Texas yet.

We met a couple from Alberta Canada here, who said it was minus 25 degrees back there. They are like us, on a new adventure, living on the road.