After two days at Copper Breaks State Park, we headed another 2.5 hours south. This drive had two stops. One in Knox City to get our annual motor home inspection. Texas residents like us must have their vehicles safety inspected every year before they can renew their registration. So every year as we head south, we must find an inspection center that has room for a sizable motorhome and its towed vehicle to park. The motor home passed the inspection, and we checked that job off our list of things to do! Our second stop was in the city of Abilene to do some major grocery shopping. Our pantry and refrigerator are bare after being away for so long. We had a long list of things to buy! We finally arrived at our next camping destination at Abilene State Park.
Monday, January 31, 2022
A Trip Down Memory Lane at Abilene State Park
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Copper Breaks State Park - Quanah, Texas
After our shaky start, the motor home ran well on our 218-mile trip to our first destination of 2022. That is an unusually long drive for us, as it took close to four hours. We much prefer drives of half that length. But there isn't a lot to see in west Texas, and we had never stayed at Copper Breaks State Park before. Because we got a late start, the sun was already low in the sky by the time we got situated into our first camping spot of the year. Like most Texas state parks, our site was long and level and had plenty space between us and our neighbors.
Thursday, January 27, 2022
We're on the road again!--or not?!?
After much delay, we made our final plans to be on the road again. Now the count is up to 4 months, 1 week, 2 days, and 16 hours since we parked the motor home here at the ranch in the panhandle of Oklahoma. It is snuggled between the satellite dish and the safe shed, right beside the horse pasture. You can see the horses in the corral behind it, and the pickup is attached and ready to roll on this blue sky morning.
This is also where the motor home was damaged when high winds blew the shingles off Mark's Mother's house. The asphalt shingles hit the side of the motor home with such force that it scratched the paint. It's been winterized since October, when the first freezing temperatures came early to Oklahoma this fall. It has been an interesting fall and winter here! We've picked this day for our departure, and Denisa has been humming the chorus of "On the Road Again!" as she was doing the last of the packing of things that need to go back into the motor home.
We've picked this day for our departure because it is forecast for temperatures near 60, with almost no wind. That's a rare find in January in western Oklahoma! It dipped down to 17 degrees last night, and it was still chilly as we put the last things in the refrigerator. Mark plugged in the engine heater for several hours to get everything warmed up. He fired up that big diesel engine to let it idle for a while, and we went inside to get one more load. When we came back, that diesel engine wasn't running. What?!?
Mark started the diesel engine again. It ran for about thirty seconds . . . and died. We tried it again . . . it died again. Mark opened the back engine compartment (because it is a rear-end diesel), and started looking around.
After waiting so long to finally get back on the road, it looked like we weren't going anywhere today after all! We just wrote a blog about three strikes of bad luck. This sure felt like strike four!
And then Mark figured it out. Remember that we had our motor home worked on in September? We had a Cummins diesel shop in Liberal, Kansas, replace the antifreeze reservoir. It seems that one of the hose connections they did has been leaking ever since then. Now the antifreeze is too low for the motor to run safely. That's why it is shutting itself off! Mark even caught a picture of another drip of the pink liquid antifreeze escaping out of the poorly sealed tank. It looks like we were charged a thousand dollars for shoddy work.
Mark then made a trip into town to buy a couple gallons of antifreeze. Thank goodness that this small-town grocery store stocks antifreeze! Then there's the tricky job of funneling it in. He started up the engine again, and it continued to run this time! Denisa is sure glad to be married to such a smart guy! If it was up to her, we would have had to be towed back to that same repair shop for more shoddy work!
It caused a three-hour delay, but we finally felt good about being on the road again when the motor home continued to idle well. We know that we will have to deal with that antifreeze leak in the near future, but for now we are on the road again! It was less than 20 miles down the road when we entered into the big state of Texas. That's the last state sign we will picture for a while, as we plan to spend the rest of our winter here.
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Surviving Covid (Again!)
In our seven years of full-time RVing, we have definitely learned to be flexible. We're going to use that flexibility again as our plans have changed AGAIN. We planned to leave right after the ski trip, but that changed because of Covid. We were exposed to this bothersome virus while we were in Colorado, and several members of our ski group tested positive. We didn't go to the trouble of being tested, since we were positive that Denisa's results would be positive. She had all the classic symptoms--congestion, cough, head ache, sore throat, fatigue, and body aches. As soon as the symptoms appeared she started her quarantine--in the upstairs bedroom at Mark's Mother's house. She didn't want to take any chances of exposing Mark's 93-year-old Mother. While her quarantine quarters are large and have a private bathroom, they don't have any television and only spotty internet and phone signal. That's where Denisa has been hanging out for the last three days.
Mark never had any symptoms, so we're not sure if he was an asymptomatic positive, or he somehow avoided getting Covid this time. Either way, his Mother never got Covid even though they spent lots of time together during those three days. While we usually cook together, Mark and his Mother were in charge of the kitchen. They delivered some great meals to the quarantine room. Because we have no other pictures to post, Denisa took pictures of some of the meals. This one includes farm-raised fried chicken (from the same neighbor that provides the fresh eggs), real mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, home-made bread, home-made sand plum jelly, and a salad. You could say that Denisa was very well fed with meals lovingly prepared during her quarantine. She was glad that she never lost her senses of taste or smell this time, as the meals were tasty!
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Three Strikes of Bad Luck
We just finished up a great family vacation, where we enjoyed some perfect weather and no one got hurt on the ski slopes. What could possibly go wrong now? We did the last minute packing and hugs this morning, and we left before 8:30 a.m. That's easier to do with the help of our grandson, Eli, who gets us up around 5:00 a.m. After long good-bye hugs, the three vehicles of friends and family took off for their different destinations. We chose the south direction down Highway 9 out of Breckenridge. The Colorado Department of Transportation warned us that this route was icy and perilous four days ago when we were driving to Breckenridge. But there were no travel advisories for Highway 9 on this sunny day as we left Breckenridge.
Friday, January 21, 2022
Breckenridge, CO - Day 3 - Sledding and the Gondola
On our last day in Breckenridge, we are all spending the day with our group's youngest generation--our grandkids. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we all acted like kids. We started the morning out with a great home-cooked breakfast, and then started the sled-fest.