We have stopped in Las Cruces to visit Leora and Stuart as has been our custom over the years. After three days without pause it also has given us a chance to clean up a bit and restock groceries. Hacienda RV Resort is an acceptable campground. I can see I 10 traffic out the windshield from our site and the rail crossing nearby is quite audible. 

Last night as we were preparing dinner neither of us wanted to turn on the election day news. We went to sleep in ignorant bliss. This morning we both hesitated about turning on the local NPR station not knowing what to expect. We are still breathing evenly. I’ll let it go at that.

Our major topics of discussion are planning the next 700 miles of travel which will put us on our site in Jojoba Hills. When to stop; where to stop; how long to drive each day. I do know we will stop for fuel in Yuma, our last fuel stop before Californian. With careful planning we may be able to avoid paying California price for diesel at all. Our next planned RV outing is in Arizona and we should have enough fuel remaining to easily return there.

Our next planned travel is the cruise to Mexico from San Diego in December. That is a 7 day “practice” cruise. We continue to explore other trips for Spring after the RV trip to Escapade in Tucson AZ in March.  

I expect my next post will be from Site 801 in Jojoba Hills SKP Resort.

Our next stop after the winery was 3 nights at Tom Sawyer RV Park on the banks of the Mississippi. They claim that they are so close to the river they are sometimes IN the river. Not so much now. With drought north of Memphis the river is much less mighty than we have seen in the past. This link  will take you to two pictures of the river taken from the same place. The first was taken in May 2022 and the second was taken this month (November 2022). 

Our trip continued on I 30, I know we don’t love interstates, but we really want to get back to Jojoba Hills this year. Because we now limit travel time to about 4 hours we are stopping at new places. Last  night we chose a Boondockers Welcome place that is very highly regarded by many visitors. I still have to write a review, but WOW. Lots of room for RVs of any size and full or partial hookups available for most. The couple are older than us but are leading a very active life. The forecast included a serious threat of tornados and they warned that they might come knocking at the door at any time to come into the sheltered part of the house to wait it out. The knock came at about 7:30 as we were preparing dinner. We sat in a row with them and 4 other RVers who came in to shelter. We were listening to the TV in the other room warning that it was close, then the TV quit and lights flickered! Using our phones we could see the track as it passed 3 miles to our north! In the morning Ginny told us that one of their neighbors, just 3 miles away, had had their property destroyed. We were grateful to have escaped unscathed. 

We rolled on along I30 through the middle of Dallas, losing no more than 10 minutes to traffic slow downs. The alternative was at least an hour longer and many miles of expensive diesel. We have traversed Dallas at worse times and our experience has been similar, lots of traffic, a period of 20 mph backup and no significant loss of time. I will admit to some scathed nerves. A bit over 4 hours brought us to Coffee Creek RV Park. It seems to be a mix of longer term RVers, workers and transients like ourselves. We are just a couple of miles off I 20. Road noise? What road noise? 

Tomorrow our plan is to stop at Monahans Sandhills State Park along I 20. This is one of our favorites camping in what looks like ocean sand dunes where the ocean (Permian) left eons ago. From there on to Las Cruces NM. We won’t be staying at Siesta RV. When I called I was told the park had been sold and the new owner was looking to fill it with monthlies. I won’t miss the cramped worn out site #13 we usually stay in. We will miss the location within walking distance of Mesilla and  the shops and restaurants we enjoy. We’ll just have to drive from Hacienda RV, a couple of miles further.

 After a four night stay we will take three overnights to get to Jojoba Hills, unless we get crazy and do it in two – not likely.

That is as good an excuse as any for my failure to keep this blog up to date. Somehow we managed to pick up the car on Friday afternoon and get the coach loaded and ready to roll on Saturday morning, once Carol’s doctor gave us the go ahead to leave town for the winter. As I write we are in Red Bay Alabama around the corner from the factory where GeeWhiz was built. Our sole reason for coming this year was to have the stove cover repaired and the counters polished like factory new by the man who does that all day long in the factory!

We arrived at Malena and Dan’s in Dyke VA midafternoon and soon were set up in the driveway for our stay. We celebrated my 80th the next day with lamb chops! and Red Breast Irish Whiskey. It was a great celebration and Alexander was there for the event. For the most part they were working during the day and we went about our own lives until dinner time. Of course I helped feed the horses, well I observed and stayed out of the way mostly. I swear Galopin and Tivoly are twice as big as the Iceland horses we saw. On Friday Dan took Carol and me on a wonderful walk on a trial off the Blue Ridge Parkway. As is true of almost all BRP trails it is “upside down”. It starts out with a long descent and finishes by climbing back to the trailhead. We made it!

Travel from there started out by backing out of the long not completely straight driveway we had driven in on. With Carol at the wheel and me talking on the handsfree cellphones (for the first time) this was accomplished easily. Once hooked up, we had an uneventful drive with a stop for fuel and arriving for a pleasant stay at Fort Chiswell RV Park. I cannot believe we haven’t stayed there before. However it is less than four hours drive and we used to travel for six hours in our youth. Another 4 hour day found us at Mama Gerties Campground outside of Asheville. Imagine taking a cliff and carving roads and level campsites on the side of the cliff. We had been there before but it seems steeper than memory. We were in G2 on that trip so more than 10 years ago. 

Our friends Leigh and Patrick moved to Asheville within the year and have bought a lovely house with glorious views.We had dinner out with Leigh on Tuesday night and with both of them at their home Wednesday night. it was a lovely visit and it gave us time to wander a bit in Asheville. We wandered around in Blue Spiral Gallery, as we do every time we are there and across the street to the Mast Store where Carol found something to buy. 

Early Thursday morning (for us) we set out for a two day run to Red Bay. Since the drive is about 10 hours we planned an overnight at a Harvest Host Winery we had visited before, Del Monaco Winery outside Nashville. Plenty of parking away from the winery itself which was good since they had a large crush of guests for a college reunion arriving about 5. By 9 PM they were all gone and it was peaceful for the night.

Now I must really start preparing my Treasurer’s Report for September 30.

We left Jojoba Hills 21 days ago. We have been “on the run” most of those days. We had three nights in Redlands and two nights each in Albuquerque and West Memphis AR. The rest of the stops were just overnighters, but since we got in early 3 or 4 PM we had time to relax and take advantage of the areas we were in.

Six nights we were in Harvest Hosts, Elks or other dry camp no charge places. We paid $398 for 8 nights of camping for an average of $49 per night. The last stop, Harrisburg East blew that number up at 84.60 (that was with a 10% discount). Diesel Fuel put in the tank cost $1,964 so far for 457 gallons. If I top off before storing it will take that number over $2,000. The fuel included fuel from Ehrenburg AZ to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort and return, I managed to avoid buying Diesel in California. Last year for comparison I spent $4,460 for fuel to go back and forth and covered 11,100 miles consuming about 1340 gallons. 

The quick trip was necessitated by our desire to attend a Bat Mitzvah in Boston, next week and the balancing desire to stay in Jojoba Hills longer. I am delighted that as we approach our 80th birthdays in the Fall, we are still able to do this fairly easily. Limiting speed to 62 mph and drive time to 4 hours really takes a lot of the stress off.

The coach has performed as well as I could have hoped. Our only “problem” was a rough road in TN claimed a hub cap. Really a center cap on the passenger side front wheel. A replacement will be waiting for us in Rochester, thank you Tiffin (not a gift, I’m paying, but finding a part for a 10 year old coach can be interesting).

The most interesting new place we found on this trip was the Metal Museum in Memphis TN. It is on the eastern bank of the Mississippi and is currently comprised of a campus with a collection of buildings to house the exhibits, the workers and apprentices as well as a forge and a foundry.  We spent a couple of hours there and were not surprised that our friend Thomas Markussen had shown his work  there in its early days. You may find it worth exploring  https://www.metalmuseum.org/ virtually or as a stop when in Memphis where there is much more to see.

The next post will not be On the Road, but I will be posting.

We have made it halfway across the country in a week and a day. Some simple statistics: we have spent just over $1,200 on diesel, 240 gallons so far. Today the pump stopped at $417. The discount program brought that down to $398 for 76 gallons of diesel. We have spent almost nothing for campgrounds since we have been staying in winery parking lots and buying wine. I don’t count that as a cost of camping since I would have bought wine anyhow – probably not THIS wine, but wine.

As I write I am staring out the windshield through the rain at the Mississippi River. It is well worth paying for camping for this location. Saturday I am hoping to stay at a distillery that specializes in Shine. Waiting for word they have room. After that, it appears to be a KOA (horrors) before getting to Dan and Malena’s. 

Today we drove through non stop rain with lightning flashes all around us most of the day. It is not ideal driving, but each of us had only 2 hours at the wheel so it was tolerable. Tomorrow it should clear in Memphis so we can do a bit of touring. 

Not to jinx ourselves, but since we rolled out of Redlands the travel has been relatively uninteresting to write about. Other than the long climb out of Arizona on I 40 with way too many trucks struggling with the climb which meant we lost our momentum and had to resort to low gear struggling ourselves. Even the most foolish drivers have only resulted in my resorting to some blue language, neither of us has had to hit the brakes. 

Our first night we stopped in Quartzite at the Hi Jolly STVA and then on to Pioneer RV Park in Phoenix so we could have a delightful dinner with Mary and Tom Markussen. From there we continued on to  an Elks Lodge in Holbrook AZ. It’s only redeeming virtue was the dust was flat. A quick look into the lodge lead me to not even consider returning for the supposed dinner, since all three denizens were smoking. Back on to I 40 for a two night stop at American RV in Albuquerque so we could visit with niece Erica. We went to VanGogh Immersion. It was fascinating to see so much of his work displayed with so much information and in such a satisfying manner. If I had not seen original Van Gogh works in great museums I would have been much more impressed. As fine as the presentation is the images are still flat, the impasto is flat and does not provide the depth and energy of the original. 

After lunch and some time at the Eco Garden we returned Erica to her apartment and returned ourselves to the coach to prepare for 4 solid days of driving. We stayed last night, Monday, at an Eco-Village Artist community that may be restored to activity some day. During the drive, I turned the wheel over to Carol so I could attend a Zoom Jojoba Hills Board Meeting. She drove almost 180 miles while I attended the meeting and participated and voted. Today was another road day and it brought us to Native Spirit Winery in Norman OK.  The driveway entrance was a bit narrow and we ended up disconnecting the car so Carol could maneuver the coach in between the ditch drop offs. It was nicely done and I get to try my hand at getting us out. The wine is adequate, I bought a couple of bottles to “pay for my stay”. 

Tomorrow, Wednesday we will drive to Post Winery in Altus Arkansas. Then one more road day to Tom Sawyer RV Park on the bank of the Mississippi river where we will stay 2 nights with full hookups. Laundry, long showers and a break from the road. We will travel on OK  9 for a bit to stay off the Interstate for a while. 

AS I post this I am off to solve today’s Wordle

Not the most auspicious beginning to a cross country trip. Trying to leave our site the jacks on the driver side chose not to rise like magic into their storage cylinders. After a moment of consternation I got out the WD 40 and crawled under the coach to clean the shafts so they could retract. A minute later they behaved as hoped for and retracted to Travel Mode.

As we hooked up the Jeep on the exit road I thought I had followed the ritual to perfection, apparently not, as the Jeep was not in neutral when I did the “roll test”. With Carol franticly giving me the STOP signal, I did and repeated the process two more times. The last time I had the manual open to the instructions and followed them precisely, which worked – remember to keep the brake firmly depressed throughout the process. 

As we drove up the long but shallow grade coming out of Temecula on the I 215 the engine began to overheat. I nursed it to the top of the grade and finally into The Grove, the campground that Redlands Truck and RV maintains for customers. I was coming in for routine service and had them check out the cooling system. I just learned that the two stage clutch for the engine cooling fan isn’t working. It won’t switch to fast speed. We hope the part will be available tomorrow so we can get on with the trip.

None of this is really discouraging or even unexpected. The jacks do need to be cared for after a long pause and forgetting the rather involved procedure for getting the car into neutral didn’t surprise me. Even the failure of the cooling system was not unexpected and the likely cause is a relief since I have been imagining so many more costly and time consuming sources. 

Like living in an aging body, traveling in an aging motorhome has some unplanned failures and unpleasant surprises. 

From Google Maps History 2021 travels. Many years ago Carol’s late brother asked for maps of our travels. At the time it was a nontrivial ask. Today Google Maps makes it almost too easy. If you think about our desire to stay warm it becomes clear that the northern route was late Spring into Summer and the Southern route was in the Fall. 

First stop West bound was Dyke Virginia where Dan and family now live on their large farm (15 acres) with space for their two horses. The moochdock space for us is a straight pull in (which results in an extended back out). From there we headed south to Charlotte for a reunion of friends and time with the Rainwaters, who have since begun to relocate to Asheville.

We got in a bit of a hurry leaving Charlotte NC after a week long delay for mechanical stuff. We skipped Louisiana altogether. We made four stops in Texas although only three show. Texas is that big and we needed some time in Livingston to pick up the mail and get the coach inspected. Then on to New Mexico to visit Leora and Stuart in Las Cruces and then to Erica in Albuquerque. This resulted in backtracking south on I 25 to get to Quartzite where we hung out in Hi Jolly camping area to limit our total time for the year in California to less than 180 days. We returned to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort on December 4 and finished 2021 there. We have enough diesel to make it out of California before we need fuel.

The eastbound trip had a hiccup or two. The first stop was Redlands Truck and RV to service the coach and set up the tow for our new Jeep. From there we made it to Albuquerque to meet Erica who flew in to scope out the town as a place to move to. A doctor suggested we return to Jojoba HIlls so Carol could have yet another test and so we did. When the results came back we were released to continue on. We returned to Redlands since the new brake system for the Jeep did not seem to be functioning as expected. They jumped on it the minute we arrived and determined that one of the parts they had installed had failed and they replaced it under warranty, total time was two hours! We stayed the night in their campground spending time with two other Jojobian couples who were there. 

As we ventured north and east we had wonderful experiences along US 50 headed to Lake Tahoe. It appears that most of the places we stayed and visited have been reduced to ashes. 

Colorado was the big draw for the next section of the trip as we visited Elly and Kelly from our trip to Thailand and Vietnam in 2013 and then moved on to Escapade in Rock Springs Wyoming. Heading north toward Nebraska we finally returned to elevations where there is more air to breath. Our next destination became Madison Wisconsin for a visit with cousin Mimi and finally a reprise of US 20 through Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. We gave up on US 20 in Buffalo as it was very local and very high traffic.

The map also shows a jaunt into Canada. We left the coach in storage and took the Jeep to Hamilton to visit Carol’s Aunt Dorothy, now 98 years old, and cousin Marilyn. Then to Toronto where we stayed with the Starkman’s and made a condolence call to Harvey’s younger brother Michael whose wife Stacy died recently. That was a tough visit. They are the youngest in their generation of the family. 

Back to Rochester and back on the endless, so far, cycle of time on the East Coast and then on the West coast with extended drives in between. 

Our travel plans for 2022 include Boston for a Bat Mitzvah, Jazz Fest in Rochester and Sicily in August. That trip has now been postponed twice.

We are in Tucson AZ and will be here for 4 days visiting friends who used to live in Jojoba Hills and doing some touring in places we have been before.

So far this year we have driven just over 10,800 miles in the coach and I have bought 1308.05 gallons of diesel fuel for $4,124.61. The average price per gallon was $3.15. I have not bothered to note the actual price per gallon for each purchase,  but the information is readily available since I have purchased all of my diesel through a trucker discount program (TSD) which provides a record of pump price, discount, fees and net price paid.  The average MPG is 8.28.

As I was looking at my next two fuel stops I see $3.90 in Arizona and $4.70 if I should need to purchase fuel in California. These are trucker’s discount prices at major truck stops. Question I am asking myself. Do I plan on filling the tank before parking for 5 months in California or do I go in half empty in hopes that diesel prices will not continue to escalate? It is reputed to be better for the fuel to store the tank full. The tank holds 100 gallons of fuel. 

Although campground prices have escalated as well, the cause is different and the impact is less. HoweverweI have spent over $5,000 on campsites  About $26 per night including no cost nights spent moochdocking  boondocking or staying at Harvest Hosts sites – I have not counted the cost of goods purchased at those sites as camping costs. I would have bought wine anyhow. There were several sites that cost over $100 per night! Location, Location etc.

If you add modifications purchased and maintenance performed the cost of this life style really does mount up. This is not a complaint, the cost of maintaining a fixed home is also rising and even though the value is rising, a replacement home is also rising. Given the shortage of parts and workers, the value of our “depreciating asset” has risen also, should I choose to consider that as an offset. If you care to know, I paid about $250K for the coach in May of 2012 and the Bluebook today is about $140K.

These numbers are among the most common questions I get when I meet RV wannabees, especially those who think it is a less costly life style than renting or owning a house.  Also the curious are interested in the costs. Clearly our choices including the kind of RV and where we stay and how much we move impact those costs. 

I have been tracking these numbers since our first trip in the summer of 2001 in Goliath. They are all on separate sheets in a single spreadsheet workbook. I am not generally OCD and I even stopped photographing every site we camped on many years ago. Somehow tracking these numbers satisfies my need to track something. 

I hope you haven’t been bored if you even read this far.

The trip across Texas was uneventful. We stayed overnight in Oasis RV in Van Horn.  It provided what we needed, full hookups and a safe spot off the road, well just barely off the road. Having fueled before the stop we were able to get on the road with a minimum of hassle and continue on to Las Cruces.

We were set up in Siesta RV, site 13 (as usual), by 11:30 AM and had time to get to the concert at Good Samaritan Social Center where Amalia and the Camerata were performing. It was a delightful chamber music concert that concluded with three songs sung by Amalia accompanied by guitar.  We were enthralled and so pleased to be with Amalia and her parents Leora and Stuart the next night for dinner. It was a delightful stay in in Las Cruces.

Tuesday, as planned, We drove the 4 hours to Albuquerque to see Erica as time allowed. This included dinner on board and breakfast on Wednesday morning in town at Hannah & Nates before we set off for Meow Wolf.  Before I even consider describing it you might want to check out the web site. If exiting from a Victorian House through the refrigerator or the fireplace into another universe doesn’t tickle your fancy skip it. We spent well over an hour exploring the site and never got into the actual script that it flows around. We enjoyed it a lot. 

We did see an acknowledgement of Chanukah in the Plaza in Santa Fe:

As I write it is Thanksgiving Day, turkey and football games are not on the list. We did go to see Dune at a local theater. So much has been written that I am not sure I can add much. It really, really needs the big screen. Everything is large, huge even. The sand worm’s mouth swallows the entire screen. We went to a noon screening and the theater was lightly attended as you might imagine for such an early show on Thanksgiving Day. 

It is now Friday. We froze the water hose last night but there was plenty in the tank and the sun came out and everything is thawed.  Since we are leaving in the morning I will take the hose in tonight just in case.