Traveling

Having been traveling now for a few years there are some observations that I might make about how things you do not spend time thinking about (normally) take on a fuller life when you do travel. 

At home things sometimes break and you just pop down to the hardware store, buy the appropriate replacement part and install it.  For me that often enough means two trips but generally it fixes whatever needs fixing within a day or so.  On the boat I have to figure out what is wrong then either hope I have a fix on board or, often, wait until we are in a port with a chandlery and hope they have something for the cure.  I have spent lots of time devising work around temporary fixes.  In the motorhome I look for a mechanic with the proper knowledge, or if it is a simple matter I can find what I need at an RV store (like Camping World) or Auto Zone, etc.  The thing is, if I don’t do the work it can get insanely expensive.  Recently I had the oil changed and while doing the close out for the bill the guy tried to sell me on things I can either do myself or that do not need to be done for quite some time.  It would have taken the bill from about $65 to $865!

When we had a problem with the ABS light coming on just west of San Antonio I stopped and referred to the manual.  It said that we could continue driving the coach but to have it checked out as soon as possible.  In San Antonio the leads that I got led me to no one willing or able to diagnose, much less fix, the problem.  The RV park would not let the one company that had the skill onto the property because they did not have high enough liability limits on their insurance policy.  Oh well, on to Corpus Christi. 

Corpus Christi was where we found a shop and had a sensor replaced AND the shop doing the work plugged us into power so that we could stay there for the few days while they ordered the part and did the “R & R” to put us back on the road.  They did not even add to the cost of the repair for the electricity we used… which was not inconsequential since we had used our electric space heater to keep up with the cold conditions. 

The crisscross plan.

Over all, the places we have stopped have had propane deliverable to us in our space once or twice a week.  There are some parks where they want to control and profit from propane so they do not let the propane trucks into the park.  Since, for us, it means unhooking everything and driving to the delivery site then back to the space or waiting until we are about to leave (since we almost never remember when we arrive).  In some places we have been for longer periods it has been fairly cold so we are in need of propane in the middle of the stay.  It presents a problem when we go to the office and they say, “Oh, the truck just came and won’t be back for a week!”

Short sewer, straight back for electric, water on the other side!!

This brings me to the hook up thing.  When we arrive somewhere it takes about ½ an hour to get everything connected and positioned.  A little longer if we are putting out the awning(s).  We connect the sewer, water, cable and electricity as a basic set up then deploy the stabilizing hydraulic feet after we extend the pop-outs for the bedroom and living room.  If we are staying for more than a few days I also take the bikes off the “Toad” and move the rack to the back of the RV.  We have all this down to a science.  When we started with the travel trailer it seemed to take nearly an hour to do all this.  In part it was because it was all manual labor.  Now we have assists to speed the process but it is not perfect.

No sewer available

The variable is that the RV parks are not uniform in their set up.  The wide variations sometimes stop me in my tracks altogether.  If it is possible we just do a minimal hook up and look for a new park to go to the next or following day.

There is no pretty way to do the hook ups either.  I carry multiple ways to do everything within reason to accommodate the set ups I find.  Is it a 15, 30 or 50 amp hook up?  Got it handled with adapters.  Is the cable plug the right kind?   I have adapters.  No cable?  I raise the antenna and we now have two digital TV’s to use the air signal.  Is the sewer connection closer or farther away?  The sewer hose breaks down into sections to allow for differences.  Is there too much or not enough water pressure?  Well, I can’t do much much about too little (we have a large water tank on board so can switch to that if necessary) but we have some pressure reducing connections to handle that part of the hook up if it is too much.  It is not always perfect but we have done fairly well these last few months.

Another thing we have figured out is that many states, counties and occasionally cities maintain superb RV parks.  Some of them are just a way to use their large facilities like fair grounds or convention centers when they are not in use.  Sacramento, California had a great if basic set up like that.  It was centrally located and made it easy to get around town.  One we used a couple of years ago was in King County, California.  It had great spaces and there was a tractor museum on site.  In Galveston, Texas we went out southeast from town and there were a number of parks.  In Florida we are, as I write this, in a county park that is about as perfect as it gets. 

One item missing from many places are dog walks and such.  But that’s for another story.

A Collection of Things

We have been slow to move around but the last month has been interesting none-the-less.  This will be a non-timeline story!!

We stayed in San Antonio until New Year's Eve and then moved to Corpus Christi.  That got a bit complicated.  When we had been incoming to San Antonio the ABS (brake) light had come on.  While at the park there we could not get any repair initiated due to a combination of park rules and lack of enthusiasm by potential repairers likely due to it being just before Christmas and very cold.  In any event, when we got Corpus we made contact with a place that said they could handle the repair but it was raining and we booked the repair for a few days later because it looked like we had better weather on the way and we were going to move out of the park on that day anyway.  We ended up staying in the parking lot for the shop for two nights, while it continued to rain, and they ordered then later installed the part needed.  We were extremely lucky in the cost department at a mere $252.00!!

So, we pushed on all of twenty or thirty minutes from the repair to a small RV park in Rockport/Fulton.  It was quiet and secluded.  This allowed us to catch up with ourselves and do a bit more of what we like to do... be tourists.

While in Corpus we had visited a botanical garden where we learned a little more about the sorts of things that can grow comfortably in the area.  We also went to the Museum of Natural History and went aboard the Pinta replica and saw what remains of the Santa Maria replica.  The Niña was in the water just a hop across the channel (near the aircraft carrier Lexington) but we did not end up going there.  These ships were built in Spain from original materials and, like wooden boats everywhere, were in sad shape after little more than twenty years.  They had ended up in the hands of the city of Corpus Christi after an original group had gone bankrupt trying to keep up with maintenance!  This, according to our guide was a very contentious tax issue.

The rest of the museum was full of fascinating displays so we learned quite a few new facts from that visit.

We also had time to see the Texas State Aquarium.  It would be difficult to compete with some aquariums we have been to but this one did a credible job of displaying lots of the sorts of fish and marine creatures from the Gulf of Mexico.  What we noticed the most was that the displays tended to be very kid friendly.

When we got to Rockport/Fulton we took a day to ride on a boat out to the wildlife refuge to see if we could do some birding.  The Skimmer is an aluminum boat with a not-too-deep draft... the perfect boat for this adventure.  Here is where we got to see and photograph Whooping Cranes!!  They are a lot larger than I had imagined and set up in pairs rather than flocks.  One of the pairs had a story attached about when the young male had been bitten by a water moccasin in his youth and his head had swollen up so much that he could not make the migration back to Canada that year.  He stayed inthe area for a season (or perhaps it was two) before making the trip.  You can still see a scar on the back of his neck were the bite was.  That sort of snake is a favorite food by the way!!

After all this touristing we pulled up stakes again and headed for Galveston, Texas.  It was a rainy ride and as I write this we have our bow pointed out toward the Gulf just across the road from the park and can see and hear waves breaking.  There is so much to do here that we are not sure if we will be one week or two!!

Living Cheek by Jowl

Sandy on the River Walk, San Antonio

We have been in a lot of RV parks by now.  I mean, living for a large part of each year in a variety of RV parks has been our normal for four years now.

Some places are better than others by a little bit and others are head and shoulders above the rest.  Sometimes it's just a matter of having a patch of grass outside your door and other times it is being able to extend your awning and having a dry place outside of the "house" as you step out.  Occasionally it is having quiet neighbors and not too much traffic!  

At present we are in Corpus Christi, Texas and the park is an older one.  That means narrower streets and the important thing here has been that we are in a pull through space so that we did not have to back into our place.  It turns out, too, that our site is very level, another big plus!  It was New Years last night and the park was pretty good about fireworks going off... until I heard what were clearly gun shots coming from a unit just across our little street!!!  Yikes, I had thought that nobody shot guns off at midnight any more.  It takes a fresh look at the park this morning for me to want to stay here too long... but, that had to be a one time deal.

For the most part people in these parks are friendly.  Not, perhaps, as friendly as the folks we have met boating but fun and friendly nonetheless.  We tend to live partly out of doors most of the time anyway.  In the last few years we have been places where there was not much rain.  For the most part the weather has been very cooperative.  This year the weather has been a good deal wetter for us and definitely colder!!  

We left the Northwest at about the "normal" time and the difference has been the elevation and latitude.  Except for our side trip to visit the boat we have been further north and at higher elevations most of the time.  From the time we turned east from Tucson, Arizona we have been higher than our cruising life style would have had us.  In Alamogordo, New Mexico we were much higher and the spooky drive through White Sands felt, with the strong cold wind, like we were in a snow scene.  Our stay in San Antonio, Texas was longer than it probably should have been but we wanted to stay in one place for Christmas and that afforded the right combination of attractions, or so we thought.  We got the itchy feet thing going after only about a week there and the last few days found us getting ready to move on.  It wasn't helpful the temperatures had fallen significantly during our stay.

So, over all this little park in Corpus Christi is a fine place with some amenities but we will likely be ready for our next jump in a week or so.  At least the weather is warmer now!!

How Did We Ever Find New Mexico?

So, we got Arizona and then did a small side trip to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico.  Yeah, we had to visit the boat (Faith) to see what will be required for NEXT season.  We took pictures and had fun with friends.  Seeing JJ and going out to dinner while living in motel rooms with really, really bad beds!

Other than that there was the long drive down with lots of construction and turning in our FM-3 (resident alien) cards at the border.  So many issues with that but the process was fairly simple. (Stamp, stamp, stamp... su firma aqui... adios!)

We stayed in our favorite place in Amado and shopped a bit in Tubac then stayed in Tucson for a few days (some extra because it rained) then, finally, we were off to the east.  The Tucson stay allowed some visiting time and the bikes caught up to us there.  More on that probably later.

Turning east from Tucson our first day on a new road was pretty good.  There was a bit of construction with a narrow one lane section at 55 mph but that was nothing compared to Mexico and the jarring roads there!!

One stop had me walking Abby and we had a pet section:

Then it had a warning:

Fortunately it is cold right now so there wasn't much chance of a surprise from the reptile clan!

Missing the Mark?

Sometimes the problem with traveling is what you miss instead of what you stop to see.  While we were in San Diego we made the choices that are inevitable and picked the Zoo and the USS Midway for our main attractions.  What this meant was that we did not see Sea World or other things that would have been fun too.  In Phoenix we first read about and then heard about the Musical Instrument Museum.  Unfortunately we have not allowed time for it and feel a little time pressure that we try to avoid.

In the case of Phoenix we will pass through again during the next few years so we will include this place at some other time.  This has, however, caused me to ponder the rest of the trip as we go places we aren't likely to get back to for either a long time or perhaps never.  Our research is done on the fly, as it were, and it means our choices can be more problematic.  If we don't read enough or don't hear about an attraction it will simply be missed.  Sadly there is not a cure for this but overall it is a condition we will gladly live with to see as much as we can. 

The motor home has been a marvelous change from the travel trailer.  It is easier to set up and take down at each stop.  The systems work better and the ease of having the car (Posie the PT Cruiser) has freed us unbelievably.  We are now talking about getting bikes to achieve a better exercise regimen going.  Looking around I found some aluminum framed bikes and am now looking into different methods of carrying the bikes.  That should give us a more interesting way of seeing nearby things than riding along in the car or the motor home.  We won't miss much and will be taking pictures along the way!!