Every place we turn there is a shrine, a temple, a world cultural heritage treasure.  For a nation that is generally not religious,  to hear them tell it,  they certainly have more than enough gods and places to worship them.  The most common religion is Shintoism which seems like animism as there are places of worship for many different gods and objects of worship.  Another major characteristic is syncretism, the blending of worship from more than one religion.  Shinto and Buddaism seem to get along just fine.  We had a lovely home visit,  four of us went to the home of Akiko and Kane (as in Citizen Kane, he said). We were warmly welcomed with tea and sweets after a tour of the magnificent garden.  The house tour began with a stop in front of the Shinto shrine set up in a corner of the living room.  Kane said they pray at this shrine daily for what they want in their daily lives.  In the formal living room we were introduced to the Buddhist shrine set up to honor their ancestors.  Kane said “Shinto is for the living and Buddah is for the dead.” Kane made his living in commercial and residential real estate and was very active in Rotary,  even ascending to District Governor.  Along the Rotary flags he has on display is one from Buffalo NY.

Shinto prayer as we have witnessed seems to consist of making an offering to the local God,  ringing a bell, bowing,  clapping twice,  praying for what you want and bowing again. People buy papers and symbols carved of wood and write their prayers on them and hang them in the shrine.  The major things people seem to pray for are safe delivery of a healthy child,  wealth and good grades. I’m sure this is not the sum as I know we participated in praying for world peace. We have no experience of Buddhist prayer yet.  There are no prayer wheels like in Tibet.

Cherry blossoms!  We missed the massive cherry blossom festival in Tokyo. We have seen thousands of trees in bloom in the mountains.  By the time we leave in less than a week there will be no more cherry blossoms,  but this is a country of gardens and no matter where we turn we see more beauty. This is also a nation of people devoted to design.  Presentation of food in stores and restaurants seems always be beautifully designed to please the eye as much as the palate.  Houses are very simple and design is focused on simplicity while displaying one or two selected objects of beauty. Kane’ s house was a bit more cluttered with display of his carvings and paintings of horses.

More soon!

Every famous picture you have seen of Mt Fuji,  otherwise known as Fuji San,  must have been taken,  drawn,  or painted from in and around this lovely resort area.  As we were approaching, Fuji San played with us showing the snow covered lower slopes,  then revealing the peak and finally for a brief glimpse a clear view of the entire mountain with power lines in the foreground.  Most of the day we could see much of the mountain with the top wreathed in clouds.  It was glorious.  I will append photos soon. 

I have waited too long to write this and memory fails washed away by many trips to the mineral hot springs in the hotel.  We were in a wonderful ryokan, a traditional Japanese Inn, Gora Asahi Hotel, with Japanese rooms.  That means the floors are tatami mats and no footwear is permitted.  There is a single low table in the middle.  We had a separate area near the windows that was carpeted and we could close that off with shoji screens.  We never used the shower room and deep tub as we found the hot springs more to our liking. The men’s side had a locker room where we left our kimono and towels as we entered the bath.  There is a line up of faucets with hand showers and a low stool and bucket to sit on while thoroughly cleaning before entering the bath,  really a pool about one meter deep of hot mineral water that is constantly being refreshed as excess  water sluices over the top and down the drains.  After soaking for as long as one dares, there is a cold bath followed by a return to the shower.  Before breakfast and upon return to the hotel before dinner I reveled in this luxury each day.

In true OAT mode we traveled by all available means of transportation.  We had a bus for the day and took a large luxurious cable car up to the active volcanic area where the ground is covered with yellow traces of Sulphur. We climbed up to the high point where baskets of fresh eggs are lowered into a hot spring for 12 minutes until they are hard boiled and the shells turn black from the Sulphur and iron compounds in the water.  They sell them 5 for 500 yen (about $5). They are very tasty, if you like your eggs slightly sulphorous. The bus then took us down to the lake where we enjoyed a ride on a large catamaran tour boat to a shrine, followed by lunch.  After some more touring we returned to the hotel in time for a trip to the mineral hot springs before dinner.

The next day we boarded a medium speed bullet train for a one hour, one stop ride to connect to a super express,  slower than any bullet train,  for a 2 hour ride to Kanazawa.  This trip was from the Pacfic Coast to the Sea of Japan coastal area.  We have visited markets,  an ancient samurai house,  various crafts people and had several meals including dinner today on our own with another couple.  The trains are impressive.  They are very timely and spend very little time stopped. One had best be prepared to disembark or board when the train stops.  In many cases the stop was only 3 or 4 minutes. Everything is clean and seems very well maintained. Everyone on staff is uniformed with hats and white gloves. 

We are at the New Grand Annex Hotel located in the middle of town,  walkable to most of the sites in town.

First, Kabuki, the performance was led in three chapters or sections which seemed totally unconnected.  Taking Toshi’s suggestion we shipped the first chapter which began at 4:40 and arrived at about 6 for the dance performance which was followed by a play after a 15 minute intermission.  We had picked up English language headsets which provide both a translation and a running commentary explaining the action we were watching.  With out this I would have been totally lost.  We really enjoyed the experience in this very old but recently renovated theater.  Looking at the stage felt like looking at a panoramic image as the stage is very wide relative to the height of the proscenium.  The only unpleasant experience was the total lack of legroom.  For those who know Kilbourne Hall,  there was LESS legroom than the worst seats there.  I was almost unable to stand ayer the performance and I really felt for our companion Howard who is a good 6 inches taller than me.

Today we welcomed three new members to the tour for the main trip Which began today.  We are now at our full complement of 14 for the next 2 weeks. Today was a city tour of Tokyo by bus.  Tomorrow we leave by bus for Hakone, near Mt Fuji where we will be staying in a traditional Japanese Inn.  There will be no Internet service,  also we are expected to dress in kimono which they will provide.  We are looking forward to this experience and will report fully from Kyoto when we reenter the connected universe on Friday.

We landed late afternoon on Friday,  Tokyo time.  Bus and cab to the hotel took 1 hour 15 minutes.  Toshi, our OAT Tour Leader, met us in the hotel lobby and gave us the instructions we needed to assemble with our group the next morning and some local restaurants should we feel the need to eat.  After sort of settling into our room,  we decided that soba noodles in a quaint restaurant would be the way to start our trip.  Three blocks walk to the left from our hotel brought us to a pre war wooden building nestled among the high rises of the area. They stopped us as we came in the door and presented us with the two English menus so we could figure out what we were ordering.  Actually the English descriptions still left us wondering.  Carol had her “vegetarian notice” written by a hotel desk clerk and I was able to discern a hot soba noodle in fish broth with chicken as a likely choice.  It was wonderful and we soon crashed in our beds and slept, only to be awakened by jet lag and the sound of street repairs that continued until sunrise. Welcome to a very large city.

We began our tour walking from the hotel to a subway to Tokyo National Museum located in Ueno Park and then walking through this very wonderful park to see shrines,  azelia gardens in glorious bloom,  and lunch in an all you can eat buffet that was very nice.  A walk through an old pre war neighborhood introduced us to very compact living arrangements on streets too small for large cars.  I cite pre war often as much of Tokyo was burned to the ground in the destruction of the end of WW II. Very little from that era is left. 

We returned to the hotel to wait the arrival of Sara and her Japanese husband,  mother-in-law and two children.  Sara was a student of Carol’s who we saw off to Alaska to live with an aunt when she was 16. We next saw her in 2002 in San Diego and although there has been continous contact through email,  Facebook and even snail mail we had not seen her in 12 years.  We had a wonderful reunion,  punctuated by the rambunctious behavior of a very over tired 3 year old boy.  We parted with no idea of when we are likely to see each other again.

Sunday brought another day of touring.  We traveled by subway,  train,  monorail,  and local train to Kamkura, southeast of Tokyo on the coast. This is an area that thrives on local tourism and it was a festival weekend so we moved in throngs of people,  mostly Japanese on weekend holiday.  Although there were some reminders that is was Easter Sunday, they were minor and scattered.  We were going to Shinto shrines and temples.  Along the way we had lunch at 0467, one of the nicest restaurants we have been taken to by OAT in our travels. On our return to Tokyo we got off at Tokyo Station which is wonderfully restored and we continued on into the adjacent Tokyo Post Office called Kitte. There I made use of aJP (Japan Post) ATM to provide me sufficient yen to continue the trip.  I had counted on getting local currency from ATMs only to learn that my card would work only at JP ATMs. After one more stop, I believe I am carrying sufficient cash to pay my way. We have already run into circumstances that require cash,  not credit cards.  We bought take out at the Kitte to bring back to the hotel.  I got too much sushi which I enjoyed immensely. Carol found delightful veggies. We set up our dining area in the lobby only to find that this was an unwelcome activity.  However we were permitted to complete our meal.

Our 3rd day started with a walk and subway ride to the fish market.  We walked through aisles and aisles of wonders from the sea. We dodged a wide assortment of vehicles in the aisles transporting goods from vendor to buyer.  Eventually Toshi,  our tour leader,  let us into a cramped restaurant past a long line of people waiting to get in where we were offered a sushi tasting.  This was not to be considered lunch!  Among the items offered was the finest tuna I can ever remember setting tooth to and I never remember being offered scallop as a sashimi,  but there it was and it was delightful. We continued through the list shopping area on to the Ginza. Eventually we scattered.  Five of us returned to the hotel for a break before combining on to a Kabuki performance we had tickets for in the evening. More on Kabuki later.  I must stop and post this.

We were walking along State Street in Santa Barbara this afternoon when we noticed a theater showing Grand Hotel Budapest and when we checked the times we realized we could take in a matinee and have a timely dinner.  So we rushed to get the car from the distant parking lot with a fixed time limit and move it to a nearby lot where you pay for time parked after the fact.  We were in the theater 10 minutes after the scheduled start which meant we missed the first two coming attractions.

Grand Hotel Budapest is a period piece using the convention of a story within a story within a story.  Everything is very stylized and it appeared that great attention was given to details of positioning and direction of action.  There is much tongue in cheek and lines that just seem to come from a different genre altogether.  There are some wonderful bit parts including a minor role by Bill Murray.  Like a fine piece of music the end returns to recapituate the opening theme.  I hesitate to say more,  the time period is from the great war to the beginning of WW II in Europe.

Carol and I really enjoyed the movie and couldn’t leave as long as the Balilika music continued over the closing credits. Do not leave until the screen goes black!
This is the first movie we have seen on the big screen since October anyhow.  We are watching many more movies on our tv using satellite pay per view and Roku for Netflix and Amazon prime.

Our day in Buellton, after a lovely time with Marty and Barbara seemed to be turning into a catch up day, do the laundry, do some reading put the finishing touches on the 2013 taxes take a walk around the very large and lovely RV Resort.

During the walk we noted a row of vintage Airstream Trailers. A tech was walking from one to the other with tools and as we stopped to chat he mentioned that the line was all rentals and had been recently refurbished. As most were not occupied he told us we could feel free to wander through those with open doors.  As we walked through them we saw that each had been completely redone to a theme and they were quite intriguing and would be a wonderful place to rent for a someone who had showed up without their own RV.

We met another couple, seemingly younger than us, wandering through the rentals as well. It turned out that they travel in a modern Airstream and were also quite interested in these.  Further conversation revealed that they actually travel separately and meet in the campground.  She drives the truck pulling the Airstream and he flies his 1929 “New Standard” biplane.

We passed the sign for Harmony as we drove south on CA 1, otherwise known as PCH or the Pacific Coast Highway.  We had elected to drive it from Monterey south to LA putting us on the lane closest to the ocean and the passenger in the navigator seat staring down into the waves many times.  Anyhow Harmony, pop 18 got my mind working.  How harmonious were those 18 souls? Do they sing great harmony? Is it a religious group.  Then of course for those who play with Jewish numerology, 18 combines letters that are Chai which means life.  That would seem to make Harmony a life affirming place.  I suppose I could continue to play with this, and may in the future, but mudslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, including Congress keep dragging my focus elsewhere.

Contrary to accepted opinion and many blog posts, driving CA 1 in a 36 foot motorhome is not completely foolhardy, for that matter, other than the occasional idiot that just must go faster than 35 mph, it is a very pleasant drive.  I will concede that it focuses the attention of the driver miraculously.  We only had one scary incident and it related to two cars, of the ilk suggested above, who passed us at a high rate of speed over a double line, actually around a double blind curve.  I really didn’t give a damn if they wanted to kill themselves, but certainly did not want to be a party to the mess.  Fortunately there were no oncoming cars for at least 10 seconds!  There really is no place to bail out.

We had set out from Alameda Elks Lodge which we used as a stopping place to visit with our niece Minda and her husband Will.  We had a lovely dinner at their house with Minda’s friend Prea during which we learned that Minda is a expecting a boy in September.  Since both our boys called while we were there, they too learned the great news.  The second night we went out to a neighborhood restaurant that was very nice.  While in the Bay Area we also visited with Marlene who had been with us on the Baltic portion of our trip. We drove to her home in San Rafael and had a lovely evening with wine, cheese and a delightful meal.  I really enjoyed the Halibut from Alaska.  It is so nice to make new friends who share so many interests.

We had committed ourselves to driving down CA 1 because we enjoyed the northbound trip three years ago on our way to Alaska.  First we stopped near Monterey to sightsee along Cannery Row and spent two nights at Marina Dunes RV, our most expensive nightly cost so far this year, but we did get laundry done as well as sightseeing.  Would consider staying there again if the weather were better, although getting in might be tougher, as it is we could only get two nights there.  Although we considered the San Luis Obispo Elks Lodge, we did remember that the parking is right next to US 101 and just a bit noisy, so we decided to stop at Morro Bay State Park.  When we arrived, with no reservation, we learned that the only sites available were dry camp (no water, electric or sewer) for $33 a night!!! Thank you California.  We took a site for two nights because we enjoy the area.  We were sung to sleep each night by an owl in the trees near our coach.  Never did see it.  We actually did very little because it poured on and off.  Drove into town one day to pick up some groceries and check out a Radio Shack for a replacement temperature sensor for our 9 year old Radio Shack remote thermometer.  For a wonder, even to the store manager’s surprise, they had two on the shelf.  I bought both although I really only need one.  They work with our old base station.

Onward to Solvang, actually Buellton where Flying Flags RV is located, just down the road from Solvang.  We went to the home of Marty and Barbara Goldstein who we traveled with in the Baltics.  Marty does dogs in bronze and that is just one of the galleries that represents him.  We had a lovely cocktail hour with them and dinner at Firestone Barrel  House (close anyhow).  We will spend Thursday touring this area and catching up on some other stuff before moving down the road a wee bit to Santa Barbara Elks Lodge.  We have come up this way a couple of times and never been able to get a reservation.  This time we have five nights booked.  On Sunday we will meet yet another couple from our recent travels even as we are preparing for our trip to Japan in 2 weeks.

Another way of titling this would be high speed moving.

After leaving Tucson we made a small move to Phoenix, Phoenix Metro RV Park which is just about as citified as RV Parks get, even those on the edge of the desert.  During our stay there we spent another day at MIM (Musical Instrument Museum). The small exhibit (in floor space, not content) “Women who Rock” took us two hours to enjoy.  We took a break for lunch in their cafe, listening to an Irish group on the lunch patio, it was March 17, before reentering the galleries to spend some serious time in the geographical areas where we had just been traveling, mostly Asia.  Of course we had to take in the Japan music area as well since we are headed there shortly.  This consumed another two hours and our heads were full, our feet and legs sore and it was time to take a break from “museuming.”

We met Rick and JoAnne Morgan and their travel companions in Scottsdale for lunch in the gallery area.  We had a delightful time touring galleries and having a very nice lunch at Daily Dose. It is always fun to catch up with people we have followed through their blogs and spend time with them in person.  We last met Rick and JoAnne in person in White Sands National Monument.  During our conversation they talked about Sedona.

I checked the weather because the last few times we thought of going there the daytime highs were in the 30’s.  This time the highs were forecast in the 70’s so after we visited the Markusens in Cave Creek we made plans to drive the coach up into the mountains to visit Sedona.  We elected to stay at the Sedona Elks Lodge.  It turns out to be right in the middle of all the places you might was to visit and the view from the camping area is mountains, red rock peaks across the valley, OMG!  The drive was fairly straight forward although the endless number of roundabouts on the way in on 179 gets tiresome, it’s bad enough in a car, but in the coach. . . Carol had the privilege of that stretch of highway.  We drove Schnebly Hill Road in the Jeep. The first 6 miles were a mild challenge, we saw passenger cars on the road and heard their frames banging on the rocks – they must have been rentals, no one in their right mind would do that to their own car. The second six miles were basic smooth dirt.  We also booked a tour on the Verde Valley Railroad.  This looked like an expensive tourist trap, but we decided to give it a try.  Worth It, every penny!!! Susanne in the parlor car serving drinks and keeping everyone happy and Ralph, the Attendant on the open air car, pointed out all the rock formations (Presidents canyon with Lincoln in front and Tricky Dick in back with lots of little bushes) and eagles and many other sites.  18 miles and 2 hours in the train stopped and using a siding they moved the locomotives to the other end of the train to pull us back to Clarkdale Station.  The locomotives were built for the Alaska RR, and then served other lines before being acquired by Verde Valley and reconditioned to pull their tourist consist.  We had turned down the opportunity to take the trip on the cheap by sitting through a timeshare sales pitch, I would rather pay my money than subject myself to 90 minutes of high pressure sales presentation for something I have no interest in whatsoever.

It was time to begin a high speed move.  We had made plans to have dinner with AnnaLee and Jerry in the Sacramento area and we had just under 800 miles to cover in two days.  For folks who consider 250 miles a long day this was a challenge.  Fortunately we had John Grisham’s Sycamore Row queued up (actually we had been listening for several hundred miles already and were looking forward to road time to finish it).  471 miles later as dusk was settling we pulled off the road, CA 58, at an intersection with 202 just west of Mojave, the town not the desert, and found a level piece of packed sand left by road crews and set up camp there just off the road along with at least one other camper we saw and spoke to.  We slept fine to the lullaby of passing traffic and the occasional train.  Early in the morning we had breakfast and set out for Sacramento, the KOA just west of town.  By 2:30 we had covered another 322 miles and were setting up in a full hookup campground where we could do laundry and take long luxurious showers. Grisham still had hold of our concentration with his very detailed unrolling story.

After a delightful dinner at Vic’s Ice Cream !? which of course included ice cream, with Jerry and AnnaLee we went to their home and spent the evening sharing travel stories until it was time to get back to the coach, we had to move on immediately.  2 hours after starting we were settling into the Alameda Elks Lodge, not far from Berkeley, or anyplace else in the Bay Area.  Although Alameda has a reputation as a gritty industrial area, it appears much of the grit and industrial is gone and the town appears to be quite nice.  The Elks Lodge is right next to the city hall and it is somewhat surprising that in this august neighborhood we would be permitted to stay in our coach, but there you are.  We are not alone in the lot either.

No more moving until Saturday!

From Marfa Texas to Phoenix Arizona doesn’t take ten days driving.  We have made a couple of lengthy stops along the way, but somehow I never got around to writing about our experiences.  Our next stop after Marfa was Las Cruces NM where we stayed five nights.  We had a delightful evening with Leora Zeitlin attending a Jazz concert that was the culmination of a high school jazz festival held at New Mexico State University Las Cruces (hereafter NMSU).  The performances were by NMSU music students who were wonderful with the addition of a couple of top notch professional performers/teachers.  We gathered at Marianne Zeitlin’s new home with her family for Shabbat dinner and also had dinner out on Saturday night.

In between we managed to find a museum we had not heard of or been to right on the campus.  It is the Zuhl Fossil Museum.  It is a couple of rooms in the Alumni Center and has a wonderful collection of petrified wood pieces from slabs to cross sections to logs.  There are also a large number of ammonites.  It is worth a stop for the beauty although I am not sure about the academic value.  We also went to Las Cruces Museum of Art where there was a special exhibit of an artist named Bauman who worked in many media, but his woodcuts are among the most interesting and wonderful.  I do not remember seeing woodcuts that are so colorful.  He also was a sculptor and cabinet maker as well as a painter. On leaving the Art Gallery we exited through the Science Museum which is connected.  These two museums are on Main Street in the market area.

From Las Cruces we continued west to Tucson where we set up in Catalina State Park which is just north of the city.  We couldn’t get a site in main camping circles, but we were able to get into the overflow area (Ringtail Circle).  This is an open circle of sand with sites marked out around the edge.  There are no facilities other than a wonderful bathhouse with great showers.  We had site 12 and, should we ever head there again we would much prefer either 12 or 13 which are deep in a back corner with a bit of privacy and room to establish a patio.

 Our solar panels (photovoltaic energy panels) provided us with sufficient electricity to keep our batteries charged and so long as we were judicious with our use of energy (no tv, microwave etc) we had little need to run the generator.  Over four days we ran it less than 5 hours.  There is wonderful hiking and fine birding throughout the park.  We started the climb to Romero Pools, but turned back about a mile short as the going was very steep and we had not brought lunch with us.  This was not a miscalculation so much as a decision.  We were meeting my high school classmate Marjorie and her husband Larry for dinner nearby at 5:30.

The night before we had dinner at Eleanor and Kelly’s home in Saddlebrooke about 6 miles north of Catalina SP.  We met them on our trip to Thailand and Vietnam in December and had looked forward to continuing the friendship.  It was wonderful to see their lovely home with great mountain views and quail marching along their garden wall.  Carol and enjoyed the evening and will certainly call again when we are in the vicinity.  It is not altogether impossible that we could see them in Rochester some day as they have a son living there, Kelly worked for Kodak once upon a time.

From Tucson it was a short jaunt north to Phoenix.  What a change, from the desert campsite with no hookups and absolute quiet at night to Phoenix Metro RV Park located on the frontage road to I 17 with coaches lined up every 20 feet and a city stretching in all directions.  We plan to visit the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) again and maybe some other galleries/museums we have seen before.  We also hope to see the Markusens from Rochester who have a wonderful place near Cave Creek.  The timing depends on how their basketball team does in a tournament (pardon my ignorance of teams and tournaments – I do know March Madness will be upon us very soon, I heard it on NPR).

I hesitate to comment on my dealings with coach issues, Murphy may be looking over my shoulder.  Everything has been working as I would hope.  I guess I have shaken out most of the kinks, for now.

I’m working on my cliches, if I can be said to be working at anything.  We have too many sources of news, if that is possible.  In the morning we get the NYTimes on our Kindles while listening to NPR and read and listen over breakfast.  When the NPR morning news recycles we sometimes turn on TV for CNN, MSNBC, or a Food Channel show to settle our stomachs.  We read each other headlines and clips from the NYTimes and we remember what some of the places we are reading about looked like just a few months ago.

There is turmoil in so many parts of the world that it seems it is hard to plan a trip that doesn’t involve some area where there is strife. Over the years we have chosen to plan our trips with little regard for potential problems unless of course there are State Department warnings, in which case we think about it and then as often as not venture on.  We have been to Israel many times when others consider it unwise.  We have traveled in Latin America when others consider it inadvisable, especially into some areas of Mexico.  We have avoided parts of Mexico that Mexicans avoid and feel very sad that it really seems foolhardy for an American Jew to visit Egypt.  We may never get there.  We, or maybe just I, have mixed feelings about India. I want to go and I know that much of what we see in the press is limited in its impact on most tourists.  But the very nature of the apparently generalized abuse of women makes me hesitant about traveling there with Carol.

I would love to be able to say I know what should happen in Ukraine and in Thailand, but sitting here as a recent traveler who has read endlessly I can only say I cannot even imagine how things can work out.  Ukraine is a democracy that has turned out a corrupt leader by unconstitutional means and needs to find a way to reconstitute itself within its constitution.  It is caught in a vise between Russia and a substantial portion of its population that is ethnic Russian and a much larger portion of its population that yearns to be a part of the European community.  Ignoring, if that is possible, the financial disaster it faces with no foreign exchange or even internal funds, if Russia decides to really squeeze them it can shut off the flow of gas and that will be the end of heat and power.  Of course that will also be the end of Russia’s largest export and Putin’s income from Gazprom.

Thailand is a total mystery.  A constitutional monarchy with an incapacitated king (I can say that safely sitting the US) where the people of commerce want to throw out the constitutionally elected government and the constitution because they cannot win an election – hmm sounds like Texas Democrats – so they can change the rules (maybe that was Texas Republicans).  The current government is no prize and certainly is corrupt, but so what else is new.  In the meantime in Burma the peace loving Buddhists are slaughtering Muslims who have been exiled in Burma for more than a hundred years and have been declared non citizens.  Oh a side note, last night we watched Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957) since we had just been on the real bridge.  Boy do they get it wrong even if it is a great film.  Just one example, the tease talks about “deep in the Burmese jungle” nice line but the rail line was being built to get from Bangkok to Burma and the section of the line in the movie is in Thailand (even though they filmed it in Ceylon).

But enough about the world.  We left Falcon Lake Monday morning planning to drive three days to Las Cruces.  It is Wednesday Afternoon and I writing from the Siesta RV Park in Las Cruces.  Monday night we stopped at the WalMart in Del Rio Texas, I will leave it to you to look at a map of the Rio Grande Valley and find Del Rio.  Topped up with fuel and our purchases at the WalMart we continued on toward Marfa. Over the years we have not found a suitable place to stay in Marfa.  Being a bit more proactive this year (looking for a place before we got there) I found Tumble In.

This park offers a little piece of desert with all the amenities a traveler might want, electric, water, sewer, nice bathrooms and showers excellent wifi and laundry and much more.  No pool or playground but a short walk into town and great views.  It is honor system self check in.  knowing this I chose to reserve and pay online to avoid the need to leave a credit card number or cahs in a box. Here is Carol at the “office”

We finished a great AudioBook on the drive, The Invention of Wings, by Susan Monk Kidd.  We both highly recommend it.  We started a new audiobook by John Grisham, The Sycamore Row, so far we are deeply in its grip.  We may not listen again until Monday when we get back on the road.

Miscellaneous aggravations.  The dash fan has been acting up and we fear it is more than the breaker which has dropped out on us twice.  Rally don’t want to get into what it might be but I have been assured by Tiffin that they will take care of whatever it is under their extended warranty program, “Bob said to fix it”  The tankless water heater gave us fits, failing to provide hot water when the wind was blowing just so.  A long conversation with tech support – Gary – with me at the heater found two issues.  The heater was installed into an opening that was not square with the heater’s case.  The deformation of the case caused a small fan to stop working.  The fan is intended to help prevent wind from blowing out the flame (?).  I fixed that with a little bending and pushing.  The cover that Tiffin supplied is supposed to have a plate riveted over some of the openings by the exhaust to balance the airflow (?) to prevent the wind from blowing out the flame.  The plate is in the mail for me to install.  There are other small things that with a little twiddling will make life a bit easier.

The keys have not shown up.