Texas Rewind
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We did so much in Texas, I wanted to do a quick rewind to show the highlights. We drove from Biloxi Mississippi to Houston where we spent the evening with Uncle Jim and Cousin Ted in Houston, very fun. Houston is surprisingly vibrant and has recently gone through a revitalization.
On to San Antonio for Christmas. We picked a great place and enjoyed it very much. The main attraction was downtown San Antonio with the Riverwalk and the fact that Rosie Grandma spent the week with us (thank you for making the 30 hour drive!)
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We did-up the inside to make our first Christmas in the RV the best ever! This is Christmas morning... the weeks leading up the big day were filled with many in-depth conversations about whether Santa would find us and how would he get in... fortunately Santa is one smart dude, he clearly found us and spread joy and happiness.
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You haven't lived until you've worn matching union suit pi-jays.
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Party time. I'm guessing this was part of Mile Marker Academy's Liberal Arts program.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF35nJB_z-c
By the Riverwalk one night. The boats were filled with carolers, the sidewalks lined with luminaries (thank you google for helping me remember what those things are called), the trees lit up and the restaurants packed with great good and wine.
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Ok, time to leave Texas and say goodbye to Grandma, great visit... let's go to New Mexico. The weather is the same as Texas right? opps. We stopped at the Carlsbad Caverns, in ah... oh yeah, Carlsbad New Mexico. Imagine about 6 football fields of 100 foot high ceilings full of stalactites (and mites) 300 hundred feet under ground. Yep, ominous, daunting, mysterious, claustrophobic and at least 4 other big words, super cool.
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Ok, let's leave Carlsbad and head to Arizona, how hard can that be, should be a nice drive through the desert, what can go wrong. I should of known it would be interesting when I see a sign on the way out of town that says, "126 miles to next service". Completely out of character, I look down at my fuel gauge, see it's at 1/4 tank... I do some quick calculations and decide to backtrack 20 miles to the nearest gas station to fill up.
Ok, trip resumed. About 40 miles into the drive I realize there is a tremendous headwind, I know this because I'm an experienced RV'er now and have this sixth sense going on... and the fact that I'm being blown from side to side, literally. I decided to take action to make sure we make it through this, and when I say "make it through this", I mean we make the most of the adventure. I pull over and order the family out into the desert, it's amazing. It's like an ocean of sand, you can't see the end... and to make it interesting, turns out the wind was going 60 MPH. We ran out and played in it for 15 minutes... very fun. You could lean into the wind and it would hold you up perfectly.
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Shortly after this side adventure, we go through a sand storm, and no I haven't been in one of those before. Nearly a white out, or sand out I guess, but we are 60 miles in, basically in the middle and have to push forward.
As quickly as I feel relieved, it starts to rain, no kidding raining. But I've driven in lots of rain, no problem. Then about 20 minutes later, it starts to snow, no kidding snow. It took me 5 minutes to really believe it was snowing, but then it got so thick my wipers could barely keep it all of the windshield. But again, I fall back on the realization that we are 70 miles in each direction to anything, and have to push forward.
It can't get worse I thought, until I see this mountain range up ahead, I'm thinking... hmmm. Can this thing drive through mountains? But again, no choice. But there is an interesting thing about driving in a RV that has a full tank of gas, a full tank of propane, a refrigerator and cupboards full of food, you can just pull over for a day or two if you need to... kinda cool.
Onward up the hill, with my trusted co-pilot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIBjrjJLZTw
We make it over the hill, but the winds are crazy and it's really slow going up and down. I've gotten really good using the engine brake. That drive should of been really stressful, but in a strange way I really enjoyed it and felt like getting through that 200 miles section of Crazytown USA was an accomplishment and kinda fun.
