Wednesday, March 15, 2017 - Mission RV Park, El Paso, TX
We slept with the windows open last night and both of us slept very well. The temperature dropped to mid-50's and I've decided that is the perfect sleeping weather. Something about sinking down in the covers when it's cold always makes me sleep better and Dean agrees. In fact it was a little after 6 before I woke up. We didn't waste much time after coffee and breakfast in packing up and leaving Ms. G's. We had a long drive ahead of us - 7 hours, even though we lost an hour by the clock shortly before we arrived in El Paso. I told Dean I was just getting used to daylight savings time and now we fall back again.
A shout out to my Aunt Lil who brought Dean and I a little gift before leaving on our trip. She makes these wonderful bowl holders - if you have something hot (soup) or cold (ice cream or cereal) they are great to hold your bowl while you are eating. I tried mine out this morning and I LOVE IT!!!! Thank you Aunt Lil!!! We love you!
Our bowl holder for really hot or really cold food items. It works great!
We left at 8:45am and arrived at the park at 2:55pm (Mountain Time). We are at Mission RV Park. It's a large RV Park right off the Interstate. It's a packed dirt parking lot, with paved roads, and full- hookups. They have a nice pool, playground equipment for the kids, a mobile repair shop on site and a really nice laundry area. We have 50 amp, water, sewer, cable and wi-fi. We paid more for it than we normally would at $37.75 a night with a 10% discount, but it's a convenient location and we are enjoying the amenities.
Our drive today was LONG, however we did see some beautiful scenery. I am just going to include pictures I took along the way. Other than traveling through the cities of Midland, Odessa, etc. that appear to be gas and oil communities we didn't see much else until shortly before we arrived in El Paso, well unless I missed something when I was napping!! (I apologize for the glare from the window or any spots on the windshield).
Our site
The covered area with garage door is the mobile workshop, the covered building to its right is the swimming pool, indoor; and the brownish building is the office area.
Playground area for kids.
We plan to check out the City of El Paso tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some neat things to share in tomorrow's post. One thing I know for sure I want to find is a really good Mexican restaurant with homemade corn tortillas, Yummm!
Tuesday, March 14,
2017 – Ms. G’s RV Park, Loraine, TX
I was up early this morning (4:45) after a long night of
waking up almost on the hour. The
parking lot here at the fairground is well lit – too much for sleeping well as
far as I’m concerned. I could not
remember what I had used to cover the windows when this has happened before,
and even if I had remembered, when I did, the old beach towels I carry for this
purpose were under the bed. Not sure
Dean would have thought much of me lifting the end of the bed in the air while he was
sleeping in order to retrieve them. Now let that picture set in. HAHA I
guess I was so tired when we went to bed I fell asleep without even noticing the light outside. I have made a mental note to be sure
and check this out in the future.
I’m usually up early anyway, and soon I was enjoying a cup of coffee as I read my morning emails which consist of mostly RV blogs and devotionals. Once Dean got up we watched the news, ate breakfast,
got ready and between us we soon had things packed up and we pulled out of the
Cleveland County Fairgrounds at 8:45. We
have a long travel day to Loraine, TX, almost 350 miles. We do not really enjoy long travel days,
however on occasion it’s just easier to get it done. I
managed to take a few naps, so I feel rested now.
I took several pictures throughout the day as we passed
through southern Oklahoma and Texas. We
enjoyed the landscape. Here are a few pictures:
The last time I was in Medicine Park was in 1969 when my cousin Randy graduated from the 8th grade. He and his parents lived here while his dad was stationed at Fort Sill. His grandma and grandpa Paul (who was my great-aunt and uncle) brought me with them.
If you enlarge this picture you will see the beautiful buffalo embossed in the concrete overpass railing.
We enjoyed the beautiful green fields.
Seeing cattle grazing is very peaceful to me. Could not resist taking this picture - I missed a really good one earlier.
President George W. Bush Bridge over the Red River at the Texas State Line.
Red River
Entering the State of Texas.
Falls at the entrance of Wichita Falls, Texas. I was not quick enough to get the best picture.
It was 33 degrees when we left Norman this morning. I like the weather in Texas!!
Another beautiful green wheat field.
Equipment used to pick cotton. We saw many cotton fields that had already been harvested.
Here you can see the leftover cotton from the fields along the side of the road.
This was the courthouse in a small town called Anson. I apologize for the dirty windshield but the courthouse was just to pretty to pass up.
An old wagon near the courthouse.
The two pictures above are of the wind farms that were in every direction from us as we drove this part of the highway near Loraine. After we arrived at the RV park, a gentleman told Dean this is the largest wind farm in the US.
Enlarge this picture and you can see the surprise visitor out our window as I started working on my blog post. EEK!!!! I sure didn't want to startle him/or her!!
Cotton baled up.
Bentley at Ms. G's RV Park - Loraine, TX
Cactus just across the road from where we are parked.
Pictures of very old mesquite trees located in the park. The owner said they were over 100 years old.
Just a little information on the park itself. Brad and Dawn are the owners and very nice people. They were very accommodating. The park is two years old and a work in progress. It was in need of mowing but overall it served our purposes well. We had 50 amp electric and water hookup. It is very peaceful here, except for the occasional train. I barely noticed the first train. After that we opened our window and the only other one we've heard was very noticeable. This is a Passport America Park. The rate was $20 for 50 amp and $15 for 30 amp. They have a fire pit and cooker available for campers to use.
We left Norman at 8:50 am and arrived at Ms. G's at 3:45 pm. Tomorrow our destination is El Paso. El Paso Cit---eee! I can hear Marty Robbins now!!!
Monday, March 13, 2017 – Cleveland County Fairgrounds – Norman,
OK
Sunday evening we were unsure if we would be able to
leave on our trip to Tucson this morning. When Dean
woke up Saturday morning he reached up to scratch his face or react to
something – he’s not really sure – but it felt like something stung or bit him, however he did not feel or see anything that might have caused it. He
has had a small bump in the side of his cheek as long as he can remember so we
wondered if this might have been a cyst and maybe it could have burst. Nothing else occurred throughout the day. As the evening wore on, he noticed his cheek was slightly swollen. He put some ice on it and later went to
bed. When he woke up Sunday morning his
cheek appeared to be bruised and was swollen about twice as much as the night
before. He put some more ice on it and even though it was still swollen he felt fine, so we went on to church.
Sunday was our
daughter, Misti’s 40th birthday, so after church we took her, grandson Logan
and her best friend Julie to dinner at our local Mexican restaurant, Mi
Pueblo. Marc and his family (Jen, Kamron & Jaxson) picked Haleigh (Misti’s daughter) up at her dad’s on
the way down. We had a great lunch and a good time
visiting. Carlos, the restaurant owner
provided Misti with a birthday treat.
Here are a few pictures.
Carlos putting the Mexican Hat on her and his wife feeding her a bit of the sopapilla with honey, cinnamon and whipped cream they served her.
Misti and her best-friend Julie.
Afterwards everyone came back to the house for a little
dessert – Misti’s favorite, Angel Food Delight.
By now Dean’s cheek was swelling even more and was beginning
to move up his cheek towards his temple.
After everyone left we decided to make a trip to urgent care. Since we are planning to head out tomorrow on
a 3 week RV trip we wanted to make sure everything was okay….about an hour and
a half later the doctor felt most likely something had bit him, however what, we
were unsure. He did caution us what to
look for in case it was a brown recluse spider, and gave him a good dose of antibiotics to take for 10 days.
Sunday night.
This morning when we got up the swelling in Dean’s cheek
had diminished at least half of what it was late Sunday evening. There was no enlargement of the bruised area,
he had no pain, there were no sores/blisters, and he has not had any fever. Since none of the things they told us to watch for appeared, he wanted to go ahead with our plans so we left
Oswego at 10:45 this morning. Our first
stop is in Norman, OK at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. We have stayed here overnight before and
while it is nothing special it certainly meets our needs for an overnight stay. There is 50 amp electric and a water hookup at our
site, and decent spacing between rigs.
We originally planned to take 59
highway south from Oswego to I-44 in Vinita, but decided we would go on through Vinita and take
Route 66 instead. Bobbie, our GPS, was
unrelenting in her demands that we turn around but we stuck to our guns all the
way to Tulsa.
A few pictures I took along the way.
Our grand-kids love watching the train go by our house when they stay with us. This train made me think of them.
Bridge over the McClellan Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS). I was unable to get a shot of the barges on Dean's side.
Blue Whale of Catoosa - believe it or not I have never stopped here but love seeing it along the highway.
We arrived at the Fairgrounds here in Norman at 3:15 p.m. and soon found the office where we paid $20 for our site. The people in the office were so nice and friendly. We were fortunate to get a
great spot where we can park the truck right up next to Bentley's door. It is very windy and even
though the temperatures here are warmer than at home – it is
still very cold with a very sharp wind whipping around us.
By the time we had unhooked and set up, it was nearly 4:30
and we had not eaten anything all day. I made a sausage pizza, cooking it in our
cast iron skillet in the RV oven. That helped warm up the living area. After dinner Dean wanted to get some fuel for the truck, so we drove around a bit before before finding a station that sold diesel. During our drive I took these pictures:
I can't pass up great flag shots!
Telephone Road - we had to see where it went - not really anywhere but it provided us with the beautiful picture below. For those of you that do not know Dean worked for a telephone company for 44 years.
Loved this flag shot!
Once we returned we had a small snack, angel
food cake and strawberries, left over from the dessert I made Misti
yesterday.
Now we are in for the night. Dean’s watching TV so it’s a good time for me
to get this blog post completed.
Thursday, March 2,
2017 – South Owl RV Park, Yates Center, KS
Our first outing of the new year in Bentley is not too
far from home, about 80 miles. This is our trip to check things out before we leave March 13 for the 57th
Escapade in Tucson, AZ. We’ve found
after setting all winter (since the end of October for 2016) it works out well for us to
take a short trip for two reasons; 1) make sure there are no problems that we
need to address before taking off on a long distance trip and 2) to be sure we
get everything we need on board with us.
If I do forget something I make a list of what to include when we return
home. This is our 4th year
and so far this plan has worked out well for us. Since we pretty much empty the rig for the
winter except for dishes and cookware it’s easy to forget to add something back
in. I guess I should make a list of the normal
contents we carry when we ARE in Bentley --- which could be handy if we ever
had a loss (let’s hope that never occurs).
It sure would be easier. Maybe I’ll
get that done next week as I begin loading him up.
We chose Yates Center not only because of its location
but we wanted to stay in a different RV park in our home state of Kansas than
we have in the past. Of course, the
description sounded great so we thought why not? We’ve driven Highway 75 in Kansas more times than
we can remember – it leads to Topeka, our state Capitol; to Altoona-Midway High
School where our kids traveled to play numerous football, basketball and
baseball/softball games over the years; and Burlington, KS which I’ve
visited several times during my working years to attend various meetings. We’ve driven through Yates Center on many of
those trips and other than a quick stop at a convenience store (for the “convenience”
it offers) we’ve not seen the rest of the community. It seemed a good time to check it out. Staying in an RV park will encourage us to get out and walk and
we are taking our computers. Dean is
going to be working on financial info and I am anxious to make a blog post as
we begin our RVing season. Woo-hoo!
We left Oswego around 2pm and made the nearly 2-hour
drive – to our spot here in South Owl RV Park, Site #8 (maybe it’s 10—as this
site is evidently supposed to fit 2 units), however since no one else is in
the park, we are being a bit hoggish with the site, due to our size. While
we had reviewed the area before arriving, when we got here there was not a real
clear direction on where to go, but fortunately we took the right turns at the
right time and made it with no problems.
Now that being said, it did take us a drive or two circling the park to
finally decide which spot we wanted to try.
The sites were not real level, so we were trying to choose what we
thought would be the easiest for us to get level and it appears we chose okay as it worked out fine.
Now it was time to warm Bentley up. It was a breezy 60 degrees with the wind out
of the southwest coming right over the reservoir below us making it feel much
colder than that. Of course, everything
inside was cold to the touch and it took a while to get the heat level to my
liking. I do keep a heating pad on board
– mostly to keep my feet warm, and this afternoon/evening was no
different. It wasn't too long and I was soon comfortable as
could be. We stayed in for the night so
of course Dean soon had our Tailgator and Dish turned on, but we had a problem. Wow, I am really glad we made this trip before
heading to AZ. I had forgotten that I put the receiver in Bentley on vacation (as I do each fall) so I had to make a call
to Dish Network to have it reactivated, only to learn that we needed to have
our smart card upgraded. Dean is a big TV
watcher so I know we were both thinking, this cannot be happening. There IS a happy ending to this – she was
able to reactivate the smart card we have and will send us the new one, which
should be waiting for us when we get home.
We gave her the zip code for Yates Center in order to get the local
stations and we were good to go.
At least we thought we were – until we received the email confirmation of
what took place – showing the smart card was being mailed to our physical street address,
but instead of going to Oswego, KS it was going to Yates Center, KS. Another phone call was made to get that changed,
only to receive a new email confirmation saying we would be charged $50 for the
card. Good grief, another phone call to fortunately learn we will not be charged and the last email was in error regarding the
cost. Needless to say I was mentally
exhausted by the time we went through all of that with three different consultants. Whew!!!!
Yes, this explains why we take those short trips before a big one.
By now we were getting quite hungry---or maybe it was just the craziness of the last 30-45 minutes on the phone that made us feel hungry. To make things simple I brought some hot
dogs that I heated in the microwave (we had hoped for a campfire but it was
just too windy for that), along with some chips and a few vanilla wafers for a
snack. We just relaxed the rest of the evening and fortunately
was able to watch some TV before finally heading to bed.
Friday, March 3,
2017 – South Owl RV Park, Yates Center, KS
I woke up about 4:30 and no matter how hard I tried to go
back to sleep I couldn’t without making a trip to the bathroom. Oh, I hate that because now I’m wide
awake. I did lay back down after turning the heater up, and managed to lay there until almost 5:00. I waited to start the coffee until I heard Dean stirring so he could enjoy the first cup of coffee with me. It's always the best!
After breakfast we took a tour of the town, including
several times around the square – mostly so I could take additional pictures. Yates Center is similar in size to our
hometown of Oswego. Overall the community seems quite
clean in comparison to many others we have driven through. I love seeing a community with pride! Another thing I noticed right away was all
the quilt blocks painted on houses, barns, or on boards in business windows (both occupied
and vacant), etc. everywhere throughout Yates Center. What a great idea for a “theme” within the
town.
Just a few of the many quilt block paintings we seen around Yates Center.
I love county seats where the courthouse is located in
the town square, and Yates Center’s was quite beautiful.
There was also a beautiful stone building
boasting a sign “HOTEL Woodson” located northwest of the courthouse. Yates Center is located in Woodson
County. I’m not sure if it is still
being used as a hotel or not. There was
only one car parked outside and nothing else indicated it was open.
Their museum looked interesting, located in a former
church building, and sporting a beautiful large quilt block. Unfortunately, it was not open while we were
cruising around this morning.
We found a beautiful park near their city
swimming pool and an old stadium that I imagine was once a football field and
had an older track around the perimeter of a gated area. The stadium had several paintings on it. We
discovered Yates Center is known as the “Hay Capital”. That is not surprising as it is in the middle
of section after section of pasture land.
To the west of town you can see the Flint
Hills which is always a joy to drive through no matter the season. To me, it is still some of the most beautiful
country I’ve seen. I always imagine what
it must have been like for folks crossing Kansas in their wagons as they
moved west. The land is so vast and open
and at points you can see for miles.
One final thing we noticed is the large number of brick streets in Yates Center but there is one major difference we noticed from other cities with brick streets - they were very smooth to drive on. Most towns you know when you drive down a brick street because you are given quite a shaking. Kudos to the city crews here for taking such good care of them.
After our tour, we returned to Bentley. We both brought our computers so we could get
some work done this morning. I need to
think about where we will stay as we work our way to Tucson, and our return
trip home; finish the newsletter for the Escapees group (Ozark Chapter 17);
and to complete the review and updating of our monthly budget.
Our site
View of the reservoir
Closeup of our site.
Once I was done with my computer work Dean and I worked on a project we've been talking about for quite awhile. I should have taken a before picture but here is an after picture. Moving the table the way it is shown below, really opens up the space between the table and the island. It will allow us to get around this side of the island when the slide is in. I've had to crawl under or go over the top of the table more than once while the slides are in to get to something at the back.
After finishing all of the above, I decided to make us some dinner. I had brought along some chicken tenders wrapped in bacon and a couple of potatoes to bake, however I forgot to bring butter, sour cream, cheese----all of the yummy things we like on baked taters so we decided to get a Subway sandwich instead. We took it back to Bentley to eat, and a few minutes later we received a message from our son, Matt wanting us to Skype. We told him to give us about 10 minutes and we would.
One of the things I find frustrating about the internet is making sure all of our programs or apps are updated regularly. Neither of us remember receiving a notice from Skype that we should update the app, but 30 minutes later (that is 30 minutes after the initial 10 minutes was up) we finally got connected. By then (8:40 pm in New York) our poor little grandson Josh was tired and ready for bed but he cooperated and sang us a song, told us his big boy news - he's now potty trained, and then had to show us each of his toy animals he earned as he reached the fully potty trained status. Sarah, his little sister, was trying to figure out how two people waving at her inside of a machine and saying her name like they knew her and yet she couldn't touch them. She was perplexed for sure. We really miss them all.
We realized earlier today that two other grandkids - Tucker and Dacy are participating in the 4-H District Show tomorrow in Chanute - about 35 miles from where we are camped. Their events are to begin around 9, so we took our showers tonight and packed as much as possible for an early morning departure. We are looking forward to watching them perform tomorrow. We enjoyed the local 4-H competition very much and look forward to seeing it again. Saturday, March 4, 2017 - South Owl Creek RV Park, Yates Center, KS
I was up early again this morning and had the coffee brewing by 5:00. We enjoyed checking emails and watched a little TV, had breakfast and then started our pack up routine. At 8:14 we pulled out of the RV Park and headed toward Chanute, KS. Our daughter-in-law Renae texted the time of the events and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare. We quickly found the right location and watched Tucker play a tuba solo. He did a great job. He only started playing the tuba a year ago, after their band lost two of their tuba players, when one moved and the other quit band. He received Top Blue for his solo today.
Both Dacy and Tucker were in a skit of the Ray Stevens Song - The Mississippi Squirrel Revival. Dacy was one of the little old women in the church pews and sits next to Tucker. Tucker had the lead role of Harve Newlin. He did a great job of hopping around the church with that squirrel in his pant leg---afterwards the judge told him they picked the right person for his part, because he could tell by looking at him he was onery. I cannot find the video to upload the skit. Even though it is on my phone and I can play it, it does not come up when I open my videos. You can checkout my Facebook Page "Cheri Blackledge Peine" if you want to see it.
With Dacy and Tucker's events completed, we headed back to Oswego. It was a good first outing of the year despite our Dish Network and Skype woes, but watching these two grandkids made up for those little problems. We were happy to be in Bentley even if it was just a couple of days. I'll be back in about a week to head towards Tuscon and our first ever Escapade.
