Hello from Evergreen, CO

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Tuesday morning   January 24, 2012   (fourth travelogue of this trip).

Before we get started, I did “wash” the last post by pasting my word processing work in a text editor and then pasting the text editor document in the blog.  It did seem to solve the word spacing problem.  Not a big effort, I just have to remember to do it.

In our last post, I talked about leaving San Antonio on Sunday and taking a leisurely drive home.  Well, that did not happen.  Sunday our GPS program took us on a route that had very few towns with reasonable hotel options.   We finally made a course change in Paducah, TX and headed west so that we could connect with I 27.  We ended up stopping in Plainview, TX at a Holiday Inn Express.  That put us a bit less than half way home (about 450 miles that day).  We ended up crashing after having a great Mexican dinner at a local restaurant.

Monday we left the hotel about 8:00 AM and arrived in Raton, NM about noon (with one hour time change).  The weather was great, but there were some indications that it would snow today (hasn't really started).  We ate lunch and made the decision to drive the rest of the way home on Monday.

We really could not have asked for better traveling weather on Monday.  The same could not be said of Sunday.  We fought terrible high winds most of the day.  At times we could not see more than 100 feet in front of us due to blowing dust. 

We had noted that our route on US 87 in NM took us through Des Moines.  We had hoped to have lunch there to say that we had spent some time in Des Moines, NM.  Turns out the town is very small and like most of the towns in the area, it is slowly becoming a ghost town.

The vast amounts of blowing dust conjured up pictures of the terrible “Dust Bowl” that took occurred in the 1930's.  While the terrible dust bowl conditions existed in a large area of the US and some of Canada, the major impact was on the Oklahoma and Texas panhandle area – right were we were. 

There are lots of good reference on this terrible period.  Here it the Wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

I have often wanted to read John Steinbeck's “The Grapes of Wrath”.  The  excerpts I have seen suggest he vividly portrayed the tragedy and suffering of that era.  What we saw was very scary.  The farmers had really tilled the soil to the point is was very finely divided.  That coupled with the terrible drought they have suffered the past couple of years make you wonder if the conditions might be conducive to a repeat.

We do not have any plans for travel until May.  You never know when that will change.  As a result, our posts will not be frequent for the next few months.  You can check in once in a while or sign up for the email option.

That is all for now.

Hello again from San Antonio, TX

Hello again from San Antonio, TX

Saturday evening   January 21, 2012   (third travelogue of this trip).

First, I would like to acknowledge that some of you get these blogs via email.  Those email versions have a word spacing problem (often, several words are run together).  The word spacing looks fine on the Internet version of the blog.  It looks like “Word” type programs contribute to the problem.  I type this blog in an “Open Source” version of Word, and then paste it into the blog.  I will try an intermediate step of pasting it in a basic text edit program to see if I can “wash” some of the control characters that may be causing the problem.

Now, back to our normally scheduled program.  Thursday I traveled west on I 10 to Boerne, TX to finish a fire suppression system installation.  The customer wanted to install a second system triggered by a “safety switch”.  I had done some of the installation on the system when we worked on the coach in CO in September.  It took all day to finish the install, but I took my time and “spruced up” the original install.    The weather was in the high 70s and sunny.  That made the install pretty pleasant.

Yesterday it was cool and very overcast.  It was foggy most of the day and it seemed to me to be a misting rain, although the weather folks did not report that.  By afternoon, it cleared up a bit.  I took a long walk on the River Walk.  It really goes on for many miles.  Our hotel is on a “U” shaped channel of the river.  I walked about a mile to the main river.  The River Walk is lined with all kinds of restaurants, including many well known chains.  There are also many large hotels on the River Walk. 
All of the River Walk is located below ground level.  Both sides of the river have walking paths and wonderful landscaping.  It is just plain beautiful.

Just down from our hotel on a branch of the River Walk is the River Center Mall.  It is as large as any mall in the Denver area with dozens of stores, including many well know chains.  It also has a fairly large food court that has served our food needs many times this week. 

I have been enjoying my quiet time during this trip.  I had a bunch of computer email digests to read, did a bit of tax record preparation, and generally just goofed off.  To top it all off, the Barrett-Jackson multi-day classic car auction has been on the Speed channel several hours each day.  They are selling over 1300 vehicles this year – many for over $100,000, some for much more.  They even have a fantasy bid contest that I have been playing with.  Update:  we just came back from dinner and they were auctioning off a '48 Tucker and it went for $2,650,000!!

Last night Pat and I, along with one of her downline, went to eat at Luciano's on the River Walk.  It was a great Italian restaurant.  They had great Crème Brulee that Pat had scoped out a couple of days ago {grin}. 

Pat's Leadership Convention ended yesterday.  Obviously, she had a ball.  Today is a lower-key regional convention.  As usual she thoroughly enjoyed both of the events.

Tomorrow we will start home.  We will probably take a leisurely 3 days to drive the 1000 miles.  Looks like we could hit some snow.

That is all for now.

Hello from San Antonio, TX

Wednesday afternoon January 18, 2012 (second travelogue of this trip).

Monday we drove from Dumas, TX to San Angelo, TX – about 370 miles. We again stayed at a Hampton Inn (this chain has become a favorite of ours). Tuesday we drove a bit over 200 miles and got to San Antonio about noon. That gave us the afternoon to walk around the area.

Our hotel room overlooks the famous River Walk. River Walk is described on one website as follows:

The San Antonio River Walk is a public park, open 365 days a year. It is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath approximately 5 miles of downtown San Antonio.  Lined by bars, shops and restaurants, the River Walk is an important part of the city's urban fabric and a tourist attraction in its own right.

The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks, lined with restaurants, shops, hotels and more. It connects the major tourist draws from the Alamo to Rivercenter Mall,  Arneson River Theatre and La Villita,  the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Pearl Brewery.

The photos below show the River Walk. Since it is January, the trees are not leafed out, but it is still beautiful and peaceful.

View of the River Walk from our balcony

View of our hotel from the RiverWalk

Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees and we ate lunch at an outside table beside the river. It was gorgeous. There are many signs asking you not to feed the birds and other animals. Obviously folks have ignored the signs, as a couple of beautiful ducks walked right up to us and waited for us to offer part of our lunch (we obeyed the signs).

After lunch, we walked to the Alamo. It is well restored, but not at all what we pictured. It is not a fort as most folks think. It started as a mission in the 1700s and slowly changed so that it had a military basis including a hospital. The grounds are well kept with beautiful trees, shrubbery, and flowers. It is only a couple of blocks from the hotel and right in the middle of downtown San Antonio.

Pat's activities started today, but we were able to get away for lunch. She has her Manager's Reception tonight, so I will have to have pizza and beer on the River {grin}.

Tomorrow I will travel about 30 miles back up I 10 to finish installing a special auxiliary fire suppression system on a customer's motorhome.

That is all for now.

Hello from Dumas, TX

Hello from Dumas, TX

Sunday evening January 15, 2012 (First travelogue of this trip).

Well, it has been a long stretch since I last posted. As I have mentioned many times, most of the posts in this blog detail our travels. We have not traveled much in the past few months.

We did make a short trip to Dillon, CO between Christmas and New Years. We stayed two nights at our daughter Kelly's family's townhouse. They have a wonderful arrangement for their place. It is leased year round by Climax Molybdenum (not sure that is their name today). They house selected employee families there while the employee looks for permanent housing or finishes a temporary assignment. For the last two years, the unit was vacant during the holidays. So, they get to use their great townhouse and still collect rent!

We were surprised at how little snow Dillon had. Last year, they had a huge amount by Christmas. We had planned a lot of activities, but ended up just being lazy and enjoying ourselves.

Now, let's talk about this trip. Pat has a Stampin'Up convention in San Antonio and I have an installation to finish up in the same area. We are traveling in the PT Cruiser. I had hoped to get the Durango engine back in and broken in, but it is taking a lot longer than I had hoped.

We left Denver early this morning and had a pretty uneventful drive – avoiding any bad weather. We drove south on I 25 to Raton, NM and then traveled on US 87 to Dumas. I had forgotten that US 87 is a pretty good road. They are finishing up making it a four lane highway. The construction was not bad and the traffic was very sparse.

We watched the outside temperature climb to almost 70 degrees. With the sun load, we had to run the air conditioner for a while. We arrived at the Hampton Inn mid-afternoon.

We drove just short of 400 miles today and have about 550 miles to go. We will make one more stop before we arrive in San Antonio.

That is all for now.