On the Road to Texas - Part 4

Today was somewhat uneventful which is a good thing.  Tim has given you a pretty good describtion of the Fort Stockton and it's history.  Interesting fact that we are finding is that most of the RV parks that we have spent the night in AZ, NM, and TX are already filling up with "Snowbirds" flying home for the winter.  So far, I will give a "thumbs up" for the TX residents, nice, polite and very helpful.

As far as traveling goes we only have 6 hours tomorrow and 4 hours Thursday and then we will be in Highland (suburb of Houston) and I don't think any of us could wait another minute!

Fort Stockton, TX

Is located in Pecos County.  Camp Stockton grew up as Comanche Springs.  Once housed the famous 9th Cavalry known as the Buffalo Soldiers.  About 87% of all soldiers at Ft. Stockton from 1867 to 1886 were Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th & 10 Cavalry Regiments and the 41st, 24th & 25th Infantry regiments.  Surmounting obstacles of harsh living conditions, low pay & racial prejudice they gained a reputation for tenacity and bravery.  Stationed continously on the frontier during the years of indian hostility, black regiments played a major role in the settlement & development of America's western frontieer.

On the Road to Texas - Part 3

Buenas Noches, esta tarde llegamos a El Paso, Texas!

I guess my high school Spanish teacher would be proud that I remembered something that was taught in class.  Most of you realize that this is Nj writing tonight as the only thing Tim studied in high school was baseball and girls.

You always know when you enter a community that has a Latin influence because the restaurant signs all say, "Try our muendo, it's the best."  Funny thing is I like muendo especially as a cure for a hangover.

So, we just completed day 3 on the US 10 and for those of you that have traveled it you know that the only scenery is desert, desert and more desert.  Unfortunately neither Tim or I are "desert people" but I have to give them that they do have gorgeous sunsets and beautiful evenings.

Well, our luck didn't hold.  We were in the truck 5 minutes when Harpo upchucked his breakfast then a 1/2 hour later he jumped into the litter box.  Fortunately he only had to do #1 this time.  One thing I did laugh at today were all the signs warning of "blowing sand" which is on the same level of Maine's "blowing snow" so I guess we all have our problems with "blowing."

I snapped this picture of Sadie (10 y old) sleeping in the back seat with Jackson.  Sadie is usually the one who looks out the window a great deal of the time while we are traveling.  But I think even she was bored with the desert. 

Only 2.5 more days and we will be in the Houston area where there are real trees and even the gulf.   It seems funny that now we are in Texas but we completed only 50% of the trip.  Really looking forward to getting there and I think the critters would agree.

On the Road to Texas - Part 2

Today was a total opposite of yesterday.  Neither cat dropped a load in the litter box, Harpo didn't vomit and I managed to keep my other 9 fingers out of harm's way.  I can't say that we enjoyed the ride much  as once again we were entertained only by the desert and high temperatures.  We did manage to across the state of AZ landing in Benton near the New Mexico border.  Tomorrow's goal is El Paso.  I can smell Tex-Mex already!

This morning I took this picture of "His Royal Highness Harpo" sleeping on his "throne" (aka the console) between the front seats.  By the smile on his face he was having a great dream - I wonder what 17 yr old cats dream about?

We can only hope that tomorrow will be as a calm as today.  Oh I forgot to mention the train.  It seems to go by this RV park about every 2 hours and I would bet it goes all night.  Oh well you can't have everything.

On the Road to Texas - Part I

Although it was a gray foggy morning we both felt really excited to be on the road again especially since we were getting off on time, 7am.  However, before we were less than a block away from Chris' home Harpo jumped into the litter box which is on the floor area between the two seats.  Please keep in mind that litter box has been there since May and neither cat has ever looked at it  so we were quite surprised by his action.  Then within a few seconds we were all hanging our heads out the windows  as only a 17 year old cat can do dropped a huge load.  Tim and I laughed and both said at least it was Harpo because he covers his poop where Jackson with only one eye had depth perception problems and never gets it covered.

Then Harpo jumps back to the console between the front seats and lays down.  We are now two blocks from our start and he starts to vomit up his breakfast.  Great!  What else is going to happen?  Ok, so the time we get to Kimble Rd I'm cleaning him up and everything looks good.

Within 5 minutes Jackson jumps down into the litter box, again the one he has never paid any attention to it.  So not to be outdone by Harpo's success he does another big dump.  Remember though he can't see where to cover it so he goes through a long ritual of throwing sand to no avail.  So, while Tim is still trying to drive I'm trying to throw sand over dump #2 from the front seat.  Finally I succeed and we continue on.

N as we are going through Camarillo via the 101s I hear one of the back windows start to go down and realize that Jackson is standing on the down part of the window switch.  I yell at the cat and Tim says don't worry he just stood on it and it didn't go down.  So, not being to smart I try to reach the top of the window to check.  Now the only way I know to check if a window has gone down is to stick a finger at the top of window.  As I do that Tim closes the "closed" window on the end of my finger.  Needless to say I screamed and thankfully he instantly put the window down.

Good news is that my finger was turned on an angle so only 1/3 of it was smashed.  Hurt like hell, though.  That part is purple but I don't think I will lose my nail.

Believe or not the rest of the trip to Quartzsite was  very uneventful.  Gee, I wonder what will happen tomorrow?

Tammy & her girls

As mentioned in the previous post this is a picture of our daughter Tammy and her pups.  Lola the mini doxie is 3 years old and Dolly the Boston is just 6 months old.  Both are great dogs and we actually thought of "dog-napping" them at one point,

Saying goodby to the So. CA Coast

Well, all good things must come to an end at some point.  We will definitely miss our daughter Tammy, Robin, and the "girls."  We spent the last evening walking on the beach and NJ managed to take a few pictures for everyone to enjoy.  #1 is Tammy standing a flag "Pink Piranas" someone made and left on the beach.  #2 Sunset looking towards Santa Cruz Island with a dot of light in front of it which is an off shore oil drilling rig.  #3  Taken underneath the pier.  #4 Looking down on the 101 which even with four lanes and it is 8pm is always busy.  #5 shows the Ventura Pier at sunset with "Old Glory" waving in the ocean breeze.