Tippy and I with my Mom and my sister Penny

Rolled Prime Rib - Delicious!!!

Christmas Dinner at the Ranch

Stu & Mike at the Blackstone C.C.in Peoria, AZ

Well let me see......

When I last posted, over two months ago, we were on our way to Las Vegas to see my mom and some friends. I don't know what happened after we left Las Cruces but I obviously lost my way to the Blog. I won't try to re-construct all of the last two months but I will hit some of the highlights.

First of all our trip from home to Las Vegas was uneventful. We had great weather and reasonably short travel days. Our first trip over the new bridge at Hoover dam almost went un-noticed. The side walls are pretty high and they request that motorhomes, and trucks, use the left lane so we were a lane away from the wall and couldn't see a thing, not even the dam which was almost right under us. We had a good time visiting my mom and my sister penny and her family. Tippy got to see several of her friends and catch up on all that has been going on in Las Vegas.

We left Las Vegas on the 15th and drove to Surprise, AZ where we stayed for six weeks. Our friends Mike & Patty Diehl live there and our friends Walt & Jeri Karpinski came to stay for four months. In addition we many several nice couples that were friends of Mike & Patty that we will probably see again in lebanon, OR this summer. We had hoped to have six weeks of sun and warm temperatures but the weather man had other plans for us. We had several freezing days and nights and quite a bit of cold weather to go along with some very days. Unfortunately we had some trouble with our heater/AC unit and had to have a compressor and both blower motors replaced. The real bad part was that they had to drop the entire unit out of the motorhome and the final cost was over $2K. Fortunately we also have a propane heater in the coach so we didn't get cold at night.

We left for home on February 1st and drove to Benson, AZ, less than two hundred miles from Surprise. We stayed overnight there and tried to stay another night but they were full so we headed for Las Cruces. The trip there was just fine with light winds, no snow, but cold temps. We had filled our fresh water tank in Benson, fortunately, since all of the water in the park was frozen. The temperature got to -1 degree the first night in Las Cruces and we awoke to a coach that was frozen solid. No running water anywhere. The next day was a little warmer but our water intake was on the side in the shade so it was slow to thaw. I put a small electric heater in the bay where the water lines were and left it for several hours. Later in the evening the water started to run which made us very happy!

The next day, the 4th, we drove to Fort Stockton, TX. I was concerned about the drive through El Paso because they had a lot of snow and bad roads the day before. As it turned out the roads were great and, apparently due to the cold, the traffic was very light so we were able to breeze through town without any difficulties. It was projected to be cold in Fort Stockton so we filled the fresh water tank again and unhooked the hose so it wouldn't freeze. In the morning the water was fine and we packed up and headed to Kerrville, TX.

Our Alfa RV Club is having a rally in Kerrville in March and Tippy and I are the Wagon Masters for the event. That means we have to do the planning and organizing for the weekends events, actually starting on Wednesday. There is golf one day, usually on Thursday, a dinner on Thursday evening - Tippy will do a pasta dinner with her home made meat sauce - breakfast on Friday and Saturday. a potluck on Friday evening, and out to dinner on Saturday for Mexican food at Mamacita's. On Sunday morning they have a short inspirational session and most folks then head for home.

We drove home on the 7th and I feel like I have been catching up ever since. Fortunately our neighbors did a great job taking care of our home and we didn't have any issues related to the cold weather they had while we were gone. We are now home and relaxed and enjoying the peace and quiet that we have here on the lake. Tippy and I sat out a while last evening to watch the sunset and use our new patio heater. The sunset was spectacular and the heater worked perfectly! It allowed us to enjoy the evening that otherwise would have been too cold to sit out, even with the fire pit.

Our next outing will be back to Kerrville for the rally in March and then to the metroplex the following weekend to have a birthday celebration - David, Cole, and I all have birthdays this month. After that we are pretty much home until the next rally in early May and then in June we will be off on our summer trip. I will try to do a better job of keeping up with our travels in the future but the last time I asked for feedback from readers of our Blog the response was under-welming. But, for those of you that follow the Blog I will try to do better. Alex wants to go out so I will sign off for now. Be safe.


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