Thursday September 29, 2016 Deming, NM

We only planned to drive to El Paso today, about 240 miles.  So, we didn't try for an early start.  Gerri walked around the park and took pictures of the art work.  Some of it was humorous.

Not very long after leaving Fort Stockton I was behind a semi passing a slower car.  The semi went back into the lane in front of the car we were passing.  I saw a huge "road gator" in my lane.  The car I was passing was on my right and there was no shoulder on the left.  I hit the thrown off tread.  I stopped at a rest stop and the only damage I could see was to the rear mud flap. When we stopped for fuel in El Paso, a helpful truck driver helped me tie the flap up with elastic ties so it didn't drag.

With the change to mountain time it was too early to stop.  We drove on to Deming, NM.  When I registered at the RV park more of the mud flap had torn off and was dragging again.

After Getting set up in our site, I cut the mud flap off.  I hoped to salvage the Chrome strip.  The mud flap wouldn't fit in the back of the jeep.  With some assistance of a neighbor I got the chrome part and it's backing off and fit it into the storage area, across the coach.  I had already removed the mud flap when I thought of taking pictures.  Only the top bar is left on the coach.

Gerri made a delicious dinner with sausages and fried tater tots and a great salad.  We watched TV and did computer stuff until bedtime.  It started raining just as we were going to bed.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive to a town south of Tucson.  I hope to find a cache in one of the 3 Arizona counties I haven't cached in yet.

Wednesday Sepetember 28, 2016 Fort Stockton, TX

We left the RV park after getting the utilities unhooked and the Jeep hooked up.  We stopped at the Buc-ee's in New Brunfels for fuel.  Diesel was $1.929 per gallon

Even during rush hour we were almost around San Antonio on the Anderson Loop before we ran into a couple of slow downs.  Once on I-10 it was clear with no traffic problems.

We had lunch on the road after a short stop.  We arrived at the Hilltop RV Park in Fort Stockton before I got droopy.  The park had mixed reviews.  We liked it.  Easy on and off I-10 but far enough away for no traffic noise.  One reviewer complained about he caliche dust.  We found the roads hard packed with no dust.  The spaces are all pull through with picnic tables on concrete pads at all sites.  Some sites had shade over the picnic tables.

Gerri prepared a noodle dish using the pork chops left over from last night's supper at Curtis and Dana's.

It was warm when we got here and the sun was very bright in the west.  It turned into a beautiful sunset.

I took care of some computer chores and we watched TV until bedtime.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to El Paso, about 300 miles.

Tuesday September 27, 2016 San Marcos, TX

We had our coffee while catching up on computer junk.  I went out to check on a RV park I spotted in San Marcos, close to Kyle.  On the way I found a couple of geocaches I had DNFed in May when we were going east.  I looked for a 3rd one that I never found.  The RV park was mostly a trailer park with RV sites that seemed to be long term residents.

In the afternoon we went to the house.  Gerri and Dana went for pedicures before picking up the kids from school.  I went out and tried to find more caches, I found 1 and DNFed two.

I got back to the house before the others and took a short nap.  After Curtis got home he took
Brandon to football practice.  Dana fixed pork chops, broccoli and asparagus for dinner.  Atter we ate we joined Curtis for Brandon's football game which followed the practice.  Brandon's team won.  At quarterback Brandon handed off a touchdown play and passed a conversion.

Back at the house we visited.  Brandon had a homework assignment to interview people for writing a biography.  He interview both Gerri and me.

We were back at the coach by 9.  Some TV took us to bedtime.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to the Fort Stockton area, about 350 miles.

Brandon and Vanessa 

Monday September 26, 2016 San Marcos, TX

It rained heavily all night and into the late morning.  Our plan was to pickup Brandon and Vanessa from school in Buda at 3:30.

Dana called and told us about a traffic jam on I-35.  She suggested we start for Buda early because of the delay.  We took her advice.  Most of the traffic problem was on the south bound side of the interstate.  There was some flooding along the highway.






On the way we stopped by the Kyle Chamber of Commerce.  I turned in the paper work to show that I completed the Kyle Geotour.  I got the coin they were giving for completing the tour.  We took pictures by the old train station in Kyle.

We got to the school at about 3.  We waited in the parking lot.  The kids were supposed to do some of their homework before we picked them up.  Brandon had finished his homework at school, Vanessa had to spend time at home finishing hers.  They were in and out of the house playing with friends.

Dana got home at about 4:30 and Curtis a little after 5.  Dana made dinner.  Vanessa's softball practice had been cancelled.

We visited until about 7:30.

When we returned to the coach we watched the Presidential debate before going to bed,

Sunday September 25, 2016 San Marcos, TX

Brandon and Vanessa started stirring around at about 8:30.  They played well together for a while before becoming restless.  At 11 we drove toward their house.  We stopped at a Taco Bell and got them some cheese roll ups.
 At home the kids went out and played with friends while we visited and watched some TV.  Dana and Michelle were at the art show in Austin.

Later Curtis and I went out to find some caches.  We started with one in a nearby park.  We moved on to one we didn't find yesterday, Curtis found it this time.  We moved on to a puzzle cache that took us from the old part of Kyle to a newer part.  On the way to the second step it started raining heavily.  The rain continued and we had to wait till it slackened before finding the cache.  We then tried another that we hadn't found yesterday.  We looked for about an hour with no success.  We then went back to the old part of Kyle and completed a multi-cache.

Did I say "rained heavily"?  Gerri took this video in front of Curtis' house.

Back at the house we decided to go to Raising Cane's for supper.  We drove separate cars.  After eating Curtis and the kids went home and we went back to our coach.

We were able to tune into the webcast of the worship services from Oakey Boulevard.  Tyler Kirkpatrick delivered a great message on the importance of the resurrection of Christ.

Tomorrow we will pickup the kids from their school and spend the evening with them.

Saturday September 24, 2016 San Marcos, TX

Last night we had decided that the kids, Curtis and I would go geocaching to see if we could earn the Kyle Tour Geocache Trail award.  We found 9 and DNFed 2.  One that we found didn't have the information we needed, the log was missing.

Dana went to help Michelle at the show in Austin.  Gerri stayed at the house and did some laundry.  At lunch time we met Gerri at the Whataburger at Kyle Crossing for lunch.  The Geo Tour of Kyle also includes a way of earning points for shopping and dining in Kyle.  It rained for awhile after we ate.  Everyone was tired so we went back to the house.  Even though the forecast was for more rain, Gerri and I went and ran the Jeep through a car wash so we could see out the side windows.  We also found another cache on the Tour series.

We went to a Mexican restaurant in Kyle for supper.  This was a small restaurant in an old house near the old downtown area, El Pueblito.  The food was good, especially the Fajitas.








Michelle and Dana got home about 8:30 and were ready for bed.  The kids wanted to sleep over at the motor home so we left at about 9.

At the coach Brandon and Vanessa entertained us for awhile with a light show.


They had brought sleeping bags and slept on the floor.  All was quiet by 11.

Friday September 23, 2016 San Marcos, TX

Chef Perley

We were up at 7.  We started our coffee and got the coach ready to travel  We hadn't had the Jeep unhooked for nearly a week and the battery was dead,  I forgot to turn off the chargers for the GPS and iPhones.  Herb got out his booster and we got it started,  I left it running while we had breakfast in the house.

Goodbye pups

Herb's nephew still hadn't picked up the dogs.  They were under the motorhome and wouldn't come out when called.  We decided that after breakfast we would try to lure them out with food.  While we were eating they me up into the bushes outside the front door.  Some scraps of french toast kept them out of the way while I backed the coach out and hooked up the Jeep.  Goodbyes were said and hugs exchanged.

A few miles after leaving the house we were on US 79 headed south.  We were on this highway until just north of Austin.  We then traveled on Texas Highways 130 and 40.  These are both Interstate grade toll road with an 80 mph speed limit.  We never drove at 80 and never paid any tolls.  There are two choices; Tex Pass or Pay by Mail.  I assume they video license plates and send out bills, there are no manned toll booths.  My assumption is in question since we still haven't been billed for the toll when went to and from Mississippi last year.

We got to the Canyon Trail RV Park at about 3:30 and parked as directed in space 85 a pull through in the rear of the park.  We have good satellite reception.  Both Curtis and Dana were still at work with the kids at daycare.  I paid for 3 nights, we still have to decide if we are going to stay for Brandon's footall game on Tuesday evening.

We went to Curtis' at a little after 5.  Dana had picked up pizza.  Michelle Barnhart arrived shortly after us.  She has a show this weekend in Austin and is staying with Curtis and Dana.  Dana will help her with the show.

Curtis and Gerri took Vanessa to her softball practice.  Brandon and I went out and found two caches that had been placed since we were here in May.  Curtis and Gerri brought home treats from DQ after the practice.

We were back at the coach at 9:30.  We had made plans to go back to Kyle in the morning.  The kids and I plan to work on a series of geocaches put out by the Kyle Chamber of Commerce.  I saw the series when I looked up nearby caches.  There are 21 caches worth 5 points each and other ways to earn points by activities in Kyle.  They will give out geocoins to the first 250 people to submit the form showing 25 points.  We will need to find 15-17 of the 21 caches and hope we are in the first 250.

We watched some TV until bed time.