On the road again

 Greetings everyone!

It's hard to believe that it's been 5 months since I sat down and updated the blog,    It's not that there's been nothing to write about....   There just does not seem to be the time to get it done.

This post will be a real quick catchup to the current day.

We are currently on the road headed to NY to meet a jet that will take us to Paris, but before I get ahead of myself, let me digress a bit.

After our summer traveling thru the Maritimes, we arrived back in Az in Mid-October.

 

It was time to get caught up on all the annual duties like physicals, dentists, car and bus services etc.

Kate also had cateract surgery on both eyes and had new lenses installed.   Her eyesight is now bionic and he no longer needs glasses.

Before we knew it January had arrived and we were off to Quartzsite.

This year was a bit quieter than usual.  Buddies Rob & Pat could not make it this year and their energy was missed.    We did have an addition to the group however.    The young nomads Chris & Morgan who are full-timing arrived with their Airstream.

We had 6 or 7 dogs at times when everyone was together.

Someone had hit C&M's truck in Austin, Tx so we agreed that Tucson would be a good place to get it repaired.    They stayed with us for a month while that was going on, and when we left last Friday they were still there.   They'll close up the house when they go.

I did get a new flat starlink dish and mounted it up on the roof with a magnetic mount.   Its been working great going down the road and now setting it up on arrival is one less thing I need to do.

We took C&M to a few of the local sights.   Saguaro National Park nearby was one day trip.

Phoebe jumps for joy at the prospect of getting her teeth brushed

We also got to see a couple of Starlink launches from Vandenburg AFB.

We left the house on Friday March 7 for our treck across the US to Albany, NY.

True our usual departure day luck, we left in rain...  then very high winds....  then snow.

Once the snow stopped we were then treated to a series of dust storms in New Mexico.

3 of which had the highway closed for varying lengths of time.

Approaching a dust storm

Highway shut down for about 45 minutes

Further down the road I-10 was closed and traffic was routed into Lordsburg.   The directions sent us thru town on the business route and everyone assumed we'd get back on at the far end of town 5 miles further on.      The problem was that an oversize load had wiped out the overpass that we needed to cross to get back on.   No police were present to direct traffic or let us know what was going on.

Everybody was making circles in town trying to figure out what to do as the town began to fill up with vehicles.    After a circle of town and 45 minutes, I heard on the CB that eastboud was not open, so I headed for the entrance at the middle of town and we once again resumed our ever lengthening trip.

The overpass on left side is toast

This large back end loader hit the bridge and came off of its flat-bed

Just when we thought we finally had smooth sailing, another dust storm hit around Deming, NM.

Once again we were detoured off of the highway onto the business route thru town.   All the entrances were closed so the 7 mile business route became one long parking lot.   Not knowing how long it was going to last, we managed to grab one of the last spots left at a truck stop in case we had to spend the night.

Looking at the traffic backed up for 7 miles thru town

After another 2 hrs or so, the traffic began moving and we once again hit the road.   We finally made it to our stop for the night in Las Cruces.    What should have been a 4hr trip had taken 8 1/2hours.

Saturday was a 500 mile drive to Abilene, Tx.   Not to be outdone by the day before, although the weather was great, the computer system on the engine threw me an error code.    I was able to make it go away but it was something to keep an eye on.

Sunday another 500 miles to a really nice city owned park in Little Rock along the Arkansas River was a rainy drive an another recurrence of that error code.    I need to try and get this looked at.

Downtown Riverside RV Park

The park is right across the river from the Clinton Presidential Library and Park.

A pedestrian bridge takes you across the river to the Library.

Riparian walkway in the adjoining park

The dogs posed in front of the library.   They are sitting on the top of a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years.

Kate is standing on this cool rubberized walkway.   It was amazing to walk on.   Very comfortable.

I think these electric scooters were free to use.   I'm not sure how it works.

We are now in Red Bay, Alabama where the bus was built.   We have a few appointments here for some minor preventative maintenance items, plus I was able to score an 1130 appointment on Thursday at Bay Diesel to have my error code looked at.   Hopefully we'll stay on schedule and be out of here Friday morning.   I do have a few days padded into the schedule if needed, and we are scheduled to be in Albany next Weds the 19th.

Once we get there, I have the usual export stuff to do for the dogs and we will fly out of Newark on April 2nd to Paris.

Just an FYI - I have a facebook page that I've been posting quick updates to.   My buddy Hayden convinced me how much easier it is to do vs the blog.

I like the blog better for its flow and record keeping abilty, but for a quick update as to where we are the FB page is pretty easy.   You might want to check that out too.

It's going to be a great summer so stay tuned.