We have been on the move and busy since leaving Fort Stockton, Texas. On our trip back to Gold Canyon we stayed in Anthony, Texas, right outside of El Paso, and Willcox, Arizona. Once here there were doctors' appointments, exercise, laundry, church and a new Dish Network Hopper installation. It is getting so a new TV setup is as complex as a new computer with all the frustrations and adjustments to a new system.


Now it is time to deal with the damage we sustained in the hail storm here last October. Sunday we took the trailer to Lazy Days in Tucson (a 100 mile drive) and spent the night on the huge and nice KOA here. Since we were to deliver our Airstream to the repair shop at 8 am, we decided not to get up and leave at 6 am to get there.

The park is nice and might be a good location to spend the winter.

Today we have a new ride.

Quite a difference from our heavy-duty 3/4 ton pickup. But it is fairly comfortable and we fit in with all our neighbors. It seems almost everybody today drives a small SUV.


We will have the car for about a week but we don't get the trailer back for a month or more. Glad we didn't plan to go anywhere in February.

Soon our house windows will be wrapped in plastic so the painters can repair and repaint the hail damage to it. At least we don't have to move out!

Moving West

Thursday we turned our truck to the west, beginning our journey back to Gold Canyon from Houston. First stop was San Antonio. For years we have been staying at Blazing Star when in San Antonio. We had stayed there before going to Houston the week before. But we decided to check out the San Antonio KOA. It is large, with gravel roads and pads. They have children's bikes for rent. The sites are a little wider than at Blazing Star. The KOA isn't as refined but it feels so comfortable, reminding us of the way we traveled the first years of RVing. Actually both campgrounds in San Antonio are good, it just depends on what you are interested in.


Our next stop was Junction, Texas, about 120 miles to the west. We have stayed there several times and enjoyed the Llano South and Llano North campgrounds. We decided to vary our routine and went to a small park, Pecan Valley RV. With only 12 sites and located several miles out of town next to a pecan orchard, it has a very different feel from either of the Llano campgrounds.  The park has pretty good WIFI.  We had discovered before that we can't get Verizon service for phone or internet on our phones in Junction.  The camp hosts at Pecan Valley informed us that Kimball Country, where Junction is located, has no Verizon service at all.  The sites are large and it would be a great place to chill out for a while if we were tired of traveling and not interested in sightseeing. I always try to take a photo of our campsites and we took quite a few pictures at Pecan Valley.

Sunday we moved west again, to Fort Stockton. In case you had never traveled across the center of the country, especially in Texas, you may not realize the distances involved. For travelers like us, we choose to drive about 200 miles, more or less, if at all possible. That means in this state we stay in the same towns on each trip. We were in Fort Stockton for one night in mid-December. The Fort Stockton RV Park is large and old. Many of the sites are occupied long-term by oil drilling employees. But they had a café serving good chicken fried steak and pretty good wifi. It is a little run down but familiar.

Tomorrow we head west again, returning to the El Paso area, and then probably either Benson or Willcox before returning to Gold Canyon.

A Great Way tp End and Start a Year

We came to Houston to see where our granddaughter Kylie is attending university and swimming on the Couger women's swim team.  Kylie's parents and brother--our son Eric, wife Liz, and our grandson John--were here, too. We hadn't seen any of them in months so it was a special way to bring 2018 to an end and begin 2019.

On New Year's Eve, we met Eric, Liz and John for a BBQ lunch.

After some good conversation and catching up on each other, they headed down to Galveston where they are staying for a few days.

New Year's Day we met them on the University of Houston campus and drove to Kylie's apartment so she could show us around campus.

The campus is decorated with lots of modern art. Here is one building with what looks to me like polished graffiti, but what do I know?

One art work Kylie really likes is this serpentine piece. It is lit at night and the words projected on the surrounding concrete.

We ended our visit with lunch at Kylie's favorite taco place downtown. The food was really good and we again had a good visit. Finally, we needed to get back to our RV, Kylie needed to get back to her room and the others headed back to Galveston.

It was good to them.  We don't know when we will be together again.