Sunday, Monday, Tuesday September 27, 28, 29,2015 Taking It Easy and getting home

Sunday -

Got up a little late and took care of the morning routine.  Then we had showers.  Next up:  Watching the Dallas Cowboy Football Game.  Dallas Lost.

We went out and visited with Steve's sister and then returned to the RV.  We walked the dogs in the park twice today.  They really enjoyed that.  

We got salads at Wendy's and returned to watch the finale of CSI and the end of the Denver Bronos game.

That about finishes this day.

We did watch the moon a little - but did not try to get pictures. 

Monday-

We left Amarillo by morning!  We stopped and got gas then headed east on I-40.  There was some construction, but little else of note.  We got to El Reno about 2:45 PM and set up.  We notified Kristi and the kids we were at El Reno Lake and they picked us up for supper.  We ate at Abuelo's in Yukon for supper.  The food was great!

We saw Kristi's new apartment and came back to the RV so the dogs could get their children fix.  Then we watched some football and NCIS.

Bed next!

Tuesday - 

We got up and unhooked the utilities and headed home.  After arriving in Perry, we unhooked the pickup and drove home.  Steve had to get ontop of huge RV and take the satellite dish off because it won't fit under the RV port.  This took awhile, and it was hot, of course.  We stayed gone almost 6 months and it is still hot at home!  We got the essentials out of the RVs and took it easy for awhile.

Friday, September 25, 2015 Camping World & Refrigerator

We got up at 6:30 AM - very early for us!  We got the dogs walked, had some breakfast and tucked away the slides & jacks.  

We got a picture of this van that was parked right next to us before we left!  They did not look like hippies- they looked too young, about 40ish and too clean cut for hippies!  

Then we disconnected the utilities and drove over to Camping World. They did not want us to make an appointment, just show up at 8:00 AM.  So we did and still had to wait for them to write up the service order. Anyway they took the RV back about 9:00 AM - by 11:00 AM we had not heard a thing.  So I went in and talked to the guy - they had done something to the board and the refrigerator was cooling - but they did not know how long it would take to get it to operating temperature to see if it needed a cooling unit.  I told him, if it needed a new cooling unit - we would probably just replace the whole refrigerator - and if it did - we would do that in Oklahoma.  So he said he would finish the paperwork and get us out.  Great!  It cost us $99.50 and we left about noon.

Therefore a late start on driving.  

We headed east on I-40 and by the time we got to Tucumcari, NM - we were tired from the early morning and the waiting around so we stopped and got a spot for the night.  We stayed in a Passport America park for $19.25 and it was an East Indian lady who checked us in.  I guess they have the convenience stores, motels, and now RV Parks!  She was nice and showed us to the spot and told us a great place to eat.

The refrigerator seems to be working!  Yea! It cooled down from 70 degrees to less than 60 degrees - so we will watch it.  By later in the evening it was at 50 degrees and so I put our drinks in it to cool down.

We ate at Del's Restaurant, which has been in business since 1934.  The food was very good.  Then we returned to the RV, walked the dogs a couple of times and watched TV.

This was across the street from the restaurant where we ate.

Saturday, September 26, 2015 Heading East Again

This was a motel (or apartments) at one time. I wondered if me and my family stayed here on our trip when I was 12?  Inside this open area was where the RV park was located. Cactus RV Park. Not sure we would stay here again-maybe. The old motel had definitely seen better times!

Well we slept in this morning. Athough I did the hear the deisel engine of the RV next to us start about 8 AM - thanks, neighbor. But it didn't bother me too bad, cause I went back to sleep.  Then did the usual morning routine.  We had a decent place to walk the dogs - so they got a longer walk yesterday and today.  Nice.

Buster got up on the dash of the RV this morning -he looked so cute!  This is the first time on the trip he has done that!  Our Tazzy 2 used to do that, but Zoey has never tried and Buster didn't do it all this time until today!  Funny!

We headed toward Amarillo - about 100 miles away. 

 We got to Amarillo about 1:30.  We set up quickly and got the satellite antenna up and changed the local stations so I could watch OSU play football.

We watched the game and it was exciting.  OSU won!  Woo Hoo!  Pistols Firing!

We took the dogs for a nice walk at Thompson Park.  We are staying near it at Wonderland RV Park.  We have stayed here before, many years ago.  It has gone downhill a lot since then.  The roads around the RV park are Horrible!  You can only drive about 2-3 mph.  The site is not level and the front of the RV is still going downhill even though the jacks are up and we tried our best to get level.  Oh Well.

We ate at Schlotzky's and stopped by United to get a few groceries.  

We noticed the beautiful moon also!

Then just chillin in the RV!

Thursday, September 24, 2015 Short Drive

Today we slept in again.  About 9:00 when we got up.  We debated about whether to move on or sit around for the day.  Finally I remember that I was going to call Camping World in Albuquerque to see if they could look at our RV Refrigerator. They said we could be placed on the list to look at it Friday - try to get there by 8:00 AM.  OK, we decided to pack up and move to Albuquerque.  We can still move fast if needed.  

I got a reservation at Enchanted Trails, since it is right next door to Camping World.  We hit the road about 11:00 AM and had a fairly easy drive.

We got settled in and walked the dogs some and had a little lunch.

Next we had a nap!

Later we unhooked the pickup and went a got supper.

After that it was time to watch some football and do a little banking.  I also did a jigsaw puzzle on the iPad.  I have been enjoying doing them this summer.  

Not too exciting!  I talked to Marsha and Pam today, they are good. 

We have some vintage cars and camping trailers here.

Wednesday, Sept 23, 2015 On the Road Again

Steve woke up early -about 5:30, because Zoey needed a drink of water.  So he stayed up, he was pretty sore.  I got up about 7:00 AM and we decided to call the other Mobil Repair guy we had looked up.  He was very agreeable to doing the work and said he would be at the RV in 45 minutes.  He was right on time!

The dogs and I sat in the pickup -so they would be quiet and let the man work.  Steve thought one of the pulleys was bad also, so he replaced that.  Everything went good.

We went and put gas in the RV before hooking up the pickup because all the gas stations looked difficult to get in and out of --tight.

Back to the pickup and we hooked up and started heading south.  Again the day was very nice, cool about 70 degrees and light wind.  Great driving day.  

We went through Shiprock, then Farmington.

We drove down New Mexico Highway 371.  It was a pretty rough and bumpy road with very little traffic.  We some some pretty and interesting sites.

We stopped at Grants, New Mexico- Lavaland RV Park - started to stop at Blue Spruce RV Park - but the sites were way too close together.  This site was $25.00 plus tax per night, some of the least expensive we have had on this return trip.  The RV sites in Utah average about $40.00 per night.  They are really proud of them.  Utah is beautiful, but expensive.

We really were glad to leave Moab - it was just too packed with tourists. 

Anyway we are glad to be settled down for the night.  This place is making improvements and we had a good place to walk the dogs.  You do have to watch out for goatheads and red ants though.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

We got up in pretty good time.  We got around and filled the RV up at the gas station before we hooked the pickup to it. 

 We were off to a good start.  The weather was cool and overcast a nice travel day.  We were happier with our site at this RV Park (Spanish Trails RV Park - Moab, UT), but it was crowded and many people kept their dogs outside the RV without being on a leash.  With our two crazy dogs this can be quite a challenge. 

We continued to see pretty sites on our route. 

Hole in the Rock

Wilson's Arch

The scenery can change within a few miles. Sometimes this is amazing.

Then we crossed into Colorado!

Still a very nice travel day and it was cool. We arrived at Cortez, CO and went to Walmart to get my medication from the pharmacy.  I had called it in on Monday, so there were no problems picking it up.  Then we got a sandwich at Subway in Walmart and picked up some groceries.  We got back in the RV and started to head south out of town. We heard a strange noise, I thought that we had just ran over the rumble strip.  Soon though, Steve lost power steering and could barely steer.  Luckily we were right near a huge parking lot in front of Redburn Tire Company and the Antique Corral.  We were right near the south edge of Cortez.  Steve got it steered in and found out it was the serpentine belt.  

We went in and talked to the tire shop guys- and told him we would need to park there for awhile, he said no problem.  He even gave us the number of a mobil repair guy.

We called him and he didn't seem too interested in fixing it, so Steve started to work on it.  First of all we had to go to the part store to get some allen wrenches to get the doghouse cover off.  A real pain! We searched the internet on my phone for the correct belt and along with a few trips to Napa and Car Quest we finally got the right belt. Steve worked hard but could not get the belt on right, since we could not find a diagram.  Finally he wore himself out and we went to Sonic and got a burger.

What a rough ending.  But we were fortunate that it happened where it did.  We considered ourselves very lucky.

Monday, September 21, 2015 Relax

OK today we slept in again.  But we changed the sheets on the bed and I am catching up the blog.  In addition, I called the Walmart in Cortez, CO to order my meds.  Oh and we also returned to Arches National Park to get T-shirts.  We got the one that says:Utah Rocks.  It shows all 5 National Parks in Utah that we have seen!  Woo Hoo.

We will do some preparation to get back on the road tomorrow.  Headed to Cortez CO, then Albuquerque, Amarillo, El Reno then Home.

We plan to watch Monday Night Football! 

Sunday, September 20, 2015 Canyonlands National Park

Well this morning we did not hurry, we just took our time.  When we got around off we went.  I drove again in order for Steve to take pictures and relax. 

We got to Canyonlands and it is out in the middle of nowhere!  Actually all of Utah is sparsely populated and huge!  But it has some magnificent scenery!  

So again, the viewpoints are very busy, but we got to pull in and shoot some pictures.  We checked out quite a few of the viewpoints.  I am amazed at the number of people who are still out sightseeing!

In Canyonlands, the Colorado and Green River meet/join.  

At one of the stops a huge tour bus was trying to back out, so I was nice and kept traffic behind me so he could back up.  About two viewpoints later, this big white bus pulled in behind us making a funny musical noise.  We had been trying to get to some spot to walk our dogs just a bit--no such luck.

So we finished and went out the gate of the park.  We came upon a BLM viewpoint and got the dogs out and walked them. Zoey got some catus needles in her foot and nose.  She was not a good patient for us to remove them. Also Steve got a little short of breath and too hot.  So we headed back to the RV and watched the Dallas Cowboys win their game!  Next we watched Green Bay win their game also.

We ordered pizza for supper and that finished the day!