2015 Trip - Carlsbad NM to San Antonio TX

Sun. 5/10… (Carlsbad, NM)  Happy Mother’s Day to everyone!  We decided to head up to see if Roswell wanted to keep Rick as their resident alien!  No luck – they wouldn’t take him so we’re stuck!  Roswell is 50+ miles north of where we are camped and the ride was nice.  I sure had Roswell completely wrong in my head.  I thought this was a one stoplight town.  It is built up into a nice little city. They have one huge and beautiful Military Academy.  We saw some of the young cadets either out and about in town (some w/their parents) or out on the parade fields.  We decided to have a light lunch while there and found a Sonic Drive In for a quick bite.  Turns out there is only one street that has most of the curiosity alien shops as well as the UFO Museum Research Center.  We went in there and for $3.00 got to see all of the exhibits and articles about UFO sightings in and around Roswell.  Believe in them or not, there is a LOT of written info about sightings plus they have a couple of life size sets in place depicting alien landings.  It was pretty cool and worth the drive and the time. On the way home we heard from Bill and Treasa who just left their Cavern tour.  We both checked out places to eat (this part of the country we find that most places are closed on Sundays) and since it was Mother’s Day we thought most of the places would be open.  We thought wrong so we settled with Everspring Chinese Buffet in Artesia (24 miles from campground).  It was just ok. Not a place we would go to again.  We returned to the campground and started brainstorming Rick and Janie’s rig issue.  They do not have hot water.  We think it’s in the unit (it’s tankless and operates different from ours) so they will be calling Tiffin (the manufacturer) tomorrow to see if they could troubleshoot the problem. We made plans for departure tomorrow and headed off to relax and watch TV.   

 

Mon. 5/11… (Fort Stockton, TX)  Today we had 180 miles to drive and are now at Parkview RV Park in Fort Stockton TX.  Nothing fancy but this is just an overnight stop and will work just fine.  Janie reached the manufacturer of the water heater and I spoke with him to get a walk through on testing to see what is wrong.  We think we have found the problem and the part will be shipped to our upcoming campground in San Antonio in a few days. Treasa is switching dinner duty w/Janie so she fixed pork chops and corn and baked potatoes – all yummy! We talked about tomorrow and what time to leave.  We are now two hours later than home and will be for some time.  We discussed the weather as it looks like we’re now heading into the rain.  Then we went back to the rig to kill moths.  The last stop was close to the lake so we had little gnats and moths all around us!  The gnats are pretty much gone but we still have hundreds of @#$%& moths that flocked in and around the rigs. They get in through the smallest of spaces and then come out at night.  So we have to deal with them until we get them all.   

 

Tues. 5/12… (Junction, TX)  The run today was 198 miles and the weather was nasty. We had light rain most of the way. Our stop was Junction North Llano River RV Park.  This place used to be a KOA park and is very nice.  We are right by the river and there’s grass for Bailey to roll around in.  Speaking of Bailey, she has been doing really well this trip.  She doesn’t usually travel well but so far she hasn’t gotten sick.  If you look closely at the motorhome picture you can see Bailey likes to drive! We are only here for one night so we aren’t unhooking the tow car. BUT we think we had a door ajar during the trip so the inside dome light was on and ran down the battery.  A quick charge and we’re good to go. It was Lydia’s turn for dinner.  She made ham, mac & cheese, salad and carmel cake for dessert. It was all very good. We have a short run tomorrow so we aren’t leaving until around 10:00.

 

Wed. 5/13… (San Antonio, TX)   Today we drove 114 miles through almost constant rain and arrived at the Campground at Ft Sam Houston.  It did let up a bit as we were getting close to the base. Both Bill & Treasa and Rick & Janie are retired military and all have ids to get on military bases.  So we stopped on the way at a picnic area and Lydia and Janie swapped rigs. Janie used her id to get my rig on base and we made our way to the campground and checked in.  This is a huge base as we found out later that day when we set out to find the PX.  We must have driven for 45 minutes.  We did a little looking around and then headed back home.  We had decided to go find a steakhouse and Bill had spotted a sign for one on the way. It was called Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse. So I looked it up and decided to go there.  It showed it was close to downtown where we wanted to go later anyway.  It turns out this place was right on the Riverwalk!  The food was pretty good. All of us split our meals and we had plenty.  Afterward we decided that since it wasn’t raining we would hit the River Barge Rides.  This is a narrated tour on the river. Cost us seniors $6.00 each. We had done it before but they have added tons of places and made it a longer loop.  It was fun.  We made our way back to our cars and headed home.  Another adventure getting back on base!  We figure that by the time we are ready to leave we might have some of it figured out!

 

Thurs. 5/14… (San Antonio, TX)   This morning we decided to head off to SAS (San Antonio Shoes).  Made in America, these shoes are not the cheapest but after the factory tour (which was fantastic) we understand why.  Most of the work is done by hand.  It takes many steps to get the high quality shoes. All of the girls bought at least one pair.  These are seconds but as they say, you can’t find a flaw! All morning Janie had been tracking the rv part they had ordered.  It was delivered and we decided to get it installed asap so they could have hot water again.  No problem and it seems to be working fine.  Janie fixed dinner (chicken parmigiana – yummy!) and then we headed (offbase again) to Bass Pro Shops and Walmart.  I needed to replace a fuse (why the Honda battery was down) plus I wanted to get some more WD40, jumper cables, and another rain jacket. We hit Walmart first but they didn’t have too many rain jackets.  By the time we got out of there it was a little too late for the drive out to BPS so we went home.  

 

Fri. 5/15… (San Antonio, TX)   This is our last day here in San Antonio.  Since it rained almost all last night and this morning we decided to wait a bit before heading out.  We thought we’d go to Bass Pro Shops first so we could at least get out of the rain for awhile.  That worked.  It stopped!  We headed home to walk the dogs and then Rick & Janie drove back to downtown and to the Alamo. Bill & Treasa decided to stay home and relax.  We enjoyed the visit there although it was pretty crowded. We walked around the square there and hit a few shops and then went back to rest.  We went to Treasa’s for dinner and then planned for our next day’s journey tomorrow.  We only have a short drive so we’re planning on going to the local Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then take off.