March 27, 2019

March 10, 2019

 Today Joyce and I visited the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center.  I believe that for most folks the late 1930’s and early 1940’s is a time that we don’t study very much.  Oh, most of us have seen Schindler's List, the Steven Spielberg film about that era.  Yes, we may have studied about World War II in school and maybe read some books about that time as well.  Well, if you visit this great museum you learn a lot more about one of the world's darkest times.  God help us if we allow this type of thing to happen again, especially in our country.

March 13, 2019

 As I write this we are still in the El Paso area.

 I had been watching the weather here and the forecasts were not good.  The National Weather Service was calling for winds 30-35 MPH with gusts up to as much as 60 MPH.  We were scheduled to leave yesterday and head up to Deming, NM.  Winds up there were supposed to be about the same but with gusts up to 70 MPH.

 With all that great news we decided to hunker down at Fort Bliss and wait for better weather.  We called the RV park in Deming and changed our reservation for Thursday.  Then we had to cancel our appointment to get the refrigerator looked at at a maintenance facility there.

 Since sleeping in our RV in high winds is not good, we made a reservation at the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino just north of El Paso In Sunland Park, NM.  As you can guess Joyce is a happy camper.

 Our plans now are to leave Fort Bliss in the morning and stop at a Walmart in Las Cruces, NM to have a RV technician look at the refrigerator.  If he can’t fix it right there he will get the necessary parts and come over to Deming, NM, our next stop. Looking at the service manual troubleshooting charts I think the problem is the control board.  However, since we had the modification done to help prevent fires with this model of Norcold refrigerators, there could be a problem there.  We’re just hoping the problem is simple and we can get back on schedule.

March 17, 2019

On Wednesday the 14th, while were in the Sunland Hotel our daughter Michelle called to tell us that her husband Harold Skidmore had passed away.  As you can imagine this was devastating news that Joyce and I never in a million years would have expected to get.

 After we got off the phone Joyce got on the internet and got us flight reservations out of San Antonio to Jacksonville, FL.  The reason to go back to San Antonio was due to the costs of flying out of El Paso.

 We left Fort Bliss and drove all day back to Hidden Valley RV Park where Mark and Terri put us up in one of their rental 5th wheel trailers and then had up over for a delicious smoked worked supper.

 Yesterday we again had to get up at o-dark-thirty for the drive to the airport to catch our Southwest Airlines flight to Jacksonville through Chicago Midway Airport.  Our son Justin picked us up there and we got to Saint Augustine about 6:30.  We will be here until next Saturday trying to do a our part to help Michelle and our grand children any way we can.

March 25, 2019

 We are now back at Fort Bliss, TX after the extremely exhausting trip to St. Augustine, FL.  I’m not going to go into a lot of details here but suffice it to say Joyce and I are physically and emotionally drained.

 Michelle and the kids are doing alright given the circumstances.  She has a huge support system there which has made this difficult time somewhat easier.  Please remember Michelle, Abigail and Skyler in your prayers.

March 27, 2019

 Larry’s RV Service came by the park to troubleshoot the refrigerator and quickly found the problem.  The cooling unit over heated causing one of the lines to rupture and leaking all the ammonia out of the unit.  I didn’t see this since the leak area was covered by insulation.  Thank God we had the emergency modification installed a couple of years ago.  If not for that unit Larry said it could have been a disaster.

Joyce and I discussed our options with Larry and we decided to install a residential unit.  We made some measurements being careful to insure there would be some room for air circulation.

 We drove to Lowe’s and Home Depot but didn’t find anything that would work for us.  We then went to Sear’s and found a nice machine that will fit in the opening and gives us the features we want.  We ordered it and it will be delivered to the store on Friday or Saturday.  Now we just have to find a way to pick it up.

 That is all the good news.  The bad news s that Larry is going to fly to Dallas, TX to visit his grand children and won’t be able to get to us until next Wednesday.  So, we get to hang around the beautiful city of Las Cruces a week or so.

 More later.

Barry & Joyce

March 10, 2019

March 2, 2019

 We left Hidden Valley yesterday morning about 10 AM and headed west on Hwy 90 toward Del Rio, TX.  We’re staying at the Southwinds Marina on Lake Amistad, the recreation area for Laughlin AFB.   Lake Amistad is huge and one of the best bass fisheries west of the Mississippi River.

 Things have really changed since the last time we were here in 2008.  They have installed all new electrical service and shelters at each site.  The office used to be a little snack bar where they sold sandwiches and drinks.  it’s now more of an office and not near as appealing.  But at $25 a night you can’t beat price in this part of Texas.

 This morning I did some checking on the weather in Alpine and Van Horn, our planned stops on the way to Fort Bliss in El Paso..  The temperatures are forecasted to drop down into the 20’s for our planned time there so we extended our stay here for two more days.

March 5, 2019

 A couple of days before we left San Antonio I crawled under our rig to lube the leveling jacks.  The next day I was feeling a little pain in my left rib area but took a couple of aspirins and went on about my business.  I was feeling much better up until yesterday morning when I bent over to pick up a piece of ice from the floor and the pain in my side came back with a vengeance.

 Since the pain was persisting Joyce recommended that we go have a doctor check me out.  The only urgent care here in Del Rio only has walk-ins in the early mornings so we went to the local emergency room.  After having some x-rays taken and a three hour wait to be seen, I actually cracked a rib.  So I‘ve got to take it easy for awhile and hopefully I will heal in a month or so.  These old bones aren’t as strong as they used to be.

March 8, 2019

 We left Del Rio about 9 AM on the 6th, jumped on Hwy 90 and headed west toward Alpine, TX.  A few months ago I tried to make a reservation in Big Bend National Park the day after they became available.  Wouldn’t you know it, everything that would work for us was already booked.  So, I went to Plan B.

 Plan B was to book an RV park outside the park but I quickly found out that they are way over-priced so I went to Plan C.

 Plan C was to book the BC Ranch RV Park in Alpine.  We pulled in there about 2 PM, got set up and Joyce made delicious chicken enchiladas for supper.

 There is a famous person that was born and raised in Alpine that some of y’all might know, Bill Baker who flew with the 7th MAS/ALS at Travis AFB, CA.  Bill called me and gave us some suggestions about what to see and do in the area.

 We got up early yesterday and drove down to Big Bend, one of the places that has been on my “bucket list” for many moons.  The drive from Alpine was about 100 miles but I can say it was more that worth the time on the road.

 After clearing through the gate we drove to the Panther Junction Visitor Center where we got information on what to do in the short time we had.  We then watched a great film about the history of the park and some of the highlights of what to see.

 On a recommendation by one of the rangers we decided to take the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.  Since this is the very beginning of spring she said that that drive would allow us to see the most wildflowers.

 Very shortly after starting down the road we started seeing a lot of Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower along with Desert marigold and some Desert willow.  The Yucca cactus plants were especially beautiful.  As we drove further along we stopped at several of the scenic lookouts.

 If you have not been to Big Bend, put it at the top of your bucket list.  Joyce and I highly recommend you go in the spring to get the best of what the park has to offer.

March 9, 2019

 We got up early this morning and left Van Horn about 8:30, which is very early for us.  But, Fort Bliss RV Park doesn’t take reservations so we wanted to get there early to hopefully get a site.

 The drive west on I-40 wasn’t too bad even with all the weekend traffic.  On the way Joyce called the RV park to check on their availability and was told they had three sites available.  When we pulled in to the park we took one of the last parking site available, a long and wide pull-through.

 That was the good news.  The bad?  Our refrigerator quit cooling during the night.  Since it was in AC mode, I switched it over to LP and still no workie-workie.  Why is it always when something goes wrong it’s on a either a weekend to a holiday?

 After getting setup in our site we drove over to the Post Exchange to get another ice chest so hopefully we can keep some of our stuff from going bad.  There’s a mobile RV repair business in the local area that we hope to have come out on Monday and get us running again.

That’s all folks.

Barry & Joyce