Day 13

We made it back today. It was hot, which made all of the work that we had to do a little more unpleasant. The whole place is overgrown. That was expected. Unfortunately so were the road and the parking areas. I spent about an hour weed eating the place where we park the trailer so that we could park it. I also had to cut off some tree limbs to clear the road.

After parking the trailer we unloaded the truck and the car. We also took the hitch out of the truck. I didn't put anything away. I just moved it out of the vehicles.

Both the house and the apartment looked OK, so we went out to buy paint and some string for the weed eater. We also stopped at HEB. When we were leaving HEB I had a little fender bender with another car that was backing out at the same time that I was. Crap.

To cap off everything, when we got home I turned on the hot water to see if the heater was working. It was, but the water had a nasty sulpher smell. Se I turned on the taps to drain the tank. When I came back, there wasn't any water running. The well pump isn't working. That means we don't have any water here, or in the trailer tank. No toilets either. I'll call to get that fixed tomorrow.

Day 12

We slept in late. I mean until about 10:00. When I did get up I emptied the grey water tank. No reason to haul that to Austin. The water tank is empty too, so that will help with the efficiency.

With that chore done we went to the gun show. There was a great selection of stuff, but nothing that I was interested in. After the show we hit several antique stores. They all had neat stuff. Unfortunately none of them had exactly what we were looking for.

When we got back I took the computer and went to a small park area with a gazebo that they have at the back of the park. I made a long list of things that we need to buy and chores that need to be done. It's length is a little intimidating. Then I spent hours looking for the stuff we needed to buy on Craig's list. I found some possibles and sent a couple of emails.

This evening I watched the Ducks beat USC.

Day 11

We went down to Nationals today. It was a 135 mile round trip.

Nationals was fun, even though we weren't shooting. We started out by throwing the bumper for the dog. That tired her out some and made her more manageable as we went through the crowd. It seemed we couldn't go more than half an hour without someone stopping and telling us what a good looking dog she was. Lots of people stopped just to pet her.

We met several people from Oregon that were down for the shoot. We also saw several people we know from elsewhere. The first person we saw was Mack. We talked to him for quite a while, and then I had Ellen call Dan and give the phone to Mack.

We had some good luck at the vendors also. I talked to the people that I'd ordered my glasses from last year. They had lost my order and couldn't contact me. Ellen got a new set of frames to replace one that she broke. They replaced them for free. I also got a $300 dollar coat for $100.

Fiocchi had some samples of these cool tracer loads that use the same material as cylume sticks. I picked up 5 for Dan to use in his lessons.

We shot the practice course. It was fun, but neither of us did very well.

Day 10

Did the 272 miles to Fredericksberg. Another boring and uneventful drive. I did get sub 10 mpg due to the hilly terrain and a head wind.

When we got to Fredericksberg we set up and immediately went to town. It was surprisingly crowded. We scoped out the furniture and antique stores. We found a store that has a hall tree that looks interesting. We also found a thing that would serve as a microwave stand. I might buy it before we leave.

We had dinner and then went back to the park. We took the dog to the dog run and she got to chase a ball a little bit.

No I'm going to look up back roads to San Antonio for tomorrow.

Day 9

It was a good day for the dog. We took her to the dog park. It's the nicest dog park we've ever seen. Two enclosures, each at least 3 acres in size. One even had a dog agility course in it. Unfortunately there weren't any other dogs for her to play with, so I spent the time throwing the bumper for her.

After that we drove over to Windwalker and shot a round of sporting. We shot the course that they set up for practice for Nationals. We didn't do well. Part of it was not shooting for a month. The other was we just don't get enough practice on hard targets.

It was a typical Texas traveling day. We went over 120 miles doing those two things.

On to Fredericksburg tomorrow. We're thinking about a day trip down to Nationals from there on Friday.

Day 8

On today to Midland. The drive was typically boring. Exactly like you'd expect a drive through west Texas to be. The only notable event was when a semi ignored a yield sign on the highway and I had to brake very hard in order to avoid rear ending him.

Once we got to Midland we took the dog to the Dogwash K9000. She was just as happy to get a bath as she usually is. We softened the blow a little bit by having her chase the bumper at the park for awhile before we took her.

Nothing else of any note happened today.

Day 7

Another road day, 340 miles to Roswell. It was a very windy day today, at least 30 mph. Fortunately it was from the west. Our route consisted of 200 miles due east on I40 and then 140 miles SE on secondary roads. I got really good gas mileage on I40 and good mileage on the secondary roads. It was the first time I ever drove through dust so thick that I had to slow down because I couldn't see the road.

The dog's on a rice and cottage diet which seems to have addressed the diarrhea.

We got an early start because we left the truck connected to the trailer. That put us into Roswell about 3:00. We've seen all of the UFO sights in town, so we just fueled up the vehicles. Then we took the dog for a walk in the field behind the park. She scared up a rabbit and chased it at least a quarter mile. Of course it didn't slow down when she barked for it to do so.

Tomorrow is only a 212 mile trip to Midland. I'm going to try to get there close to noon so that we can take the dog to the Dogwash 9000. She smells like she needs it.

Day 6

Today's drive to Gallup was a pain in the ass. There were the usual connection of truckers and other drivers who couldn't hold a constant speed. This road aggravates these tendencies because about half of it consists of hills you climb just so you can go down the other side.

A lot of the road is very rough. This is a major truck route and they've pounded the road pretty badly. There is one section that they are rebuilding with Obama bucks. It will be nice when they are finished, but right now it's a pain. I'm glad we went through on Sunday when they weren't working.

There were three special pains. Lucy has the runs. I had to stop twice for her. The second time the keys got locked in the truck while it was running. That's when I find out the wifey lost hers and didn't tell me. Fortunately OnStar unlocked the truck. The final pain was a particularly tight gas station in Cortez. I had to fuel up there. In getting out the rear of the trailer got scraped against one of the guard posts. There are a couple of small tears in the skin, and I'll have to recaulk the back edge of the trailer. Luckily the damage wasn't any more severe.

Tomorrow is a longer drive down to Roswell. Fortunately over half of it is on the interstate.

Day 5

Today's weather was an improvement over yesterday. It was cloudy, but not raining (at least until the afternoon). We took a loop around a highway and some paved national forest roads to the east of Moab. The whole loop was about 65 miles.

The scenery was fantastic. The route starts in the Colorado canyon with the road winding alongside the river. There was some nice photo ops, except the lighting was too poor. We stopped at a turn off an let the dog do some running. She came back with several cactus spines in her legs. After about 15 miles the route turns away from the river and goes up a valley that heads south from the canyon.

The clouds cleared up a little and I got some good shots of some of the rock formations. At the end of the valley the road starts up into the mountains. I'd say we climbed at least 1,000 feet. We passed a lot of hunters. I think that they were looking for deer. At the top we could look back over the valley we drove up. By then the clouds had cleared a little more and I got some good shots.

The drive down the other side of the mountains wasn't as spectacular. It did offer some fine vies of the valley that Moab is in.

When we got back to Moab we did a little grocery shopping and ate lunch at a burger joint. While we were shopping it started raining again. We just went home and sat in the trailer.

We did see a couple of neat places to explore next time we are in town. There are trails on both sides of the Colorado that would be nice to walk.

Day 4

Today sucked. It rained all day. We travel 1000 miles to get out of the rain, and it's better weather in Salem than it is here.

We spent the day inside the trailer. I made out a tentative schedule for the rest of the trip. If we hold to it, we'll be done in about a week. Of course, everything is subject to change.

I also spent some time looking for apps for my phone. I couldn't find a decent solitaire app. I quit looking for games when the battery in my phone gave out. I didn't find any interesting ones.

The rest of the day was spent reading. I finished one book and made a good start on another.

Day 3

We decided to chill today. I spent the morning researching retirement homes for my mother to visit next week. Ellen paid bills. I took the dog to the field behind the RV park. It's thick with thorny weeds, but there's enough clear space for her to get some exercise.

Then we went to Moab for lunch. We had a nice meal at the local brew pub. Here's an interesting fact. Micro brews have 29.9% of the Portland beer market. That's highest in the country.

We did a little more Christmas shopping and also took advantage of a couple of sale items that we found at a local discount store.

I watched the Ducks game in the evening. They crushed UCLA. I bet the BCS still won't rate them #1.

Day 2

Today was one of the worst travel days I've had with the trailer. Everything was fine until we got south of Salt Lake City. They are rebuilding about 20 miles of the freeway. The whole way was narrow lanes with trucks on all sides. To make it even better, there were a couple of traffic jams. I thought we were free when we left I-15. No such luck. Out in nowhere east Utah we were held up while they ground rumble strips in the center line of the road.

A word about fuel prices. They've been falling the farther east we go. In Baker City they were 3.40/gal. In eastern Idaho and Utah they were 3.15/gal. The difference is the monopoly of the west coast refineries.

After we set up in Moab we went into town. We got some visitor info and bought some Christmas presents. We also stopped by a pet store and got some spray mouthwash for the dog. Her breath has been atrocious. Then there was the obligatory grocery store stop.

The cable TV here is pretty good. So we're spending the evening veging out in front of the tube.

Day 1

There's not much that's interesting about the 400 mile trip from Richland to Snowville. At least travel through Nampa and Boise wasn't a pain. The biggest problem was a couple of idiots at the fuel stops. Somehow they can't seem to have the courtesy to clear the pumps when they are finished fueling.

They've done some work on the Snowville RV park. It's a lot neater than it was. The owner says he wants to sell, but no one is buying. It's another place that will probably evaporate when the current owner is too old to work it.

We had a good dinner at the local restaurant. I wanted to help out the local economy. There wasn't anything else to do in Snowville, so early to bed to get up early to drive to Moab.

Day 0

Tomorrow we start out on the return trip to Texas. It was a fairly eventful summer. We had a good set of tournaments. The Western was a great success.

Both of us had some health issues. I learned the joys of passing a kidney stone. Three trips to emergency, an operation, and a night in the hospital. After all of that it may still be in the kidney. Ellen had a scare concerning liver function. Tests indicate that nothing serious is going on.

We had a good time hunting. Lucy had some good days and some bad. She disappointed me on chukar, but did good on a pheasant. I shot my first blue grouse.

We're bringing a new car, a Hyundai Sonata, with us to Texas. It and the trailer are loaded with stuff that we bought in Oregon to avoid the sales tax. This is going to make travel a little interesting. I won't have a copilot to look for places to fuel up. I have to plan out the fuel stops in advance. Ellen is going to learn the joys of long distance driving.