Christmas was fun, being with family and having a relaxing holiday. I got to be in a fun Christmas church choir concert, went to a grand daughter’s piano recital. Nick, my son in law, and I made Christmas dinner for my daughter’s co-workers at the hospital. It went well – ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans with mushrooms and bacon, sage cornbread dressing. The day after Christmas I found I came down with shingles. What a letdown!
After Christmas we had to do such really important tasks like get haircuts and a massage before heading off to California. We left on Friday, 28 December. Cedar Falls was having some snow, so we left at 10:15, later than we planned originally to let the snow plows get the roads salted. I-80, I-70, and I-40 were all having problems so we decided to head straight south through Missouri. It was a good idea. We ended up staying in Emporia, KS at a La Quinta that was ok. We like La Quintas because they accept pets without an extra charge. The trip was uneventful, always a good thing.
Today we drove a very long way, from Emporia, KS to Odessa, TX. We left by 7:00 in the dark. Luckily there was a Starbucks next door to the La Quinta! With the weather still being iffy on I-40 and north, we decided to take the longer but safer trip on I-20 to I-10. Let me say I am definitely not a fan of the Texas plains. I normally don’t mind remote, isolated land, but this just didn’t warm me up at all. However I was astonished at the activity in the Permian Basin around Midland. There were dozens and dozens of “RV Parks” being used for worker housing. The amount of activity was amazing. I have never seen so many active drilling rigs, and I have been through North Dakota and the Uinta Basin drilling areas.
Tomorrow we will spend the night west of Tucson, and then we are spending a week in Needles in the motorhome! Normally I would just plan on spending time dry camping somewhere, but with the Government shutdown going on indefinitely, I am worried about the closure of public land and increased demand for private campground so we just booked a full hookup site for the week. We can visit Mohave and Joshua Tree areas from there, plus the Lake Havasu/Bullhead area.
So in summary, lovely month at home, but we are ready to travel again.