Pony Express RV Resort

Believe it or not those two pictures were taken today. One was looking east and the other was looking west.

We are really filling up here at the Pony Express. A lot of the rigs here belong to people who work on the refineries. I'd say probably more than half. We can tell because we see people come and go but others have been here before we got here. This park has only been open since October and believe it or not there have been people here since it opened. I couldn't imagine being here in the winter.

We went to look at some other parks in the area yesterday because I really don't like this park. As I mentioned the other day there's just too much concrete and not enough "ambiance" for me. Well, I sure got an eyeful and I guess this park's not so bad after all. Mountain Shadows spots are even closer together than this one and said we couldn't have the monthly rate for July. We'd have to pay $177 per week. OH MY GOSH!!! You should have seen that place. I wish I'd taken pictures. It's not worth $100 a week much less $177. From there we went to the KOA in the area and it wasn't much better than Mountain Shadows. They said they didn't have any monthly sites and we'd have to pay the $225 weekly amount. Are you kidding me???!!! Unbelievable what these parks are charging. At least this is clean, new and has a GREAT playground for the grandkids. We're still going to look at the State Parks in the area and see about getting into those.

Today we checked on Fandango.com to find out where the new Indiana Jones movie was playing. There was a matinee at a theater in nearby Bountiful. I checked it on the Garmin and of course it didn't show up there. Fandango had directions so I printed those out and we set out to see the movie. It started at 2:30 so we left at 2:00 in plenty of time to go the 5 miles to get there. Well, the directions were horrible and we couldn't find the theater. We finally stopped at a gas station and the kid inside told us how to get there. OMG, let me tell you we would have NEVER found it without his directions. By the time we got there it was 3:30 so we decided no way were we going to go into a movie after it started. We just went back home. It's Friday and the movie just came out so we'll wait for another day.

When we got home I checked some other theaters in the area and decided we're going to wait till Sunday morning when everybody's in church and we'll go to the first showing at 11:00. We used to do that a lot on Sunday mornings. The theaters are pretty empty then and you only pay the matinee price. Hope it's worth it, we sure did like the first three. There was a marathon on the SciFi channel last weekend and we watched all three.

The kids and grandkids are coming over this weekend and we'll do burgers tomorrow and then on Monday Michele's in-laws are coming over and we'll do steaks for them.

Another Birthday Party

Ashton's "real" birthday was yesterday so we celebrated with his other grandparents, Dave & Betty and my daughter, Michele and son-in-law Todd. Betty worked all day and then came home and put on some kind of spread. Wow, yummy oven baked brisket, potatoes, peas, corn, a wonderful spinach salad and bread. We were going to bring an ice cream cake but Betty still had a whole gallon of ice cream that she had bought for the other party not knowing that the party place supplied the ice cream. We probably could have had Michele just bring the leftover cake because now they have TWO leftover cakes. We didn't bring candles but Betty found one so at least he got to blow out a candle.

Before we went to the party we stopped at Walmart to pick up clothes and toys and figured since we were there we'd get a few grocery items we needed. I really don't like shopping at Walmart for groceries. They just don't have a good selection of the things I need. I haven't been able to find fresh herbs, no barley (for soup), their rice section was pretty much wiped out and no Panko bread crumbs. GRRRRR. So we had to find a grocery store anyway. We found an Alberton's (which I LOVE) and of course, they had all the things Walmart didn't. They even had Calrose rice which is my absolute favorite. We could not get it when we lived in Florida so every time we went to visit relatives in Washington State I would buy a couple of 10 lb bags and take it home in my carryon. LOL It's not that I'm a rice snob but I just like the Japanese sticky rice.

Today is a really crappy day here. The temps have dropped at least 40 degrees from yesterday. Today we're at 46 degrees right now and the high yesterday was 92. I stowed the satellite dish last night when we went to bed because it was supposed to get really windy. It was, but it didn't keep us awake. It also rained but apparently not that hard because we didn't even hear it on the roof. We're just staying in today and not doing anything. I'm thawing out spaghetti that I froze for dinner so I'm not even cooking today.

Ashton's 2nd cake


He gets so embarrased when we sing


What's up with their hair???


Ashton really likes his presents


Reilly really likes the bags the presents come in

Salt Lake City, Utah

Well, we finally made it to Salt Lake City. We're at a brand new place called the Pony Express RV Resort. We don't normally stay at places like this but SLC doesn't have a whole lot of choices. The KOA was full and there is another campground down in Draper (which is actually closer to the kids) but I didn't really like the looks of it from the pictures. It's called Mountain Shadows RV Park and we're going to go take a look at it while we're here. We may just move down there anyway. I personally don't like the place we're in. It's just too crowded and too much concrete. The staff is really nice and it is clean but I just don't want to spend 2 months here.

Yesterday was grandson Ashton's 5th birthday party. His birthday isn't until the 20th but you can't have a kid's party on a Tuesday. That's the main reason we had to get here by Saturday. We really wanted to be there for his party. Not that he even noticed the grandparents there. His party was held at this place that has a bunch of bounce houses and other stuff for kids to play on. As usual, in these kinds of places there were a TON of kids running around and several other parties and it was really, really LOUD.

Soooooo, my blog today is mostly pictures of the grandkids.

Reilly and Ashton spent the night with Nana and Papa Rod



Ashton's party





The pinata was a BIG hit




They both got a new scooter

Canyon Lake, TX, New Mexico and Utah

Holy Cow!!! It's already the 14th??? We're almost to Salt Lake City!! Okay, but let me tell you what's been going on. I have to warn you though, it's a long one.

We went to Canyon Lake in Texas the day before we left San Antonio on the 8th. We're just looking for options for when we return in the winter. We have reservations at Lake Braunig for 2 months in Nov and Dec but wanted to look around for some other places. We don't want to stay in the same place for the whole 4 or 5 months that we're going to be there. Canyon Lake has an Army Corp of Engineers park that is really nice. Nice BIG sites and almost all have a view of the lake. You're only supposed to be able to stay for 2 weeks but we talked to the camphosts there and they said it's not enforced in the winter. They LOVE winter Texans! That's funny cuz living in Florida we hated the winter Floridians (aka New Yorkers). LOL

Hmmmmmm, really??



Lots of deer here



Waiting for dinner?




After we left San Antonio we drove to Big Springs, TX just for the night. Pretty uneventful trip which we really like but, good grief, Texas is sooooooo boring to drive through. Pretty much all we saw were cows, windmills and oil derricks.



We left Big Springs and drove to Amarillo. Boy, was it windy. We actually thought about staying put for another day but decided it wasn't really THAT bad. I got on the RV Dreams chatroom that night and asked about places to stay in Gallup, New Mexico where we were headed. I got a resounding "DON'T STAY IN GALLUP" from just about everybody in the chatroom that night. Linda suggested a casino with a RV Park so we looked it up online. It's called the Sky City Casino. $25 a night and a $5 free slot play for each of us so it would end up costing only $15. Casinos usually have pretty cheap, good food too so we called and they said they had plenty of room so no need for a reservation. We pulled in and boy, did they ever have room. There was probably about 50 sites and only 3 rigs at that time. Another rig pulled in later but that was it. We unhooked and drove over to the casino because the "shuttle" was pretty much nonexistant. We each got $100 to play with and I imediately hit a 6 spot Keno machine for $400!!! WOOHOO!!! We were thinking about staying here for a few days since we drove so far but in the morning we decided to move on.

We got on the road by 10:00 and made it to Gallup where we headed north on 491 through the Navajo Indian reseration. It was only a two lane highway so Rod was pulling over a lot to let cars pass since we only drive 55 mph due to the price of diesel. As a car was approaching Rod started to pull over a little and when he looked out the window he saw smoke coming from the rear tire of the 5th wheel. We had a blowout!!! We got off the road and checked the damage. The tire was pretty much shredded. We have a spare but no way to jack up the rig. I called our insurance company because we're covered for tire blowouts. Since we were in the middle of nowhere it took quite a bit of effort by the guy at the insurance company to find someone to come out on a Sunday (and it was Mother's day). He finally called the Navajo police and they referred him to the Shiprock police which was about 75 miles away. He called me back and told me that they were also looking for someone. I talked to the dispatcher in Shiprock and she told me she would call me back. Apparently she couldn't get through on my cell so the Sargeant called and said he was sending an officer out to check up on us to make sure we were okay. What a nice guy! The officer showed up and said he would check back on us later to see if anyone had come to change the tire. FINALLY after 4 hours someone from Farmington came and had the tire changed in about ten minutes. We drove to Farmington and stayed the night as it was getting dark. The next morning we went to Discount Tire and had all four tires replaced. Ouch!! Even though we've only been in our rig for about 5 months it sat in storage for 2 years while we were waiting to sell our house. We feel much better now with new tires. Whew!! What a day!!

Bad news




We finally got on the road at about 11:00 in the morning and headed for Moab, Utah. Oh my gosh, what a beautiful place. We stayed at a KOA in Moab and man, was it packed. It was so cold when we got there. We got all set up and then the skies opened up and it poured down rain. How nice that it waited till we were done.

After the rain


The next morning we headed out for Arches National Park. I had been looking forward to this for so long but since it was so cold we decided to just drive the park road and not get out to hike. Most of the arches you could see from the road. Delicate arch was about the only one you couldn't see from the road. What a gorgeous place. All I could say was, "Oh my gosh"!! over and over again. We are going to come back next year and hopefully do some hiking. We drove through the campground and saw the little "house" that Howard and Linda lived in while they were workamping here for a few months. The campground was full, full, full. Apparently it's always like that. I can't see how those people can sleep in tents with the temps getting into the 30's at night. It's sure not for me.



Baby arch at bottom, the smallest arch in the park


Wilson's arch named after a local pioneer


This is called the Three Gossips



This is called Balancing Rock. Someday it WILL fall


This morning we left Arches with the intention of driving straight through to Salt Lake City. It was only 235 miles away. Our reservations at the Pony Express RV Resort are not until tomorrow so we decided we didn't want to drive through Salt Lake at 5:00 in the rush hour traffic and ended up stopping in Provo at the KOA. This is about the most primitive KOA we have stayed at. No wifi and no cable tv. That's not an issue for us since we have satellite tv and internet. We raised the aerial antenna so we could watch the local news. Tomorrow we only have about an hour to drive so no alarm and no rushing around to get out by 9:00. It's going to be so nice to see the kids and grandkids. We're going to be staying there for two whole months. What a treat!!

Utah landscape is just so amazingly BEAUTIFUL!!

La Hacienda de Los Barrios

Saturday John and Erica treated us to an early Mother's Day dinner because we'll be leaving here on Thursday. We went to La Hacienda de Los Barrios. It was founded and operated by Viola Barrios who was forced to open a restaurant when her husband was killed in a car accident in 1979 and left her with 3 young children to raise. Cooking is what she knew how to do. Knowing we were coming to San Antonio I have wanted to go to this restaurant ever since I saw the Food Network's Throwdown With Bobby Flay. It's a competition where Bobby Flay challenges local cooks with their specialties. Viola's daughter Diana competed with her puffy tacos. Viola was very particular about how tortillas are made and she didn't like the way Bobby and his staff were making them so she took over even though they were competing against Diana. Too funny. What isn't funny is that Viola was murdered last week by an eighteen year old next door neighbor with a bow and arrow. He then took her credit card and car and went on a mini shopping spree. He bought hair gel and a computer. He then went back to her house because he wasn't sure if she was dead so he set the house on fire. If this story isn't bizarre enough now the children of Viola are paying for this kid's defense so that he won't get the death penalty. They said, "That's what our mother would want." As Rod said, "They are much better people than I am." I agree, I couldn't forgive something like that.



John and Erica at Los Barrios



Yesterday John came over on his way home from work. I'm made macaroni and cheese and kielbasa. I have really gotten into putting bbq sauce on sausage since we've been here in Texas so I put it on the kielbasa too. It was pretty darn good.

Natural Bridge Cave

Boy, the campground here is really emptying out. Our neighbors left a few days ago and we miss them. They were really nice. They're fulltimers from Wisconsin and were meandering back up there for the summer. They said they were coming back to Texas for the winter. We decided we are too. We drove around the area closer to John & Erica and found a really nice place called Braunig Lake RV Resort in Elmendorf. It's south of San Antonio but will be easier for them to get to than where we are now. We'll probably be there for a few months and then return here for a few months. We really like the park we're in right now but it takes them an hour to get here to see us. They live on the southwest side and we're staying on the northeast side and the traffic and construction through San Antonio is brutal. They did come over on Saturday and we had a nice steak dinner with baked potatoes and grilled asparagus and zucchini. John has been stopping by on his way home from work occasionally so on Sunday I made one of his favorite dinners that he hasn't had in a long time called pork adobo. It's basically pork cooked in vinegar and soy sauce for a few hours so the pork is soooooo tender. Erica doesn't eat pork or fish so I've been making fish when he comes without her and we have "Erica friendly" meals when she's here. :) She does bring us the treats from the bakery though and we REALLY like that. She also brought pizza from one of our favorite pizza places Papa Murphy's. She already knew we LOVE the chicken and garlic pizza. Since our oven in the RV is so small she cooked it at home and brought it over and we microwaved individual pieces. YUMMY YUMMY!!!

John & Erica


Today we went to Natural Bridge Caverns here in San Antonio. The name of the cave comes from the natural stone bridge, all that is left of a huge, collapsed room that now forms the entrance. It's only about 10 minutes from where we are staying. We've been in caves in Barbados and Ireland, and two caves in Texas. This cave was the most impressive so far. Someday we'll go to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. I've seen pictures and it's pretty amazing.

Natural Bridge with the opening to the cave on bottom left



Cave Entrance


Inside the cave

San Antonio, TX

Saturday we went to Fiesta Texas. Basically, it's San Antonio's version of Mardi Gras and lasts for 10 days. Lots of places to eat, lots of touristy souvenirs and LOTS of people. Some poeple were even wearing beads. It was so crowded all you could do was shuffle along with the crowd to get anywhere. Erica said the bigger party is called NIOSA (Nightime in old San Antonio) and is more for the younger crowd. You have to pay to get into the street parade and you spend all night getting your boobs and butt pinched. Now, for all of you that know Rod know that I can get that ALL night long at home for FREE! Oh well, it was interesting but just like New Orleans it's something to experience once and that's enough. Here's some pictures.






I told you it was crowded.

Rod was quite the handyman yesterday. Yes, a HANDYMAN! He took off the rear jack that was damaged on a steep campground site at Hard Labor Creek State Park. We thought about bending it back but read on the Everest forum that once they're bent they will just keep bending so we bit the bullet and finally bought a new set. The other one wasn't damaged but since they come as a pair we might as well have matching ones.



Tomorrow John & Erica are coming over for dinner. We're having steaks, baked potatoes and grilled veggies. Yummy. I promise I'll try and remember to take some pictures.

Austin, TX

Well, Rod made his stir-fry on Wednesday for John and Erica. It was really yummy. I had to make the rice cuz about the ONLY thing he knows how to make is stir-fry. LOL It's been so long since he's made it that he kept asking what order he was supposed to cook the veggies. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product and also forgot to take any pictures of John and Erica but here's a picture before it hit the pan (we didn't keep the wok from our house).


Yesterday we decided to get out and about. First stop was Camping World in New Braunfels. We picked up a new chair, wheel chocks, water regulator, marker light (it fell off somewhere), step covers, tablecloth clips.

After that we made a stop up the road a little further at Walmart. Man, it's like Starbucks in Seattle with the Walmarts. They're on just about every corner here in Texas. We needed to pick up a new weather station. One of ours got crushed by a slide (oops) and the other one just stopped working.

After that we stopped at AAA to pick up all the maps for our trip west. We have a Garmin GPS but I still like looking at a map. We got all the tour books and camp books too.

From there we kept north on I35 to Austin where we were looking for the Congress Street bridge. That's where the bats hang out until sundown. Since it was only 5:30 when we got there we decided to go to TGIFridays. It's in the Radisson Hotel right on the river and right next to the bridge. Since it was so early there was hardly anybody there. We got a seat right next to the window and thought it would be a really good place to see the bats. Well, we SHOULD have sat out on the patio because that's where this big family sat right in front of us. We knew as soon as the bats came out they'd be standing up. We finished our drinks and appetizers and left. There were stairs right outside the restaurant that went down to the riverbank. When we got close to the bridge you could really hear the bats squealing. It was pretty awesome but not nearly as awesome as when they finally came out. Oh my gosh, there were literally MILLIONS of them. Well, actually according to their website (yes, they have a website) there are 1.5 million. I think it's up there with some of the most amazing sites I've ever seen. The pictures I took don't do it justice. Just enough to give my son-in-law Todd the heebie jeebies. You really need to click on the pictures to see them.



Look at how many there are!! All the way down the bridge!!



Click on this one and you can really tell it's a bat!

San Antonio, TX

YAY!! Finally made it to San Antonio.!!!

I know, I know, it's been awhile AGAIN since I've posted a new entry. It's hard when you're just sitting around doing nothing to find something to write about.

We did have a visitor the other day. There's a RV chatroom I've been going to occasionally for about a year and a half now. I knew there was a lady that lived close to Houston so knowing that we were going to be passing through there I thought it would be cool to meet up with her. Her name in the chatroom is LakeConroePenny. Well, come to find out she lives north of Lake Conroe which is way north of Houston. That wasn't gonna work out so she wanted to know where we were staying in San Antonio and made arrangements to come to us! She drove her Class B van and parked in a space right across from us. Too cool! We had a really nice visit over dinner with Penny, Rod, my son John and daughter-in-law Erica. No pictures of John and Erica yet (she resists having her picture taken) but I'll get one before we leave here. They are coming again for dinner tomorrow night for Rod's famous stir-fry. Here's a picture of Penny and I but please keep in mind I woke up only a few minutes before Rod took this picture. :)



Rod took this picture of a roadrunner who is a resident of the RV park here. She's up towards the top in the center. She has a nest in another part of the park but he caught her up in the tree with a mouse in her mouth. She was waiting for us to leave so she could come down so we left her alone.

Here's a couple of pictures of our site. Every site here has a little covered patio and yes, that's Rod washing the 5th wheel AGAIN. It got really dirty being on the road everyday since we left Sunrise. They charged us $5 so we could wash the truck and $15 to wash the 5th wheel. I guess it's to pay for the water use.




We're going to visit some other RV parks around this area a little closer to John and Erica for next winter. It does get cold here but doesn't last long. We're going to look at Boerne (pronounced like Bernie) and Fredericksburg. Rod just wants to go to Fredericksburg for some German food. We are also planning on visiting Natural Bridge Cave and possibly going to Austin to see the thousands of bats under this bridge that come out every day at sundown (sorry Todd).

Still on the Road (Just an Update)

We left Sunrise on April 1st and arrived in Tampa for our RV appointment at 9:00am the next day. On our way to Tampa we noticed the A/C in the truck wasn't getting very cold. Great, one more thing to take care of. We knew we had to get it taken care of before we began our trek to Texas. It was gonna be way too hot to be travelling without A/C. Fortunately there was a Fort dealer right across the freeway from the RV dealership. After they finished with the front jacks we unhitched, left the rig there and headed over to the Ford dealer. They didn't finish with the truck until 4:30 so we called the campground and made a reservation for another night.

We left the next morning on the 3rd (Happy Bday, John) and drove all the way to just past Tallahassee. Nothing eventful there either.

On the 4th we were just past Pensacola. Nothing there either.

On the 5th we were in Biloxi, Mississippi. We found out the campground had a shuttle to the casinos so we went there and had the crab buffet at Boomtown. Boy was that yummy. I can eat A LOT of crab.

Today we are in Lafayette, Louisiana and are headed for Houston, Texas tomorrow. Should be an easy drive. We have reservations for a whole long month in San Antonio on the 8th. It's gonna be so good to just sit for awhile and visit with John and Erica especially after all the travelling we've done this week!