Saguaro Nat'l Park, Tucson, AZ

A prickly affair.

Tim

On the Road to Somewhere

I wanted to try uploading a bunch of pictures to the Blog using a Picassa slide show. We were traveling across southern New Mexico when Rae took these shots out the window. No, we did not encounter a dust storm.

Tim

Tucson, AZ

We arrived in Tucson, AZ yesterday at the Beaudry RV Resort. It is one of the nicest, most modern resorts we've been to yet. There are quite a few class A coaches, and not everyone is 55+. Two swimming pools, a restaurant and an RV dealer connected to the resort. We plan to stay here a week. Oh, that's a lemon tree next to the coach, loaded with lemons. Rae plans to get a squeezer and make lemonade. On the other side is a grapefruit tree. I picked several and we had one for breakfast this AM. Yum. Forecast is for sunny and 74 for the next 10 days. We appreciate your comments.

Tim

Santa Fe style home

This is a 55+ housing development near Deming, NM. The Santa Fe style and landscape are interesting. There were other homes in the development that had a garage for your Class A motorhome.

Tim

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso

I fell in love with a Mexican Girl...Marty Robbins, 1959. We passed thru El Paso today and that reminded me of that song. Can't get it out of my head. Google "El Paso" by Marty Robbins if you're too young to remember it or want to hear it again.

West Texas has rather boring scenery, but nice driving. Roads are straight, smooth and well paved. We just set the monster on cruise at 70MPH and let 350HP of Cat turbocharged diesel Power driving an Allison 6 speed automatic trans push you and 18 ton of metal down the road. Arh, arh. Where's the next Flying J fuel station Rae?

Made it to Deming, NM this PM. See Rae's report below.

Tim

Escort Service at Walmart

Deming, NM approximately 80 miles west of El Paso, TX

We decided to end another long day of driving at another Super Walmart. As we pulled into the parking lot we noticed a sign that said NO OVERNIGHT PARKING. We were immediately met by a security truck with a yellow flashing light on top. We stopped and the guard got out of his truck and approached us. He asked if we were here for the night or just shopping. We said just shopping thinking we would have to find another spot to park for the night. He said if we were staying all night he would have to take us to special parking for RVs. We said OK take us there. He had us follow him in his truck with the flashing light all the way around behind the store back to the front parking lot on the other side and parked us beside a row of about 8 to 9 motorhomes lined up. There are even more RVers showing up as I'm writing this. The security guy came by a little earlier and asked Tim if everything was all right. Tim said sure and he said he'd be around until 7am if we needed anything. This guy looks like a Barney Fife. It's quite funny we see the flashing yellow light going by periodically on his rounds. This is the first time we've been in a Walmart where we've been escorted to a specific spot set up for RVs. One other camper told us there are some Walmarts with hook-ups (water & electric) for RVs. Anyway we had a good laugh about Barney Fife.

Tomorrow we are headed to Tucson for about a week. The weather next week is sunny & 72 every single day. We found an RV park with 2 swimming pools along with some other amenities. Looking forward to warm sunshine and exploring Tucson.

Till next time....

Rae Jean

Ain't no Shakin' goin on here

We left Mission, TX yesterday AM for Austin to see brother Lew. Parked in a fine WalMart just across the expressway from his place. Had a great Mexican meal together. Left there this AM, headed west. We're at another fine WalMart in Kerrville, TX. I've never heard of it either. We hope to make it across west Texas and to Tucson, AZ by the weekend. We may stay there for awhile.

Thanks to all who filled us in on the Virgil Quake this AM.

Tim

Citrus Festival Parade, Mission, TX

This part of the country is famous for their oranges and grapefruit. In the top picture the float is covered with sliced fruit. The bottom picture shows a customized pickup that is typical of this area. Texans like their pickups and many have custom wheels and tires and some are lowered.

Ed and Sharon Swartzendruber, (Sharon is my maternal first cousin), who live in Edinburg, visited us last week. We then visited them where they live and do volunteer work at the Rio Grand Bible Institute. Sharon's sister Marlyn and her husband Louis Lehman had just arrived to live and work there for a month. Had a nice lunch and visit with them all.

I can see Mexico from here

As Sarah Palin might say. That is the Rio Grand and that is Mexico on the other side. I never guessed the Rio Grande was so narrow. This is the dock at Chimney Park RV Resort in Mission, TX where we stayed from Thur the 28th til today the 1st. Unfortunetly, they had WIFI that barely worked until it quit all together. Plus, cell phone reception was poor. For those reasons, we moved today to Benston Grove RV Park, with over 800 sites. But before we left there, I got to kayak a couple miles up the river between the US and Mexico.

Oh, by the way, Border Patrol used this boat ramp to launch their boats that patrol the river. They carry M-16s AND sidearms. Additionally we heard helicopters patrolling the river. We were told that drug smuggling was more of a problem that immigrant crossing. I was told not to land on the other side.