After 2 months of delaying our departure from Rockport, we finally wound up the hose on the 17th of April and left for a day with our great friends Larry and Lea Chrestman in San Antonio. They just beat us to Hidden Valley RV park where we all used our Passport America cards for one night in door to door sites. Larry took us all in to "the Alamo" for a tour. The trees and flowers were all in bloom and it was so pretty. I'm not usually one to go to battle grounds. The energy in so many of those places feels awful, but the energy has cleared at the Alamo, and it was very enjoyable. The displays were very informative, and the building and grounds were in great shape after all this time. There is a donation box, but no formal admission fee, so that was nice.
A short 2 block walk took us to the River Walk, which we'd heard so much about, but mover seen. I had no idea! It was beautiful! Sculpted paths lined both sides of the river which flowed through a man made canal. Restaurants, shops and motels lined the shores along with beautiful landscaping - trees and flowers and shrubbery. A mama duck and her little ducklings swam along and birds flew through singing as they went. I would stop there again in a heartbeat. We had lunch at this silly cafe where the waitresses make fun with you and make you walk down to get your food from the other end of the table. What a riot. Everyone had a wonderful time. Cheese n crackers and a shot glass of Krupnik (compliments of our daughter Krystal and her boyfriend Kiff) finished off the evening. (Krupnik is a homemade Polish liquor that resembles mead and is made from vodka, honey and lots of wonderful spices. It's potent stuff! And delicious.)
Next morning we caravanned to Brownsfield, Texas where we all stayed in a little city park. This is Larry's hometown, and it's a very nice place. We went out to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner, and another little place with fantastic food for lunch the next day. Sorry, don't remember the names, but Lea can fill them in I bet. John and I stayed an extra day just to relax. Put on over 400 miles the day before. We got to meet some of Larry's family too, and they're a great bunch of people,
O the 20th we pulled out and headed for Taos. Nothing but oil fields as far as the eye can see for a long way- almost all the way to Roswell. Some barren but beautiful country. Roswell had the cheapest gas we'd seen in a long time; $1.53 a gallon for diesel. We had a headwind all the way, almost as if someone was saying, wait, no, don't go that way! A little foreshadowing there. From Roswell, we went up through Vaughn and on up to Santa Fe. The road signs in Texas had been so fantastic, never a question about where to go. New Mexico is different. A sign will come up with an arrow, but that doesn't mean you take the next left (or right) it just means that somewhere up ahead you'll be turning. It's a very laid back sort of system, and not extremely helpful. Thanks to the great road signs we got to see quite a bit of Santa Fe, housing, schools.... Just the places to be pulling an RV through, but we did finally get through and on up the mountain. Gee, it's getting kinda hard to breathe, you noticing it too John? And there's still a headwind. The mountains are beautiful, and .... Snow capped! Wow was a very common word as we continued on. We finally got to Taos about an hour before sunset then 5 miles East of town to our campground. Ken met us at the entrance and helped us fill up our tank with water as the campground water wasn't turned on yet. Been too cold. Hmmm. You short of breath too? Yup. Headache too. The campground was cute - small. Are you going to be able to get our rig in there? Where do we park the truck? The stream is really pretty. "That will be drying up in not too long" we're told. Oh. We're in a canyon that is breathtaking, and very dry. Next day we get a tour of the campground, following day. Start work. I'm nauseous, light headed,sucking air, but this will pass...Johns sucking air. The computer- has an "A" drive. The one next to it has directions on how to start it in "safe mode". Hmmm. We ordered open campground right away so we'd have some sort of registration system to work with. It gets better, but I'm not going there. I will say that the promised cell phone signal didn't exist.
After 3 days, I was scrambling to find us another job for the summer, between sucked in breaths and a mind that just didn't want to work real well. John was having a hard time breathing too - worse than me I think. OK, don't panic. John, I said don't panic! This will all work out fine. Did a quick update on our resume on workamper.com and checked the hotlist - I think that's what it's called. We needed something at a lower elevation and not to far away. Gas will eat up your checkbook. Hey, look at this, Meteor Crater Visitor Center. That's not too far from here, and it's paid! So made a quick phone call - oh, it's Sunday. Made up a site specific resume and got it sent out and low and behold, when I got done working the next day, I had an email waiting! We went into town to make a phone call, and decided Pizza Hut would be a wonderful idea. Food is always so relaxing. And, then phone rang, and it was Lanah from Meteor Crater. Ahhhh, see, everything will be just fine. Seems she needed us as much as we needed her.
So, John took the airport charter down to Albuquerque on Wednesday morning and flew into Green Bay for his mom's 98th birthday celebration. I went into the office and gave Ken the bad news. 6 days had passed, and I still was having problems breathing, light headed, massive headache and intestinal problems. I had told him from the start that I would do whatever I could to help, but that I wouldn't hurt myself in the process. I felt bad leaving like that, but really didn't have a choice. I worked that day and helped train Airen for a couple hours the next morning after hitching up the rig. Then I climbed in the truck, turned the key and all by my little lonesome with Sammy dog riding shotgun, I drove down the mountain.
As it turned out, we had quite a few offers. Many from our wonderful friends at Dworshak Dam in Idaho, but we just didn't want to go that far. We also got a note from Texas saying we could come back to our favorite park and work there for the summer, and we got an offer from Bryce Canyon (hmm, that might be interesting in the future) and one from a campground in Colorado. See, everything works out.
Pictures coming soon.
A short 2 block walk took us to the River Walk, which we'd heard so much about, but mover seen. I had no idea! It was beautiful! Sculpted paths lined both sides of the river which flowed through a man made canal. Restaurants, shops and motels lined the shores along with beautiful landscaping - trees and flowers and shrubbery. A mama duck and her little ducklings swam along and birds flew through singing as they went. I would stop there again in a heartbeat. We had lunch at this silly cafe where the waitresses make fun with you and make you walk down to get your food from the other end of the table. What a riot. Everyone had a wonderful time. Cheese n crackers and a shot glass of Krupnik (compliments of our daughter Krystal and her boyfriend Kiff) finished off the evening. (Krupnik is a homemade Polish liquor that resembles mead and is made from vodka, honey and lots of wonderful spices. It's potent stuff! And delicious.)
Next morning we caravanned to Brownsfield, Texas where we all stayed in a little city park. This is Larry's hometown, and it's a very nice place. We went out to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner, and another little place with fantastic food for lunch the next day. Sorry, don't remember the names, but Lea can fill them in I bet. John and I stayed an extra day just to relax. Put on over 400 miles the day before. We got to meet some of Larry's family too, and they're a great bunch of people,
O the 20th we pulled out and headed for Taos. Nothing but oil fields as far as the eye can see for a long way- almost all the way to Roswell. Some barren but beautiful country. Roswell had the cheapest gas we'd seen in a long time; $1.53 a gallon for diesel. We had a headwind all the way, almost as if someone was saying, wait, no, don't go that way! A little foreshadowing there. From Roswell, we went up through Vaughn and on up to Santa Fe. The road signs in Texas had been so fantastic, never a question about where to go. New Mexico is different. A sign will come up with an arrow, but that doesn't mean you take the next left (or right) it just means that somewhere up ahead you'll be turning. It's a very laid back sort of system, and not extremely helpful. Thanks to the great road signs we got to see quite a bit of Santa Fe, housing, schools.... Just the places to be pulling an RV through, but we did finally get through and on up the mountain. Gee, it's getting kinda hard to breathe, you noticing it too John? And there's still a headwind. The mountains are beautiful, and .... Snow capped! Wow was a very common word as we continued on. We finally got to Taos about an hour before sunset then 5 miles East of town to our campground. Ken met us at the entrance and helped us fill up our tank with water as the campground water wasn't turned on yet. Been too cold. Hmmm. You short of breath too? Yup. Headache too. The campground was cute - small. Are you going to be able to get our rig in there? Where do we park the truck? The stream is really pretty. "That will be drying up in not too long" we're told. Oh. We're in a canyon that is breathtaking, and very dry. Next day we get a tour of the campground, following day. Start work. I'm nauseous, light headed,sucking air, but this will pass...Johns sucking air. The computer- has an "A" drive. The one next to it has directions on how to start it in "safe mode". Hmmm. We ordered open campground right away so we'd have some sort of registration system to work with. It gets better, but I'm not going there. I will say that the promised cell phone signal didn't exist.
After 3 days, I was scrambling to find us another job for the summer, between sucked in breaths and a mind that just didn't want to work real well. John was having a hard time breathing too - worse than me I think. OK, don't panic. John, I said don't panic! This will all work out fine. Did a quick update on our resume on workamper.com and checked the hotlist - I think that's what it's called. We needed something at a lower elevation and not to far away. Gas will eat up your checkbook. Hey, look at this, Meteor Crater Visitor Center. That's not too far from here, and it's paid! So made a quick phone call - oh, it's Sunday. Made up a site specific resume and got it sent out and low and behold, when I got done working the next day, I had an email waiting! We went into town to make a phone call, and decided Pizza Hut would be a wonderful idea. Food is always so relaxing. And, then phone rang, and it was Lanah from Meteor Crater. Ahhhh, see, everything will be just fine. Seems she needed us as much as we needed her.
So, John took the airport charter down to Albuquerque on Wednesday morning and flew into Green Bay for his mom's 98th birthday celebration. I went into the office and gave Ken the bad news. 6 days had passed, and I still was having problems breathing, light headed, massive headache and intestinal problems. I had told him from the start that I would do whatever I could to help, but that I wouldn't hurt myself in the process. I felt bad leaving like that, but really didn't have a choice. I worked that day and helped train Airen for a couple hours the next morning after hitching up the rig. Then I climbed in the truck, turned the key and all by my little lonesome with Sammy dog riding shotgun, I drove down the mountain.
As it turned out, we had quite a few offers. Many from our wonderful friends at Dworshak Dam in Idaho, but we just didn't want to go that far. We also got a note from Texas saying we could come back to our favorite park and work there for the summer, and we got an offer from Bryce Canyon (hmm, that might be interesting in the future) and one from a campground in Colorado. See, everything works out.
Pictures coming soon.
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