Here are Carol and me enjoying a picnic stop some place in the Anza Borrego State Park along S 2 in California.

I’ve been trying to keep up with our travels and have skipped over a fair amount of stuff as we went. In Julian, as we pulled into the campground, the office was closed and we were wandering around looking for a place to camp when a truck headed out of the area pulled up along side us. I rolled down my window and greeted our soon to be neighbors for the night and asked where the overnight area was. Dale and Carol (his wife Carol not the Carol that rides with me all the time) had just set up and pointed out the area they were in. We found a nice reasonably level spot that was not under water and set up. Carol prepared dinner while I tried to be useful. After dinner we went out for a walk and saw that our neighbors were back from their expedition and we invited them over for a class of wine.

According to their email they really enjoyed the Yellow Tail Shiraz and in the morning they gifted us a bottle of “2 buck chuck” as a thank you. For those of you who have never been in a Trader Joes, they sell a line of wine named Charles Shaw for $1.99 a bottle in California. Hence the name “2 buck chuck” – it is better than many wines for which I have paid much more and it is enjoyable enough on an evening in a campground.

The last couple of days have been frustrating. We are trying to get east so we can get to Perry, GA on the 19th without getting so far east that we have to encounter cold weather too soon. Also Texas is a very large state in case you haven’t heard. We left Las Cruces, NM (30 miles east of El Paso) and stopped for gas at the border and encountered a long line at the pump and an even longer line inside as the computers were working a half speed, the staff of that “Flying J were not keeping up with their computers. 45 Minute later we pulled out and drove two miles to get to a brand new Camping World to pick up some items we were looking for. It was major disappointment, this newly opened store in Anthony, TX is half the size of any CW we have been in and was so poorly stocked that we did not find much of what we wanted to look at. Camping World should not have permitted their name to be used on this store.

Finally we got moving down I 8. As you might guess we could not bring ourselves to cross Texas on an interstate. At Van Horn we picked up US 90 and headed for Falcon State Park, 550 miles away. We did not count on getting there that day. We passed Marfa, the home of the lights in the field that we didn’t see when we stopped there one night, Alpine and Marathon. After that the towns become so small that they don’t have dogs (I haven’t got the foggiest notion where that came from). In the dripping rain and fading light we decided that a campground would be more comfortable than a wide spot in the road picnic area and we pulled into Canyon RV on the edge of Sanderson (can’t call it the outskirts since there are none – the edge is a good definition on one side of the campground is Sanderson on the other . . . nothing). Anyhow, the owner escorted us to our site and then commented that I had no lights on the back of the motorhome. Baaad news! Sure enough, although I had brake lights and turn signals all the marker and parking lights were out as were the parking lights on the tow’d. Called Workhorse and they pointed me to a service center in Mission, TX, just 400 plus miles down the road. I called and spoke to Doug who said “come in when you get here.” In the morning we set out for Falcon SP a bit late because we had to chat with our neighbors, one from Romulus, NY and another with an old (mid ‘70s) Vixen MH. The day was bright and the temperature rose all day. Mid day we stopped to change into shorts and kept on moving. At 6:30 PM with 15 minutes of daylight left we pulled into the park and found it more beautiful than we remembered. The shame is that we had to leave first thing in the morning to get the lights fixed.

The lights are fixed and it is raining and we are in Bentsen Palm Village, a two year old RV resort outside Mission, TX. The problem with the lights turned out to be some lousy connections in the connection cable. Somehow the screws that hold the wires in the plug came loose and they were shorting out. It took the hand of Doug, the service manager, to make the diagnosis. The techs were looking all over the car for the problem once they figure out it wasn’t in the motorhome. Doug told them to pull apart the plugs first, sure enough that was it. As we drove away it was with a sigh of relief that didn’t last an hour. When we checked the lights again they were not working right. I had a bright idea and switched the connector cable end for end and that resolved it. One end of the cable had been rewired at Meyers Campers and they did not get it secure and the cable is not a straight pass through anymore. Now that I know, at least I can keep things straight.

We planned to spend the night in Bentsen State Park and were shocked to find a closed gate across the entrance with no place to turn. They have turned the entire park into a bird sanctuary and no longer permit vehicle entrance. They have no advance warning on the road. A ranger saw me coming and let me through the gate to the former entrance turnaround. Some welcome! The resort we are in is just outside the gate. It is quite nice, I think, it has been raining since we got here and I have not been out since we set up.