And we are traveling again!

Between Christmas and the New Year we cleaned the house, put up the Christmas decorations, and tried not to bring too much “stuff”. We left Iowa on New Year’s Day, headed to Yukon, OK to pick up the coach. Everything we well. The motorhome refrigerator worked just fine, and the “penny on a cup of ice” was still on top of the ice when we got there. I do love solar! We spent the evening setting up in a rather boring campground (Mustang Run in Yukon) and putting away all the stuff we brought with us. We spent the next few days just stocking the refrigerator, trying to remember how everything worked (how could we have forgotten so much in 7 weeks?), seeing family, and doing some preventative maintenance. I didn’t take a picture of the campground because it was so boring. Nice long, flat spots with a picnic table, but no trees, no playground, and right next to busy I-40. The traffic was so loud and so continuous that it actually became white noise and didn’t bother us at all trying to sleep. It was convenient for what we needed though, so we will probably stay here again if needed.

Today we drove to Abilene, TX, spending the night in the KOA. It is actually fairly nice. It is next to the highway, but there are enough barriers that the noise isn’t bothersome at all. The campground has lots of long term residents, probably associated with the local oil industry based on the trucks parked in front of the trailers and fifth wheels. Housing is a real issue in the oil fields, and the ones living here are definitely luckier than many. The campground even has some trees and good spacing between the sites.

Long sites plus the mistletoe-garnished trees

We did a huge grocery shopping trip today since we are headed to the Big Bend area tomorrow. We have 350 miles to get to Stillwell Store and RV Park on the east side of Big Bend National Park. We will stay there until we head to our park reservation later in the week. I don’t know when I will have data service, but I will have pictures ready for when I do.

Home again

No pictures for this post. We spent Tuesday night in Albuquerque at the American RV Park. Nice place, but close to the highway. Luckily it was more of a continuous hum rather than intermittent jake brakes. Wednesday we headed rest of the way across New Mexico and all of Texas. It was long enough that Kevin got to drive some, a rare thing. We ended up at a tiny RV park 1 mile into Oklahoma called Double D. It was a very inexpensive park since we used our Passport America membership to get it half off. Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it. There were maybe 2 spots that had the trees trimmed back enough for us, and they were having water problems so only an electrical hookup was available. It would be fine for most travel trailers or small motorhomes.

We got up early and headed to Yukon, a suburb of Oklahoma City. Maverick Run RV Park is quite nice with roomy sites and clear views. It was quite empty this time of year, but I understand it is really busy in the warmer parts of the year. We spent a full day getting the motorhome ready to go into storage. We are going to live dangerously and keep the refrigerator turned on, hoping the solar keeps the batteries charged enough. That mean cleaning out everything that wasn’t sealed, just in case. Kevin cleaned the tanks as well as he could, and I got the last 4 loads of laundry done. I even got the sheets and towels all washed! It will be nice to come back to a clean place.

Both of us were excited to head home, and we were up early on Saturday. Kevin and I winterized the motorhome, dropped it in the storage lot, and headed on the 600 mile trip to Iowa by a little after 9:00 am. We made it home around 8:00 pm The house seems huge, and Lily seemed quite impressed. She kept running up and down stairs, playing with the stuffed mice Kevin gave her. The housekeeper had come on Friday, and the place is as spotless as she usually leaves it. I doubt it will stay that way long!

So far we have gone through 4 months of mail (!), renewed car and utility trailer tags, had dinner with our oldest son and his family, lunch with the second son and daughter, and talked to our third son. I also picked up more allergy drops and got my Viking sewing machine looked at. Oh, and I had a birthday with a lovely dinner! Now I am in the midst of planning Thanksgiving dinner (planned for Wednesday) along with practicing for our church choir concert in a few weeks. Enough to keep busy, for sure!