Monday, December 7, 2015Happy Anniversary Sharon (41)

Brian showed up this morning right at 11 just like he promised.  After he left to find the parts, we took off also to do some shopping and to go to lunch.

Our first stop was at Barnes and Noble to find out why Sharon’s Nook wasn’t coming on anymore.  The counterman at B&N quickly diagnosed it as the cord.  He plugged a new cord into the device and it came right on.  It wasn’t working cause the battery was dead and the cord couldn’t charge it anymore.

Next stop was Best Buy to find another cord for our GPS.  The plug on the end disintegrated and made the GPS useless since it wouldn’t charge.  While I was in Best Buy Brian had called and said he’d have to order the Power Steering Pump since it was an aftermarket item.  We’d have to stay until Wednesday to wait for the part.  I couldn’t find a new cord at Best Buy so we just left and went to the China Star Restaurant for lunch.

We had been to the China Star on a few previous occasions and really enjoyed it.  It certainly didn’t disappoint us today.  The food was excellent just as always.

We came back home and watched TV for the rest of the afternoon.  We had a couple of good shows on tonight and we just relaxed and gazed at the tube until it was time for the lullaby and goodnight.  We had made it to 10:30 tonight.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

We were up this morning with a plan.  We would go to Golden Corral and have their Buffet Breakfast and be fueled up for the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, Golden Corral has decided to do the Buffet here on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  As we were pulling from their parking lot, Sharon spotted a Waffle House a block away.  We quickly diverted our attention and drove to the Waffle House.  Sharon quickly figured out that the restaurant allowed smoking.  Apparently if you have a separate section you can allow smoking in restaurants in Texas.  However, if you’ve ever been in a Waffle House you know there’s not enough room for a “separate section.”  We didn’t have that trouble when we went to Alabama a couple of years ago.   And Waffle House was one of our favorite places to eat.  The food was good this morning, so we have no complaint in that department.

We really didn’t have anything else to do today except go to GC for Breakfast and they disappointed us to say the least.  I guess being open during the week is an individual decision made by the restaurants themselves.

We got back home and Sharon told me we were out of water so I went outside and sat in my new rocker in the sun while the tank filled.  The temp was in the 60's for most of the day.

Later this afternoon Sharon made me feel guilty about the bugs on the windshield, so with a little coaxing we went outside and cleaned them off the glass and the front of the camper.

We had the remainder of our Turkey leftovers for Supper tonight.  We had Turkey and Gravy over Toast along with Dressing and Gravy and a little sauce made from whole cranberries.  It was quite good to say the least.  And the upshot is that the leftovers are finally gone.

We assumed our usual positions in front of the TV for the rest of the night until we caved around 11 o’clock.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

We’re here for another day since Brian, our mechanic, found a leaking rusted brake line and the line was not in stock and had to be special ordered.  We sat around for most of the morning trying to find a Wal-Mart that was next on the agenda.

With our GPS on the fritz because of a faulty cord I searched the web for a new one.  Garmin doesn’t carry the parts I need, but I managed to find them on Amazon.com.  We’ll have them sent to Dennis and Mary Ceshker’s in Mesa and pick them up when we get there.

Later in the afternoon we took off for the Wal-Mart to pick up a few grocery items for next week.  We don’t have any leftovers to speak of so we need to get something to eat.  While we were gone we stopped at McD’s to have a burger for Supper.  When we went in we noticed the new ordering kiosks near the counter.  We thought we give it a try but we got stopped almost immediately when our choices did not show up on screen.  No matter, we just walked up to the counter and ordered.

By the time we got home it was dark and time to settle in front of the TV for the night.

I got a call from Brian tonight telling us that he’d be here tomorrow between 8 and 8:30.

We stayed up until 11 tonight catching up on the Curse of Oak Island.  We had 3 episodes taped that we wanted to watch.  The main guys in the show are from Iron Mountain which adds more interest to the show.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

After Brian finished up the Power Steering pump we assumed we’d be headed out on the highway and leave Amarillo.  Not so!  The pump was apparently not the whole problem as the steering was only mildly better than before.  We pulled back into our site and got ready for an expensive fix.  The part we apparently need is going to be over $1000.00.  Unfortunately, it is, what it is.

We got the motorhome set up on the site again.  We weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

First of all we needed to find the part and started by calling Mobility RV in Iowa.  They directed my to call a Ford Dealer as Winnebago does not carry Chassis parts for replacement.  Luckily the first Ford Dealer I called could order the part and it would be here by 8:30 tomorrow morning.  So we ordered it and I’ll pick it up tomorrow.

With nothing to do, or places to go we just sat around and gazed at the tube for the afternoon.  We still had some stuff on tape that we hadn’t had time to watch up until now.  We managed to catch up on everything.

We had Chili for Supper tonight and Sharon made a pan full of Corn Bread for the occasion.  The Chili was frozen from home but it still tasted great tonight.

After Supper we planted ourselves in front of the TV for the night.  There was nothing special on tonight but it managed to take us to 10:30 and prepare us for the rest of the night.

Friday, December 11, 2015

We got a call about 8:15 this morning informing us that the part from the Ford Dealer had arrived.  I got right in the car and dashed over there to pick it up.  Now the wait was on for Brian to show up and install it.

While we were waiting for Brian we decided that we would take off and go to Golden Corral for Breakfast.  We gave him a call and left a message that the steering box would be inside the motorhome and we’d leave the door open.  Normally I would have just left it on the ground and left, but I certainly didn’t want it disappearing.  Our Breakfast was as good as we expected and we were back in about an hour.

He came today with another young man  who we had never seen before and they had one hell of a time getting my old steering box removed. There was pounding and wrenching and more pounding for about two hours before it stopped.  We sat in the motorhome just waiting and hoping everything was going good and nothing additional was getting broken in the process.

By the time 4 o’clock came around he was done with the install and it was time to test the results.  Everything tested out fine and hopefully we’ll be on the road sometime tomorrow morning.

We fended for ourselves for Supper tonight since we were still feeling satisfied from Breakfast this morning.  I had the famous Franco American “Spaghetti” and Sharon had a sandwich and a salad.  Afterward we settled in front of the TV for the next few hours.  We had some favorites on tonight and they are still original shows.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

We were on the road at a decent time this morning and everything was working just fine.  I was expecting something to go wrong and it didn’t happen until later on in the day when we headed south from Santa Rosa to Alamagordo New Mexico.

It started raining which was not a big problem until it turned to snowflakes.  It also was not a big problem, until it started accumulating on the side of the road, and turning to slush on the road.  It had quickly gone from sunny and dry to a blizzard, in the span of one hour, which might have required us to stop, had it not stopped and dried out very quickly.  We were traveling at 6000+ feet and this condition happens a lot out here in the west.

By the time we got to Alamagordo we were back in the sun again and it was now in our eyes.  We decided that since we still had a load of gas on board we’d try to make it to Deming tonight.

For the rest of the day we just managed to drive on relentlessly.  We made it to Deming just as the sun was going behind the mountains for the night.  We had made it all the way by 5:30 having been on the road since 9:30 this morning.  The Sun stayed up for us because we had gained an hour during the trip and because we’re much further south now than at home.

We were surprised to learn that Dave and Joyce Zuzelo were still living in the campground and we were parked right in front of them.  They had decided to build a house here around Deming when we saw them in the campground last year.  We’ve kept in touch with Joyce and we just assumed they would be in their house by now.

We unwound tonight with a couple of adult beverages before we headed for the rack around 10 o’clock.  We had a very long day today and did not feel like socializing tonight.  We had ridden for 450 miles today and we usually DON”T stay on the road for more than 300.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Sharon had a crisis this morning when she realized that the car was still hooked up and she was on her way to church.  She got me out of the shower to take care of her problem.  I managed to get her going in time for her Mass.

After my shower I took a walk over to Dave and Joyce’s but they weren’t home.  In the meantime Sharon couldn’t remember where the church was, so she missed her Sunday morning ritual.  After taking a short shopping trip she came back home and went over to Dave and Joyce’s to see if they were home.  They weren’t and we found out around noon that they had to make a trip to Las Cruces and back this morning.  Joyce came over and asked if we were going for lunch at Si Senor Restaurant.  We were about 30 seconds away from sitting down for lunch at home.

We met them at the restaurant and we had a delicious Mexican lunch finished off with free Sopapillas at the end.

After lunch, we followed them out to their new house which is about 7 or 8 miles south of town.  Only the shell is standing at this point but it appears that it will turn into a beautiful home in a very picturesque setting.  A feature that stands out is the RV garage.

We got back home and the Packer game was about to start.  They scored 14 quick points and then they stalled.  They’ve lost games before by playing it safe and I was hoping this wouldn’t be one of them.  But they got it going again before the end of the game.

After the game we just sat in front of the tube until it was time to head out to the padded room and warm covers.  That happened about 11 tonight.