Durango, CO

We rolled in to Durango yesterday around two in the afternoon after a very pleasant drive up from Albuquerque. It was a gorgeous day and the views of Georgia O’Keefe’s favored countryside were magnificent.

We are staying at the Alpen Rose RV Park on the north side of Durango near the Animas River. This is a very nicely maintained campground staffed with friendly folks. Our neighbors are great, too.

The Durango-Silverton train passes our site twice a day.

The views from the campsite are great, and there is a huge dog park where Bella has romped with the other dogs in the park. She has been having a ball. Today we visited the historic downtown where there are several nice restaurants and shops, as well as the station from which the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge railroad departs. While in town we stopped for lunch at the roof top Balcony Bar & Grill where we had a nice view of the main drag.

This is a college town, so there are lots young folks around. Transportation by bicycle is encouraged and the town is very bike-friendly. There is a nice bike/walking path that runs along the river, and we took the time to stroll along a good bit of it. Kayakers were running the mild rapids and there were lots of runners and cyclists on the path itself. Bella walked it with us and went nuts over all the new smells!

The Durango area is well worth a visit if you have not been before. It is a great stepping-off point for visiting the San Juan Mountains and the back country mining towns such as Silverton and Ouray.

We leave in the morning for the relatively short hop over to Moab to meet up with other members of the Family Motor Coach Association 4 Wheelers for a week of off-roading in the jeep. We are looking forward to a lot of fun.

Enchanted Trails, Albuquerque, NM

This is at least our third stay at Enchanted Trails RV Park on the west side of Albuquerque. We have enjoyed our stays here. They have a nice clean park with a nice gift shop. Like many southwestern RV parks it is mostly gravel with a few shade tees. We have met some nice folks here when staying more than one night, but tonight we will pretty much stay to ourselves and leave in the morning.

One of the nice features here is the antique camping site where there are 1950's vintage autos and trailers set up around a little garden. Someone here enjoys restoring campers, and they do a nice job. The trailer can e rented for the night.

Anyone looking for a place to stay in Albuquerque would find this a handy stop. Camping World is next door and there is  La Mesa dealer down the street. Flying J is one exit away. What else could you want? Oh, Walmart is not too far either.

Vega, TX

Has it been forty days and forty nights yet? I though we were having a draught.

Yet another day of driving in rain. We left Southlake, TX and headed north on TX287 to Amarillo to hook up with I-40 and points west. Good plan, but soggy execution. Even Bella has had enough and spend a good portion of the trip zonked on the sofa.

We pulled in to the Walnut RV Park in Vega, TX just before sunset and found it to be less than advertised. Of the forty plus sites on the website only ten were in use. All but one of those sites was pretty much underwater. The only dry one was taken up by some guy with  Chevy Volt getting a charge. To say the least we were not pleased with this campground, but we did not have two more hours of driving in the rain in us. We hooked up the electric only, got the TV going, and called it a day.

Anything is doable with a good dog and a glass of wine.

Southlake, TX and the grandkids

The drive to Dallas was wet at times, which is becoming the norm, but uneventful. We really do not like driving the motor home through city congestion, but it is the only way to get across Dallas to Southlake where Chris and Lisa live.

Actually, there was a bit of a problem on the way. My cell phone died. That really pointed out how much I relay on it when traveling. I look up our next fuel stops and rest stops where we change drivers. I also use it to find campgrounds where we will spend the night. All that got more complicated without the phone working. We arrived mid-afternoon, backed in to Chris’ backyard, and got set up. Boy, do I wish I could park the coach in our backyard.

Once everything was set I drove over to the Verizon store and upgraded my phone. That is not as simple as it sounds. There is a lot of time spent trying to move data and apps to the new phone via the “cloud”, and as so often happens, several apps did not come across. Nor did their data, such as past fuel mileage information for the motor home. Well, that will keep me busy for a while as I try to get back to normal, phone wise at least.

We had a great visit with Chris’ family. The grandsons are growing like crazy and great to be around.

Ben's room. Cool graphics, Ben.

Just turned one and getting around on his own at the park.

Jack with his cousin Sidney.

Jack is very creative and has quite a workspace,

The end result is a homemade kazoo!

 

Natchitoches, LA

It was another driving day dominated by rain until early afternoon. We chose to top-off fuel prior to leaving I-10 for I-49 northbound. That would allow us to get close to Dallas before refueling again, thus having enough in the tank to not worry about finding fuel in the congested Dallas area.

The rain had the Flying J truck stop backed up so there was a long wait to get to the pump. I hoped that the wait would be long enough for the rain to stop, but no such luck. Soggy AND smelling like diesel. What fun.

The rain did stop as we turned north and things were nice and dry at the Nakatosh Campground. We found it better than we remembered. The site is nice and level and there are some shade trees, yet not so many that DirecTV could not get through. Wouldn’t you know that we found Steel Magnolias playing on the TV? It was filmed here.

We drove into the historic old town of Natchitoches and had dinner at Moma’s Oyster Bar. The Catfish Supreme was as good as we remembered, and we toasted our tenth wedding anniversary over an Abita Beer.   

We first had the catfish etouffe here at Moma’s on our way to California on our first post retirement trip. Good food and good memories. After dinner we had a nice walk along the Cane River before returning to the campground.

Shields RV Park, Gulfport, MS

We have finished our third day on the road, on this our first long haul trip in the Phaeton. Our first day saw us in rain for a great deal of the trip. We had just washed the coach and got it looking great for the trip. Now it has the usual grime from the road. So much for trying to look nice.

Speaking of nice, the rain had stopped as we approached Niceville to visit with Jim and Phyllis Kaiserski. Niceville was, well, very nice! Niceville is nestled in around Ft Walton Beach, Destin and Eglin AFB. It is a great area and Jim and Phyllis’ home is especially nice. It is on a short cul de sac with room for us to park the motor home while we visit.

We drove on to Gulfport this morning in perfect weather. We are staying in the campground of a Navy Sea Bee base. It is a well cared for campground with paved sites that are widely spaced and separated by lawn. While quiet as I write this, the afternoon was very noisy will trains and sirens.

Those of you that follow this blog know that RVing for us is “repairing our motor home in exotic places”, and today was no different. When we attempted to plug in shore power there was a very loud clattering sound coming from the electrical bay. The sound was coming from our Progressive Industries electrical management system, which is a device that acts as a surge protector, but also protects the coach from dangerous campground power conditions. The issue today was not with the campground’s power, although that was the first thing I checked. This system senses the quality of the power coming into the motor home. Once it finds the power acceptable it closes a relay allowing electricity into the coach. This afternoon, rather than closing, the relay was opening and closing quickly making the chattering sound.  After much discussion with the manufacturer we finally got the thing working properly without extensive dis-assembly or ordering new parts. The technical support folks at Progressive Industries are knowledgeable and very willing to help.

Progressive Industries EMS in background

Power enters through the cable on left, passes through the EMS to the transfer switch.

We will be off in the morning for Natchitoches, LA. We found this great little spot while driving out to California when we first retired. The small downtown riverfront is well maintained and sports a few nice restaurants. Our favorite has wonderful Cajun food, and I will report more on that later. Natchitoches is home to a small college, but was put on the map when the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed there. The campground is out near the interstate and is nothing special, but we go there for the food.

Friday we arrive in Dallas to see the grandsons, Ben and Jack. It will be wonderful to see them and their parents even if it is just for the weekend.